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find something you're interested in and try to figure out a way to volunteer and give back. >> So throughout my whole career, I've spent lots of time in animal shelters, >> volunteering in animal shelters and just v for and also for various organizations that I like. I don't know. There's pick your pick what you like and there's some way to give back. Hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Mayor College. I am your host Kelly Peiffer, vice

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president of marketing communications and this is the best part of my day. My hope is that this podcast will encourage, inform, and inspire you, making you feel like at Manor College, you belong here always. Before we get to today's guest, we are going to do something different. Today we're going to introduce to you one of our students, the nest's first ever Blue Jay Spotlight. A current junior at Manor College studying business administration. She is one of the hardest working people that I know.

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Selfless through and through. Please welcome Natasha Moore. >> Hi, my name is Natasha Moore. I am from Elkins Park. Uh the high school I graduated from was Covington Academy in Covington, Georgia. And I am studying business administration. I found out about Manor when I was looking for schools. I needed something that was close to my job at the time and I just searched up schools near me and I found Manor. For a career, I want to become a human resources business partner. The reason I want to do that is because HRBP

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strategically aligned the company's goals along with the initiatives of the employees as well. I feel that Manor has prepared me for a career. Being a presidential ambassador and student senate, I have gotten comfortable talking with people, not only on one-on-one, but in a group setting as well. Um, which is important as a human resource professional. You need to be able to talk to people, which I had a hard time doing before. So, those are some ways that Manor helped prepare me for my future career. My advice for

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incoming students is to take the time while being in college to get outside of your comfort zone, to seize new opportunities you probably wouldn't have seized before, because the outcome could always be something better than you expected. Something that someone would be surprised to learn about me is that I am an introvert. People keep telling me not to say that anymore, but I really am. I hate ketchup. That's one, too. Manor College, you belong here. Today's episode of the Nest is sponsored by the

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Manor College Program of Veterinary Technology. Do you see a best friend in every creature? Are you passionate about caring for animals? Do you love healthcare? Then you are ready to turn your passions into a profession with the veterinary technology program at Manor College. Our program is fully accredited and designed to give you real world skills that you need. You won't just study from a book. You'll get hands-on experience in labs, facilities, and out in the fields, learning everything from

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patient care and surgical assisting to lab procedures. Manor College connects you with dedicated faculty and the industry knowledge that employers are looking for. In just a few years, you could be a certified veterinary technician, CVT. making a real difference in the lives of animals and their families. Visit manor.edu/vettech today and learn more and apply. That's manor.edu/vette. Coming up, we have a very special guest. She is a proud alumni who grew up in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, and attended

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Archbishop Wood High School. After starting her college journey, she chose to focus on veterinary technology at Manor College, ultimately earning her associates degree in 1999. After Manor College, she transferred to Penn State. Her story is a testament to perseverance. She is a first generation college graduate and actually went to Manor twice. She started in 1986, finishing her coursework in 1988, and then transferred, but didn't complete her practicum to officially graduate. She returned to Manor 10 years later in

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1998 to complete her practicum, officially graduating in 1999. That pivotal moment allowed her to get fully licensed and jump into her career. Today she puts her expertise to work as the clinical infectious diseases laboratory manager at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. Please give a warm welcome to Michelle Traverse. Hi Michelle. >> Hi Kelly. >> Thank you for being with us today. It is an honor to have you on the show. >> It's my pleasure to be here.

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>> So can you start us off by sharing why did you choose Manor College? How did you first hear about Manor? Kind of take us back to that that thought process you went through. >> Well, I being a first generation college student in my family, I didn't really have a lot of help in figuring these things out. And Manor College is actually quite close to Feasterville. So, it's just around the corner from where I grew up. And I guess I just wasn't ready to go off to college, move away, and go off

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to college. So I decided that I would like to commute to college and kind of get a feel for it. So I liked Manor because it was ne close and comfortable but also small and it didn't feel overwhelming. Also I didn't really know what I wanted to study. So I kind of looked at a list of things that I could study and instead of having a focus of like this is what I want, I looked at the list and was like this is what I know I don't want. And veterinary technology, I didn't even actually really even know what it was

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exactly, but it seemed interesting. I like the science part of it. So I just decided I was going to go for it. And it turned out to be my lifelong career. Wow. I love that it started through like a process of elimination starting with like I don't want any of these. So what's left? Um >> that's exactly what happened. I was like accounting no you know business no this no. And then it just kind of left me with the sciences. >> Wow that's great. So you must have had a passion for animals I would assume. Have

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you always loved animals and kind of where does that come from? Well, I have had a passion have a passion for just the natural world and biology. I just like I think of it as it's a little bit of a puzzle and I like puzzles and I just like figuring them out >> and so veterinary medicine in general fits that bill very well. Like it's all just one big puzzle to me that needs to be sorted out. >> Yeah, that's a good way to describe it. We had a guest on the show, Maryanne Evans, um, just last last episode and

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she talked about like when you go into vet tech, you have to like have a passion for animals, but you also have to love healthcare and science and like you just can't be one or the other. It has to be this combination of those things. Um, so I love that you're describing, you know, you had a passion for the natural world and biology and obviously this big puzzle that you're trying to always put that next piece in and trying to solve. So what was your Manor College experience like? >> Well, it was great. And when I went

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there in '86, the Vet tech program I I'm guessing was quite young and quite new. There were just a few of us. There were seven people in the program at that time. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. So we were just like a little pack of people that all like traveled everywhere together. We went everywhere together. We were always together. Just these seven people always together. And um so it was just a little family unit really. We studied together. We hung out together. Went on field trips together. So it was

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just a very intimate com even more than a community more like a family really. >> Sure. >> Siblings even because we were all >> just college kids. >> Yep. We uh we call that kind of in the higher ed world we call that cohorts. Like students do better in college. They retain better. They have better grades. They have better experiences. They get in less trouble when students are part of a cohort. So whether it be a team, a club, um a program, whatever that cohort might be,

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it sounds like you had your own little cohort. Um so you studied at Manor in ' 86 and then you were so close to get graduating, but you didn't quite get there right away. What happened there? >> Yeah, so I think the other six people actually did graduate and I did not. I just got it in my mind that I wanted a bachelor's degree. I don't know why I thought that. I just thought I wanted a bachelor's degree. So, I transferred to Penn State and I just took those two

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years of course credit that I had with me and kind of thought maybe I was abandoning Vet tech and I did go on to Penn State and I graduated. It took me I had a little catch-up to do so it took me three years to graduate from Penn State but I did do that and in the meanwhile I did try some different things but ultimately I ended up back working at a veterinary hospital and so back then in the late 80s early 90s um you could do a lot more you didn't necessarily need a license >> but there became a point where it became

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obvious that there was a ceiling to this and that there was no way I was ever going progress any further in vet med if I didn't have a license. So that's when I realized you better go back and get that license. And by then the rules had changed and an only way you could was to graduate from an accredited program. And prior to that you could be grandfathered in if you had a certain amount of practical expert hands-on experience. But the state of Pennsylvania did away with that rule and said nope you have to graduate from the

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accredited program. and I had never done that. So that's when I contacted Manor the second time. That was when at that point 10 years later, >> that was when Dr. Basser was now running the program. That's when I met her. >> Sure. Wow. Wow. That's I mean I I'm glad that you found your way back to Manor. Um but that's that's just kind of a crazy journey that you were really close to getting that certification and then decided to go get a bachelor's and

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congrats on doing that. That's wonderful. but then still had to come back to it. So I guess in your in your heart did you always know like all right well Vet tech this is going to be my career or was there kind of twist and turns along the way? >> There were some twists and turns along the way and back to one of your original question of you must have always loved animals. Interestingly not really. I mean sure we had a family dog growing up and that sort of thing but no it really was never about that for me. It was

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really about the science. I just like the medicine aspect of it. And um I while I was at Manor the first time, that was when I got my first job at a veterinary clinic. And it was because a classmate of mine recommended had a tip on a clinic near my house that was going to hire. And so I got that job and I just was kind of a natural at it. It was just good good at it and it felt right. it felt like something I could be successful at. So after I tried some different things and went, you know, tried different, you

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know, during my pent time at Penn State, tried some different things, I don't know, I just circled back around because I guess I just never got the same sense of satisfaction as I did um working in veterinary medicine. >> Yeah, that's great. So, um, how, you know, what what is a a common myth or misconception about, uh, Vet tech that you've heard or that, you know, makes you roll your eyes kind of thing that you want to like set the record straight? What's something that people

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get wrong that they think they know about Vet tech? that the job is easy and also that like we spend all day long like playing with puppies and kittens. Whenever you when you meet somebody and you tell them what you do, they say, "Oh, like you, oh, that must be so much fun." It's actually very hard work. It's very, very hard work. It's a very physically demanding job. So, I don't know that people really understand that. And I laughingly say like when people say, "Oh, you must love animals." I say,

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"Well, I like mine. >> Yours wants yours is trying to bite me, but mine mine are okay." Um, I also the other thing that I thought years ago and it really does stick is that veterinary medicine is like pediatrics >> if you think about it. So it's like you have a patient that doesn't understand what's happening and attached to that patient you have a very emotional person. So if you just approach veterinary medicine like pediatrics >> Yeah. >> then it makes more sense like people can

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understand that better. >> When you relate it to how a child would behave at the doctors. [Music] >> Yep. That's a good way to describe it for sure. Um when you were saying, "Oh, I like mine." And I immediately thought like about like you know children and you know you assume teachers like teachers you must love kids and then they're like well I like my own kids you know >> exactly >> kind of kind of idea but they love education or they love you know in

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inspiring and and maybe they also obviously love children too but um that's a really good way to describe it and I have heard that Vet tech is a very physically demanding job. It is um it's a ton of hard work. It also can be quite sad from what I hear um to work in the animal industry like that. But also, you know, it's rewarding. It's work that needs to get done. It's to me it's service. Um and it's very I would say like mission focused on trying to

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help um not just cats and dogs. It's a lot of other types of animals as well from what I understand from our students. So, >> thank you for what you're doing >> because it's certainly it's really impressive. >> Well, thank you. I do try to um I work with a lot of students still at the university and I try to tell them you know remind them like we're not in retail but we are in a service industry. It's it's the same like it's a lot of it

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is the same like you have to don't lose your service mind >> set when you um get lost in the science. >> Yeah. Bedside banner so important and all that kind of stuff for sure. Um, so Michelle, tell us about what do you do at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital and kind of what um how has your career grown over the years to what you're doing today? >> So for many years, probably a good 20 plus years, I worked in small animal practice. Um towards the end of that run, I was um a technician in I guess

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you would equate it to like a med surge unit in a human hospital. So it was a treat, we call it the treatment room, but also surgery. So I spent all day doing surgery with the doctors and you know recovering those patients and the pre and the post op which is is a lot of like this the doctor comes in for the procedure but the pre and the postop is what the nurses take care of. >> Sure. >> Um technicians otherwise known as nurses. >> So um then I just decided I got this idea in my head that I wanted to work at

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the University of Pennsylvania. So, I set my mind on that and I took a job that wasn't a vet, it wasn't a clinical job at all. It was I became the infection prevention coordinator for the hospital, which was is just, you know, it's big. It's common in human medicine. It's becoming more common in veterinary medicine. It's just basically how to protect animals from hospital acquired infections, >> how to prevent uh humans from becoming ill because of whatever p whatever

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diseases patients might have. >> So there's a whole level of biocurity around all that. So I took the job in biocurity at Penn Vet >> just because it was a new challenge. I kind of felt like I had done the other work for a long enough time that I had, you know, been there done that. Um and then while in that position, it was very closely linked with the microbiology lab here at the hospital. And so while in that position, I got exposed to the laboratory side of things >> and the diagnostics involved in

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how diseases are, how we figure it out. So I um eventually after about I don't know eight years or so a position in a lab became available and I had already known the person who ran that lab and so she approached me and said like hey this position is coming available if you want it you can have it. So, I just made a lateral move over into the laboratory um about 10 years ago, and I have I don't I'm never leaving. This is it for me. I'm staying until my career is finished. >> I'm pretty close to being eligible to

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retire at this point. Um but I love it. I love the diagnostic lab and um I feel like it's work that is very important and it's we produce a result that somebody actually cares about >> and so that to me is important work. >> Yeah, that's measurable. It's impactful. >> It's me it's measurable. It's impactful. And um so I I'm very serious that we are producing the most scientifically accurate relevant results we possibly can. So at this point I'm the LA the laboratory

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manager. So there are two veterinarians above me who run the place and then I manage the day-to-day operations for them. And then there are four technicians underneath of me. >> Okay. Nice. So, you got a good kind of like back to your cohort model. You got your team, you got your cohort, got your people, you know. >> Got my people. Yes, exactly. We're really nice team. It's a It's a good team. We've got >> That's great. That's such a good feeling, too. Well, that's so neat to

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show that like how having a Vet tech degree can take you so many places. I talk to a lot of Vet tech alumni and whether they get other certifications, whether they go into, you know, surgery or private practice or farm care or exotics, like there's so many different fields out there. It's just really neat that um they all can kind of start in the same program and then like branch off, you know? I think it's really um cool to show that our students like there's so many opportunities in the Vet tech field.

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Michelle, I want to switch gears for a minute just because um you have come out to several of our alumni events at the Phillies games. Yes, I have. >> So, I want to talk Phillies for a minute with you because we're at a critical moment in the year here for us us Phillies fans. Um in my family, this is one of the longest weeks of the year because there's no Phillies games. So we are all I know >> we are all like what are we supposed to do every night until Saturday. Um but we

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we run uh an annual manor night at the Phillies typically in the summer either July or August and Michelle not only has come to the last two years of this but she brings a whole crew of people um and it's great to see just alumni come out friends come out family come out. So, how are you feeling this Red October? What are you thinking is going to happen? What are your predictions? >> I think that the team is doing excellent and I I get So, I've decided being from Philadelphia, you know, everybody wants

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you to be an Eagles fan and I've decided, you know, baseball is really my thing. Like, sure, I'll watch an Eagles game. It's good, but I just like baseball. Yeah. >> And so I think we have the potential to go all the way. I really truly do and I'm looking forward to seeing them play in the World Series again. >> Yeah. I'm right there with you, Michelle. Um I I grew up in a family and my husband, you know, they are all like all Philadelphia, everything, all the

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teams. And I've kind of decided like you, like I'm going to put my energy into one team and chosen the Phillies as well. Um I love baseball so I'm with you. I really think this is this is a good year. Let's not have a repeat of last year in the postseason. Let's but I but I'm nervous. I'm not going to lie. I'm very nervous. We have a whole week off. Um and they're not going to be playing as much. So, you're just like, "Oh gosh, are we going

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to get cold? Are we going to hit the ball? We have to hit the ball. We need some offense." So, we'll see. >> I know. And and like now every everything counts so much more because every round is going to be an elimination round. Exactly. We don't have any wiggle room to like have any mess ups and we don't have Zach Wheeler, so that makes me But, you know, our pitching has been pretty good. Um, my I have a six-year-old son who's really into it and that's it's been so fun to

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like just have him be into it and we took him to a couple games this year and he wants to stay for the ninth inning to see the Duron, you know, spectacular with the spider and the lights and the tarantula. He's my son is obsessed with it. He loves watching it and loves just saying, "Mom, we have to stay for the ninth inning." And I'm like, "I know, but I want to beat the parking." He's like, "I don't care. We have to stay." So, >> yeah. The first time I saw it, I was

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with my sister and we were laughing. I was We were calling it the spiderwalk. >> Yeah. >> You know, cuz I didn't expect the whole tarantula thing and I was like, "What is going on?" >> It was It is. Apparently, they're rolling out new things with that for the postseason. So, I'm sure it's going to get crazy. Well, good luck to you this October. I know us all Phillies fans are like just going to be biting our nails at home. Very nervous, but >> it's such a fun team to follow and it's

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been great to see you out at the games. Thank you for supporting Manor in that way as well. I appreciate that. >> I was um glad to get the invite because, you know, I wasn't sure if you were going to be running the same types of events, you know, year after year and then I got the invite and I was like, "Yay." And then just so happens that this year it was my birthday. So I was like, "Oh, oh, I definitely this is what I want to do for my birthday." And that's how I ended up with an entourage.

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>> Cool. >> Because it just so happened to fall on my birthday. Yeah. >> Well, perfect. Yeah, we're definitely going to do that. We've tried a couple of other teams, but um the Phillies tend to be the biggest turnout for us. So, we're hoping to >> keep that again for next year. Um Michelle, as kind of my final question to you, >> just what advice what advice would you give current Manor students who are um whether they're studying Vet tech or not, just you know, they're currently

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studying and going out throughout their college career, what advice would you give for them as someone who's been through it a couple times um and kind of on the other side of that? >> Um I thought about this. I thought because I I knew you were going to ask me this question because I've listened to other episodes and so I did think about this and the one I have two things. One is when I was at Manor both times I utilized the learning center quite a bit. So that's one bit of advice

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is go to the learning center. If you're having trouble, if you need help, if you need advice, try the learning center because the people there are great and they really do want to help you figure things out. And so, yeah, before you decide that that you can't or won't try the learning center. Mhm. >> And the other thing I thought of as far as my career in veterinary medicine and just in life is find find something you're interested in and try to figure out a way to volunteer

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and give back. M >> so throughout my whole career I've spent lots of time in animal shelters >> volunteering in animal shelters and just v for and also for various organizations that I like I don't know there's pick pick your pick what you like and there's some way to give back >> in that field. So, um, that's my other and it's also a great way to meet people, maybe meet like-minded people, people who have great similar ideas or it's an interesting way to network with

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people. So, that's what I want to encourage people to do is find organizations that you respect and want to support and figure out a way to volunteer and give back. >> Yeah. And it's it'll help >> it'll help enrich your life and it'll help you meet >> like-minded individuals. And it makes it just does it just feels good. >> Yeah, it does. It does. It feels good to give back. It feels good to serve. And if you can align that with something that kind of like hits you in the heart,

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hits you at home in your core values, I mean, even even better. And um right, you'll meet people that are like-minded like you, have the same interests as you, and kind of all those things. And I I totally echo the learning center. Um I always tell students like you should be going to the learning center. Even if you're doing well in your classes, still meet them, get them to help you. There's no harm in it. It's free. Um it's a great service. We offer so many good services here for academic support,

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tutoring, writing center, time management, um you know, personal counseling. We have a food pantry. We have a career closet. We have a safe fund for students who maybe need help on a bill or two at home. We have so many wraparound services and it feels like every year we're adding more services to that wraparound. Um I mean students and but students have to take advantage of it. That's the thing. You can't make them use it. Um but we are here and we are ready to like just jump right in.

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Thank you, Michelle, so much for being such a great embodiment of our mission. I think everything that you've shared with me today really just reminds me so much of our mission. Our mission is to serve students um so that they grow up to be people who serve society effectively and compassionately and you are doing that to a tea. So, thank you so much for just really living out our mission that we're trying to do here at Manor College. Well, thank you also because you know, Manor helped me make it happen.

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>> Yeah, that's great. Well, have a good one, Michelle. We wish you nothing but the best. And of course, go Phils. Thank you for tuning in today. If you like what you heard, listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. And stay up to date with all new episodes by following Manor College on Instagram, Manor College. And that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest. Stories about life after Mayor College. Remember Blue Jays, you belong here always. [Music]