S3E17: YMI Talking to Fr. Jim Greenfield, OSFS from DeSales University

This week’s conversation with Fr. Jim Greenfield, OSFS, President of DeSales University, is one to remember. We talk about what it means to lead with calm and presence, how DeSales is growing alongside the Lehigh Valley, and the power of faith and mentorship in action.

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Transcript

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I mean, I have this thing, I call it loiter with intent. And any time I'm on campus, I will make sure I spend one hour loitering, not working. So walking around the lunchroom, you know, stopping in the financial aid office to see my employees there, my colleagues, going to a women's field hockey game. They're the kinds of things. And that's that's mentoring. Yeah. You know where you are. You have life giving conversations with someone else. And that's how I look at it. Welcome to Why Am I talking? A podcast where the guests are so good you'll wonder why the host is even talking. In each episode, you will hear one of the leaders of the Lehigh Valley’s vibrant business hub, and they will tell you the keys to their success, the mistakes they've made, and what they have in store for the future. Here is the host of Why Am I Talking from YMI Insurance, Jimi Honochick. All right. That is me and Jimi Honochick, I am joined by Emily Ellis, hello. Hello. How are you today? I'm good. How are you? I am great for a number of reasons. Yeah. The first was this podcast. Fr. Jim is the president DeSales, and this episode was good on so many different levels, so many. Yeah. Like, what DeSales does is doing continues to do for the area for its students is incredible. DeSales is great. Fr. Jim is so energized, like, yeah, you just talk to him and you feel like ready to go. Yeah. He's super inspiring. Yeah. And then, you know, spiritually, I thought it was really interesting to hear how he kind of centers himself and gives off that peaceful vibe. Yeah, like, you can tell he is, he's at peace. Yeah. On his way out, he said, nice to meet you, Emily. Peace. Yeah. Said, wow. I need to absorb that. We need to have him back just so I can absorb. Yeah. We are going to DeSales tonight too, which is cool. We. are, yeah. I'm excited. And the campus is beautiful. Have you been there before? I have only been there when the Muhlenberg basketball team lost to the DeSales basketball team, a few years ago. But I'm excited to go back. Thanks for being cordial with Fr. Jim. That's your experience with DeSales. Of course. But no, this episode is great. Fr. Jim was a true delight to have on here, and let's dive into it. Yeah. Let's go. Here we go. All right. I am so excited about this episode. I don't think we've ever had anyone from higher ed, certainly not a president. And this is quite an opportunity for us. Definitely. Fr. Jim is from DeSales. He is the president of DeSales. He has an incredible background. We are so lucky to have him in the area, to have him at DeSales and to have him on the podcast. So, Fr. Jim, thank you for coming on. Thank you very much, Jimi. Great to be here. Absolutely. So let's let's start at the beginning. I mean, how do you get to be president of DeSales University? I imagine you followed sort of the traditional administrative academic background. No, not traditional. I got to be president because I have three things going for me. I'm an alum. I'm. I'm DeSalesman. It used to be Allentown College College's Saint Francis de sales. Second, I'm a priest because the board of trustees wanted a Salesian priest to be the president. And third, I have a doctorate, so there's the three things. And so that narrows the field down like the middle one, then the priest part. So, that's how I got it. And it was 2018. I interviewed for the job and I was named president in March of 2017, but I was still in another job. So they put an interim president in for six months. So I started January of 2018. Wow. And I mean, what a time to come in. So you got two years under your belt, and then you had to go through one of the biggest crises that universities ever had to go through, I think, talk to me about Covid and navigating that. How was. That? It was very interesting. As I think about Covid, the image that I used often, at least in my own prayer, my own, you know, trying to wrestle with what's happening around us was I felt like on days I was juggling a chainsaw or a feather and a tomato and everything was about improvization. Yeah. It's like any, any decision I made lasted about seven days. And then we had to, like, regroup. Right. And then I also thought, like, as the president, my job was to hold the tension, you know, because everyone was wondering, what's next? How are we going to do this? You know, and I just tried to portray a calmness and, you know, everything was on zoom, right? So I got used to that. And, yeah, it was quite something. But we got through it to DeSales stayed open and that really bodes well for us minus Governor Wolf closed everyone down for, I think, three months or so. But once we were allowed to reopen, we did enrollment boomed. And since then we've had record enrollments. Wow. Yes. You mentioned, being the calming demeanor. You do give that off. Where does that come from? Your the sense of calm that you have. Well, thank you for saying that because I'm not sure my close friends would say, but, you know, in, in a, in role, I want to call it a pastoral presence. So, you know, being a priest, I've been a priest now, for 35 years. It really makes a difference when you when you have inner peace, because I think that's the best gift you can give another person not to be anxiety laden, not to be, you know, you know, leaking all of your own energy into the conversation you have with somebody. It's just be present and focus. And I work hard on that. You know, I pray every day. I start my day, every day with morning prayer and try to center. It's not always effective. You know, I do lose my temper and I can get, you know, you know, a little off balance with things that happen during the day. But I really try to be a gentle presence in a very violent world. Yeah. And I think we all need to do that. Yeah. I'm. I'm working on being gentle presence. I know Emily would not agree that I'm there yet, but we're working on it for sure. Let's follow that through line, though. I mean, the priesthood. How do you find the calling? How do you come to the priesthood? And, and your journey through that? I went to a high school in Philadelphia. I grew up in Philly. And I went to a large high school called Father Judge High School. It was staffed by the Oblates of Saint Francis DeSales. So that's the community that I belong to. There were about 40 of them on the staff. So this school was huge. Yeah. So it that probably at the time there were close to 4000 students there. So you know, I was exposed to these priests who were young or old. Some of them were seminarians. I really thought they were great. And they really they, they taught me a lot about, you know, what it means to be, you know, a young man. I mean, that was I was a kid at the time, but they really helped us grow up. And that's and and so they directed me to Allentown College of Saint Francis de sales, because they also staffed this university where I'm now president. And so that university was founded in 1965, and it was fledgling when I was a student. I showed up at Allentown in 1979. So they were thrown with scholarship money around. And I wanted to go to Saint Joe's. But my dad, when he found out, you know, that were against scholarship, was like, you're going there. Right? But I also wanted to go into seminary. I really had that call, but it was really hard to, you know, let people know that there was like, a kind of a little I don't know if I was embarrassed, but I wasn't sure of it. Yeah. Because it wasn't there, you know, what other people were doing. So I went there as a regular college student, but also as a discerner, for the Oblates. So after two years, I joined the seminary officially went to boot camp for them down in rising some Maryland. You work on a farm and you live there like a monk. You know, it's it's grand silence. Every night you work on the farm, you study in the morning, you have visitors one Sunday a month for four hours, and you don't get many because it's rising. So Maryland. So thank God my mom and dad and family came. Yeah. And that's a year. And, that was really it. That was my start. And then it went back to college and all those things. Yeah. That's incredible. So then let's keep going. So you get to college, or you go back to college, tell me about that and sort of what degree you're pursuing and, and where you went after. Right. So went back to Allentown College and and we. Can we center on that real. Quick. Sure, sure. It's not called Allentown College anymore. Not called Allentown College in in 19 actually in 2000 we changed the name to DeSales University. Yeah. And we did that because when Allentown College was founded, the bishop, the first bishop of the Diocese of Allentown, Joseph McShay, wanted to replicate the archdiocese of Philadelphia, where he came from. And we needed a Catholic college. And the word on the street was that he called the Jesuits to come and staff it, but they didn't get back to him right away. So he was concerned, like, what's going on here? So then he called the the provincial of the Oblates is Saint Francis de sales. And we got back right away and we came here and 64 got this ring already opened in 65. And the bishop said, whatever you want to name the college, it has to have Allentown in its name. I'll get out. So that's why we have our town called Saint Francis de sales. Yeah. And I remember as a young, you know, as a high school student filling out all of those little circles with a pencil. You know, a lot know. So annoying. So when Bishop McSherry died that, you know, in his will that that was, you know, it counted for when he was alive. So that means we could have changed the name and we like I think very shortly after he died, we changed it to DeSales University. And that's how that happened. Yeah. So it's it's it's it's much easier to write it off. It definitely is. So then you went back to DeSales. You went back to DeSales. Finished my college. I graduated with a degree in politics and a certification from the state of Pennsylvania to teach, social studies. Wow. And, never did that. But I taught high school for two years afterwards as an intern for the Oblates and, and then went to grad school in Washington. I got my Masters of Divinity in theology from the DeSales School of Theology, which is part of Catholic University now and from and I got my, master's in school counseling at George Washington University and then later got my doctorate from GW in human development. So that's my education. And then what happens next? So you you graduate. You've done all of your education. You know, there's something between there and becoming the president of DeSales. So what are you doing? Well, a lot happened. So I was, you know, basically a priest for, you know, 25 years or so before I came back to DeSales. I worked at GW, as a chaplain, I taught there. I also taught a Catholic U. I was the rector of the seminary in Washington. So that means that I ran the formation program for all the young, you know, students who came to learn how to be priest. I taught at a seminary. I also was involved in working for my community of priests. Spreading Salesian spirituality. I was called the director of Salesian programs. So between Boston and Haiti. Wow. So that's where we have our men. That was exciting. Then I was elected by all the priests in my community to be the leader. So I became the provincial from 2008 to 18. So those ten years I was, I like to think of myself as a glorified HR director for priests and brothers and seminarians. Yeah. I highlighted that was I was in Haiti in 2010 visiting our missions there. I flew out of port au Prince the day before that earthquake. Yeah, I'm I'm sure you remember that. And our are some of our oblate seminaries were crushed to death in that earthquake. People that I had seen just two days before. So they were. That's like one little snippet of what I did. And as the provincial, we run high schools, you know, rehab centers, parishes, college, you know, so we do a lot of things and we spread the spirit of Saint Francis de sales. And our motto at DeSales university is be who you are and be that. Well that's great. Yeah. I have two questions coming out of that. The first one is between, you know, the different sects, whether it's solution or whether it's, Augustinians or Jesuits. Are there any rivalries there? Do you guys get amped up for things like that? As a competitive person, I would be looking at the Jesuits like, come on, guys. Well, you know, since the Jesuits have 21 universities with great basketball teams, Villanova has a great, pope. As I said, they have a place. Yeah. So, DeSales University. And, like, I wouldn't mind having some of that, too. But we have, we have a great thing in the Lehigh Valley. Yeah. We're the only Catholic, you know, institution in the Lehigh Valley of higher education, but but directly now, we don't we don't compete like that. I mean, we joke around about that. Yeah. You know, I will kid around. Like, when I worked in Washington, DC at GW on the weekends, I would, celebrate mass at Holy Trinity Parish, which is Jesuit. Okay, right across the street from Georgetown University. Right. So since I was there so often, people thought I was a Jesuit. So anytime someone put an SJ after my name, yeah, I would always say, why did I get a downgrade? So like, you know, because my initials are OSFS Oblate Saint Francis de sales. So yeah, we get around about it, but truly we're all in this together. It's like one big church, a lot of different charisms. And that's what makes the church beautiful. It is? Yeah, absolutely. Let's go to now you're at DeSales and let's talk about DeSales. I think that's a good transition. I mean, it is such a well known institution in the Lehigh Valley. Thank you. What what kind of makes it what separates it, what makes it unique? I like to think of our uniqueness as our unfair advantage. And I think that it's Catholic. It's Salesian. And most, most schools would say this, that it's student centered. But we really, like we are student centered, we're values driven, and we spend a lot of time on outcomes. You know, like we want to get kids jobs. Like I always say, so much of our mission is twofold. It's it's transformative. Meaning we want to get you into heaven and it's transactional. We want to get your job and that's truly what it comes down to. Like we talk a lot about using the terminology of business ROI, but parents today want to know what the return on the investment is. And higher education today really needs to show that. And at DeSales we do that well. I mean, we have great programs. We are job ready. We just literally last week, our faculty, overwhelmingly 95% voted on our newest program, which is aviation management. So we're partnering with Penn Flight School in Quakertown. And this is going to be really exciting. Yeah. So we have programs like that. Because it meets the needs of the of the market of the community. We have a great physician assistant, nursing, physical therapy, speech, language, performing arts, humanities. We actually have a graduate program in humanities called a master of Fine Arts and Creative Writing, which, you know, in this day and age, you know, a lot of schools are dropping, you know, some of their humanities programs. So I'm proud of that. We have great sciences. We have, we have a school of the sciences. We have criminal justice program. So yeah, we have a great, gem. Yeah. In Central Valley. It's a great point. How do you manage, you know, whether it's the ROI of a, a discipline, for you as sort of running the university, I mean, the humanities, as you said, it's probably become more difficult to staff that and support that, but it is incredibly important, you know, to to humanity and civilization. So how do you think about that tension back to you kind of being the point of tension? That's a great question about the tension. So, I see it as, parallel tracks. So yes, DeSales university has quickly become a health care business university. So, to be really frank, that's the revenue stream, right? So do humanities make money? Not really. But, you know, as long as we break even, that makes me, as the president happen. And even some years where we don't break even those other programs help it. But they're all they're all as important as the other. So we're all going towards the same goal. So, you know, the humanities, theology, philosophy, history or, you know, Spanish like they they help us become our best selves, like they help us flourish. So to be a human being in this human community that we call the world, we need the liberal arts because and liberal doesn't mean liberal as opposed to conservative. Liberal means it sets you free. You know, I always say, And Jesus said, you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And that's where we discover the truth about ourselves. Sitting in a philosophy class, reading Plato and Aristotle. And sometimes that can be boring, but it's so necessary to flourish as a human being. True Fr. Jim, as a liberal arts major Catholic, you just spoke to me. A hard core right there. That was incredible. I think it is so important, you know, it helps you think differently if everyone is in business school and they're thinking and learning the exact same things, and then you come in with a liberal arts degree into that same environment, you're going to have a completely different mindset than everyone else. Absolutely. And I think there's huge benefits to that. So thank you for, you know, keeping the humanities and the arts alive at DeSales, I thank you. I genuinely think that makes the world a better place. And then when you sign up for MFA in creative writing now. So that would be really helpful. Jeremy, my wife does not want me to put more on my plate right now. I understand that, yes. But speaking of the humanities inDeSales, I think we we can't ignore the Shakespeare Festival. Amen. Yes, it is incredible. And such a gem here in the Lehigh Valley. My wife and I went there in college. We just stopped. We didn't know anything about it. And I remember someone came and wrote us a sonnet, and we went and saw Othello. And it's just a truly hidden gem. I mean, can you talk about that partnership a little bit? Absolutely. It is a wonderful opportunity, as the president of DeSales to say that our Shakespeare Festival is the official Shakespeare festival of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So I want to make sure I put that out there. Absolutely. Jason King Jones, the artistic director, and Casey Gallagher, who is our executive managing director. The two of them are dynamic duo. And let's face it, you know, the arts in this day and age, trying to get people into a theater in the summer where sometimes outside it's 90 degrees. That's not easy to do. They put on, I think, ten performances. We always try to have some Big Bang musical and then run through all the corpus of Shakespeare, which is important. I just last night I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who said that, how do you define a classic and the two prize of a classic? It's timeless and it is ever rich. It's ever meaningful. Yeah. And and Shakespeare's that. And so they do that so. Well, they have, the, the Will Shakespeare tour for high school students that are actors will go out to local high schools. They have talkbacks they have, you know, you know, wine and cheese before the events all summer. So, yeah, we're really proud of it. And they're doing some great things. So thank you. Absolutely. No, they definitely are. Let's go back to the business side of DeSales though. Because, you know, generally the audience for this podcast is business focused there in the community. What is DeSales doing on that end in terms of business education? And, and what separates them maybe from the pack on that? Well, we just last year we received our most transformational gift, in the history of Allentown DeSales University. Wow. From JB Riley and Katherine Waterbury. Riley. So they named the business school, so it's called, Waterbury Riley School of Business. And that just that, just that alone put us on a new trajectory. Like, students want to go to a named school. Yeah, like, I was like, I fly in and out of Philadelphia airport. You always see the how Haub School of Business for Saint Joe's. And, you know, my next goal is to say Waterbury rather school business, you know, places like that because people pay attention to it. So putting the name on there was important. But also we have a dean, Christopher Koza, who is a, you know, well seasoned, attorney. And he's also a tax expert, had his degrees from Fordham University. And, you know, he is, a great leader for our faculty and the school is only as good as the faculty. So we're doing programs like, the vita program to help elderly people do their taxes. So our students will go out to the community for that. We have, lectures that are open to the public. There's just many things that, that we are doing to, you know, set ourselves, you know, out as a leader of the pack, like I just said about aviation management. Yeah, we started a program in supply chain management, which I think is a really fabulous major. Yeah, but it's hard to sell it sometimes to high school kids because it's like, what's that? Right. But as we know, in the Lehigh Valley, you're looking around at some of these trucks and warehouses. And, you know, we need people to understand that whole, you know, it's economy. Going anywhere for. Sure. It's not going anywhere for sure. Yeah. So it's it's a great program. It's a great school. And, we're doing good things. Yeah, absolutely. Let's let's go back to Fr. Jim a little bit. You are big into working out, I believe. Well, look at me. I don't do this, but I do, a lot of cardio. Even me father as well. People look at us and they think we lift, but we don't, Thank you. Every day. Not every day, but at least five days. I do, power walking. You know, throughout the day, we have not throughout the Lehigh Valley. Center Valley. I have started now working on my core again, like I'm still at the beginning phases, so. Yeah, if you have me back next year I have another size quarter zip on. But and that's been good you know. So I'm really enjoying that. And just face it, for me it's just quick and easy. I get up early and it's easy to to just get outside and walk. And I used to run all the time on the rail trail. Yeah, but Covid changed that. So because I had more time on my hands now, more time on my feet, I just started doing the hills and stuff and I love it. And it's great for me because it just leads right into prayer. It centers me, focuses me, and I can tell, like on a day when I don't work out, but my day doesn't go as well as it does when I do. Yeah. So really important. And do you do it on campus? Do you do the rail trail? Where do you find yourself? All three, you know. So, there's a development that just put in on the north end of campus, as is huge hills. Yeah. Sometimes I’ll do you know, four of those hills. Takes me about 35 minutes and, you know, it's like, I feel like I worked out for an hour. So you like to challenge yourself? I would try to do as flat of space as I can. Well, when I'm running, that's when I do the flat. Okay. Also. But I'm a big, I know a lot. Like, I'm at the university now with a lot of Gen Z students. Right. So and we know that one of the things that they're very, cognizant of and it's beautiful and it's a good example is work life balance. Yeah. And I don't always have that, you know, so I've, I've learned now back at a, you know, a university around so many young people that it's really important for me to remember mind, body, spirit. So the prayer eating well because as a college president, everywhere I go, there's a, there's food around. That's right. So like tonight I'm hosting, you know, eight couples who bid on me for dinner. Yeah, from a golf tournament we've had so, you know, that happens often. So there will be wine served. There's going to be appetizers because it'll be dinner. And I have to be very careful to, to watch. Otherwise I'd be like, you know. So I need to keep all that in balance. And, you know, as I always think, manage your anger, get good sleep, drink a lot of water, and just live life authentically. Yeah. Like, that's that's like, there's so simple. But I try to do that and it really helps me. I am not shocked that you and Eric Bartos get along so well. That sounds like his playbook, right? They cut from the same gym? Absolutely. Yeah. She taught me. I just realized we're going to be at DeSales today. Yeah. We are. Yeah. Awards for. The Halloween. Fastest growing business awards. Yeah. Oh, fantastic. Okay. And that just makes me realize, like, what an integral part of Lehigh Valley you are in terms of, obviously, you're bringing in young people, you're educating them. You're giving them that. But for the business community, so many events are hosted there. And you are open to this for the for the business community. Talk to me a little bit about the Lehigh Valley and kind of what makes it special. Well, you know, when I got this job in 2018, my one of my major concerns was, what's it going to be like living in Center Valley? Because I was a student in 1979 and there was no promenade shops. Right? I mean, it was like the coop was still there. Yeah, inside scoop was there was so much you love. And so to our students, there was a lane co. which is now giant. So I was like, wow. And I have lived in DC all these years. I like the first month there. I said, I love this. Like it would be hard to go back to a city. That's how much I love it. It's just beautiful here. It is grown. I'm a member of the board of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation. And so Dan Cunningham runs and I'm just seeing like we are the like the second largest commerce center now in the state. Like we're really outpacing Pittsburgh. Yeah, there's a lot happening here. There is a lot of people going to Allentown like it's you know, I quoted JB Riley the other day from the New York Times article, like, this place is on fire when it comes to the economy. It's 5050 politically, which is great because like, look at the political environment in the world. So I like it here. And DeSales university, I think, is nestled in the midst of all of this wonder and greatness. And I'm really happy about that. I see you off and I want to say also look like Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. And I think we do. We have a lot of students from those areas. I love the fact that we do have a great university center, which brings people in for conferences. We have a great parking lot next to that center, which people like, and it's free parking, so that helps us. We have almost 600 acres as a campus. So I would say when you're on our campus, everywhere you look is our campus. And and in terms of recruitment, if we get someone onto the campus, that's that's the deal breaker to get them to enroll. 100%. Yeah. So it really works out well. And so so I love it. Yeah. You were telling us a story before we came on here about before you took the role as president. And basically, you were going through, and calling people to get a sense just walk me through, you know, the mindset, as you are transitioning from your duties prior to, you know, teaching and being a priest, but now taking on, you know, a role as president at a sales. Yes, I was, I was I was excited, but also, concerned about my candidacy for the role of president because I'm not a traditional academic. I didn't grow up through the ranks of academia. I was never a provost or a department chair or anything like, that's the normal path. Yeah. So, I and I'd been, you know, a professor down in DC, but more like an adjunct because it was never my full time gig. So that that was my concern. I was on the board at DeSales for for about ten years, and I think that's another reason. So the board chair did reach out to me to kind of say, you know, we think you'd be a good candidate here. Yeah. So I needed that little prodding. So in order for me to get comfortable with the idea, I identified ten college presidents and they were all Catholic college presidents. So I narrowed the scope, to to ask about what's it like to be in that role. And boy, did I get a lot of different, you know, responses. The only non-Catholic school was, Tufts University. All right. Because the president there at the time, Tony Monaco, I served on another board with him for another school. So I listen to him, too. Yeah. And he gave me, a great image. He said, look, you're accepting the role of mayor of a little city. Yeah. And to me, I thought, oh, I can get my hands around that. And I've and I've kept that with me. So I do feel like I'm the mayor of, you know DeSales University, Center Valley. I try to know everyone by name and I don't, but I know a lot, even students. I have my own ways of trying to remember them, but I think it's important for me to know, you know, that the guys that work on facilities and the tenured professors who've been there for 25 years, that's it's that it's important because for me, I'm like the, the, the maestro of a beautiful symphony before me. And I just have to keep it playing really fabulous music. Yeah. And that's that's what I've learned as the university president. I love that. One thing Emily noticed in doing research on you was that you are very integrated in the fabric. So much so that I think you've officiated weddings of alumni, or least how how cool of an experience, I mean, for you. But for them, like, talk about that a little bit. Well, yeah, it is cool. I mean, it's a delight and an honor that people ask me to officiate. So, and especially if someone asked me to officiate in Macerata Italy over Memorial Day weekend, the answer's of course. Yeah. They need a lay person to officiate. I'm also available. I'll let you know. And in fact, I said, even if I have plans for Memorial Day, I'm canceling. So. But that that doesn't happen all the time. Yeah, but no, I really joy and I'm very grateful. Bishop Schlert, the bishop of the diocese, he gives permission for us to officiate marriages. Okay. In the university chapel if you are an alum or staff member. So that's that. We're very grateful for that, to have that permission. So we do a lot, you know, and, my other brother, priest, who, excuse me, work at DeSales. They also, do do marriages. It's it's beautiful. Like I did a wedding, two weeks ago. It was there very young, Christian and Lindsey, they were both basketball players and. Very good. Excuse me. They were both basketball players. Well, they had their reception in the university dining hall. They had their rehearsal party in the university pub. They had their. That. Yeah. So they invited three priests to do the wedding. So it's it's beautiful. And you kind of catch your, a whiff of the hope of youth, as the college president. And when they in kind return that to say I want my marriage to have, you know, a Catholic mass to be part of it. That's beautiful. Because a lot of and with no judgment here, a lot of young people today want to get married outside and would be on the beach in the mountains. And I understand that. That's a beautiful that's God's creation. That's beautiful. But it's also beautiful when students want to do it in church and have it, you know, with the sacraments. So I love that. My wife and I met at Villanova, and that was important to us to do it at the church there, because it was part of our story. And I think it is magical in a way to kind of tie it all back together. Like that. It is. And at Villanova Chapel that that space is reserved way in advance. Yes. My wife knew the exact day she had researched this. And, you know, as soon as it was available, she asked for it. And I've heard you are familiar or, friendly with Father Peter. I am, in fact, I would say he truly is. We become friends, but he started off as a mentor. So when I first became president, again, as I told you, I interviewed. But I also. Excuse me. Yeah, he. This is what I get from talking to much, I, with Father Peter. I also, had a mutual friend who lived with him, so I was able to get his cell phone, and I called him. I said, hey, would you ever consider, you know, get together with me? And and he was like, absolutely. Yeah. So we we've met often, usually at a meal and, just talk college life and then, you know, many other things. Of course, I always try to make sure we don't go near Villanova because everyone knows Father Peter. And it's like I'm sitting there having dinner and the entire restaurant's coming over, you know, you know, kind of bowing down to worship him. So but he just he's such a magnanimous. And such a personality. He is and, and he knows he knows college life and he knows how to be president. So, I'm lucky that I have him to be a mentor. How important. And we have to wrap this up in a here. How important is mentorship, whether it is, you know, you looking to mentors. And that's a theme that I feel like I've heard on. You know, you called the ten people beforehand, even Father Peter get together. But now on the reverse side, I mean, do you have people looking to you in terms of mentorship and how do you just think about mentorship in general? You know, I think mentorship is part of the education experience at DeSales university thing, whether you're a coach, teacher, a president, you know, Diane, who is the Sodexo employee who knows most of the students by name. Yeah, she mentors these these students that come in there just by saying, how did you do last night in the performance? Like, like I so that's a really good thing for us to think about. There's a student who asked if he could have 15 minutes of my time every week just to learn what I did during the week. It's beautiful. Yeah. Because he said, you know, I really like the way you do your job. And I, when I get out there in the world, I would I want to be able to take your executive skills. So I was honored by that. Can I five, 15 minutes every week? Sad to say no, because sometimes I'm that crazy busy. I got it. But most of them I mean, I have this thing, I called it loiter with intent. And anytime I'm on campus I will make sure I spend one hour loitering, not working. So walking around the lunchroom, you know, stopping in the financial aid office to see my employees, there, my colleagues, going to a women's field hockey game. They're the kinds of things. And that's that's mentoring. Yeah. You know where you are. You have life giving conversations with someone else. And that's how I look at it. Loiter with intent. I'm writing that down, I love that. Yes. That's great. All right, so we are we're out of time. And I hate it because I've enjoyed every second of this conversation. But before we get out of here, we've got two things we're going to do. The first is, Z craft is our sponsor. They are a cafe in the promenade at the airport. They're incredible. The coffee is wonderful, the food is awesome. And it's all just a great place. You go there, you get a coffee and you have a sip. But sometimes in life, as you know, sip happens. And so we want to hear, you know, a time that sip happened to you. Well, this is not going to be this is not going to be like recent or to say this, but you know, that question sip happened to me when I was in high school. Junior year. No. Excuse me. Freshman in the sophomore, I fell off a roof. Oh, my gosh. Because we were, you know, we shouldn't have been my brothers and other friends. We used to sneak into a hotel to use their pool during the summers. Yes. And then the Fr. Jim stories. Here we go. Okay. And that's why we have statute of limitations. And we play wiffle ball. At the time, a younger brother, roofed the ball. That was a grand slam. But you had to go retrieve your own ball. He went up to get it. I think now he would die if you heard me say this. But it's true. He was nervous to come down, so I went up and saved his life, got him off the roof, and I was kind of hanging there, and it gave way. And I, you know, the roof caved in on me. Oh my gosh. And I woke up and in a in a, like an ambulance center, they, they just rushed me right there. Yeah. Just like and I broke my arm. Sprained. The other was in a cast and one it was like so that whole summer like I was out and that that was probably what the time that it took me. But it was probably one of the best things because I always thought I wanted to play basketball and I wasn't great. Yeah, but my brother did. But the doctor said, well, you can't do anything like that. You either swim or I'll get out. And I swam for four years in high school. Wow. As a result. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Sit happens for good. And I think it was good because I've really always been in the cardio as well. So. Oh. That's great. Well, anything that we didn't hit, anything you want to talk about? This would be your chance to get it out there. Before we wrap up. I want to just make sure I say that I am profoundly grateful to God that I have had all these amazing opportunities in my life. You know, as a priest, as a as an Oblate of Francis de Sales. I just cannot think that, I would be here today talking to you. So that's the first thing I want to say. And then secondly is I just love being here in the Lehigh Valley. I'm glad to meet you. Glad to meet Emily. I know this guy. And that's that's that that's what I love about here. You know, that that we are a big Commerce center, like I said. But people know one another in Lehigh Valley, and I've not I've not experience that in any other place where I've lived. So thank you for the honor of being with you today. And, hopefully I made some sense of what I share with you. You absolutely did. I got chills multiple times during this conversation. It was really great. Fr. Jim, I cannot thank you enough for coming on here. Thank you so much. Amen. Amen. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Why Am I talking podcast. 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