Thiel Happenings

Thiel College nursing students share stories of inspiration from mission trip to Caribbean

Thiel College nursing students Alexys Wagner ’25 and Farah Messai ’25 and director of the nursing program Nicole Olshanski, D.N.P. recently traveled to the Dominican Republic for a mission trip that brought much-needed healthcare to underserved communities while providing the students with a life-changing professional experience.

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Thiel College celebrates the season with concerts and 71st annual Christmas festival

Thiel College invites the community to embrace the holiday spirit through three holiday-themed events, which includes the 71st Annual Christmas Festival.

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Dezern and Ochs named Thiel College Student of the Month honorees for December

Thiel College announces Laci Dezern ’25, of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Aidan Ochs ’26, of Rostraver Township, Pa., as its Student of the Month honorees for December.

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Thiel College students awarded prestigious Vira I. Heinz international travel scholarships

Vira I. Heinz Program recently awarded scholarships to three Thiel College students to support the students’ first international travel experiences in the summer of 2025.

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Photo essay: Winter weather chases away the fall

This week’s photo essay was taken by environmental services worker Jordan Poling. She captured the big shift in weather around campus in the last few days. It feels like winter is here now, but not that long ago we were enjoying a mild fall.

Thank you to everyone who has already shared their incredible photos! Your submissions have beautifully showcased the vibrant fall colors, the unique trees on campus, and the quiet beauty of Thiel College. The Office of Communications and Marketing truly appreciates your contributions.

We’re always looking for more snapshots that highlight the charm and spirit of campus life! Whether it’s a stunning winter landscape, a favorite spot on campus, or a moment that captures the essence of Thiel College, your photos help tell our story.

📸 Send your photos to tnotes@thiel.edu and join us in celebrating what makes Thiel College extraordinary!

Spring TNT schedule set

The spring schedule of Thiel News Time gatherings has been sent. All TNTs are held at 11 a.m. in the Sawhill Georgian Room of the Howard Miller Student Center.

• Thursday, January 9 
• Tuesday, February 11
• Tuesday, March 4 
• Tuesday, April 15

Student News

• The Writing Lab (papers, projects, reports, presentations)
• Math Office Hours (drop in during the times listed)
• Peer Tutoring
• SI/PASS
• Sensory Studios

Entrepreneur shares valuable tools for measuring success in new ventures

On November 20, Brian Slawin from Ben Franklin Technologies shared his entrepreneurial journey and discussed some important metrics for success for any new venture.

General Comments

• Brian Slawin was a tech entrepreneur most of his career and helped develop a company which was supposed to be the YouTube but did not turn out the way they wanted due to not understanding how to monetize their website. In 2015 he sold his company due to his biggest client telling him to either sell the company or they would steal everything that they learned from them. —Zach Bergstresser ’25
• Brian Slawin works at Ben Franklin in Mercer County, an organization focused on providing aid and resources to individuals who want to start or already own a small business. While this aid can be financial, it is primarily educational. —Gianna Sprecace ’26
• Slawin emphasized the importance of regularly reviewing financial statements to make informed decisions and adapt strategies. —Dillon Belknap ’25
• He told us his entrepreneurial journey and how he sold three companies and how and where he got to today. —Patrick Belback ’25
• Slawin explained that even though he had many mentors throughout his life, it was his dad’s tough love that truly shaped his business mindset. —Yianni Panagiotopoulos ’25
• Brian’s first business venture was a lemonade stand with his brother. It was there that he learned what it meant to run a business. His dad took most of their earnings to teach them about profit and loss —Rachael Smith ’26
• Brain also talked about work-life balance, nothing that previous generations often sacrificed personal time with family for business success, a lesson to approach with more intention today. —Emily Ripple ’26

• In 2015, after selling his company to a major customer, he found himself at a crossroads, unsure of what to do next. He took some time off but was eventually nudged by his wife to find a new purpose. This led him to Ben Franklin, an organization in Erie that mentors, invests in, and helps accelerate startups. —Chaerin Ryu ’25

Lessons Learned

• Keeping your money is a strategy, not an occurrence. —Zach Bergstresser ’25
• COGs in the pantry are not free, in other words, nothing in this world is free so plan to have the money to cover your expenses. —Emily Ripple ’26
• His resilience, adaptability, and drive for innovation stood out throughout his talk. —Jaehee Lee ’25
• Failure is a stepping stone to Success—Yeeun Seo ’25

• How to find new customers and what it takes to find customers. —Dillon Belknap ‘25
• Value is the most important aspect of any calculation —Patrick Belback ’25
• You must crawl, walk, then run. Take small steps to reach success, don't rush the process. —Casey Yacos ’25
• Challenges Are Part of the Journey—Yianni Panagiotopoulos ’25
• “The urge to give up will be strongest before you succeed.” —Gianna Sprecace ’26
• One thing he mentioned was that if you’re not embarrassed by your first release, then you released it too late and missed opportunities. —Rachael Smith ’26
• Free money is never free. —Chaerin Ryu ’25
• Understanding COGS is crucial for assessing profitability. —Minseo Kim ’25
• Diversity in teams was another key point, with the speaker advocating for varied perspectives to enhance decision-making. —Minseo Kim ’25
• Measure key performance indicators —Suengwoo Baek ’25

Dinner Dishing

• I was fortunate to sit with Brian Slawin along with my peers for dinner where we had many great conversations ranging from our future goals to day-to-day activities. —Zach Bergstresser ’25
• Our dinner as always was a three-course meal and our concierge for dinner was Jaehee Lee, she had requested that our dinner was an arugula salad with a side of bread and balsamic vinegar to dip in, medium steak with a side of mashed potatoes and green beans, and for our dessert was a cheesecake tart with blueberries on it —Emily Ripple ’28
• Dinner was really good; I enjoyed the meal that was picked out with especially the steak sauce. —Patrick Belback ’25
• We had some great conversations, and Charin even told us about salt bread, a Korean staple. —Casey Yacos ’25
• For the meal, I had beef and mashed potatoes as my main course, which was delicious, and arugula salad as an appetizer. —Yianni Panagiotopoulos ’25
• As the dinner concierge for the evening, I felt anxious about how my friends would perceive the food. However, their positive reactions exceeded my expectations, and I was thrilled to see everyone enjoying the meal —Jaehee Lee ’25
• It was also memorable that I was able to have many conversations with the professor because it was a long time since I had dinner at the same table. —Suengwoo Baek ’25

Education students celebrate Halloween with preschoolers

Students from the math and methods class of Associate Professor of Education Callie Shekell, Ph.D. and from the literacy and methods class of Assistant Professor of Education, Director of Teacher Education and Department Chair Kara Schreckenghost hosted cowboys, dinosaurs, witches, a pirate and even Elsa and Iron Man on campus on Halloween. The methods students planned fun, educational, Halloween-themed activities for the Pre-K Counts students in Lily Haddon’s classroom. The preschoolers came up campus, fully dressed in costume, to the Howard Miller Student Center to learn from our future teachers and have lots of fun.

Students in the methods course include Jake Badger ’27, Ali Baker ’26, Brooke McKinney ’26, Hannah Miller ’26, Marley Chapman ’25, Carina Loreno ’27, Haley Chiappini ’26, Autumn Hendry ’26, Allie Kidder ’26, Savannah Adams ’26, Carolyn Ruffing ’27, Conner Lewis ’25 and Amy Batt ’27.