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Don't be afraid to ask anything really, especially in your career, because the worst that can happen is you're going to hear no. But, uh, it's it it's actually a good thing to hear no and realize maybe this place is not for me. Uh, but ask about opportunities. 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

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inspire you, making you feel like at Manor College you belong here always. Before we get to today's guest, it is time for a segment of the show I like to call Blue Jay Spotlight. This week, we'll be highlighting Brandy Torres, a freshman at Manor College from Northeast High. Torres is a member of Manor College's baseball team and was on the fall 2025 deans list. >> Hello, I'm Brandy Torres. I'm a freshman here at Manor and I'm from Northeast Philadelphia. I feel like I belong here

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because of the constant outreach I'm getting from all my professors and the tight-knit community really does allow me to just connect with everybody. I feel like every day I walk through the hallways, I'm able to just have a tons of conversations with all my classmates. Right now, it's a tie between developmental psych and the industrial history of Philadelphia. Professor Buechel is like a stand-up comedian. And Professor Morrison is just a genius. So, I just love picking his brain. He knows the answer to any

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question you could ask him. Manor College, you belong here. Today's episode is sponsored by Manor College's open house. Join us at Manor College in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania for our spring open house on Saturday, March 7th at 10:00 a.m. Open house is a chance for prospective students to come visit campus, meet faculty and staff, meet athletic teams, and learn what it is like to have life as a Manor College Blue Jay. Plus, have lunch on us. If you're interested in our open house, head to www.manor.edu/visit

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to sign up for the event. We can't wait to see you. Our guest today was born in Ukraine before he eventually found his way to Philadelphia and walked the halls of Northeast High School. As a first generation American college student, he balanced a full-time career with his studies, proving that grit is just as important as a syllabus. During his time at Manor College, he focused his energy on studying business administration with a concentration in computer science, working closely under the mentorship of

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his faculty adviser, Norma Mahal. After earning his associate degree in 2004, he navigated the complex world of higher education, learning firsthand the vital importance of choosing reputable institutions. Today, he serves as the sales tools and automation architect at Pure Storage. Please welcome to the show Eugene Glik. Hi Eugene. Thanks for being with us today. >> Thank you Cali. Hello to you as well. >> So take us back. How did you first learn about Manor College and why did you

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choose to attend? >> So it's it's an interesting story. In high school, I got involved with a program called Youthworks and uh there was a uh Manor faculty member that was part of the staff running that program and uh besides education uh they were also taking us across uh the state looking at different schools and colleges. This is how I learned about, you know, Poly Family, Bloomsburg, Manor. And ultimately that program is what led me to to Manor uh to apply for a scholarship at Manor being

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accepted and uh having a rather successful couple of years, though maybe some of my instructors would disagree. >> That's great. What a great program. You know, something that I kind of equate it to today, we have a thing called dual enrollment where you could have like a college professor teaching in a high school class and you can get credits in high school for um college. Um, but I haven't heard of anything of what you just described that's like modern day um what we have where they like they take

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you across and they take you to multiple schools and kind of take you on tours. That's really neat. So, do you remember what was it about Manor comparing to the other schools that you saw that like stood out? What were the some of the factors that really played into you choosing it? >> Sure. So, while I always knew that I'm a techie at heart and I've been I've been doing what I'm ultimately still doing since I was 13, uh, Manor uh allowed me some some room to actually

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decide what my career will be. I didn't know uh whether I will succeed in college. Uh I I was an average high school student. Uh I was still learning what adult life is and uh I I had to work. I was already working uh before coming to Manor and balancing school and life was very important and Manor was only 15 minutes away from home so that also helped. Uh but in general it was a smaller school. Uh the staff was very friendly. Uh and uh my soon-to-be adviser was very uh accepting of my horrible sense of humor when I was

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there for an orientation. So uh it just felt right. >> That's great. That's great. It was convenient. It was flexible. Friendly. Um all things that even now 22 years later still hold true. For sure. What was your what was your job that you had while you were a student? >> So I I had a multi multitude of jobs. Uh when I started I was uh installing uh uh Dish Network uh with my father. I was uh running a couple of gas stations as an assistant manager and later I while still at Manor I actually started

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teaching in technical school which was an interesting uh step in itself. Okay. So, you've you've done you've done it all already and you don't even have a degree. That's that's >> that was uh >> Yeah, >> a thing I had to get. >> Yeah, that was impressive. You know, um Eugene, our students today, 85% of them are working while in in college. And of that 85%, about 50% are working full-time. So, it's very common for our students today to be kind of doing what

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you did. They have jobs, overnight, dog walkers, caretakers, um all sorts of different jobs, restaurants, waitresses, um some are day, you know, work in daycares. So, it's it's really common for our students to need flexibility. It's not like a wishlist item. It's like I I need to have it. Um, so it's really neat to hear that your story still kind of resonates with what our students are are going through today. So, what was your Manor experience like? What was it like for you? And what was your what was

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your classes like? And kind of what was take us back. What was it like for you as a student? >> Oh, my actually my first day uh I uh figured out where the learning center is. I don't know if it's still there on the first floor, but made my way over there and I uh made my first friends by accidentally confusing which computer is mine and which is the person next to me and power cycling that one. Uh that was uh an interesting stressful experience but uh everybody was very friendly, everything was easy to find

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and um really it it felt very different from Northeast High because as you know Northeast is a huge school with like you barely know your classmates. >> Manor felt nothing like that. Pretty sure everybody I met on my first day and second day were the people I spent the next two years with. >> Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. >> Their challenges and my challenges were very similar and we learned to work together. >> I love that. Yeah, definitely different than Northeast High where it's just like

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a sea of people all the time. Manor. I always like to say like we don't just know your name, we know things about you. You know things about us very much like a family for for better and for worse. So it's a good thing. Um our our our tagline now is you belong here. And we we adopted that back in 2017 and I hear time and time again that um it really rings true for many people. they do feel like they belong here because of that close-knit, you know, feel that they have on campus. So, why did you

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choose to study business administration and then that concentration in comp sci? I know you mentioned that you've always been a techie at heart, but what about um business and comp sci that really was like, okay, this is going to be my focus, my career. >> So, I always knew that at some point I will be running a business, which I did many times over the last 20 years. And I knew that I was lacking a a certain foundation. >> Well, tech is easy. You start you start in tech, especially in consumer tech,

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and uh you spend a couple of months, couple of years, but you get good at it. It it just happens organically. The business side of things, well, that doesn't just happen. The mistakes there cost you real money real quick, uh and have very serious consequences. So BIS business courses to me were very logical and I'm I'm very happy that I went that way because even if you don't end up running a business, all of these concept transfer over. They they literally transfer over to your normal day-to-day

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life and it just works, >> right? It's practical. it's it's it's going to be helpful in some way somehow and and you know that's really neat. Um and and it's something that kind of stand the test of time. You're going to learn concepts and values and things that like will work right away might not pull into play until 20 years down the road. So I think that's really good for anyone who wants to study business or business administration. So tell us about the work that you're

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doing today Eugene. Um you're working at Pure Storage. Um and you kind of have a longer title sales tools and automation architect but what what does that mean and uh tell us more about that. So Pure Storage, let me first tell you what it is. We we kind of make uh data storage systems all flash-based, really fast, enterprise grade. Most people never hear about such things. Uh and actually uh I I want to make a point that a lot of people don't get uh to see enterprise technology until they're out in the

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field. And that's something that they really should be exploring on their own if they're planning to go out and and work at mid to large scale enterprises uh in IT. Uh so actually what my title means is that I look at business requirements and uh using product knowledge uh knowledge of the development processes and knowledge of how the sales process works and uh I translate that into development requirements work with software developers. I oversee development. I do user acceptance testing and I collect

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feedback from uh many salespeople about how their experience is, what can be improved and it's a continuous improvement process. That's what that means. Um, in in general, it's it's really just removing time that salespeople spend trying to read compatibility documents or figure out if what they're selling customer is going to work out of the box. So, it's it's on me to know all of those things and know where the information is and then make sure that they don't while

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they should know it, they don't have to. >> Okay. Wow, that's interesting. I've never heard of kind of this the storage um data center kind of enterprise like you were discussing either because I'm just not in that field. But how have you found is AI in the world of AI changing this? And do you work with AI in in that sense or I'm forgive my ignorance, I'm just not sure. I imagine it would have >> been all over it, but I'm not sure. >> I I'll start with with with the the

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basic definition of what the cloud is. it's someone else's server or in this case it's a bunch of other equipment. So yes, uh I do touch AI a little. Uh it it is all the rage right now. Uh the the hardware that uh I help put out in the field actually is the foundation on which uh the data that AI uses sits. Um data centers in themselves uh are actually a very interesting topic which uh I feel that uh IT students are not getting enough exposure in. >> I I don't think there is a a single

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school out there that prepares somebody to actually work in a data center. um while they keep growing uh they keep being everywhere and that's that's something that I think is a good place for people to independently study but it's also something for uh IT programs to consider. Um I didn't even know data centers existed when I got into this career and they already did. So >> why why do you think that higher education and maybe tech schools are are not focusing on that to teach?

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Why do you think it's just a just um a misalignment or something like what's what's your thought on that? >> So it's a number of things. one, you will find that finding somebody who is a data center professional uh that is that has time to teach that that's not a thing because these these people are very busy. Uh the other thing is um education programs lag behind what technology is. simply impossible to have an education program that is going to take a student and have them ready to work in a data

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center. Uh it just it's just too dynamic. So it I I know I've been through for instance uh taking a a curriculum through the PA Department of Education. By the time you're done going through that process, >> technology has run away from you. Uh it's it's just that dynamic. Um and the other thing is I I think just like I didn't know about the relevance of this field uh even many corporate IT people miss how relevant it is and how much more relevant it's becoming.

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Do you feel like this is a field that is just starting and it's going to grow or um it it's been growing and it's just it needs more it >> more young professionals in it? >> It it has been growing at a at an extreme pace. If you look at something like Ashurn, Virginia, uh, and you take a look at the history of Google Maps, you're going to see data center on top of data center just they keep popping up and popping up and with AI being introduced, things keep accelerating. The limiting factor for

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data centers, believe it or not, is our power grid. >> Uh, in certain European countries, there's a moratorium on new data centers uh being built because of power. And we are running into power transmissions issues and there's there is more demand than what our country's grid is built for. >> Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So that's a limiting factor right now or or an opportunity to to get different different types of energy to it. >> Um really interesting, Eugene. Thank you

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for sharing that. And I think that's something that um people need to be thinking about and finding ways to create certificates or degrees so that we are preparing young professionals to go into this field because it sounds like it's a good opportunity. Um and potentially untapped. >> Yeah. Yeah. Professional certifications exist. There's plenty of them. Uh but you have to know about them and also most of them require some level of experience. Uh, I'm I'm going to bring up VMware

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certified professional. That is not something you're just going to go and pass with no experience. I mean, you could, but why would you? Uh, it's uh a a curriculum for for a data center tech is something that should exist. It's just it's it's inevitable that we're going to get more of them. They're going to be in everybody's neighborhoods. As much as I perhaps don't like that one's going to be in my backyard, but it will be a good example is Ashurn, Virginia. Like

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if anybody wants to look at the dynamic, they can look there. They can look at Vegas >> and see how many data centers are there. They're they're they're situated around where uh infrastructure for ISPs and infrastructure for power converge. >> Gotcha. Do you know how many or are there a lot in Philadelphia or in like the Delaware County area? >> In Philadelphia, uh you would never guess uh where they are. Uh for example, on Broaden Spring Garden, there is three. Uh

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>> so they just they don't they don't stand out as different in a sense. They just kind of blend in with just, you know, buildings and >> they can be in an old building. They can be a brand new warehouse type building. it. >> It people people repurpose buildings all the time. And >> yeah, if if you go around Broad and Spring Garden, see if you can spot them. They're very easy to spot if you know what to look for. You're looking for backup generators, large cables coming

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out of the ground and a lot of hot air being blown into the street. >> Sounds like a fun like road trip game. Like spot the data centers. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um that's cool. If if these are fresh built ones, they're they look just like a warehouse. If this is something that uh historically happened somewhere, they're they're in these high rises, they might be on multiple floors. >> Yeah. Nice. Wow. That's interesting. So, um Eugene, you know, as college students

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are are going throughout their their experiences at Manor and in other institutions, and you know, you've been through the college process now. Um what would you say is some advice that you would give to particularly Manor students today based on what you know? >> The people you meet are important. Uh my first software development job was uh found through my uh classmate at Manor. Uh these people are going to stay with you all your life if you treat them well. And this network is very powerful.

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um build it, maintain it, and uh it'll do great things for you and you will do great things for it. Uh the other piece of advice is don't be afraid to ask anything really, especially in your career, because the worst that can happen is you're going to hear no. But uh it's it it's actually a good thing to hear no and realize maybe this place is not for me. Uh but ask about opportunities, suggest things. Uh you will be surprised how many times uh somebody will listen to you and say, "Well, that's a great

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suggestion. How about you research it more and pitch it to me?" Uh this happens a lot more than people think. Uh just just be open to asking, be open to actually getting an unexpected answer and uh just be dynamic. The days of staying somewhere for decades, I mean there's places where you can do that, but that time really is gone. And uh you want to realize quickly whether the place you're working at is not dynamic, is not keeping up with the times. Uh and you want to find something

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that suits you. And the other thing you really want to keep in mind is really be true to yourself. If if the place you work at doesn't feel right, start looking. >> Yeah, that's great. I think um all of that can kind of tie back into like what you first said about you know knowing knowing people and keeping in contact and um make good connections because you never know when those connections could come in handy when searching or when um you know finding a new opportunity or um I read something recently someone's

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someone's post I think it was a a coach and he was like meet people and then make connections based on the people that you meet like always be a connector within folks because that's how people tend to like you because you're that person who's going to find them and help them and you know um be really thoughtful around that. So I think that's great advice Eugene. Thank you for sharing that. Eugene, we wish you the best of luck in the rest of your career and know that Manor is always

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here cheering you on and as we like to say for our alumni, you belong here always. Thank you for spending the time with us today and we wish you nothing but the best. Thank you and I hope for Manor's continuing success. >> 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 of our alumni by following Manor College on Instagram, Manor College. And that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest, stories

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about life after Manor College. Remember, Blue Jays, you belong here always.