Real World Leaders

Our students from Hopeworks were excellent co-hosts for our Real World Leaders Radio Show! When asked for a piece of advice that’s carried him through his career, Bob Peppelman said, “Persevere. There’s going to be a lot of difficult things that come your way, could be personal, could be in business, could be spiritual, but continue to persevere and work through it, because those difficult times, that look really difficult now, you’ll look back on it, and ask yourself, why did I make such a big deal of that?” When discussing the qualities of good hires/employees, Ryan Barber LEED AP said, “The individuals who are willing to put in the effort and be moldable, the ones with good attitudes…that’s who we’re looking for.” We greatly appreciate our CEO guests, Ryan Barber LEED AP Sr. Vice President of RW Dake Construction and Bob Peppelman CEO of RJP Consulting Group, LLC.

Glenn Bostock, CEO of SnapCab & Jeff Reimel, President at Reimel Machine Inc. were interviewed by our amazing student cohosts from Imhotep Institute Charter High School. Jeff & Glenn spoke to the students about the opportunities in manufacturing. They also said that they are more interested in hiring collaborators than someone with a perfect resume. Glenn said, "there are some who just come in for a paycheck-others come in and you want to invest in them because you can see the potential." We also discussed teamwork, humility and overcoming adversity. Thanks again to our Real World Leaders for taking the time to speak with our students! #realworldleaders #mentors #teamwork

As the summer comes to an end we would like to give a big thank you to our champion Jewel Felder-James with Caring People Alliance .This summer she went through every obstacle to give her students a chance, we see you Jewels. Our students at Caring People Alliance (West) had their last summer session with us. They spoke with Bill Knecht and Aziza Robey from Jefferson Health Plans. Topic of this session was improvement. Bill Knecht told the students “if you only do things you're good at you will never improve.” And Aziza Robey said “ Those challenges that arise makes you better for the next one.” Thank you Bill Knecht and Aziza Robey for speaking with our students.

Todays theme was perseverance. J. Peter Veloski spoke with our students from Hopeworks about over coming obstacles. J. Peter Veloski gained his strong perseverance skills from his father. He stated “ My father didn’t let polio define him.” He used this as strength to overcome any challenges he faced throughout the years. “ If my father never complained why should I.” Thank you J. Peter Veloski for taking the time to speak with our students

Last week our students at Imhotep Institute Charter High School spoke with Bob Walsh an Improvement Director at Stockwell Elastomerics. The students asked this Improvements Director questions on time management and how to build trust. Bob Walsh told the students that in order to have better control over your time you must “ Plan 80% of your day.” He also spoke on having a listening ear and “ not to judge your coworkers” in order to gain their trust. Thank you Stockwell Elastomerics for allowing us to speak with Bob Walsh.

It’s the middle of Summer and our incredible students from NE Frankford had the opportunity to co-host Real World Leaders with the amazing Heather Quinn and Brian McGrath from Acme-Hardesty, Co. to interview Jami Wintz McKeon, CEO of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Jami shared that she has only had two jobs in her life: being a lifeguard as a teen and then becoming an attorney working for the same firm she now leads! The students asked about how to decide what angle they should consider starting their careers and Jami responded in the most refreshing and summer-appropriate way: dip your food in all of it! Meaning: our students are young and bright and have every opportunity in front of them, “continue to network and learn from others!” Thank you Jami for spending time pouring into our students… this will definitely be a highlight of their summer!

Our students from West Philadelphia Boys and Girls Club had a very impactful and motivating radio show with our CEO guest Guido Gallicchio of Thayer Distribution! When asked how he overcame challenges on his way to becoming a CEO, Guido Gallicchio answered, “I think it takes a lot of perseverance, a lot of will. You’re going to get knocked down in this life, the system that we live in in the United States is about persevering, pushing through and never giving up.”

We love it when a plan comes together 😏 We had the joy of pairing TechCore, an amazing nonprofit teaching coding to urban youth, with OnCourse Systems for Education, an equally amazing company providing tech solutions to educators. It was magic ✨ M. Tre Gonzalez, Director of Growth and RWL vet, brought along Wadeen Dean, Product Manager, and welcomed him into the fold. He's hooked now! He said an hour wasn't a long enough time, and he was right! We got real technical–well Tre, Wadeen, and the students got technical. We just watched the lights in their eyes. We touched on sports, team building, customer service, being an art major...you name it! Wadeen spoke about missing opportunities by boxing himself in and urged our students to keep an open mind when figuring out what they want to do. He left them with these valuable words: Believe in yourself. He explained that not doing this is almost always your number 1 limiting factor. M. Tre regaled us with tales of the hundreds of resumes he reviewed recently and shared some tips for how to stand out. Stand by: he will be posting about it soon if he hasn't already. One tip: make your resume a little more kinetic, a little more measurable. His final thoughts for our students: invest in yourself. You've heard of compound interest; well that applies to career capital as well. He advised our students to invest just 13 minutes/day, 90 minutes/week in improving themselves. 🗣 Share your tips for building career capital or self-confidence below and keep the conversation going. 👇 👇 👇 #techcareers #teachcoding #motivational

We had a great conversation with the camp counselors at the NE Frankford Boys & Girls Club and our guests from Andesa this week (if we can still call them that). Chris Shalbert, Chief Technology Officer, and Sarai Fortin, Systems Engineer, have been our "guests" so many times that we should have let them host!🎙️ Chris and Sarai, who both joined the workforce as young teens, commended the camp counselors, who are all high school students, many just entering 9th grade in a few weeks. 🎉 Chris's dad instilled responsibility in him, and he picked up commitment and dedication from wrestling (not WWE – we asked!). In fact, he mentioned an article we need to dig up entitled "Why Wrestlers Make Good Employees." Sounds like a good read! Sarai got her first job as a busser at a diner her grandparents frequented; they weren't even sure if she was of working age yet. Talk about the importance of networking! She also shared that she entered the workforce right after high school and eventually landed a government job that helped pay for college! When asked what the hardest part of her current job was, she said Imposter Syndrome. It's a real thing, and both she and Chris encouraged our camp counselors to be confident in their abilities. They got this! 💪

Our students from Institute for the Development of African-American Youth, Inc. (IDAAY) displayed their curiosity and natural talents while interviewing our two CEO guests Leigh Ehrlich CPA CHFP MBA CFO of Main Line Health and John Rapchinski CEO of Maximus Partners, LLC along with our co-host Jeff Mack during our Real World Leaders Radio show! “You’ve got to be willing to do things other people aren’t willing to do, you have to be willing to outwork people, and you’ve got to be willing to do a great job no matter what the service is.” said John Rapchinski when sharing how cleaning porta pottys in his youth prepared him to be a successful entrepreneur and CEO. When asked what her motivation was to keep working toward a higher position in her career, Leigh Ehrlich CPA CHFP MBA answered, “Throughout my career I had really great mentors, or people that took an interest in me and saw strengths in my abilities even if I didn’t see them myself, and that just led to opportunities for me, and I always said yes to them even if I wasn’t sure, but I always said yes and that just opened more doors and more opportunities for me throughout my career.”