Bulldogs in the Buggy

Episode 7: Featuring Adam Perone!

• DeSales University

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0:00 | 32:40

Welcome to a series from DeSales University featuring our President, Fr. Jim! Fr. Jim takes our newest guest, Criminal Justice student Adam Perone, and learns about the unique perspectives that individuals with disabilities bring to DeSales.

Filmed on campus in the DeSales Virtual Production Studio.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to another segment of Bulldogs in the Buggy. It's a beautiful April day here, and I'm passing by the library on our way to the Darthy Day Center to pick up student Adam Perone. And you're going to enjoy our conversation today. I want to say happy Easter to everybody. We just returned from Easter break. Campus is looking gorgeous. Everything's budding and blooming. And here at DeSales University, we are gearing up for the final weeks of school. So it's great to be together. Again, I'm Father Jim. I love hosting this podcast. And here we are now pulling up to the day center, and we're going to connect with student Adam Peron. Adam, how are you? Good, Father Jim. How are you? I'm doing well. Good to see you today. Thanks for being the Bulldogs in the buggy. Yeah, yeah. It's a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01

It's a pleasure for sure.

SPEAKER_00

So uh we're picking you up here at the uh we're gonna go around this way, and um, because this is one of your favorite places. Yeah, for sure. Okay, so Dorothy Day Center. Yeah, let's take everyone through the comments so they can kind of get a sense of it. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of different things to do in the commons here. Okay. Uh lots of different people for sure. So a lot of people playing pool and not going to class. Is that what's happening?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. You could say that. You could say that. Pretty uh, pretty fun atmosphere. Um great. Also a great place to just hang out and do open week as well. Alrighty. Um, and which over here, that's like the Children's Office. Yeah, there's a Center for Faith and Justice as well as the community service and advocacy center.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. All right, great. And you're involved in everything straight ahead. Yeah. Is all the student government leadership office? Uh yep.

SPEAKER_01

All fun stuff like that. Okay, awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So well, look, let's do this. Why don't we get in the buggy and head up to the virtual production studio and have a great conversation? Sounds like let's go. We're right out here. All right. Okay, Adam, here we are. We're all set, and I'm really happy that you taught me um how to disassemble that wheelchair so that we can get you here. Yeah. And um, we're both safe with our seatbelts on, of course, heading up to Lebuta. Yeah. But I was saying everybody, it's our first day back from Easter break. Campus is looking good. Um, here's some of our residents, Hall, DeShantall. Oh, but what brought you to DeSales University? What about, you know, of all the choices you chose DeSales? Why?

SPEAKER_01

I I just really like the community here. You can tell everyone was just really uh nice and appreciative as soon as you set foot on campus. Um, they often say we have a a major here in door holding, right? Because we're so we're so nice to each other here, you know, and and that's just it's really nice. It's really it's really nice for students to get to get that kind of experience. That's great to hear.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So um you're a senior right now, criminal justice major. Yeah. Uh, where did you grow up? Uh East in PA. East in PA Township. Yeah. Now have you always been a residential student or did you ever have?

SPEAKER_01

I really like living on my own. Uh, no offense to my parents, of course, but I really do uh like the freedom and just like moving around campus wherever I so please. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

That's great. And you definitely move around. We're going to talk a lot about that. Yeah. You're the founder of DAG, the differently abled group. Yes. Yeah. And I, you know, as I was thinking about some of the questions I wanted to ask, that is so wonderful, like just the sense of inclusion, and you have this special, wonderful personality that just makes everyone feel like we're all part of this together. And we try. Yeah, we do try. And what inspired you to found that group?

SPEAKER_01

Um, we well, I was talking with some friends who uh we all kind of uh relate in disability in one way or another, and we've thought that this was something that was kind of missing on campus. So we wanted to add to that.

SPEAKER_00

And um, you know, and we did, and we are well. We're gonna continue this, we're just gonna get ourselves into the virtual production studio. Sounds good. Okay, my friend. So, Adam, welcome to the virtual production studio. Thank you. Thank you. I'm really glad that you're gonna do this. Yeah, and we will have a great conversation today. So thank you for saying yes to my invitation. And I was telling folks before I picked you up that um it's Easter. And um, so how did Easter weekend go for you?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it was great. You know, it's always great uh spending time with family and just uh enjoying the Easter season and the celebration of life of uh with your loved ones, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Amen to that. So uh we were saying in the buggy that you found the sales university to be the right place for you. And when I was um looking over some of the information you share with me, when you went to high school in Easton, this was obviously after I think it was eight years old when you were diagnosed with some kind of spinal injury. You wanted to at twelve o'clock. I I mean twelve years old. Twelve years old. 12 years old, wow.

SPEAKER_01

What was that like for you? Um, it was it was scary at first. You know, it's uh it's not a you know a particularly fun event for for family or for for me involved, but um, you know, I try not to look at it as much as a tragedy, but more so as like a new beginning of sorts, because um you don't want to just be in a pit of despair basically like that entire time. And the more you think about and think about that, you you can just drag yourself down. So um I really try to just occupy my time with like other people, my loved ones, and just trying to engage with you know as my passions as much as possible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And you shared, and I I was listening or have read a podcast that you were sharing that in high school they didn't have an elevator, and yeah, you got the sense of wow, you don't want to stick out. But what how did you handle all that?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there was a lot of accessibility challenges um when I was younger. I mean, with anyone with a disability, they know that um there's always, especially when you're younger, there's always that um difficulty trying to advocate for yourself because you're young and no one really listens to uh kids like that, right? Um, but um I really attribute that to my mom and uh my dad because they really stuck up for me and especially my mom when she told them, like, look, we need to figure something out so that I can have a good experience at at school. And so we did, you know, we we worked with um school administrators and we got a like a lift to go down to the elevator. It was in our like the basement of our school. Okay, it's an older building, so um and just trying to, you know, uh at least for me personally, trying to learn how to be more of an advocate for myself. Okay, that was really the um start of start of it, basically.

SPEAKER_00

That's great. So you got here to the sales, and one of the things you said about the sales was that you found it accessible. It was different from high school, and yeah, here you are. So all of those factors that led you here, uh, how's it been for you now that you're a senior?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I it's great. Like I'm I'm we're still learning, uh we're still learning more things about how the school can be more accessible because it's always you can never be fully perfect, right? It's always about the pursuit of um perfection or the pursuit of being more accessible that way. So it's really, you know, I I attribute it to the people around me, right? Because um, if I find that one thing is not entirely accessible, that I can lean on others to help me through that. And um, not a total, you know, dependency on others, but you know, it's always important to ask for help and just like look to others for an outlet because um without other you you can't go through life by yourself. There's always gotta be people next to you, right?

SPEAKER_00

That's right. And you've done something really great for the university, I think, through the Office of Student Services, student accessibility, student accessibility that you we now have a campus map that we okay. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so uh me and Carolyn Tiger, who's the director of the OSA, um, we helped develop a accessibility map for the university. And this map helps show um handicap accessible doors, like the push buttons, the different elevators on campus, as well as the priority uh snow path for um for residents to walk on being.

SPEAKER_00

And we needed that this winter, huh? Yeah, for sure. For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_01

How was that for you with all the snow? Was it ever a time where you're it was difficult. It was difficult. I mean, you know, when it snows like that, you know, that's just a perfect time for me to say, like, hey, I'm just gonna stay inside, drink hot cocoa with my roommate, you know. Uh, but um, you know, that yeah, it's always about just like helping each other out and learning that kind of thing. Amen. So let's talk about this this group here. Yeah, so this is a picture from um, I believe my sophomore year. Okay. This is when uh chess club really first started. Um chess club, I really attribute chess club being my first uh active involvement on campus. You know, I played a lot of chess in high school, and then coming to the sales, I really wanted to find a place that um I could, you know, play more chess and meet other people. And so this was uh our executive board, and uh we uh it doesn't look like this now, but uh I really attribute these people with um really setting that foundation for me because without chess club, I wouldn't really be where I am today with my involvement.

SPEAKER_00

Um that's great to hear, and not many people on campus probably even know about the chess club.

SPEAKER_01

Uh not too many. Yeah, we're pretty small, I would say. Um, but you know, I what I say is like we have a good group of people that come consistently, but it's it's very small. Um, but that's okay, right? Like we don't need a big uh group, right? We just need a small group of a small army, you could say, of people that are really passionate about it.

SPEAKER_00

And I guess where I was going with that was it doesn't need to be a varsity sport because uh one of the things that I love about the sales, there are so many student clubs, and you know there's something for everybody. I guess that's what I'm getting at. And I I went to some student club fair maybe about a month ago. It was in Darthy Day Commons, and yeah, I I I didn't know we had a rock climbing club here.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, it's really great. And they're those are great people as well in that club as well. Um, it's yeah, I agree. I always tell people that you can really find your niche here, even if it's a small campus, like you can always find um something that interests you. So speaking of climbing, yeah, um tell us about this. Yeah. So um this was our RLI retreat, the Ryan Leadership Institute. Um, this was at the Blue Mountain Ropes course. Um, and part of the ropes course, part of the bonding experience with other members in RLI is that we have to tackle the ropes course, meaning that we have to, you know, climb all the way up. I don't know how tall that is, but it's pretty high up there. Yeah, it's high enough to give my like sweaty pumps. Yeah, just looking at it. I trust me, I was sweating too in there. I probably smell horrible in there. But um keep behind you there. So that's uh my roommate Evan. He's also an RLI um with me. Um, and uh he's my roommate, and he also worked there as well. He's a ski uh ski instructor up there. And uh just a little bit about Evan. Uh he's wonderful. I really um love him dearly as a close friend, and he's really helped me to get out of my shell. He was up there with me the entire time because you know, with not you not much use of my legs, it's pretty hard to really do that ropes course.

SPEAKER_00

So um I know I like shout out, well, shout out to your roommate, but to you, like to have the the courage to get up there and do that. Well, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was it was definitely I remember after that, like there's I never felt anything like that, the kind of calm release you feel after accomplishing that kind of feat. Okay. And just kind of thinking, like, oh, how how can we this is how how do we do this?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. One of the things that I I've done it uh three times. And the first time I was uh a young priest, I remember, and I was with a youth group, it was in Virginia, they kept saying, you know, let go, father, let go. And I was like, I don't want to do it. But truly, you have to let go, and that's such a paradigm for so much in life. When you let go, whether it's fear or control, whatever, great things happen. And it sounds like that's been the case for you. Yeah. Leap of faith, yeah. Beautiful. So this is you're with some very uh pretty people there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. So this is uh my pod, pod three. Uh, this was taken um in this past August. Okay. Uh, when I first joined CareQ. I joined CareQ this year, my senior year, uh, only for one year, but it's really been a transformative experience. Okay. Um Caracy U uh helps uh students in so many ways, so many first-year students, but it also teaches us a lot of skills on how to communicate, how to uh work in teams, and just how to uh be advocates for each other. So these I I you know can't say uh nice enough things about um or nicer enough things about all these people in the in this photo because uh we're a really tight uh knit group of people and um we just try to help each other out and yeah, ever since August, too. It feels like millions of years ago now.

SPEAKER_00

And it's not, but time flies, yeah, isn't it? Yeah. Um just for people who are watching this that may not know what character you is, can you kind of give us a little more uh information about it? Because it's so DeSales University-esque. Yeah, I want people to know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so Care2U is um the uh program to help uh first-year students kind of get accumulated into college uh life and student life, e uh uh if that. And um, we are there all throughout orientation. We have care to you mentors, pod captains, and uh our orientation team as well. And uh we kind of run orientation, right? We try to get first-year students to get a first taste of college life, but also like just give them a taste of um what they're capable of and what their potential is. I kind of think of care to you as like a way to um try to unleash that like hidden potential that a lot of students um have yet to like reveal yet. Cause like they're coming out of high school, they're scared of like the unknown, they're scared of um what kind of friends they may or may not make, and just like all the uh unknowns, right? And so care to you kind of helps that transition easier. Um, and our job is way even beyond orientation. You know, we meet regularly with our mentees, we um host uh different events, speaker, keynote speaker events, and we just try to be as much of an advocate for students and support them throughout their college journey.

SPEAKER_00

I love how you describe that as helping others unleash their potential, yeah, which is beautiful. And you've certainly done that for yourself in many ways. So just being a member of RL Live, Ryan Leadership, um, that's great. And then being this mentor here, um, let's move along to this group of people and let us know. What's this?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so this was um October 5th. So this was the most recent uh Special Olympics. Um, so we always host the uh Special Olympics here on campus. Uh it's one of, I think, one of not only the greatest events we put here out to sales, but one of the largest, in fact. And uh agreed and agreed. Yes, yeah, heck okay. And this team right here is um the people who put this all together. You know, this is the management team of Special O, so it's made up of students as well as uh Jamie Gierhart, our uh faculty advisor. So um the Special O was also another love for me. I really think that uh Special Olympics, being on the committee and the management team is kind of like trial by fire. It is very difficult and it takes a lot of courage to do for sure, because there's a lot on your plate, there's a lot of responsibilities. But I always tell people that once after that day, after you do that day of special O, it's transformative. It really like teaches you lifelong skills um that you can take with you beyond the sales.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. And it's interesting, like Special O is very much about women and men with intellectual disabilities coming here, um, helping them unlock their potential. Yes. Uh, you mentioned your faculty advisor, Jamie Gerhardt. Um, she's been here for many years and does a phenomenal job. Um, maybe share with people who are listening and watching today her impact here on this campus because um, you know, without Jamie, we wouldn't have a lot of the things we do like special low.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I I think Jamie is kind of the secret fuel to um our like spiritual fire here on campus. Um great. Yeah, yeah. Isn't that nice? I love it. Yeah. Uh yeah, Jamie is just wonderful. She um helps uh get students a lot in uh community leadership and community advocacy. Um, she's supported me with DAG a lot as well as um other uh community and uh service events that I've been interested in in the past. Uh she's taught me specifically about servant leadership, which I think is really important and something I've I've never heard about until about until I came to the sales. And it's something that I really try to put in everything I do. Uh servant leadership being that the idea that you have leadership, but um, how do you pass that down? How do you give stewardship to others so that it's like a domino effect that it keeps going and going, like those those good virtues and those good values?

SPEAKER_00

So Amen. And in fact, you know, in all humility, that's the tr the kind of leadership that I want to practice. And I I know I don't always achieve it, but you know, that is our Catholic Silesian mission that we're servants and we're disciples and we're here for one another. And the next time I see Jamie, I'm gonna let her know that she's the spiritual fire here. Yeah. I I think she'll really like that. But make sure to quote me. I'll make sure that I quote you. Yeah. So in addition to all these things, before we move on to the academic side, let's return to DAG, to the differently able group. Um, tell us more about that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the differently able group is a uh disability affinity group. Uh me and uh a few other students have um started on campus. And basically the idea is we want to build an uh environment and community for people with disabilities, um, with any type of disability, whether that be physical, cognitive, or even invisible. There's a lot of disabilities that are um invisible to uh the first perception. But um we just want to create uh a community that's uh safe for those individuals and just uh to advocate for them, you know, spread that um that love and that support along. Uh we've had a few events so far. We've had an event called Discovering Deafness, which is about um uh how breaking down stereotypes in like the deaf community. Um Janae, who you might know, Janae Topour. Janae Topor, he uh helped uh run that event, uh, which went really, really well.

SPEAKER_00

And she's up there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. She's on her way to Columbia for graduate school. Yes, yes, isn't that awesome? It's it's for speech language pathology, I think. Yes, I believe something. Yeah, she's awesome. And um, we also had a recent event recently, which was uh no the uh mobility matters, too. So uh that was really, really fun as well, which is about a um uh how to break down stereotypes in uh wheelchair users and to show that sometimes it is kind of hard to utilize a wheelchair, especially on a rough terrain or a rough campus.

SPEAKER_00

Can you share? I mean, if you're if you're okay being vulnerable, I mean you are vulnerable, but even more vulnerable, uh, a time here at the sales or any time in your life where you've really felt that people didn't get the space you were in?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, definitely. That would be probably, and if I'm being honest, my first semester here, um, you know, like I kind of said before of care to you, I to a lot of first years, I felt pretty um not comfortable in my own skin. I didn't feel that confident of my software and my abilities, and I kind of just just went on my daily routine in my first year. Um, and it was a time where it there was a lot of uncertainty. I didn't know if the sales was the right fit for me still. I didn't know if I really wanted to um pursue another major. And what major were you in? Uh I was still criminal justice. I didn't know I I I didn't know if I wanted to get out of criminal justice. So it was a lot of uncertainties and that unknown the unknowns were really starting to to get to me. But I told myself, you know what, just give it the year still, I'll keep going with it. But then that second semester came and I started to find my friend group, I started to find uh more of a um likeness and passion for other things on campus like service and more, you know, different I think it was once special load, that was when I was starting to join the Special Olympics. Okay. And um it was just a really great time uh that really made me more confident in myself, like, okay, uh it's not gonna be over. There is like a light at the end of the tunnel, um, but there is still like hope out there, I guess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. And I think that your experience you just shared is pro if we're all honest with ourselves, we've all been there first semester, first year at our college. Like we're trying to figure it out. And I'm so thrilled that you stuck it out here. I can't imagine DeSales University without Adam Perron. Oh, thank you. So yeah, you're you're part of the DNA of this place now. So let's talk about academics because you have to get a degree, right? Yeah, that's true. And so this is a little scene from what? Oh, this is the mobility matters.

SPEAKER_01

So uh sorry. Okay. Yeah, no, you're uh this was the um our. Uh kinda, yeah. It's a good shirt. Um we got this through Special Olympics. Actually, the most recent Polar Plunge, which is one of their big um uh uh donate donation events on campus. Um but yeah, this is a mobility matters, and so like I said before, it's about um just uh showing how like difficult it can be to utilize a wheelchair uh sometimes. So we had students um get in a uh like a typical like hospital wheelchair and have um them like carry an egg on a spoon with one hand as they tried to wheel, which is very difficult. Um and so it was like an empathy event to uh teach that uh you know you don't always think about these kind of things um with uh people with those kind of disabilities.

SPEAKER_00

So well when we're done taping today, maybe I can try it in your chair. Oh, sure. Yeah, I'll just get we'll do the track. We'll swap. Yes, yeah, yeah. I'll give you the buggy, I'll take the chair. Oh, perfect. That sounds good. So criminal justice. Yes. Um, first of all, it's a great major, and we have many students that choose it. Yes. Um, before we talk about this photo here, because it's related, what do you plan to do with your life and how has being a major, having a major as CJ at the sales uh tell us about it?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so uh originally I really wanted to go into the digital forensics field within criminal justice, which is more of the analyzation and like discovering of like digital evidence, like taking data out of a phone, a computer, and whatnot for the police to use in like a criminal prosecution. Okay. Um however, this past semester, I realized that um I did a uh uh shadowing opportunity at the St. Luke's Penn Foundation, which is a recovery center for individuals that have uh substance abuse disorders. Okay. And after doing that, uh it sounds cliche, but it was honestly like a eureka moment for me. That's great. And I decided to shift all like energy and all focus onto that now. So now I really just want to focus in on working in the uh drug and alcohol field for numerous reasons. I feel like I can really make an impact there, kind of like an impact I've made here on campus. But I've I also feel like um there's an intersection between drug and alcohol recovery and having a disability. I feel like there's a lot of um of the same feelings and similar um pain that we can all learn from. And it's something that I can give back to um individuals that um are suffering through like substance abuse disorders.

SPEAKER_00

That's beautiful. Yeah. Um, Dr. Michelle Bolger. Yes. Uh, she's one of our CJ faculty. She invited me to this, you know, simulation. And I'm so happy I went because it was a we were having our Middle States visitation today. Busy day. And I was thinking, I really want to go to it. I'm so happy I did. And you apparently were very, very instrumental bringing this to this campus. Can you let us know what's going on here?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So um, it was actually after I did that shattering opportunity at the Penn Foundation that um I realized that, like, oh, we can do something like this on DeSales' campus. So I talked with them, and I was the first link between St. Luke's and uh DeSales to really get that going. Um Thank you, by the way. Yeah, of course. I mean, so what this is, it's what's called a recovery simulation. So basically, you have a few participants uh who are these students here, and they basically have a card that uh describes um who they are, um, there's uh history of substance abuse, as well as some like money and um certain goals they have to um achieve in a certain amount of time, like do an AA meeting, visit the courthouse, um, uh get drug and alcohol treatment, and they have to do that in 15 minutes. And if they don't, they get punished. So one of the things uh we teach in there is that if they don't pay for rent, then they have to carry a whole chair with them to simulate um them being homeless. So the entire overall idea is to um teach students and teach everyone really that um the path on recovery is difficult and it's very, very hard with the systems we have here in our society that it doesn't always favor them and that we can be a little better in um giving empathy to those that that really need it most.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that that's the name of the game. And uh well, I wish you a lot of luck with that. I'm really thank you. I'm I could just imagine that there's such a need for that. I mean, there's so many of us who wrestle with addictions of one sort of another. And I always say that, you know, everyone has an addiction that he or she's carrying around. Some of them are visible, some of them are invisible. Yeah. So it sounds like a great field. You're marrying criminal justice with some of those Christian humanism skills that you've learned here at the sales. So good luck. What would you tell a high school student thinking about coming to the sales and majoring in CJ? What's what's distinctive about us?

SPEAKER_01

Uh, I would say it's just like the general connection you can make with other students and your professors, okay, you know, because it doesn't matter where you are, you're always gonna know your professors in and out. You're always gonna know them by name and you're always gonna see them around. And that like uh personal connection really goes a long way because that makes you more comfortable going to their office hours, um, you know, discussing about a grade on a test, maybe. So um it it that that really helps out a lot and as well as just the different pathways criminal justice can lead you, because there's a lot of people that can go the uh law enforcement route, but then there's a lot of other people that go into the more uh victim advocacy route as well. So there's a lot of different avenues. So it's just about I would I would tell people to be curious, stay curious, and try new things because you never know if you know one thing is gonna be the right thing for you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's that's very true. So be curious and stay curious. That's the route. Yeah. Uh so let's wind this up here. Um be who you are and be that well. We hear that all the time. Of course. We hear about our university core values. Um, one thing that we have not discussed, and I want to make sure we do, is your role in the Career Development Center. Oh, yeah. You know, and so you're helping people um find jobs and and and think about life beyond the sales um as we teach them to be who they are and be that well. Um, how did you get involved in all of that work?

SPEAKER_01

Well, uh, I really attribute that uh to my friends. I would say I had a lot of great friends who worked in the Career Development Center and they recommended me. They were like, I think they I think you would be great for this. You should definitely join in. And I thought, all right, you know what, sure. I this seems interesting. I feel like there's a lot of um professional development that I can give myself, but also I can give back to students as well. I've been really, especially this year, my senior year, I've been really on the mindset of trying to give back and trying to um use up, use the time left I have here uh with the people I I love and and and that. So just to, you know, give back, especially in career advice and what I've learned professionally, you know, how to perform in a mock interview or what looks good on a resume, or you know, how to or what kind of internships are out there.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. That's great. I have two more questions. Of course. So you indicated that we should ask you what is your favorite movie.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no, I want to ask you what your favorite movie was.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, what my favorite. What's your favorite movie? The sound of music. Really? I know it might sound really odd, but that's a good movie. Yeah, I love it. And that's why when they did Sound of Music here on campus, I I loved it. Yeah. Um, but when I was a little kid, I I I still remember my parents took me and my brothers to the movie theater. It was on Castor Avenue and seeing it. I love the music and the colors, fantastic. The colors, and I was fascinating. I mean, I knew I wasn't going to become a nun, but I really like the whole religious life thing, and here I am today. And um, I'm not like running up the hills around here singing like Julie Andrews, but hey, you honestly, you kind of are.

SPEAKER_01

You know, you're always around everywhere. Well, I can see you as a Julie Andrews, you know. Well, thank you very much. I wish I had her voice. Yeah, yeah. We all do. What's your favorite movie? Uh I would say recently it's been Project Hail Mary. Wow. Yeah. It's a small similarities here. Yeah, a little, a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

At least the title. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little bit, yeah. So fantastic. Um, my last question. We just mentioned it. The the dictum that we that we instill in every student, be who you are and be that well in order to give glory to the master craftsman in whose image you have been created. Um, how will that set you on a path post to sales to be the best Adam Perron you can be?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I just I kind of think back to the idea of if you ever want to get ahead in life or you ever want to like accomplish something, it you need you yourself needs to change first. And you can't fight the battle in your head while you're doing other things because yourself always comes first. And you need to um look after your mental health, look after um who you are, and just take that reframe, like, okay, what am I doing right now? Um, am I am I doing it in the best version of myself? Am I am I doing it according to my values and my morals? And I think that's what we you know we always need to step back to reflect on that. But once we do, we we're almost unstoppable once we truly believe who we are. That is so true who we are in the being that well.

SPEAKER_00

I heard a quote one time. You like be the change yourself that you want to see in the world. Oh, yeah. That's what you've just shared. And that whole notion of reframing, that that is like I think the definition of mental health. Because we always need to reframe so many times a day. And if we're doing that um and being honest with ourselves, we're becoming our best selves. Yeah. So, Adam, thank you for being a guest. Thank you. Bulldogs in the buggy. Um, enjoy these uh five weeks or so before graduation. Yeah. And I am incredibly proud of you and honored to have this time with you today.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you, Father Now Free. God bless my friend.

SPEAKER_00

Let's go.