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Believe in yourself. Don't ever say to yourself that you can't do it or I don't know if I can. Well, I don't know. Don't stop with the I don't know. Stop with, well, I don't know if I can. You know, just don't put it off. Do yourself a favor. Do not put it off because you know what? It's all going to work out in the end. Hello, Blue Jays, and welcome to the nest, stories about life after Manor College. I am your host, Kelly Peiffer, vice president of marketing

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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, 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 our marketing team recently came back from a conference with some new awards? Yes. Back in March, our marketing communications team

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attended Cuprap, the organization for college and university public relations and associated professionals annual conference in Lancaster. This year, the Manor marketing and communications team brought home a record-breaking 12 Cuppie awards. This hits home for me personally because I have the privilege of overseeing our marketing team here at the college. So to put this into perspective, we earned the second most awards of any institution at the conference. We are a small and mighty team that works really hard to produce great work

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that will tell the manor college story and make our campus community feel like they truly belong here. Our goal is always just making sure that people feel included and welcomed and that they have a place at Manor College. So being honored with awards for some of the work that we do is truly icing on the cake. We won awards for different categories like graphic design, videos, articles, ads, and several other projects that we produce throughout the year. Something that I am most specifically proud of is

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the fact that we won for this podcast. We have been producing and making this podcast for um over a year now. It's unique. It's unique in the world of higher education and we were really excited and honored to win an award to be recognized for the work that we're doing on the podcast. And thank you to our listeners who are making this possible. Something else that's unique that we won for was some murals. We have had some murals done on campus uh last summer by a wonderful Baltimore based

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hand painter, Sam. And uh we were lucky enough to win some awards for the murals that we've done to really just brighten and bring our brand from uh digital assets and advertisements, but to actually make them into the environment on our campus. So this achievement is really a direct testament to the talent within our marketing team across writing, photography, design, media, and content. Our marketing team consists of three full-time staff members, myself, and then we have Anthony Machcinski and

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Allison Meyers. They are crazy, wildly talented and dedicated people who um just love the work that they do but also are just innovating and just crazy talented in the work that they do. So also really this work that we do is really possible because of we have a lot of collaboration that helps and that defines who we are at manner being a small team you need to work with others to get a lot done. So these awards, these 12 copy awards, I would say belong to our entire campus community. From financial aid to admissions to athletics

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to alumni to advancement, the president's office, academic affairs, student life, all these winning projects prove that when we work together, we can produce excellence. And I'm really grateful for the teams that we get to work within. So that dedication to excellence is really intentional um for the marketing team I can speak to. And that's why we're being recognized amongst the best in our in the in the couple states that Cuprap really reaches out to. It's proof that Manor College, the story behind the

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work that we're doing and we're trying to tell is just as powerful as the education being delivered. So huge congratulations to the marketing team to Anthony and Allison and our campus partners and just a really exciting time for us to to be honored with that award and thank you for Cuprap for making the awards possible. Today's episode is sponsored by the Manor College Bachelor Degree in Criminal Justice. Justice isn't just a concept, it's a commitment. At Manor College, our criminal justice

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program is designed for those who feel the call to serve. You'll learn from seasoned professionals who bring real world experience from the field directly into the classroom. From law enforcement to the legal system, we provide the ethical foundation and the practical skills you need to make a real difference in your community. You belong here. Earn your bachelor's in criminal justice at Manor College. Visit manor.edu to learn more. Welcome back to the podcast where we bridge the gap between the classroom and career,

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highlighting the journeys of those who paved the way. Today's episode features a story rooted deeply in the heart of the Northeast. Imagine the early 90s in Philly. Our guest is walking the halls of Archbishop Ryan, a proud member of the class of 92, beginning a journey that many of us can relate to. being the first in her family to navigate the world of higher education. As a first gen college student, the path isn't always laid out for you. You have to build it yourself. That path eventually led them

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to Manor College, where they dove into the world of law and logic. While they'll be the first to admit that they didn't join as many clubs as they probably should have, they were busy putting in the work where it counted. Under the mentorship of impactful faculty like Diane Pevar, they mastered the complexities of the parallegal program. In May of 2000, that hard work culminated into an associates degree, a credential they took straight into the workforce without looking back. There was no need to transfer. They had the

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tools they needed to succeed right then and there. Fast forward over two decades, and our guest has become a fixture of public service. For the last 14 and a half years, they have dedicated their career to the city of Philadelphia as a tax analyst, proving that a foundation built at Manor can lead to a lifetime of impact. Please welcome to the show from the class of 2000, Antonietta D. DiFrancesco. Hi, Antonietta. >> Hi, Kelly. How are you? >> Thank you for being with us today. >> Thank you for having me.

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>> So, take us back. How did you first hear about Manor College and why did you choose to attend? >> So, as you mentioned, I graduated Archbishop Brian in 1992. Um, I started a high school where I knew absolutely nobody. Um, I was intro actually my cousin attended. So, she introduced me to a few people. Fast forward, I till this day am still friends with Kristen. I will not mention her last name, but I remember she attended Manor right after high school and because I wasn't sure what I

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wanted to do, I decided to just work. Um, then I got to a point where I needed to make a career for myself and I reached out to Kristen who was currently working as a paralegal in a private firm in the Mayfair section and I asked her about her experience at Manor and I knew that I wanted to also be a paralegal not because I wanted to work for a private you know injury attorneys or anything like that. I wanted to be a paralegal to work out in the corporate world. So after a half hour conversation

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with my girlfriend Kristen, I applied at Manor and it was again, you know, I started there in the '9s, graduated May of 2000. Um, it was it was different. Um, I liked it because one, it was close to home. I loved how the classroom sizes were nice and small, and I liked the one-on-one that you would get from the instructors. So that is how I came about to become a Manor alumni. >> I love that. You know, your story is not that dissimilar to what we hear from students today. They got introduced to

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the college by a friend. They were convinced by that same friend to to maybe attend or maybe come on a tour. um you know they worked while they're a student and and they wanted they kind of knew what their career path was going to be and and Manor was able to give them the school the tools and the skills to do that. So I think it's really actually pretty similar to what we hear a lot of our students doing today. Unfortunately we no longer have our paralegal program but there are whispers that it might be

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coming back. So >> Oh I hope so. >> I I am a big advocate of that. I think it's a great program. I think um our students would really benefit from it because honestly some of the most successful alumni I talk to tend to be from our paralegal program. We currently have criminal justice and legal studies and they're similar but they're not, you know, as career like point A to point B as paralegal is. Um that's great. Shout out to Kristen. Thank you for being a good friend and uh

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sharing that. So that's really cool to hear. I want to talk about you being a first gen college student. This is also what we find the majority of our students today are first gen. Um and it's just a different mindset. They have different challenges. Um everything kind of holds a bit more of weight when you're a first gen student. So what was that for you like? Um were how were your parents supportive of you going to college and what did it mean for like the whole family? Uh so I have an older

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brother so he attempted to go to Holy Family for accounting then decided after two semesters it wasn't for him and he got out of it and he went into it. So he now has God bless him a successful IT business. Um my parents were very supportive. Um which was great because I put off going to college like I said because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I was petrified of graduating and then having to worry about the school loan. And you know, unfortunately, my parents were not in a position where

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they could have supported me financially, but did say, you know, anything that we can help you with as far as like when you need to purchase books, stuff like that, they were more than helpful. Thank goodness I was able to do it on my own. Um, did I feel the pressure if I did maybe if I got a failing grade in one of my classes? Yes, I'm very hard on myself. I I like to succeed in everything that I do. Um I know that sometimes it'll take more than one try, but after probably like I would

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say my first semester at Manor, I got a little bit more comfortable. And so I, you know, I was attending Manor full-time. I was working, you know, in the evenings part-time on the weekends. Um, you know, sometimes I just found it easier to do my work in Manor's library. So, I would be up at the library on a Saturday morning for a few hours when I didn't have a Saturday class. Um, so there was there was a little bit of pressure for me to finish college, but um, all in all, I mean, I'm

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I'm proud of what I was able to accomplish. Um, I owe it to Manor. You know, Miss Pevar was amazing. All of my instructors at Manor were truly amazing. Um, I did in my final year, I lost my grandfather, so my instructors were amazing as far as letting me take my finals >> after the funeral. So, I I I can't say I can't say enough nice things about Manor and the instructors that I had back then. >> Oh, that's that's awesome to hear that they were flexible and understanding.

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Um, that's definitely something that I hear a lot of students today still mention in different nominations and stuff. Let's talk about Diane Pear for a minute. She is someone who has certainly impacted so many people at Manor. She's retired. She worked at Manor for I think almost 30 if not more than 30 plus years um as the the head of our paralegal program and she did a lot of other things with committees and different um organizations here. So, what is something that um either either

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a specific memory or like a piece of advice that really sticks with you that she kind of imprinted upon you? >> There's a there's a couple things that come to mind immediately when I hear the name Diane Pear. Um I remember when she was put into groups together when we had to do our mock trial. I personally I had no intentions on continuing my education after Manor to become a lawyer. I knew I wanted to be a paralegal and and that was it. So she assigns me the role of an attorney and I I I just was absolutely

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petrified. I remember going up to her in class and I said, "You can't do this to me." I mean I mean and the group that I had that she had put together for our group was amazing. Like we all got along. I couldn't have asked for better people to work with. I said, "Miss Pew," I said, "I don't want to be an attorney." She goes, "You're going to be an attorney. That is the role that I assigned you, and you're going to do just fine. Just just work with your

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group." >> So, that sticks out. Um because you know what? We ended up winning during our mock trial. It was great. Um, and I remember when, and it was very sad for me because I knew that it was like the end of my time at Manor, >> but I remember meeting with her when she asked me, "Where where do you see yourself working after you leave here?" Because at the time, I don't know if they still do it now, but they helped you get job placement. >> And I remember saying to her, I want to

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work at an immigration law firm. And she sat back and said, "Okay." She said, um, you know that that's a very specific type of law. And I said, yes, I'm well aware. Um, but she did say, she said, I don't know how far we're going to be able to take you with that, but just be open to working at other places in case we can't make that happen for you. I said, okay. I said, that's fine. I said, but that would be my first choice. >> I graduated May of 2000, and in June, I

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had an interview with an immigration firm downtown, and I started working there. um like probably by the end of June after paperwork was all processed >> and I worked there I was there for about three years. So I got it and you know what >> I remember reaching back out to Miss Pew and she was just ecstatic for me. She was so happy. >> Oh that's great. She would be absolutely that's awesome. So yeah, um Antonietta, let's move into a bit of your your career and um you know, specifically the

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work that you've been doing for the city. You've worked for the city of Philadelphia for quite some time, for 14 and a half years. >> Yes. >> Um so like what is it about serving in in the city of Philadelphia specifically that has kept you motivated to keep doing it for like over a decade? Well, what's funny is that I had no intentions on working at the city, but um I ended up my job where I was I was working at Aramark and they ended up eliminating my position. So, I didn't know what to do

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and I I was I'm not a person to sit at home and collect unemployment. So, I just remember my cousin reaching out to me at one point saying, "Oh, I heard on the train by someone saying that, you know, the city was hiring." So my cousin ended up getting me this person who was working for the city. She got me her business card. I didn't know her at all. I got her business card. I emailed her my resume and within a week I had an interview with the city and I started there as a paralegal. I did paralegal

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work for probably about four and a half five years and then I switched to a civil service position as a tax analyst. And for me, my role hasn't really changed too too much. The only difference is I don't take cases before the tax review board. Um, but I basically review and analyze taxpayers, businesses, you know, accounts and I help them, you know, if they're behind on their taxes, I get them into a payment agreement. We figure out, you know, why they're still showing a balance and and

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where the disconnect is. And you know, I mean, you're not going to please everybody, but there are a good handful of people that are very appreciative of the help that you give them. And when you get that thank you at the end of the day and they call you, oh, you're a blessing or you're my angel for helping me with it's great to me. I know that my job has done its thing. >> Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, you're definitely helping people and serving people. Um, and it it sounds stressful

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to me and and and challenging for sure. >> It can be. >> Yeah. >> But every job is like that. But you know what? At the end of the day, you know, if I if I was able to assist three people out of five and I got a thank you from them and, you know, not an email where it says, "Thanks a lot, but no thanks." Then, you know, my job is good. My day is done. >> Oh, that's great. What's like um a myth that people assume that like oh she must do this all day about your job, but it's

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really really not the truth. It's not I mean I also work closely with um some of the council people from city hall and I mean there's one specifically that that I won't mention but I mean I literally say every day I'm like you know I should just come work in your office because a lot of you know taxpayers need help that are in that council person's ward. So when they feel that they don't know where else to turn and it's a shame because a lot of them are elderly and you know they're getting

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these notices and and they don't know what to do with it. A lot of them are not computer literate. So they go into this council person's office and they just they ask for help and there's a con constituent that I do work with daily where either he reaches out via phone, via email and you know I try to to get to their requests as quickly as possible but sometimes they're not as easy as one two three. So but it's all good. >> Yeah, for sure. I'm sure it's a lot of

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um trying to communicate and a lot of like logistics. I imagine it's that kind of work for sure. >> Um so let's let's talk about kind of reflecting a little bit here. So like obviously hindsight is 2020. Um if you could go back to, you know, 1992 and your version of yourself going to high school and then 2000, you know, being at Manor, knowing what you know now, um about your career, about kind of how your your path would go, what would you tell yourself? Believe in yourself. Don't ever say to

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yourself that you can't do it or I don't know if I can. Well, I don't know. Don't stop with the I don't know. Stop with, well, I don't know if I can. You know, just don't put it off. Do yourself a favor. Do not put it off because you know what? It's all going to work out in the end. I wish I would have gone to Manor right after co high school but like I said I just I wasn't sure and you know I knew I always said paralegal but I kept thinking well maybe there's

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something else that I could do maybe you know at the time I was working part-time I was working retail I'm like well maybe I become you know a manager or an assistant manager and then it was like well why do I want to deal with that type of a headache >> so like I said after you know doing a couple odd and jobs and then reaching out to my girlfriend Kristen and you know just hearing what she had to say I knew that it was the best move for me. So I would definitely say just keep on going because there came a time had I

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not spoken with Kristen I probably would not have ended up at Manor and I don't know honestly I probably be working in some type of retail store still. I don't know >> because you need a degree today whatever degree it is get it and put it to use. That's great. I definitely, you know, I think I know you said that um you kind of wish you went right away, but I I don't know. I would just say that I think a lot of today we're finding students who took a gap year or

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took a little time between high school and college, you know, they come with a set of maturity that that's a little bit different. They have some experience. and they they might have a greater a greater appreciation for higher education because either they're paying for it themselves or they have to manage college and work and it's it's just a different type of student and we are finding a lot of students um are not straight out of high school. They're not coming and they're 18 19 years old.

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They're coming and um the average age of our student is 23 24. So a lot of students are taking those years to figure things out. oftentimes it's figuring out what they don't like more than what they do like, you know. Um, kind of a similar with internships. A lot of our students, you know, they go for internships and most the times it's to weed out what you don't like or what you're not good at opposed to finding, you know, the thing that fits. So, I think that's great that you did that,

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frankly. And I think it's really um it still holds true. I really do. your story is very much I feel like what a lot of our students today are going through and it really just resonates. So, and I I love that you're working in the city of Phil Philly um and in a service role. I think that really aligns well with the mission here at Manor. You know, we want to educate students to serve society uh effectively and compassionately. That's the words and our mission and Antonietta you're doing

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it. So thank you so much for being a walking talking breathing example of the mission of Manor. It's really really cool and special to see. So final question for you. What advice would you give Manor College students today who are um we're you know we're we're kind of ending our our semester soon and we're coming into summer students kind of take classes all year long anymore about what advice would you give them? >> Enjoy the college years. Get involved as much as you can. Whatever you know

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activities they have going on. Go show your support. Just be involved. Just do it because you know what? There's no break after college. It's you're put out into that real world. And I say it to my son almost every other day. I would give anything to go back to high school. I would give anything to go back to college. And it's funny because he knows we drive past Manor College. >> And he says it all the time. Mom, that's your college. I'm like, yeah, that's my

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college. >> So just enjoy it. Make the best of it. >> It really does. Honestly, I can't believe like when I think back, I cannot believe how quickly my time at Manor went and the fact that I am friends still with the few people that I met at Manor till this day. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. You know, you get you get a great education, you get prepared for your career, but you also get lifelong friendships and these people who you can, you know, not see them for a while, but then you see

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them and it's just like you never never left. You >> never graduated Manor, >> right? that kind of special friendship is really um really a great a great perk to college life frankly. So it's awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. It has been an absolute pleasure to talk to you and to hear your story and I know it's going to encourage a lot of our students. So, thank you so much, >> Ellie. Thank you very much for having me. This has been great.

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>> 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, 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 always.