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Podcasts

Samir Pringle: Kindness & Leadership

S4 E2
February 04, 2025
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Like all life experiences, college is what you make of it. Sure, you'll takeaway technical skills and foundational lessons. But the full-college experience stretches beyond what happens in labs and lectures. Determined to maximize his time at Penn College, Samir does more than seek out opportunities to be a part of our community. He aims to influence campus culture while fine tuning a signature leadership approach that prioritizes kindness. Samir talks through his decision to come to Penn College, Lenfest scholarship, and vast student experiences. He also shares what it means to build his brand and what's on deck for him post graduation. If you're interested in hearing what it's like to live and lead at Penn College, give this one a listen.

00:00:00 Sumer Beatty: Welcome to Tomorrow Makers, where we explore how we learn, live, work, and play now and in the future. I'm Sumer Beatty. 00:00:11 Carlos Ramos: And I'm Carlos Ramos. Hey, Sumer. 00:00:14 Sumer Beatty: Hey. 00:00:15 Carlos Ramos: We got a good one today. 00:00:16 Sumer Beatty: We do. 00:00:17 Carlos Ramos: But before we get to it, we do have to acknowledge what dropped this week. 00:00:21 Sumer Beatty: Yes. 00:00:22 Carlos Ramos: Wild Ones. 00:00:23 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. Have you seen it? I know you've seen it. I'm asking you. It's just out to the audience. I know you've seen it. You've seen it a bunch of times. 00:00:32 Carlos Ramos: And actually, judging by the stats, a lot of people have seen it. And you told me there were watch parties. 00:00:38 Sumer Beatty: That's what I heard. 00:00:39 Carlos Ramos: I didn't know that this was a thing for this episode. 00:00:41 Sumer Beatty: My first thought was, I wonder how big the screen was. I hope it was on somebody's TV, like little monitor. 00:00:47 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. Cause I think you've got, well, I, I know I have too. I think we both have like super closeups that. That, that was unnerving. 00:00:58 Sumer Beatty: It's the first time that I didn't go behind the camera and I was just like, okay, trust the process. It's the, the micromanaging. It's hard. It's like, don't, don't look. You just gotta, they know what they're doing. 00:01:11 Carlos Ramos: But if you haven't seen it yet, go out to Penn College's YouTube channel, youtube. com slash Penn College. And that'll be the first episode. There are four more coming and a bunch of shorts and, yeah, let us know what you think of it, either on YouTube or send us a note at 00:01:27 Sumer Beatty: podcast at pct. edu. We love email. 00:01:30 Carlos Ramos: So back to what we're here for this week. Samir. 00:01:34 Sumer Beatty: Samir. Yes. What an awesome student. 00:01:38 Carlos Ramos: He is. Samir Pringle. He is, what was his major? 00:01:41 Sumer Beatty: Business administration. 00:01:42 Carlos Ramos: That's what I thought. And he's from Philadelphia, a Lenfest scholar, came to us with He's got a plan. 00:01:50 Sumer Beatty: Oh my gosh. He has a plan. It's amazing. Okay. We're going to just have him back in, in five years post graduation, see where he's at, because I think he's going to do some great things. 00:01:59 Carlos Ramos: And not just a plan, but a brand. 00:02:02 Sumer Beatty: I don't know how many people I've talked to, especially students that recognize, of course, like we're in marketing, so we know what a brand's about. But Samir talks to us about how he's building his brand. And I mean, I think he's spot on with that. I said to Carlos, I knew him before he knew me. So, I mean, that's. That's the best brand you can build. 00:02:24 Carlos Ramos: And the components are great. I mean, it's, it's be a nice guy. 00:02:27 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:02:28 Carlos Ramos: That's really at the core of it. 00:02:29 Sumer Beatty: Yes. Yeah. He talks a lot about kindness and how a little bit of kindness goes a long way. And he just seems to light up when he talks about seeing a student on campus, that he maybe helped with something and you know, just the payback and how good that feels. So I think you're really gonna like this one. 00:02:45 Carlos Ramos: Definitely. So let's, let's meet Samir. 00:02:55 Sumer Beatty: So we have Samir Pringle with us today. He's a business administration student, and I just showed him my clipboard here that has, I don't know, 12 bullet points of things he's involved in or has been involved in here on campus. So I think to sum it up, you're a senior resident assistant, and sGA, VP of finance. Yes. And just student leader because there's, like I said, 10 other bullet points. Maybe we can get into some of those later, but I think it's safe to say you're one of the student leaders here on campus. 00:03:27 Samir Pringle: Yeah, that's fair. 00:03:29 Sumer Beatty: Thank you for being with us today. I 00:03:30 Samir Pringle: appreciate you guys having me. 00:03:32 Sumer Beatty: You are from Philadelphia, is that right? 00:03:34 Samir Pringle: Yeah. 00:03:34 Sumer Beatty: Okay, so how did you find Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and Penn College? 00:03:39 Samir Pringle: So, I actually got a funny story, because originally, I didn't Penn College exists. In high school, we had this, like, post secondary pathway class, and this specific day we were filling out like college applications. So I applied to six schools, none of which being Penn College. And then the next day we were filling out for scholarships. So I went to scholarships. com. I didn't really want to do it. So I just went to scholarships. com and apply it to a number of different scholarships. Didn't really think anything of it. I was like, just doing it because we had to. And then apparently Penn College bought the list of names for me. from, of students that apply for certain scholarships. And I was luckily to be on one of those lists and they started recruiting me that way. 00:04:25 Sumer Beatty: Nice. Good job Penn College. 00:04:27 Samir Pringle: Yeah. Yeah. 00:04:28 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. And we got you like, that's amazing. So I feel like you're one of those students that were like, can we have a bunch of Samirs? Like you're just, you're so involved here. 00:04:37 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. Well, and the scholarship you got, it's a really special one. Yeah, can you talk about that? 00:04:43 Samir Pringle: Yeah, so I received the Lenfest Scholarship. It is a Lenfest foundation in Philadelphia and what they do is supply scholarships to like student or like kids that want to go to like colleges and they like provide them that like financial help within that. And the Lenfest Foundation offers like, I would say pretty high valuable like scholarships, like it's not like small money is pretty good portion. With the scholarship that I received it was just, I was fortunate enough to be able to not pay for my whole associate's degree at all, so I'm very grateful for the Lenfest Foundation. And I also found out ways to like branch out to other Lenfest scholars. Most of the like recipients were in the Philadelphia region, but on LinkedIn I actually got connected to a few of them and we started having conversations about different things. So it was actually pretty cool. 00:05:41 Carlos Ramos: Oh, so that's great. So not only do you get that benefit of having your tuition covered, you're building a network which is so important, so foundational. 00:05:49 Samir Pringle: Yeah, and originally like with scholarships, most individuals feel like scholarships is just financial support in a sense. And I think it's very important to teach scholarship recipients how to maximize their scholarship. Because most times when you receive a scholarship, it's just the financial support. But no one knows how to go beyond that, if that makes sense. So really, what I really had to do was kind of like dive down and figure out how to maximize my scholarship because I also wanted to make sure I had something after the scholarship if that made sense. So just getting in touch with some of the people at the Lenfest Foundation, talking to them, building connections, etc, etc. I feel like put me in a better place rather than not doing that. That's pretty cool. 00:06:34 Sumer Beatty: So is Lenfest an organization that you kind of belong to and go to events? Or do you connect outside of like the LinkedIn? Is that the organization that you have, like regular check ins with? 00:06:50 Samir Pringle: So 00:06:51 Sumer Beatty: am I thinking about something else? 00:06:52 Samir Pringle: No, no, no. So, The Lenfest Foundation, how it works, or at least how it worked for me, at the school, I was provided a Lenfest Scholarship Advisor, in a sense. 00:07:03 Sumer Beatty: That's what I was thinking of. Okay. 00:07:05 Samir Pringle: So like, this school had one specific advisor for all Lenfest students. And then from that point, there were certain things that we needed to do. One was just have a meeting once a month. Basically just saying, Hey, how's everything going? How's classes? How's your grades? How are you adjusting to college? Et cetera, et cetera. And that's kind of. how that works in a sense. For the most part, it was just one, one meet in a month. 00:07:27 Sumer Beatty: Okay. And so what do you mean exactly by maximizing your scholarship? Are you thinking, are you talking about like just making sure that, you know, just thinking financially or taking advantage of other opportunities? Maybe you can now get involved in some of these leadership efforts because you're not having, you know, all these, some students are working several jobs and, that plays into it as well? 00:07:52 Samir Pringle: So I feel like maximizing a scholarship looks different depending on what scholarship you have. so specifically for my scholarship, mine was just networking. I wanted to make sure that I got in contact with the people who, like, gave me the scholarship in a sense. because before I received the scholarship, I didn't know what the Lenfest Foundation was. And then after I got it, I kind of dove deeper into it. Figured out the whole concept behind it and why they're doing it. and it's a pretty cool mission of why they started it. like giving out scholarships and things of that nature, but maximizing your scholarship, networking with the people within the scholarship. So like, I wasn't the only Lenfest Scholar. So connecting with other people that was Lenfest Scholars, connecting with the people actually at the Lenfest Foundation, and also with not having to stress, like, of the financial burden of like tuition and things of that nature. It allowed me to like get involved. It allowed me to do the things that I wanted to do without constantly having to worry about working or making money or etc, etc. I kind of didn't have to worry about that for my first two years. And I feel like that was pretty beneficial. 00:08:57 Carlos Ramos: So what was the first step for you once you were here on campus and you're like, I'm, I'm doing it all, because you are. 00:09:03 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:09:04 Carlos Ramos: What was that first thing that you went for that opened the door for you? 00:09:07 Samir Pringle: It's actually funny. So my first year at this school, I really wasn't involved at all. Didn't really do much, just was a student. And I kind of found myself getting lost within a crowd. And the whole reason I came here, rather than a like a bigger school in Philadelphia was because of like the smaller class size. I feel like it was better community, and overall, it was just what I was looking for, and my first year I realized, like, closer to the end of my second semester, I realized that I wasn't really accomplishing much, so I made the decision to become a Connection Link at the time. Now they're called Orientation Leaders, but I made the decision to become a Connection Link, and from there, that opened the door to my student leadership experience. 00:09:53 Sumer Beatty: And you're a resident assistant now? Senior resident assistant. 00:09:56 Samir Pringle: Yeah, senior resident assistant. The pathway, I feel like it was very complex in a sense for me. So from, from joining, Connections Link, it went from resident assistant then Student Government Association, and then Senior Resident Assistant, and then Presidential Tour Guide, or Presidential Ambassador, I'm sorry. and then I kind of like bounced around a lot of positions, and the whole goal was just to kind of get involved as much as I can. So, build my brand, if that makes sense. So, I'm a Business Administration student. And, it's, because it's not so hands on, you kind of have to find ways to, like, get the most out of business, if that makes sense. So, my goal was to build my brand. And, the way that I chose to do that was helping people. And, it just so happened that this campus offered a lot of jobs to help people. Ha ha ha ha ha. And, then from that point, I I've been finding ways that I can help people in the most impactful way, and I would say I've been pretty successful at that. With all of the roles that I do, specifically, let's say senior resident assistant, I was an RA for two years, and then I became a senior resident assistant, and then with that, now I oversee a staff of nine, nine RAs, and I oversee a complex of three buildings. So, Clinton, Delaware, and Juniata, Halls. And within that, there isn't much direct contact with students. I'm more so like the middleman between students in a sense. so what I try to do is still build, have the same connection in some way, even though I'm leading RAs now, rather than like talking to students and being on the grounds. I try to continue to build that connection, but also give my RAs the skills and abilities to do that as well. That's kind of another way that I try to help like the students on our campus, but every role that I have, the goal is to like make an impact on someone's life. And I think throughout my time here, whether it's just having one conversation with someone or connecting two people or just playing bingo with someone or playing chess or just doing some of the most random stuff, people really appreciate time. And I think one thing. That I realized early on is that the biggest impact that you can have on someone's life doesn't have to be financially. It doesn't have to be materialistic. It doesn't have to be any of that. You giving 30 seconds, 30 minutes, an hour of your time to someone who didn't think you have to is very, very impactful. And I just kind of built my brand around that. Just being impactful to students and just giving them my time. I think it's the best way you can, like, the best way that I've found to like be successful within this. 00:12:46 Sumer Beatty: And that's kindness, right? I saw you posted something about somebody was, was talking about kindness and how some view kindness as a weakness and how, you know, that's not really the case. You actually have to, you know, be strong to be kind. And you know what? Forget about those people if they think that's, you know, some form of weakness because you're being, you're being nice to those around you. 00:13:09 Samir Pringle: Yeah, it takes. So I actually love that post. Like, I seen it and was like, Oh, I got to repost this because I think it's lost art in a sense. Like, being kind sounds so simple and sounds so, like, cliche in a sense that it loses its value at times. And I think some of the most complex problems that you have within any, like, organization, being kind fixes a lot of that. Just asking someone, Hey, how was your day? You're like, Hey, how was your day? I know you have a dog. How's he doing? How's she's doing? Hey, I know you have kids. How are they doing? Etc. Etc. Just taking the time to like, build that relationship and just asking them how they are, like really goes a long way. And I've been fortunate enough for people to tell me how far the things that I've done, like took them in a sense and how impactful it was. And, once. I received the, hey like, Samir, you, like, made my college, I received the message one time that said, Samir, you made my college experience very good, I'm paraphrasing, but you made my college experience very good, and unfortunately I'm leaving the school, but I just wanted to let you know how big of an impact you made on my life. Alright, I got a message from someone saying that. At the time I was 19 years old. Imagine a 19 year old kid receiving a message like that, that just gave 30 minutes of time to sit down with someone to eat. Like, you don't think that amount of time equals that impact, if that makes sense. And just realizing that, like, wow, I just ate lunch with this guy and we had a decent conversation. And when I see him around, I'll say, Hey, hello, give him a handshake. And then that small gesture made that big of an impact in that person's life. And when you see stuff like that, especially at 19, 20, 21, you realize how big kindness is. And it don't take much. Literally, it takes a second to be kind. And you can have that big of an impact on someone's life with that short of time. 00:15:14 Sumer Beatty: I love that that was one of your takeaways. And I think a lot about business and all the programs here on campus and what makes them hands on. And it sounds like you just sort of crafted your own out, you know, extracurricular combination of, you know, all of these things that you are involved in, and then you pulled that takeaway out, which is, it's amazing. With that said, you did pick Penn College, and knowing that we are a hands on institution, what drew you to Penn College for business as opposed to a more maybe liberal arts school? 00:15:46 Samir Pringle: Yeah, so funny story. I actually came to Penn College for civil engineering. so originally I wasn't here for business. And at the time, our LEAP advisors, now known as the Center for Academic Excellence, but it was the LEAP Center when I, during my first year, my LEAP advisor told me, Hey, like civil engineering is very like math dominant, and I'm not very good at math, like at all. And we had that conversation, and she just recommended, Hey, like, the next day, cause we was having Zoom meetings, She said, the next day, just pick a few different majors, And we'll kind of narrow it down from there. One of which was being business administration, And then that kind of opened the pathway there. And that's how I got into business. Over in Philadelphia. There's a lot of like great schools and I got accepted to a lot of great schools within Philadelphia, but my biggest fear was that I would get lost among the crowd and I grew up in Philadelphia, so I know how it feels to get lost in the crowd, if that makes sense. When I made the decision to come to Penn College, it was solely on the two reasons of it being a smaller school, had smaller class sizes, which I enjoy. And then also, just the hands on aspect of it, cause I thought I was coming here for civil engineering. But, it, it's been like, the best thing I can ask for, because I haven't got lost, I've been able to make my own way, and I, I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have because I don't think I would, I would have the same opportunities if I went to a larger school or like a school within like the Philadelphia region. So I'm happy with my choice. 00:17:28 Carlos Ramos: Now you said, you know, you were talking about the hands on nature of the program that you were going to be in, but there is still some hands on in business. Were you involved in the flannel project? 00:17:40 Samir Pringle: No, so yeah, so unfortunately not this year, but next year I'll be in business planning and operations, but I agree with you. I do think there is quite a bit of hands on experience with, in the business administration program. I think it looked different though, and I think that's something that people, What I don't tend to look at enough is that business is still hands on, just in a different way. For instance, I can attribute most of the brand that I built around my program. Because I'm learning the stuff first hand, I'm learning marketing, I'm learning like SWOT analysis, and I'm learning organizational behavior, and I'm learning finance, and I'm learning all of those skills, I'm having all of those classes, and then doing everything in real time in a sense. So like, I had an organizational behavior class and it talked about organizational behavior and managing others and I'm a senior resident assistant currently and I oversee a staff of nine RAs and literally it's like being applied like in real time and I think that's something that people kind of forget is you kind of with business I feel like you kind of have to like craft your own path in a sense to make it hands on. Because you can go through the business program and like just receive the information, but I chose to actually like make, make use of it in a sense. So like with finance, I'm the vice president of finance for Student Government Association. So the things that my professor is talking about within finance, I'm seeing being applied real time, obviously in a different sense. But like I'm understanding the concepts and things of that nature. And that's how I chose to make my business program like hands on for me at least. 00:19:20 Carlos Ramos: And I think that gets lost sometimes when we're talking about hands on It's not necessarily. Yeah, put the gloves on get the the welding torch and do it physically it is that applied technology and you're taking it right to the edge with everything you do Yeah, I think it's great. 00:19:36 Samir Pringle: One of the things that I also want to mention is that Penn College, even though it's hands on programs are very like dominant and very like good and most people come here for like hands on programs, the business administration program is amazing and you learn a lot from the business administration program and it is hands on in a sense, you just have to figure out how to make it work within what you're trying to do. So most people within the business administration program are trying to be entrepreneurs, or they have their own business, or they're like doing something regarding that in a sense. So a lot of the times people within the business administration program, or even the business management program have those qualities already, and they're applying them to outside of the school, rather than they're working on like welding in the classrooms, in the labs, etc, etc, where there's are being applied like, Hey, I have a business or I'm trying to have a business or etc, etc. I think I strongly believe that our business administration program is one of the best. And I think that it gets lost because the, like school is mainly hands on, but like we also have one of, like, business and accounting department is one of the biggest in the school, so don't lose sight of that as well. Like, the school also have amazing, like, amazing program all around, rather than just it's hands on programs. I feel like business administration is up there with the best. 00:20:58 Carlos Ramos: Every industry needs it. 00:21:00 Sumer Beatty: So when you served as an admissions tour guide, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about some of those questions that maybe parents had or students had in case if we have any listeners considering Penn College, what are some of those top questions that you got as an admissions tour guide? 00:21:15 Samir Pringle: I would say the top three questions we got was, how's the food? College students, like, that was the number one question you would get as an admissions tour guide, is how is the food here, and then once you get into explaining it, like, hey, like, this is this, and we have, like, all of these options, et cetera, et cetera, you kind of see people, like, smiling, and the parents getting happy, and that was, like, the coolest part. But, also, a lot of people asked, like, how's the community at the school, and I realized during my time as an admissions tour guide that we had a lot of individuals coming from bigger cities into, like, Williamsport, and most of the time, the questions that I received was just how is the community? How is Penn College? Have you had any issues here? Etc. Etc. And lastly, I would say the question I got the most was a few students here and there will ask, how's the parties on campus? 00:22:10 Sumer Beatty: You're like, should I say that or not? 00:22:12 Samir Pringle: I don't know. I had an amazing experience as a tour guide. And one of the coolest things is that I appreciate this school allowing students to be in that position, because there's nothing like a student to student connection, in a sense. I think sometimes when you're talking to a profession that works for the school, and their job is to like, market the school in a sense, they have to talk good about their experiences, and they kind of may not have the same experience as a student in a sense. Just being a tour guide and having that face to face contact and students actually asking other students how their experience are going, I feel like it's key and I think it made a lot of students want to come here. Because the amount of students that tell me, Hey, you were my tour guide. And I'm like, Or Hey, you gave me a tour and I'm like, when did I give this person a tour? It is amazing. But you are the deciding factor whether or not a student attends here. And most of the times the students attend and they'll tell you when they see you. Like, Hey, like you were my tour guide. Yeah, you gave me my first tour. Hey, like you did this. And it's like, and it's so cool 'cause. You, like, it may be six months down the line and this random student is walking up to you. You're like, who are you? 00:23:20 Carlos Ramos: Well, and that's, that's how we got to finally meet face to face. I mean, I had heard about you. Your brand was already out there. We'd featured you in a couple of our pieces, but I had not had that face time with you. Ran into you after Open House after having seen you provide one of your tours to a group. And not to knock the other tour guides, but Samir was like, he was banging it. He was right up top. He's, he's got his, he's walking backwards. He's got his face to the crowd. He's got his crowd around him and everyone can hear and everyone's captivated. So yeah, that does not surprise me. 00:23:59 Samir Pringle: I think one of the biggest things with, within anything that I do, if you actually look at it, it all stems from impact, and I kind of talked about that earlier, but a lot of that is a tribute to the impact that I want to have on people. Regardless if I'm tired or anything of that nature, like, this is the first time these students are coming to see this school, and they deserve good tour. And like, I took pride in my job because I took pride in having impacts in people's lives. So, a lot of the amazing things that I was able to do. which is because of the impact that I wanted to have. And when you want to have such a good impact or a strong impact in people's lives, everything else kind of is easier because you got that, like, foundation of, like, this is what I'm in this for. I want to help students. How am I going to help students? Have an impact. How are you going to have an impact? Give an amazing tour. Be an amazing RA. Build amazing connections. Do amazing, etc, etc, etc. But it all stems from that foundation of having that impact in a sense. 00:25:07 Carlos Ramos: You know what I'm thinking we need? I'm thinking not just the senior RA, We need the senior tour guide, too. So we can have this program, the Samir led program. So Admissions if you're listening. 00:25:23 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, there you go. We should also add that when you're talking about impact, you reached out to us. So you heard our podcast and you thought, oh you must have I figured this is a great opportunity to have a broader impact. 00:25:35 Samir Pringle: Yeah, so I was watching the Lasada Pippin, if I'm not mistaken. Amazing podcast, by the way. Loved it. 00:25:43 Carlos Ramos: Props to Lasada. 00:25:45 Samir Pringle: And gave like, some great motivation. But I was watching it, and I was like, wait. Why don't I do this? 00:25:55 Sumer Beatty: Oh, hold on. 00:25:59 Samir Pringle: But I think he had cleared up something in my head of, I was looking at it more so from a perspective that a lot of people that we receive advice from is like older, right? Or are people that had the experiences. And I feel like you don't really see that at a younger scale, like people within your age range, if that's fair to say. Yeah. And I felt like within the experience that I had and the things that I've like seen done on this campus that it would be an amazing opportunity to kind of just share the insights that I have, the wisdom that I have, and kind of just the knowledge and things that I've, I've experienced within being at Penn College to help other students or even if they went like a dive deeper into my life and kind of figure out who I was a little bit better. Just providing that and just allowing them to have the conversation. 00:26:50 Carlos Ramos: You know, the beautiful thing is when you emailed us, you didn't say, Hey, I'd like to be on the podcast. 00:26:55 Sumer Beatty: No, we should clear that up. He wasn't like, Hey, me, me. 00:26:58 Carlos Ramos: You said, Hey, we should have some student leaders on the podcast. And of course, I did not come back with, Well, you're a student leader. Come on the podcast. I came back with what recommendations do you have? And then you put your your name forward, which I think it was classy. Yeah, it's nice 00:27:18 Sumer Beatty: So, do you have any advice for students searching for the perfect college? 00:27:23 Samir Pringle: I think it's the biggest thing and it's kind of like probably like beating a horse, but just take your time truly Try to understand what it is that you're looking for within a college. And even if you just have like the small things. Like I know I want to go to a smaller school. That, like, cancels out a lot of the bigger schools within Philadelphia region. And I know that I want to be a little bit more hands on. That canceled out a lot of the schools and things of that nature, so just take your time within the process. Don't rush it. I think there are a lot of times where students just, Hey, I got to go to college and just pick a college and then they kind of miss out on the experience. But the biggest thing is just take your time when you're selecting colleges. Look into it and see if the college matched whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish in a sense and from without knowing nothing about Penn College without ever stepping foot on this campus because I never did like an open house or a tour Like my first day on campus was move in day. 00:28:24 Sumer Beatty: Wow. 00:28:27 Samir Pringle: But from without knowing any of that information Just from the college, like, website. I felt like it, like, met the needs that I was trying to, like, accomplish. It fit, matched my values and everything. It just, like, checked all the boxes in a sense. So, just take your time within the things that you're doing. 00:28:48 Sumer Beatty: You had mentioned that the second thing that people, or one of the most common things people ask about is community. 00:28:54 Samir Pringle: Yeah. 00:28:54 Sumer Beatty: How, how, it's really tough. Somebody just said the other day, what can you tell me about Penn College that's not on the website? And so I was trying to explain like the culture of those of us who work here. And I think that's also apparent in the students who come here. So, What was that culture that you were getting from seeing the site, from viewing the site, or maybe from the perspective of the student, how would you describe our culture? 00:29:21 Samir Pringle: Yeah, so as a first year student, my first day on campus was move in day, and after, like, my first time on a college campus ever, and I was like, yo, this campus is, like, super big, and we started off in the campus central building to grab our keys and IDs, and then from there I was, then we moved into, I lived in Lancaster Hall my first year, so we moved to the residence hall and everyone, like, grabbed the belongings out of the car, I met my resident assistant, and just, the biggest thing that I realized was how nice everyone was. People were just super, super nice. And I was like, why are they this nice? Like, 00:30:02 Sumer Beatty: You were suspicious. 00:30:04 Carlos Ramos: That's not the way the world works. 00:30:06 Samir Pringle: Maybe it was just my upbringing back home in Philadelphia, but like, I was like, they just so nice here and it kind of made me feel like welcome immediately like from the General Services members all the way up to the president like everyone's nice and I think that's something to like hang your hat on in a sense within this college because that made, when I got involved into student leadership, I wanted to follow the same things that I've, that other people gave, given me, and I wanted to provide that to other students. And I would say, and like Penn College isn't paying me to say this, but like, the community within this school is amazing. I don't think you'll find anything like it. That being said, you also have to put yourself out there in a sense. So sometimes, like my first year was, I would say tough, but that also was because I didn't make the effort to get involved. I didn't make the effort to connect with people. I didn't make the effort to, you know, maximize everything from the community, if that makes sense. And then when I took those steps, I actually got to see how vibrant, how nice, how welcoming, and how cohesive everything was in a sense. Whether or not you're in student leadership or not, I think the culture at Penn College is a very welcoming culture. That's something I'm truly proud to work for, at least. It's just how welcoming this culture is. From the top all the way down to the bottom. Like, everyone's just super nice. 00:31:34 Sumer Beatty: Was there a moment where when you had that first year and you were just kind of keeping to yourself, figuring things out, was there somebody who got you out of your shell or was it you just deciding, okay, I got to do something? 00:31:46 Samir Pringle: A little bit of both. The biggest thing that got me out of my shell was just me figuring out that my first year kind of like, wasn't like, fulfilling enough, if that makes sense, and I didn't really feel like accomplished, I didn't like, I was just like, okay, I don't want, at this time, I was only here for associate, so I was like, I don't want another year of this, so let me at least maximize this, so then, I went and applied for some student leadership jobs, and then I got the Connections Link position. But also I had a few nudges from my academic advisor, Tammy Rich, and my LEAP advisor at the time as well, of just getting involved and things of that nature. And they just kind of broke it down to me how getting involved can enhance your experience in a sense. I was like, I didn't want to work for the school. Like, I didn't want to do that. But, when you're actually in it, then you start to see how, like, cool it is. And you actually start to, like, reap the benefits from the positions that you're doing. And then you kind of, like, fall in, well, I fell in love with the process. And fell in love with the people and the impact and just, you know, the way that everything was going, but I would just say my LEAP advisor and academic advisor gave me nudges along the way. But for the most, for the main part, it was just me realizing I didn't want another year of unfulfilling experience. 00:33:07 Sumer Beatty: And then what made you decide to go for your bachelor's? 00:33:11 Samir Pringle: That was a decision up until the point I graduated with my associate's degree. The semester was where I was graduating with my associate's degree was also the semester that I chose to get the bachelor's degree. And the biggest reason was after talking to my advisor and a few other people in a business administration program, we was having conversations about jobs and like pay and etc, etc. And one of the biggest things that I wanted to do was to be like in operations within business, especially starting off as a bachelor degree is required for that. So I just chose to make the decision to stay a little bit longer and you also get more pay with a bachelor's degree. So that kind of, that was the two reasons, for me to stay within the program. 00:33:58 Carlos Ramos: So when you say operations, can you explain what, what that is and what your, is that where your vision still is for a year and a half from now? 00:34:07 Samir Pringle: Operations management or business operations is more so of the operational part of any organization in a sense. So it can be supply chain, it can be like finance in some sense. That's my goal, at least for the first three to five years of my life. And then after that, I want to move on to owning my own business. So 00:34:29 Sumer Beatty: There you go. So what are you, what are you thinking? Do you know yet? 00:34:33 Samir Pringle: So I got a, I got a plan. 00:34:36 Sumer Beatty: Thought you would. 00:34:37 Samir Pringle: So the plan is to work in operations for three to five years. I'm using this as like flexible timeline, so it's not, definite or a concrete, but three to five years in operations. And then from that point, I want to begin to start off franchising first before I own my own business. And I want to franchise a bunch of different businesses and get my franchising license. And then from that point, once I have a good number of businesses and I feel like I'm maintaining all of the businesses in a sense, then I'll move into like, entrepreneurship and owning my own business. And the reason for that is because I would much rather try to run an already established brand than my own. And I think that it gives me more experience when operating my own business. So instead of me just figuring everything out with my own business upfront, I can figure everything out with already pre established brand. And then if I can manage that, maybe when I own, when I become entrepreneur and own my own business, then there's small tweaks that I have to make within that process. But I have the concept of what it takes to run, manage a business and operate. 00:35:52 Carlos Ramos: You got any brands that are on your short list? 00:35:55 Samir Pringle: Mainly fast food. So I wanted to open a McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. And the whole idea of that is when I was 15, I worked at my first McDonald's as a, like, first time job. There was this one specific day the owner of the store was in the store And I chose to have a conversation with him because I was like, hey, he got all this money and he owned all these businesses and I just want to see like what he have to give me in a sense. So I had a conversation with him and he was just telling me, Hey, like, if you want to get involved in this stuff, like here's the plan, here's what you need to do, et cetera, et cetera. And he kind of gave me insights from that point. And he told me he had owned his own business as well. And he kind of took the same method that I took or that I'm taking the same method that he took. And that's kind of where the whole idea came from. Because he told me if you can operate a brand that's already successful, you're pretty good at operating your own brand, and that's kind of the motto that I use regarding that, like, my post college plans. 00:37:02 Sumer Beatty: And you were 15? 00:37:03 Samir Pringle: Yeah, I was 15 at the time. 00:37:05 Sumer Beatty: I'm just imagining this owner getting approached by a 15 year old Samir, like, hey, how do I get to do what you, you're doing? I want to do that. I think that was great. It took a lot of courage to go up to, to him and talk to him and ask him for his secrets. 00:37:19 Samir Pringle: Yeah, he was pretty surprised. He was like, he looked at confused for a second, and then he just told me. And, I don't know. I feel like as a kid, I always been kind of like a go getter. I always had like the drive and the like motivation and the like determination to like be great. It's just figuring out ways to do it in a sense. And I think if you want to become great, you have to be good at all of the small things that you do first. I don't know if you guys ever heard the quote, If you want to make a big difference, start with the smallest one first. Yeah, kind of the same thing in a sense. I try to be. good or at least decent or great in everything that I do. In turn, I think that'll help me when I get to the bigger stage in life. 00:38:04 Carlos Ramos: It's a practice. 00:38:05 Samir Pringle: Yeah. 00:38:05 Carlos Ramos: It's like that kindness thing. 00:38:07 Sumer Beatty: It all, it all connects. So we didn't talk about how you relax. You've got all these things going on. How does somebody in your position relax? What do you like to do for fun? 00:38:18 Samir Pringle: The biggest thing is work out. I try to like stay in the gym at least five days a week. It started being six days a week. But then I had to go back down. But working out is what really keeps me grounded. I also move, move around a lot. So I try to like, not stay in one, like, I try to not stay in my dorm. I try to like be at the library, just be at different places. Even when I'm not working, just moving around, talking to people, seeing new faces. I feel like having that connection really does something to me mentally. And it just makes me more happy. The amount of times I walk around campus and someone's like, Hey Samir, and I'm like, Hey, and that just makes my day. Like I'm just going for the rest of the day. And that happens quite often to me. But I think just moving around, going to the gym, taking walks and just being around my friends. I think I got a good support system. Within everything that I do, I think the support system that I built is the best thing about me in a sense because the support system is what keeps me, keeps me going. And my friends, and my partner, just they're amazing and they do an amazing job at just like making me laugh and keeping me happy, keeping me upbeat. And, like, I don't want to give them credit, but credit to them for just making me, just keeping me well, keeping me in the right headspace and just providing me with all of the funny things that they provide me with. So yeah. 00:39:47 Carlos Ramos: So even if you're on all the time, you can still do stuff, but relax, do it in a relaxing manner because no one ever got anywhere sitting in their dorm room wishing that their circumstances were different. 00:39:58 Samir Pringle: Yeah. 00:39:59 Carlos Ramos: You're getting out there. 00:40:00 Sumer Beatty: So any parting takeaways? You've got so much great advice already. Anything you want to leave our listeners with? Inspire us, please. 00:40:10 Samir Pringle: I think the biggest thing, and I'm going to kind of wrap this all back up, to three things. So one, one big aspect in my life that makes me who I am is that I'm very simple. I try to keep things very simple, not complex, and not have too much fluff in a sentence. So, I'm going to leave you guys off with three things, and just mottos that I go by that helps me within my life. The first thing is just be kind. I think that takes you very, very far in life, and also the impact that you have within that is monumental, in a sense. And I don't think that should be lost. The second thing is take your time. I know there are a lot of 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds running around feeling like they don't have enough time. And it's like, we're so young. Like, we're so young. You have enough time to like accomplish everything that you want to accomplish within a time frame. Just take a deep breath. And like, just continue on the path that you're going. Trust me. It's not going nowhere. It's not going nowhere. Whether you reach it in 5 or 10 years, the point is that you've reached it. But, just make sure that you're taking your time, you're not stressing yourself out. As a 19, 20, 21, 22 year old, you shouldn't be running around as if you don't have time. Just continuously work on yourself, build your skills, and go from there. And then, I would say ultimately the last thing is just continue to learn. I think one thing about me that I never lost was that I always wanted to learn. From 15 all the way up until my last days on this earth, I'll always be learning, you know? And I think it's something to say for those who continuously learn because within a world like this, I don't think you ever know it all, you know, and I think when you have that mindset that you do, you miss out on like valuable knowledge and insights from people who had experiences regarding certain things. And what I try to do is make myself a sponge. If I'm receiving insights from a janitor all the way up to, who knows, the President of the United States. Just making sure that I'm, opening myself to those people because ultimately everyone has a story. Everyone has, experiences that they went through. And if I can avoid going through, like, hardship or I can avoid something in life by receiving this information, why not? And sometimes people just have amazing advice and amazing information. And if you're not open to it, then you miss out on something. so much advice and information. So I just try to make myself a sponge to everyone. We just have great conversations. 00:42:50 Sumer Beatty: Just like this one. Thank you so much for being with us today. 00:42:53 Samir Pringle: Of course. Thank you guys for having me. 00:42:58 Sumer Beatty: Thanks for hanging out with us today. 00:42:59 Carlos Ramos: Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 00:43:04 Sumer Beatty: Check out our show notes for bookmarks to your favorite sections and links to resources that we mentioned in today's episode. 00:43:10 Carlos Ramos: You can find past episodes and see what's on deck for upcoming ones. 00:43:14 Sumer Beatty: And, of course, we are open to your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions, so send those over at podcast@pct.edu. 00:43:25 Carlos Ramos: It's been real. 00:43:27 Sumer Beatty: Catch you next time. 00:43:30 Carlos Ramos: One of these days I'd love to trick you into singing on the podcast so we can show that you are, in fact, are a musician. 00:43:38 Sumer Beatty: Because I admitted that I do like to sing the Star Spangled Banner. I know it's like a kooky thing, but I do think it's like kind of fun to sing in it. 00:43:45 Carlos Ramos: Can I get one bar? 00:43:46 Sumer Beatty: It's difficult. No, no, no, that's not going to happen.