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being first gen. Uh they were very proud. So am I. Uh just proud of myself that I was able to, you know, achieve that. It's probably my biggest achievement to this day. Hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College. I am your host Kelly Peiffer, vice 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

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today's guest, it is time for a segment of the show I like to call Did You Know? Where we will share some fun facts about Manor College that you may or may not know. Did you know that Manor College's men's soccer team will travel more than,200 miles during the 2025 season? 1,276 to be exact. The Blue Jays have just released their 2025 schedule this week, starting their season on the road in Virginia to play Patrick Henry College. They then return to Jenkintown for their home opener on September 3rd against

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Penn State Lehigh Valley. The Blue Jays are coming off of a back-to back ES sack championship appearances and looking to return to the USCAA National Championship Tournament. So, what can you do with 1,276 miles? How about travel across Pennsylvania four and a half times? The distance our team will travel in 2025 is longer than Louis and Clark's first expedition from St. Lewis to North Dakota and Ponce de Leon's first voyage in search of the fountain of youth. Thankfully, you don't have to

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travel all 1,200 miles to see your Blue Jays as they will play 14 home games right here at 700 Fox Chase Road in Jenkintown this season. Go Blue Jays. Today's episode is sponsored by Manor College's Career Closet. Help Manor College students put their best foot forward. Donate your gently used professional attire to the career closet. Suits, blazers, blouses, dresses, accessories. Your contributions empower our students and alumni for internships and those important interviews. Visit the career

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center to donate or find your perfect professional look. Open 9 to 4:30 Monday through Friday. Email careercenter@manor.edu and schedule your donation drop off today. We have a great show for you today. Our guest is a Philadelphia native and a first generation college student coming from Abraham Lincoln High School just six minutes away from Manor College's campus. He went on to earn an associates degree in liberal arts from Manor in 2013. While at Manor, he was a student ambassador and a member of the men's

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soccer team. After graduating, he transferred to Brin Athen College to study business administration. He today is working in transportation operations management and logistics at Amazon. It is my pleasure to welcome Mike Redondo to the show. Hi Mike. >> Hey, thanks Kelly. Quite the intro. Um glad to be on. >> Thanks for having me. >> So happy to talk to you. So Mike, if you don't mind, start us off by um why did you choose Manor? How did you hear about it? And kind of take us back to that

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decision. >> Sure. So, um, as you mentioned, I attended a Ram Lincoln High School, uh, in Northeast Philly. And I would say Manor kind of chose me in a sense. Uh, Manor showed up at a college fair one day. And at that time, the admissions counselor was John Dempster. Um, and I was undecided, uh, and didn't know, uh, what to do or what I wanted to study coming out of college. Um, however, I did want to play soccer at the collegiate level. um saying that my friend was getting highly recruited um by John Dempster. He

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was a goaltender um at my uh at high school and I just shared to him that hey I don't have an idea. I kind of do want to play at the next level but I'm undecided in which career path I want to go on. And again JD made that entrance. He kind of told me what a Manor was all about, what uh, you know, the two-year programs they offered at the time, and how many students um, coming out of high school are actually undecided. Um, but that this is a good a good way to, you know, get your, you know, your foot in

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the door, um, knock out those general education courses, you know, that will that will be needed no matter which career uh, you want to go on. So, um, and I'm very fortunate and glad that I did that. Um it's definitely a big impact on my life on people that I've met. Um uh career after, you know, graduating and things like that. I'm sure we'll move on. Um but yeah, Manor has been a very very big uh part of my life. >> Oh, I love that. Um, growing up in the Northeast and going to Lincoln High

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School, which I know we get a lot of students from that particular high school, had you already been familiar with Manor to some level, maybe heard of it or families or any kind of like familiarity with it? >> None at all. So, it's actually just going to the guidance counselor's office one day and I said, "Hey, I heard this, you know, school through the grapevine, very small." Um, and she actually mentioned that I might like uh like Manor also. um because of my situation

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and how undecided I was um and how small knit it was. Um but before that, no prior knowledge uh of Manor. Um but then it's funny like once I go there, all of a sudden I meet all these alumni that I actually knew that went to Manor. Um that's kind of how it works out. >> That's so funny we hear that. I think um I feel like when you're on an alumni from over 10 years ago, so hopefully our our branding has done a little bit of a better job that where you don't have that as any much anymore, but I think

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it's common for people to like you're not aware of it, but then once you become aware of it, you're like aware of it because it's, you know what I mean? Um, so that's really cool to hear and it's great that you had a friend who was being recruited to play here as well and you kind of could could have someone that you know and >> definitely >> I think I think John Dempster who was he was a counselor then he's now an athletic director. He's still the head

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men's soccer coach. I believe he also was from Lincoln High School, right? >> Yes. Or similar stories. It's >> similar stories, right? Rail splitters, right? Is that what >> Lincoln rail splitters? That's it. I >> can hear him saying that um loudly in my head. So that that's so cool to hear. So once you became a student, um what was your Manor experience like? What were you involved with? Kind of what were your classes like? And kind of take us back to like what life was like for you

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as a student. >> Okay. So yeah, around like 2011 2013, the manor was uh again very small but very welcoming. Um very friendly place. whether you're, you know, taking a stroll in the neighborhood, Alvelthopre Park, across the street, the neighbors, um, you know, you know, they wave a hello, things like that. But, um, kind of the stranger not knowing what to expect, um, at Manor, um, being from the Philadelphia public school system. Also, um, I'm also, you know, first generation, so as I'm at Manor, I'm

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learning all these new things, um, with life on, you know, financial aid and and all the things. Um, but again, very welcoming. Uh, the soccer team definitely makes it easier. Uh, you know, you meet some familiar faces and some, uh, some rivals that you that were in high school, you know, now they're on your team, which is, uh, definitely, uh, a nice, but like rude awakening kind of because you got to get along now, you know, and you're on the same team to try to win. >> Yeah. >> But, um,

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>> very fortunate that happened. Again, smooth transition. My friend, uh, that was the goalkeeper ended up coming also. you know, we go in August, we do our routines. Uh we had John Dempster and Dan Campbell at the time, my first year. They were the coaches. Um and I just remember practicing in hot 90° weather uh at 9:00 a.m. Um but again, some of the best moments of my life. Um getting to know those rivals. Uh actually became very good friends with them. um the one went to Washington

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where we couldn't get past the hump in high school but now you know being a teammate now he's my best friend and uh I'm the godfather of his daughter this day so it's very cool and then another one as you see this prominent scar I had >> um I had an injury and he ended up coming to man and uh becoming my teammate also so um everything was for the first month I would say while season was soccer. Um, but then going on from that, >> uh, teachers were very helpful. Um, Annie Kop was my adviser and put me in

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everything that, uh, I should have been, but also think >> put me in what I needed at the time, >> um, to kind of help me, uh, find what kind of career path I wanted to do. And >> she was >> kind of more con uh, she was in psychology and then I kind of grew a liking to that and kind of dove towards that with the liberal arts degree. um >> classes again really really small so good. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. That that's so great to hear that like you felt like your transition from

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high school to college was fairly smooth. Um and I I I always think that like freshmen in college do so much better when they are a part of a group like you came in and like your group was soccer and that was like a little built-in built-in connections built-in friends. Um even if some might have been rivals but now they're you know hopefully friends. on the same team. Yeah. >> You know that that's okay. And I also love what you said how like you're now the the godfather of one of your college

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friends daughters. Like that's college to me is really it's about making those lifelong connections with people that like these are going to be your people and they're going to be your people for life through marriages and births and deaths and buying homes and like going through the the hardships of life together. So, it's really important to kind of meet those people in college, and I'm so glad that it sounds like you were able to do that as well. Um, but I want to talk about being first gen

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because being first gen is a big deal. And, um, I I love celebrating our first gen students, our first gen graduates. Um, I'm not sure if you know this, but 65% of Manor students right now are first generation college students. So, it's a it's a large population of who our current students are, but it's also we have a long history of like we've always kind of had first gen students. Um, what did that mean to you? And and I guess when you graduated, what did that mean for

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your family? But also like was your family supportive of you going to college or were they like kind of like, well, I didn't go to college and I I I turned out okay, so like why do you need to go? Like what was the what was the feeling of Mike going to college? That's a big deal. >> Sure. I mean, they were definitely really excited for me. Um, they did want me to go to college and pretty much have my own path in life. Um, they didn't uh go to college as mentioned. Um, but uh they did support me uh on my decision to

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go um obviously housing um and any other ways you know cheering me on at the games and if you know asking me about my day, things of that sort. Um so I definitely had the support. Um the toughest part was of course you know learning uh you know the trying to get accepted and things like that. Um but now being first gen uh they were very proud so am I. Uh just proud of myself that I was able to you know achieve that. It's probably my biggest achievement to this day. And also um just where it's taken

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me in life. Uh you know I worked in admissions a little bit after Manor. So, I built those relationships, but I just stuff that I can take with me um in the work uh place have all been learned at Manor. >> Um >> Yeah. >> Well, that's that's awesome, Mike. And I mean, major kudos to you. It is not easy to go to college. It is not easy to like be the first of your family to do something that no one has done before. the process, all the higher ed like lingo and is, you know, certain

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isms that are just only in higher education. Um, so that's really cool that you've kind of paved a way for >> other people in your family, cousins that look up to you, just people are watching, you know what I mean? Um, and that's a cool thing that you've been able to set that stage for them. So, I I think it's amazing and I can't give you enough kudos. something that we do at graduation um which as you were talking made me think of this um they now students if you are graduate if you're a

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first gen graduate you have like a special stole that you can wear and they're white so they really pop against like the um black and gray regalia that they wear and it's so cool to see you know hundreds of kids walk by and you see so many white stolls and I feel like those cheers are the loudest cheers at graduation it's the first and graduates are up there and their whole family is just going crazy. >> Mine is pretty loud also. Yeah, >> I love that so much. >> I love that. So, let's get into your

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career a little bit. So, you graduated from Manor, you go to Bin Athen, you get a business degree. Um, and then I know you worked here actually in our admissions office for a few years, which is great. We love having alumni work in admissions and it's we have we have an alumni right now in admissions, Damian. Um, and it's just it's great. It's what's a great selling point to show that, you know, you know the school better because you you've been you've been a student. Um, but now you're at

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Amazon. Obviously, everyone knows Amazon for many reasons. Actually, today when I was driving in, there was a story about Amazon on um the radio and they said Amazon is an ecosystem. And I was like, that's a pretty large statement, but I don't I think I agree. It is really an ecosystem. It is not just like a retailer or a media company. It is a it is much more than that. But tell us kind of what is your role and um how is it working for Amazon and kind of what is it like?

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>> Sure. So Amazon has uh been good to me so far. Uh I've been there since 2020 around the co time and uh you know it's five years uh going in October. Um but I am part of the transportation operations management side of things. Um so Tom team for short uh it's mainly logistics um but we um do some computer work as associates and also have to be hands-on sometimes and um we call it customer facing which is you know it might impact certain delivery reaching our consumers. Um, so we'll receive a shipment from a

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vendor, whether they're selling through us, we'll prep it, you know, package it up the way they like, and once we have the orders, we'll load it into a trailer, and then we'll send it to a little delivery station where they'll sort it out, and then it'll reach the consumer. So, I don't um deal with, you know, direct consumers, but what we do definitely impacts the uh delivery or the logistics of it all pretty much. What has been like the craziest item you've seen? I'm assuming you've seen

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some crazy items. >> Um, in our facility, um, for the most part, everything has to fit in a gallon tote. Um, so we won't get like the big refrigerators or televisions or anything like that. >> Right. Right. >> Um, but we literally sell everything, >> I'm sure. >> Yeah. Everything. Even these new gadgets um that that come out and I don't even know what they do yet, but >> Right. Literally everything. >> Do you ever look at stuff and you're

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like, "What is this?" >> Yeah, exactly. All the time. Yep. It'll fall out the trailer, too. And you're just like, "Uh, okay. Put that back in there. Don't know what it is." But definitely. Yeah. It's everything. >> That's cool. What is like um like a a myth or maybe a misconception about like working for Amazon or working in your role that you're like people might think it's this, but actually I can set the story straight. It's actually this. was

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like a myth we can we can debunk. >> Uh maybe that I have something to do with uh their package or me knowing when their package comes but other than that uh yeah nothing comes to mind right now but uh I don't know maybe have you heard of any myths maybe and then >> I mean I think people are always assuming that like the people who are packaging stuff are like so careless and just like you know throwing it all together and that kind of stuff. No, they're definitely um definitely

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well trained uh employees. I'm sure one can have a bad day here and there. Um but we also have robots. There you go. It is a myth. So sometimes >> um the person that's packaging uh the box might not be a human. It's actually a robot. >> You robots? >> Yes. >> So would you say that some of your co-workers are robots? >> Um no, not my my co-workers to say I guess. Yeah. Right. If they're the ones packaging and giving us an easier >> Yeah. >> uh transition on getting things out of

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the warehouse, then Yeah. Yeah. >> Do you find that are Yeah, that's crazy. >> Do you find that are you using AI at all in in your role or or not yet? >> They're starting not yet. >> Um it is a little how I say weird. They're not used to it. >> Oh, you can say weird. the the uh the truck some of them like the cell sometimes we get the semi-truck and they pretty much you know assist you in driving at all times we have cameras everywhere things that

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>> so they're like self the self-driving trucks >> in a way not like not like full Tesla mode >> right right you're not like falling asleep because like the okay but that's wild >> but like it'll stay in the lane for you >> and things like that so yeah I mean the technology is advancing they are going electric also Um they're still working on it. Um you can see probably most of the delivery vans are electric now and things like that. So they are definitely

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uh investing in technology and uh more robotics. Um so it is the future. We'll see. >> Yeah, that's that's cool. Um, would you say that I guess what value do you feel that like your Manor education gave you that you can kind of relate to what you're doing in your career today? >> I would say just working together as a group, you know, when you're in a such a small classroom. Um, we're pretty much all there to help each other succeed and pass the course. Um, and that's

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something I think you do at Manor. A lot of sure, you know, a lot of uh people learn, you know, in different ways and want to do it on their own. Um but I felt like when my time uh at Manor, you know, being in a classroom with 16, we would uh you know, take notes for each other if someone was missing that day. Um and pretty much just fill you, you know, get you up to par, get you up to speed so that you can succeed. Um, and I think I bring that to Amazon. Um, because say co-worker missed a meeting last week

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and, uh, now we're running a new destination with a trailer. I'm like, "Hey, like this is a new destination that we're going to, um, we can work together. If you have, you know, any questions maybe on a route to take, uh, I can help you with those things." And it's basically just being more communicative, >> um, with my peers, um, in a work setting. um doing things like uh podcast, Zoom meetings also when we at work um and even working at Manor helped me um you know in admissions when I did

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those uh fancy presentations during open houses >> in front of a group of people um they definitely helped me be more comfortable where I am today um and being able to approach anyone in a room pretty much whether you're you know the general manager or um you know someone that's um making sure the boxes get to where they need to That's great. So, feeling like Manor gave you some really good skills that you could take really anywhere. Communication, teamwork, um service. A lot of what you're talking

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about is like helping and serving others. And that's something that's really core to our mission. Um our mission, the last line in it in it says we prepare graduates to serve society effectively and compassionately. And sometimes you think like, oh well that's going to be someone's like a teacher or who works for a nonprofit, you know, someone who's doing pastoral work or something that's kind of more um like service to the community. But >> working at Amazon certainly is a service

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to the community. >> Um there are plenty of times where, you know, I I I maybe I just had a baby and I need something that next day for my baby to help her sleep or to help me as a new mom. and Amazon, you're like, "Thank God for Amazon." Um, you know what I mean? Like, so it is certainly it is a service. So, I I thank you, Mike, for kind of finding ways to keep um instilling those values in your work because I think that's really cool that you're doing that. Okay. >> So, my my last question for you is what

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advice would you give current college students who are they're in it, they're in their classes. Um maybe they took summer classes. We have, you know, the fall semester starts up in just a few weeks here. What advice would you have for them as a as an a proud alumni who's kind of been through it? >> Sure. So, my uh my biggest one looking back at it now would probably be um procrastination and prioritizing. Most definitely. Um, during my Manor time, I also worked full-time. Um, so sometimes

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I feel like my job got in the way of me, you know, getting my homework. Um, but what I can say is Manor has the facilities and the help uh, you know, to get you on track. Make a schedule, grab that planner, you have a little hour, two hour break. Definitely use the library, which is where I spend most of my time, if not there, the cafeteria. Um so prioritizing um also making sure um you know get out of your comfort zone a little bit. Um me I was a little bit more outgoing my time. So um

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just welcome others into the community. But that's what that's what Manor is all about. So whether um you kind of put yourself out there and you'll kind of you'll definitely gravitate towards it and feel it. But yeah, definitely procrastination for one. Um, and it will set you up a lot better in life like I'm talking about today, you know, with work and career-wise. >> Yeah, that's great. Well, Mike, thank you so much for sharing your story about

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your career with us. I know I found it really encouraging and inspiring. Um, and we wish you we wish you nothing but the best. >> Thank you, Kelly. >> You're welcome. Thank you for tuning in today. If you like what you heard, listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. Stay up to date with all new episodes by following Manor College on Instagram at Manor College. And that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest. Stories about life after Manor College. Remember Blue Jays, you belong here

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always.