Nate Lyon: Finding Purpose in Community

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. And we still haven't recorded that little bit to just be the thing that we always have at the beginning. 00:00:18 Sumer Beatty: No, we like to keep it real, though. We're authentic. We're Penn College. 00:00:21 Carlos Ramos: We do. This is a no AI podcast. Yeah. 00:00:24 Sumer Beatty: So far. 00:00:24 Carlos Ramos: So far. We'll let you know if that ever changes. 00:00:28 Sumer Beatty: We will never be AI. I don't think. 00:00:30 Carlos Ramos: No. 00:00:30 Sumer Beatty: No. 00:00:31 Carlos Ramos: No. 00:00:31 Sumer Beatty: We might be now. We don't even know it. 00:00:36 Carlos Ramos: Oh my gosh. So we're coming off a winter break. 00:00:38 Sumer Beatty: We are. 00:00:39 Carlos Ramos: How was yours? 00:00:39 Sumer Beatty: It was awesome. Feeling good about the next semester and energized and ready to go. 00:00:45 Carlos Ramos: Do anything fun? 00:00:46 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:00:46 Carlos Ramos: You're always doing fun things. 00:00:48 Sumer Beatty: We try. Stay busy. Some skiing. Some family stuff. Some running and hiking and outdoors. 00:00:55 Carlos Ramos: So, more of the same. 00:00:56 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. More of the same. 00:00:57 Carlos Ramos: A lot more of it. 00:00:58 Sumer Beatty: More concentrated. Some reading and good balance. How about you? 00:01:03 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. All the same. A lot of reading. I forgot how much reading that I hadn't done before break. I'm like just knocking out books. Can't remember anything now because I read too much. 00:01:15 Sumer Beatty: I just got through one big one. So It was nice. It was the day, it was due at the library here on campus the day we got back So it was this rush, but it felt like a perfect literal and metaphorical close of the break ready to go I'm done with this book. So 00:01:33 Carlos Ramos: All right, so we are now in season four 00:01:37 Sumer Beatty: We are. 00:01:38 Carlos Ramos: And those of you who are astute would be like, well, what happened to season three? Well, we changed our minds about how we actually number these podcasts. So, if you do follow the episode. Numbers. They don't mean anything before... 00:01:52 Sumer Beatty: They do. So we have one season per semester, so it just allows us to be, well, present more organized, I guess. We're very organized behind the scenes, but, you know, maybe we will do something fun where we have a theme in the future or who knows. I'm just throwing out ideas. Carl's like, what? Maybe, you know, make all the covers the same color or something. I don't know. Just lots of, it just makes sense, right? So here we are. So season four, we've got a lot of awesome guests coming up. I will say that. 00:02:26 Carlos Ramos: What do we got? 00:02:27 Sumer Beatty: So we've got representatives from student success. We've got a student leader coming, someone from workforce development. And you know, if you're out there and you're thinking, boy, I wish they would talk to this person, or I would like to be on the podcast. Reach out at podcast@pct.edu. 00:02:48 Carlos Ramos: That's how we get a lot of our guests. In fact, the student leader we've got coming up, not this episode, but a future episode, he reached out and said, Hey, you need to have more students on without nominating himself until like the third email . 00:03:02 Sumer Beatty: And he was wonderful. Yeah, stay tuned for that for sure. 00:03:08 Carlos Ramos: So what else is going on this semester? 00:03:10 Sumer Beatty: Oh, I think we teased this a little bit, our, our spicy, spicy take that's coming up here. 00:03:16 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, you want to talk about that a little bit more? 00:03:18 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, so, there's a show that apparently is popular on YouTube called 00:03:26 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, you're allowed to say it. 00:03:26 Sumer Beatty: Okay, so Hot Ones. And so we did a little spin off of that called Wild Ones, you know, because we are on Penn College campus. And despite me not answering the email invitations to be a guest. I somehow ended up on the show. but it was very fun. 00:03:44 Carlos Ramos: Because we, you know, we see the show and it's like, well, they're, they're making these hot sauces. They're making people eat them, having fun interviewing. It's like, and our social media specialist, he's like, I'd like to do this. I'm like, okay, we'll, we'll, we'll try something if it's within reason. We have a culinary program here. Why don't we see if they'll make the sauces? And they're like, yes. We have a graphic design program here. Do you mind designing the bottles? And they're like, yes. 00:04:10 Sumer Beatty: I was bringing back all these memories. Those sauces were actually really good. So kudos to whoever did those. 00:04:16 Carlos Ramos: Absolutely. We're actually the very first episode. That is going to drop on Tuesday, the 20th of January. 2025, if you're listening to this really late, so it's already out there. 00:04:29 Sumer Beatty: Check it out, I've not seen it yet, but I'm, it was, it sure was fun, so I hope you enjoy that. Hey, and, you know, if you're out there not doing anything, you could give us a 5 star review on 00:04:40 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, it's awards season, we got all these awards going, and I really wanted to say, Hey, we've got this 5 star podcast, because we do have this 5 star podcast, don't we? 00:04:47 Sumer Beatty: Yes, please give us a, a few stars, we'd love it, 5, 5 stars. You can do it. 00:04:54 Carlos Ramos: Apple Podcasts. 00:04:55 Sumer Beatty: Yes. 00:04:55 Carlos Ramos: I did it this morning. It takes one second to go in and hit five stars. 00:05:00 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:05:00 Carlos Ramos: Takes a second... 00:05:01 Sumer Beatty: I already did it. So we know we have two five star ratings. I don't know. Come on, help us out. 00:05:08 Carlos Ramos: All right. So let's get into this podcast and who do we have today? 00:05:12 Sumer Beatty: We have Nate Lyon. 00:05:14 Carlos Ramos: Nate Lyon? 00:05:14 Sumer Beatty: Yes. And if you're associated with the Penn College community at all and have been awake for the past five years, you know who Nate Lyon is. He's a welding engineering technology graduate from 2020. So he has an interesting pathway, exited Penn College in the midst of the pandemic, and he is working at Milton Hershey School as an instructor teaching welding. 00:05:40 Carlos Ramos: It was so good to see him again here because he also helped us out a lot when he was a student here. So when we were doing some rebranding videos, And shooting in the welding lab, he was kind of that poster child, you know, kind of strutting down in between the bays, you know, he owned a place it was. It was his shop. 00:06:00 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, I think he had a lot of fun here too. So we were trying to dig up some, some old spots that he did where he got a little silly. And so we were threatening him that we might put them at the end of this. So if we can find them check for that Easter egg. 00:06:14 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, we can find that or we can even add them to the podcast show page. 00:06:17 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, we'll do that. That's a good idea. 00:06:19 Carlos Ramos: All right. So without further ado, let's get into Nate Lyon on Tomorrow Makers. 00:06:25 Sumer Beatty: Enjoy. We're here today with Nate Lyon. He is a graduate of the welding and fabrication engineering technology program. I think back in 2020, is that sound right? 00:06:43 Nate Lyon: Graduated. Yep. 2020. 00:06:44 Sumer Beatty: Okay. And he is teaching at the Milton Hershey school. The, you are a welding trades teacher. 00:06:50 Nate Lyon: Yes. Yep. Fancy verbiage. I teach welding. Teach kids how to weld. It's problem solving via welding. 00:06:58 Sumer Beatty: So you came to Penn College to study welding. Take us through that process. How did you find Penn college? Why did you choose Penn College? 00:07:07 Nate Lyon: I guess from a very young age was very hands on taking things apart, fixing things inquisitive, right, even about little wind up toys when I was younger. And my dad, especially kind of fostered that physical therapist with the mind of an engineer. And so, yeah, I grew up with that mindset. I ended up getting into welding because I wanted to make, I think it was a recumbent tricycle. And so I cut up a bunch of bicycles and had no idea how to put them back together. It's like blue bolts, you know, like... 00:07:40 Sumer Beatty: What age are we at? 00:07:41 Nate Lyon: This is a sixth grade. I think I was cutting, bought a Harbor Freight angle grinder and just started chopping things up. And a gentleman named Bill Johnson that went to my church growing up, he had me over to his shop and showed me how to weld. I think I still have some of those first welds that I made. But yeah, we did a little plasma cutting welding, and I was kind of hooked on it was very interesting. Didn't really know that it would be you know a career outlet. I didn't really think of it as a viable career for me at one point. I remember Bill Johnson mentioning Hey, like you like the classroom. You're pretty good in that setting. You also like working with your hands. So, maybe look into the four year degree in welding engineering. Which was the first time I'd heard of that. So, I Googled it and kind of started down this road. And Penn College was actually, I believe, was the only school that I visited. Because I think from like my sophomore year on, I knew I'm going to go for welding engineering. So yeah, very hands on, and that's, I guess what got me here, kept me here, because it's a hands on school, right? A lot of like minded people in that category. 00:08:52 Sumer Beatty: So did you come for an open house? 00:08:54 Nate Lyon: Oh yeah, I think I came for three open houses and really loved getting to see the welding lab. And just the scale there, I think is kind of daunting at first. And then you start to pick it apart and what the heck is this? And now it's double the size it was when I came for those open houses. So yeah. 00:09:10 Sumer Beatty: And that happened while you were here. Yeah. 00:09:12 Nate Lyon: Yeah. Yeah. Right when I was leaving. So I didn't get to use this space a ton. I was part of it being, it's all I got getting built. But I'm jealous of the guys who get to run with the electron beam and the laser and the fabrication space. Like that's pretty cool over there. But yeah, open houses for sure. And you got to meet the faculty and meet some of the students too. So, took a lot of time up here to just kind of sit and soak it in, you know, see if it could become my place if you will. 00:09:40 Sumer Beatty: And what was your experience like here as a student from what? I recall you were involved in a lot of different Activities on campus, too many to name probably, but what are some of the highlights? 00:09:50 Nate Lyon: Yeah, I did work a couple jobs on campus, being the student ambassador and tutoring and that sort of thing. I would say that the most defining one, though, was getting involved with CRU, Campus Crusade for Christ. That became my group of people and through that group got to meet not only Penn College folks but also Williamsport City folks who, who love Williamsport. And maybe you have a question about this, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. But I remember thinking, like, I want to be someone who loves Williamsport, and so I'm going to find the people that love Williamsport and hang out with them and like become, you know, be part of that group. And CRU is how that happened. I, yeah, I got to meet a lot of awesome people who mentored me through college, almost out of high school, through college and got involved with city church down on fourth street and pastor Raphael there. Joel Shibata and, there was a couple, the Shoeners that lived in town. And they would regularly host like 60 to a hundred college students weekly at their house and just got to meet so many people who really loved me and loved other college students. And through their eyes and through their experience got to, you know, get involved more in the city and, and, start to really identify with this place. 00:11:21 Sumer Beatty: Is that continuing? Do you know, like, is that connection still continuing between CRU and the group at the City Church? do you have any connections still now that you're gone? 00:11:31 Nate Lyon: Like between me and ... 00:11:33 Sumer Beatty: Oh, just generally. I just, I'm curious. I know CRU is still very active on campus. I didn't know if those students still have made that connection or if you're in touch with anybody through CRU still, or... 00:11:43 Nate Lyon: Yeah, I, you know, the, the list is getting shorter and shorter as far as students, because obviously every two or four years you have people graduating. There's a few on campus still that I'll message when I'm up here. I imagine there's a lot of CRU students still going to City Church, I'm not sure. 00:11:58 Sumer Beatty: Okay, yeah, I didn't know how connected you are still with that group or... 00:12:02 Nate Lyon: I mean, my, my, the guy who discipled me, Joel Shibata, I was just texting him today, like, hey, what are you up to? You know? So we keep in touch. 00:12:10 Sumer Beatty: Oh, that's really cool. 00:12:11 Nate Lyon: A lot of those people are invited to my wedding, so 00:12:14 Carlos Ramos: I was thinking as you're describing your relationship with Williamsport, just how important that is to love where you are, to be able to identify with where you are. What were you seeing from other students while they were here? Did you see that type of connection happening with those that ended up being more successful? Was there any correlation? Am I just making stuff up? 00:12:38 Nate Lyon: Yeah, I didn't run a study on it or anything. 00:12:40 Sumer Beatty: Oh, come on. 00:12:42 Carlos Ramos: Where's your RCT? 00:12:45 Nate Lyon: You know, people who, there were a lot of people that I, in kind of my circle, that were connected through City Church and things like that. I would certainly say it's not mandatory. You know, you can come to Penn College and be successful in your field and be fine and go out and make money or whatever you want to do. I think getting connected with the city and the location is, is kind of a next level thing and it might not... I mean, maybe it reflected in the academics, but academics aren't everything. 00:13:21 Sumer Beatty: It's all about building that community though. Right. And I feel like some of us need that more than others are like desire that, you know what I mean, like need that to thrive. So like you're saying, maybe there is that person that's just sort of cool being by themselves. But if you are somebody who wants that community, there are communities to connect to. 00:13:41 Nate Lyon: Yeah. And it's, it's not a, it's not like a plug and play. This is the formula to love Williamsport, love, you know. But it, I don't know, I just something about being in a place, meeting the people who live there and loving it really makes an experience a lot richer than if I just come up here and go to class and go home every weekend. There's a sense of identifying with dwelling among, right, that is really powerful and I got to do that a lot. And, and it's a great thing. I, I wish everyone did get to experience that. I know not everyone will, but, but, yeah, just getting to see the world through other people's eyes. Super cool. 00:14:23 Sumer Beatty: And you weren't, it didn't stop there. You're somebody who enjoys the outdoor spaces too. So you were, yeah, you're not just, yeah, like what loving William sports, not just meeting and loving the people, but it's the area where you're living. 00:14:37 Nate Lyon: Yeah. I used to, when I was giving tours, one of the things I would share is like. You can, you can look around you and be on top of a mountain in four miles in any direction. You know, you can, as a, I love the, I love the outdoor scene. 00:14:52 Carlos Ramos: I believe we can see one of your camping spots from my window. 00:14:55 Sumer Beatty: What? I don't know this. 00:14:58 Carlos Ramos: Up top the power line. 00:14:59 Nate Lyon: Did Carolyn Strickland tell you that story? 00:15:01 Carlos Ramos: I don't know. I don't know who I have to protect on this one. 00:15:04 Sumer Beatty: It's not secret, I guess, not anymore. 00:15:06 Nate Lyon: I used to... I wasn't sure if I liked backpacking. I didn't actually do any backpacking before coming to college. And so sometimes I would just pack a backpack and hike up the power line trail, which I'm not sure how legal that is. So, you know, don't plead. I'm not, I'm not, I'm sharing everything, but, yeah, I'd camp up underneath the power lines up there. 00:15:28 Carlos Ramos: What my, the way I see it, the, the no trespassing signs are on a fence, right? And, and you don't actually go through the fence. 00:15:37 Sumer Beatty: Are we talking about up Maynard Street or up the other power line? Oh, you're definitely not allowed to do that. 00:15:43 Nate Lyon: Well, maybe not anymore, but I was here back in the day. So, I don't know, one, one morning I was up there. 00:15:47 Sumer Beatty: I wasn't there the other day. 00:15:51 Nate Lyon: But I, I forget who it was. That was, I think Carolyn Strickland was there and she would tell the story. I, they were trail running or something up there and I had been camping out in my hammock. It just popped up and it's, Oh, man, seeing you all here, it's just funny, funny interaction. But yeah, but the Water Authority, that was like my second home during college. The Loyalsock Trail, awesome piece of wilderness up there. 00:16:19 Carlos Ramos: What's your favorite part of the Loyalsock? 00:16:21 Nate Lyon: Oh my goodness. I was just talking about this earlier today. There is a campsite right outside of World's End State Park. I don't think you can camp in World's End, I'm not sure, but... 00:16:32 Carlos Ramos: Not in World's End, but right outside you can. 00:16:34 Nate Lyon: Right, right outside. I think it's technically in like Forksville and it overlooks, I'm not sure what creek that is, but it, it's right off of Coal Mine Road. As you're driving up to. World's End State Park and you hike in on to the Loyalsock Trail. I think there's a, it's commonly used for maybe cross country skiing that Coal Mine Road area. There's an overlook there where you can wake up and just see the creek and the fog and the valley and the, the campsites right on the overlook. So that's one of my favorite. 00:17:03 Sumer Beatty: So you did go backpacking then? 00:17:05 Nate Lyon: Oh yeah. So after the power lines, that's when I really got into backpacking. Do the Loyalsock Trail. And then this kind of gets into how I got into teaching too, but I ended up working at a wilderness camp, a faith based camp for boys up in the Adirondacks. And so I've just done a ton of backpacking up in the high peaks up there. Yeah, I love it now. I'm all about ... 00:17:25 Sumer Beatty: Your favorite Adirondack high peak? 00:17:28 Nate Lyon: Favorite. high peak? Oh, man. 00:17:30 Sumer Beatty: Have you done Colden via the Trap Dike? 00:17:33 Nate Lyon: No, I have not done the Trap Dike. I love my life too much. But I do have two friends who got ... 00:17:39 Carlos Ramos: Is there something dangerous? 00:17:41 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:17:41 Nate Lyon: Yeah. Okay. I got to look it up. It's a, it's a, it's a sketchy route up, up the mountain. It's like a crack in the side of the mountain and you can, a big, big ... 00:17:50 Sumer Beatty: And it's exposed, and it's super dangerous when it's raining and wet. 00:17:55 Nate Lyon: Or snowy. I think a couple of years ago. 00:17:57 Sumer Beatty: You need ice...An ax. Yeah. 00:18:01 Nate Lyon: Yeah. I, I have two friends who got stuck climbing the Trap Dike. No, no names mentioned here, but yeah. 00:18:08 Sumer Beatty: Did they need to be rescued by helicopter? Oh, embarrassing. So that is a huge fear that, yeah. 00:18:13 Nate Lyon: Hey, better embarrassed than dead, right? 00:18:14 Sumer Beatty: Oh yeah. But still, I mean, we started up it with my family and I have a 14-year-old son. Oh my gosh. And I saw the look in his eyes and he was like, I've gone as far as I can go. So we turned around and came back. 00:18:26 Nate Lyon: Good. Good call. 00:18:27 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:18:28 Carlos Ramos: Okay. So as long as I go when I'm, when it's dry, I'm okay. 00:18:30 Sumer Beatty: It's still highly dangerous, but there was a steady stream of water coming down when we were going up. We, there's a, there's a longer story embedded. That's there's more to later. 00:18:44 Nate Lyon: The probably Gothics though, to answer your question, I kind of have this, not a love hate relationship with Gothics, but. I've done it four, four or five times, kind of like a Captain Ahab, Moby Dick relationship where, yeah, I just, I just keep going back. I have, yeah, I had a, a camper almost fall off gothics. And so that's, that's kind of where that started. And then I've gone back to kind of conquer it again and just revisit it. So. 00:19:19 Sumer Beatty: Okay, good. I'll have to add that to my list. You were just to campus not too long ago with some students. Is that true? 00:19:26 Nate Lyon: Yes, that's correct. 00:19:27 Sumer Beatty: Was that the first time you brought students here? 00:19:30 Nate Lyon: Yep. 00:19:30 Sumer Beatty: From Milton Hershey School? Okay. 00:19:32 Nate Lyon: Yeah, now Milton Hershey's been bringing students for a number of years, but it was the first time that I got to come up. 00:19:37 Sumer Beatty: Oh, what were those conversations like? 00:19:40 Nate Lyon: A lot of fun. Yeah. I, I took a group, we brought, I think, 30 or so kids up all together with a couple other teachers and got to kind of split off with my, my welding crew, you know, kids who've kind of focused on welding. And that was a ton of fun. I remember I said to them, I was like, hey, what do you want to see on campus? What are you interested in? Gave him the rundown of. And they all said, oh yeah, Mr. Lyon, this is your hood. Like you show us what, you know, where were you, where did you weld? Like, where did you, where's your dorm? And I didn't, we didn't get over to a resident's life, but I got to show them the welding shop and just kind of the look on their faces, seeing the scale of everything and getting to envision themselves in the welding booths maybe or yeah, really fun in that regard. And then two of them got to operate a crane and float concrete and things like that. So really neat, really fun opportunities for them just to kind of apply in a practical way what they hear about in theory. 00:20:44 Sumer Beatty: So what are the facilities like at Milton Hershey compared to here? 00:20:48 Nate Lyon: Fairly small as in terms of square footage. 00:20:50 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:20:51 Nate Lyon: We do, we are blessed with a lot of state of the art equipment, but it's, you know, eight is my maximum class size. So I have eight students in the shop, eight welding booths. And we can do a lot with that space. Like people always comment, Oh, like this is really small. And I'm like, hold up now. Like we can do a lot here. Would I prefer it to be a little bigger? Yeah, for sure. But so when students came in and saw the Penn college welding shop, they're just blown away, like, oh, Mr. Lyon, we need to get, we need to get one of those. And I'm like, okay. 00:21:20 Sumer Beatty: We need to get some donors. 00:21:22 Nate Lyon: Yeah. So, so just, yeah, just the scale is pretty impressive to them. 00:21:28 Sumer Beatty: Okay. So you came to Penn college, you graduated, you worked in industry for a short bit, right? 00:21:33 Nate Lyon: Yeah. So I graduated in 2020 and, if you're a historian, COVID was about the time. Graduation looked a little different, a little funky. And then 2020, summer of 2020, I had worked up at camp up at Deerfoot and then was slated to start working as an engineer down in York. Super stoked about that, you know, working with my hands, working with people. And come to find out about three days before I started that I was going to be working remote. And for a lot of people that's awesome. You know, family, family people, great, you know, be home with the kids, but I was living alone. And my heart just sank. I was like, oh my goodness. I don't think, I don't know if I could survive. So stuck that out for about a year and learned a ton, really cool product, awesome team, awesome people. But I was just home looking at a computer screen, looking at blueprints. And I got to get in the shop a little bit. And that's where some of the highlights came from. But around 2021, things in life were changing and I had the opportunity to go back up to Deerfoot Lodge, the camp up in the Adirondacks and help to lead their counselor training program, just kind of a discipleship program for young guys, 17, 18 years old. And so I left my engineering job and went up to Deerfoot again. Just it was, it's kind of a metaphysical, interesting, like, I thought I was on this track to being an adult and like, being a man, right? And then almost wondering, like, am I as grown up as I thought I was being back at this wilderness camp kind of feeling like a lost boy from Peter Pan, you know, but through through leading that program up at Deerfoot, that was probably the richest summer of my life. Got to lead a group of 19 kids, backpacking in the high peaks, canoeing, whitewater canoeing up in Maine, a lot of physical and spiritual like discipline and training. And like I said, just a super rich summer and those guys that I led with, like some dear, dear brothers, to me still, and we hang out regularly. Through that, I kind of realized, like, maybe the people aspect that I love is, is more important than the actual content of what I'm doing. I had several moments that summer where I thought, Gosh, this is, this is what I was created to do. And so when I came back, I just jumped into substitute teaching down in York city with the hunch that maybe it was the teaching and not the specific content that really made it valuable and worthwhile for me. That turned out to be the case, started subbing and then started teaching adult ed night classes down at York Tech. And doing kind of juggling both of those for a time. And then the opportunity came up to teach at Milton Hershey. And it was a cool way to combine both of those things that I've been doing into one career. There it is. There's a nutshell, a lot quicker than I would have envisioned, you know? 00:24:28 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:24:29 Carlos Ramos: So many people don't even find the purpose like that in life. And there you are. 00:24:35 Nate Lyon: Yeah. 00:24:36 Carlos Ramos: Just fresh out of college and you're like, okay, let's go find that. 00:24:40 Nate Lyon: Right. And I'm not, I'm not here to, I'm not here to make a living. I'm here to make a life, you know? And that's, I think, I forget if that's Lecrae or Andy Mineo. Some, one of the, some rapper says that. 00:24:52 Carlos Ramos: Great philosophers of our time. 00:24:53 Nate Lyon: I knew, I knew, you're right. Exactly. One. I knew I wanted to teach you. Coming into college, I remember writing like scholarship essays about that. I knew I wanted to teach. I think I envisioned being in industry a little bit longer. To be candid, sometimes I look back and wonder what would be different if I had stayed in industry longer. But I'm, I'm good. I'm okay, you know, and I like to go back during summers or, you know, on trips with students. So I'm not done. 00:25:19 Sumer Beatty: You have summers off. Okay, nice. 00:25:22 Nate Lyon: I'm not done with connection to industry. That's so important, especially in a teaching role. You have to, you have to stay connected to industry and the closer the better. So I'm all about working part time or things like that as time allows. 00:25:34 Sumer Beatty: So for people who might not know what is, can you talk a little bit about like the, the mission of Milton Hershey School? 00:25:41 Nate Lyon: Yeah, for sure. So. Milton Hershey School, if you want to learn more about it, you can find out more on the website, mhskids.org. Shameless plug there for our public relations team down there. But yeah, it's the goal of Milton Hershey School is to nurture and educate kids in social and financial need. Break it down in those two categories. One, maybe the other, sometimes both. But social and financial need to lead fulfilling and productive lives is kind of the wording, from its founding in 1909, I believe. That's been the heart behind what Milton Hershey School does. It's a residential school. Students live there in student homes. And so they are living with a married couple as their house parents, right? And then senior year of high school, they move into transitional living, which is kind of aligned with a dorm style situation. So yeah, residential school, all costs covered. No one pays anything to go there. It's all funded through the Hershey Trust, the money that Milton Hershey and Catherine Hershey set aside in the mid 1900s and kind of locked it up with the deed of trust, and they said, you know, you can't touch the it. The principal of this and so the school has been subsiding off of the, the money that that has grown. So it's kind of snowballed and grown into this pretty big, big operation down there. Right now I think there's just over 2, 000 students. 00:27:07 Sumer Beatty: So you see about eight students each class period or you have the same eight students? 00:27:12 Nate Lyon: I teach four periods a day. And so about an hour long for each class and rotations of eight, so a different eight students come roughly every hour, 70 minute periods. That's been an interesting challenge to, you know, deposit meaningful information in that hour block of time. And then the transition time really is tough. You get in, you gear up and then you start welding. And so we have, it's kind of like a, like a SWAT team, right? We got to get in and out and, and learn as much as we can while we're there. 00:27:42 Carlos Ramos: Is that five days a week? 00:27:43 Nate Lyon: Right now, two of those groups are five days a week. And then I have another two periods that are every other day. It's just an introductory kind of dip your toes in elective course. 00:27:53 Sumer Beatty: So are some of these kids ones who may actually go to college for welding or it's just okay. 00:27:59 Nate Lyon: Yeah, for sure It's right now welding operates as as an elective course down at Milton Hershey, not a full fledged like career pathway, although that's in the cards for the near future. Even with that I have six or seven, I think, still trying to get a read on what their, what their thoughts might be. A lot of students who, a handful of students who are really intrigued by it and three who are looking at coming up here. I have applied, a couple here, a couple Thaddeus Stevens, and a few who are heavily considering just going into the union, doing an apprenticeship. And so, yeah, none of those are, none of those are a bad option if that's, if that's what you want to do. It's really neat to see. That's one of the ways I'm, I take a lot of pride in that as far as students. Being interested in it, not just as a class, but as a career. 00:28:40 Carlos Ramos: Now, do they all come to you with that interest in mind or they're just like, okay, I got to take something. So I'm going to take welding. I, I think I like sparks, so let's do this. 00:28:49 Nate Lyon: Both for sure. Some, some walk in the door, it's their passion. They, you know, swear to me with everything that they're going to go into welding and be the best water there was. And I've had other kids very bluntly tell me I'm just here because no other class is open, you know, and I'm like, all right, this is, this is going to be an uphill battle. But we take, we take people of all shapes and sizes and interests as far as the transformation in interests. I don't know if I've been there long enough to see that yet. Once I start having younger students, so when I start having freshmen come in my classroom and then get to kind of walk with them, I think we'll see a lot, a lot more. 00:29:31 Sumer Beatty: Do you have the space in that short period of time to have other conversations with students, in addition to just here's the subject matter. My husband's a teacher. So that's why I asked this because I think those are moments that he really relishes, like, you know, talking to students about things other than just the class itself, if that makes sense, like giving them maybe that extra ear or whatever they might need to just... Not how I know they're with parents, right? They're with, you know, they're in a home. It's a residential program, but just to have that other adult who cares. 00:30:08 Nate Lyon: Absolutely. That's really why I'm there, right? It's not, I mean, welding is a vehicle for students to learn how to solve problems and learn how to handle life and do life. And so, yes, have had a lot of conversations outside the classroom with students who are just going through it. You know, life, life ain't easy. And especially at Milton Hershey, what I tell people so often is no one comes to Milton Hershey school without a story. And everybody's story is different. We all, you know, we all have a story, but these kids have been through a lot and seen a lot of life, generally, more than most people their age. Working through some of that with them is, yeah, some of the most, like you're saying, some of the most rewarding times of my job. So yeah, I love that piece of it have gotten to like sit and cry with at least four students that I can think of. So if you're a student listening to this, you're not alone, if you're a, you're a crier. But, yeah. And I love being able to go there with students and, and kind of this older brother role. I'm not, I'm not quite old enough to be like, oh, this wise sage father figure. but, just being there for them and, and being at the right place at the right time. Yeah. Super, super rewarding. And it's not, it's not really about that. It's building these kids up and helping them see, I guess what, what life can be for them. We want to meet kids, meet kids where they are, but not leave them where they are. You know, I think I saw some other questions about this too, as far as teaching philosophy. But I don't just want students to be able to weld. I want them to be able to tackle the world and handle what's going to come afterward. 00:31:56 Carlos Ramos: What shaped that in you, teachers, mentors? 00:32:02 Nate Lyon: I would say God and the gospel shaped that in me. Like, there's a passage in scripture where Jesus refers to being like a shepherd. And if he has a hundred sheep and one gets lost, he's going to leave the ninety nine to go after the one and bring them back into the fold. Me having been that one at one point in life, I can't have any other response than to be that. To follow in those footsteps. To answer your question, there are, well that does answer your question, but more at your question, there's, there have been a lot of people who have kind of fed that in me and mentors. The root cause of it all is just knowing why I exist and why I was created and having a strong sense of mission in that. Seeing how God and others have done that for me allows me to just have an infinite stockpile of patience, well, practically infinite patience doesn't exist. But in theory, right? Yeah, immediate counterexamples come to mind when I say that, right? But, but just. I have such a depth of grace to pull from, to give out to others because it's been shown to me. So, yeah, yeah, somewhere, somewhere in my junior, between junior and senior year of high school, I think it really started to solidify for me. I realized I had been collecting trophies and, you know, being competitive at school and in music and I was wasting my time because I was missing the other people around me. And I thought, why, why am I just collecting my own accolades when there are so many other people here that matter, like way more than this? 00:33:34 Carlos Ramos: You mentioned music. 00:33:35 Nate Lyon: Mm-hmm . 00:33:35 Carlos Ramos: We've got this fantastic photo of you . It's this great photo of you in the the welding labs. The OG labs. Yeah. Yeah. the bays, sparks are flying all over around you. And you've got the saxophone going. 00:33:51 Nate Lyon: Yeah, that was fun. 00:33:53 Carlos Ramos: What precipitated that? 00:33:54 Nate Lyon: I did not initiate that. I don't think I said, Hey, I want to play my saxophone. 00:33:58 Sumer Beatty: I feel like Cindy. That's a Cindy... like let's have him go into the lab with like combine these two pieces. 00:34:05 Nate Lyon: Yeah. 00:34:06 Sumer Beatty: That just sounds like Cindy. 00:34:09 Nate Lyon: That's probably accurate. I just, I just got to try out the Meixel special in the, in the Bookmarks Cafe this morning. 00:34:14 Sumer Beatty: What's this? 00:34:15 Carlos Ramos: There is a special drink named after Cindy? 00:34:17 Nate Lyon: Just found out about it. 00:34:18 Sumer Beatty: What is it? Please tell. 00:34:19 Nate Lyon: I think it's like half, half caramel, half French vanilla, maybe, or something like the coffee. 00:34:24 Sumer Beatty: Whoa, is it like on the menu as the Meixel special? 00:34:28 Nate Lyon: I, I don't think so. It might be, it might be a secret menu. 00:34:33 Sumer Beatty: Only for podcast listeners. 00:34:35 Nate Lyon: Yeah, you'll have to check it out. 00:34:36 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:34:37 Nate Lyon: You heard it here. 00:34:37 Sumer Beatty: It's a cappuccino? 00:34:40 Nate Lyon: I don't know enough. It's hot. Yeah. Oh, it's hot. 00:34:42 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:34:43 Carlos Ramos: Do you order it by that name? 00:34:46 Nate Lyon: I believe so. I think that's kind of par for the course. 00:34:48 Carlos Ramos: Okay. Alright, so listeners, go over to Bookmarks in the library and flood them with a request for the Meixel Special. 00:34:54 Sumer Beatty: Because we love Cindy. And she's going to listen to this. 00:34:57 Nate Lyon: Right. 00:34:57 Sumer Beatty: It'll make her so happy. 00:34:59 Nate Lyon: Oh, there you go. So, I think that's probably right. That was probably a Cindy idea. I don't remember. I used to play with the Lycoming College wind ensemble and concert band and there was actually a saxophone quartet for a few years that started out of Lycoming College. And that was a ton of fun. But yeah, somewhere in there, someone here found out I played saxophone and decided to do a little mashup. 00:35:24 Sumer Beatty: Talk about that a little bit. So as a Penn college student, you're allowed to participate in extracurriculars at, and I don't know how far that goes, but at least band. Is it band? Or is it called...? Okay. At Lycoming college? Okay. 00:35:39 Nate Lyon: Yeah. To be honest, I'm not sure what the official rules are or details with that. There are agreements where you can get credit for going over there and taking classes. Like the ones that aren't offered here. You can get like a foreign language, for example. 00:35:53 Sumer Beatty: Other students have done this, so. 00:35:55 Carlos Ramos: We have students here that go over, I think to the theater and the band and that would... 00:36:00 Sumer Beatty: And Lycoming College is just down the road from us. So it's a really nice partnership that way. 00:36:05 Nate Lyon: Right. I'm sure you see a little more of that with like the pep band now too. There's A little more music in the air here than when I, than when I... 00:36:14 Sumer Beatty: We're just starting things after you leave. 00:36:16 Nate Lyon: Yeah, that's how it is. But I chose not to actually do it for credit because I just wanted to have fun and didn't want to kind of lock myself in there and and also there were other art classes here that I was interested in taking That was just kind of for fun at night. 00:36:30 Sumer Beatty: So all these trophies are from playing the sax? 00:36:33 Nate Lyon: Well, I guess when I, when I say, when I say trophies, I'm maybe not physical trophies. Some of those too, but also just achievements. 00:36:42 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:36:42 Nate Lyon: When I say collecting trophies, I just mean patting myself on the back and succeeding, whether or not it's at the expense of other people. Right. And just kind of. pursuing excellence for its own sake, which really isn't always worth it. I did get to use music as a cool instrument, no pun intended, to have a positive effect on some people's lives in high school. That was, that was neat. Just some stories of not mentoring, but being there for younger students who it was like their first time at, you know, district band or state band and kind of taking them under my wing. 00:37:12 Sumer Beatty: Does music come out in your current job? Like, are you able to play at all? No? 00:37:18 Nate Lyon: Well, no, I, yes, occasionally. 00:37:20 Carlos Ramos: You start every morning with the eight in the bays, just sax going. 00:37:25 Nate Lyon: Not, not, not saxophone often. I, I have jammed with the, there's a band called the Modern Band at Milton Hershey. They play some more like rock music, things like that. And I've gotten to jam with them only twice now. I guess once life settles down, I'll probably get into more of a rhythm with that. 00:37:43 Sumer Beatty: With the sax or another instrument? 00:37:45 Nate Lyon: With the saxophone, with them. In the shop, I keep a, I keep a small flute in one of my desk drawers and usually it's in between classes. I'll just, you know, if I need to, if I need to de stress a little bit, I'll just break it out and there'll be some ethereal music. 00:38:01 Sumer Beatty: Of everything, of every instrument to use to de stress, the flute is the one that comes to mind. Well, you know. Thinking like of a drum, like more of a 00:38:09 Nate Lyon: Oh, well, yeah, I mean it's, Yeah, just, just for fun. I find that it's really, it's really relaxing. Just, I guess it uses a different side of the brain or something. If I just did a lot of talking, I'll just break it out and play a couple notes and and go back to planning for the next year. 00:38:26 Sumer Beatty: Are students like, what the heck? I've never seen an instructor do this before. 00:38:31 Nate Lyon: They're, pretty accommodating. No, no, they like it. I, the students are really well behaved and they're, you know, on top of their cleanup and I don't have to be. Policing that and I'll sometimes play a few notes. 00:38:43 Sumer Beatty: So it sounds like you've taught your students a lot. What have they taught you? 00:38:48 Nate Lyon: One of the main things that I think of with this is maybe not so much teaching but reminding me how cool some of the stuff we do in welding actually is when you've done it in industry and learned it years ago in college, it can kind of get old after a while and seeing some of the things through the eyes of students kind of reminds me, oh, this is actually like we're harnessing the power of lightning in our hands. To raise steel to somewhere between 2, 500 and 3, 000 degrees. And no one else on campus is doing that, you know? So it's seeing it through their eyes and being reminded of the first time that I welded and kind of going back to that and remembering my audience. And if I'm, if I get disconnected from that, the students will remind me quick. They'll just kind of glaze over and like, this doesn't matter to us. Like we're beginners. So yeah. Yeah. It's really cool to see things through their eyes. 00:39:44 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. Nice. And how do you stay motivated? 00:39:48 Nate Lyon: I think the students for sure. And remembering really some of what I, what happens is I'll get caught up in maybe discouraged with the nuts and bolts. Yeah. It's like, Did my students learn this today? Am I succeeding as a teacher? Or is everything just getting lost on them? Like what, what impact am I having? And I'm usually thinking about the content or the real mechanics of, of my job. And when I remember, you know what? No, I'm, I'm dealing with real people here who matter so much. That's why I'm doing this. Like it's not, it's not how much we get through today. It's not what content the students absorbed as much as do they know that I love them and care about them? Do they, do they feel valued? Are they proud of themselves? And so I think that's really what takes me back to the, the first principles with which I'm coming into it. So when I, when I remember that, I'm, I'm, I'm back. I'm back at it. I have a high degree of admiration for my students. Like I mentioned earlier, they've done more in life and I would say maybe more has been asked of them than me when I was their age. And some of these kids started raising their younger siblings when they were 12. Seeing the resilience of my students gives me a lot of respect for them. I think having that view kind of shapes how I come into the classroom and approach them and yeah, a lot, a lot of admiration there, a lot of respect. And I don't, I don't always show it, you know, I got to pull back the curtain every once in a while, but... 00:41:21 Sumer Beatty: Were you one of those teachers that felt like you had to, there's this, you know, philosophy of teachers, like the first couple of weeks I have to come in, I have to be really tough and I have to like not let them, you know, get the better of me and just be like real, real strict. And then after the three weeks is up and they've, you've established yourself as this, you know, I'm not going to take anything. And then you're like, okay, I can relax. 00:41:42 Nate Lyon: Yeah. You know, that's funny. You asked that I, in theory, I think I'm better at that than I actually am. It's hard for me to be, you know, overlord of the classroom. I, I, I do though. Like I, I think that's important that there is a level of seriousness and respect for even things like safety. You're going to be a goofball and come into my welding shop, I don't want you endangering yourself or others. I've had to turn kids away who, you know, maybe I had a bad experience with in the past because it was a safety risk, right? And if they wanted to come back for another class, like, ah, let's pump the brakes on that one. You know, we're not, we've got other students who want that spot. And so I, yeah, even just, there was a kid who, all excited, tell me, oh, Mr. Lyon, like I'm, I'm, I'm taking your class next semester. And I had some, some background knowledge of it. I'm just, you know, not a bad kid, just a little squirrely. And I said, hey man, you better shape up. If you want to be going to be part of the welding program, like. It's a no nonsense attitude. And there's a little bit of the intimidation factor there, right? You can't be too soft with him, but, he's like, oh, man, like, he kind of, he didn't expect that response from me. And then just a couple, last week or the week before, I saw him walking across campus, and he, Mr. Lyon, like, I'm ready, I'm ready for welding. Like, I got, you know, I guess he made the, he made the attitude changes necessary or something. But I do think it's important to make sure students, you know, do have a level of respect for what they're going to be doing. 00:43:12 Sumer Beatty: Any advice for someone considering a career in welding? What makes a good welder? 00:43:16 Nate Lyon: There's many levels of being good welder. You can be someone who makes good welds, and that'll get you a paycheck of some variety. The advice I would give though is more angled it at things that the industry is missing rather than the things that already has, and you just have to be better at them to get on top, right? Industry is missing people who care about other people. I shouldn't say missing. There are a lot of awesome guys out there, awesome welders who have gotten to work with. 00:43:42 Sumer Beatty: And girls. 00:43:43 Nate Lyon: And girls, that's right. I'd be remiss. But I think there's, there's a deficit and people who are humble and care about the people around them. And if you're someone who can weld and do those things. Then you're, you're really in a position to name your price, especially after you start coming in and showing up every day and you're not lazy, you're not on your phone all the time and you really seek the good of the people around you. You're gonna be rising to the top quick and, and, and ask good questions, right? Always be inquisitive. You don't have to know everything. Like no one expects you to know everything, but if you learn to ask the right people and know where to find the information, then you're setting yourself up for success in all dimensions. 00:44:21 Sumer Beatty: Awesome. 00:44:22 Nate Lyon: Yeah. 00:44:22 Sumer Beatty: We wish you the best. 00:44:23 Nate Lyon: Thank you. 00:44:24 Carlos Ramos: Thank you, Nate. 00:44:28 Sumer Beatty: Thanks for hanging out with us today. 00:44:29 Carlos Ramos: Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 00:44:34 Sumer Beatty: Check out our show notes for bookmarks to your favorite sections and links to resources that we mentioned in today's episode. 00:44:40 Carlos Ramos: You can also find past episodes and see what's on deck for upcoming ones at pct.edu/podcast. 00:44:47 Sumer Beatty: And of course, we are open to your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. So send those over at podcast@pct.edu. 00:44:55 Carlos Ramos: It's been real. 00:44:57 Sumer Beatty: Catch you next time Right now, I wish we had a video because I don't know if you saw that the trees like flowing and all these birds just came right over your head I'm not now we're getting very mystical, but I'm like this is beautiful. It's like, it's such a nice backdrop, I lost track of the answer. It's just like so pretty Also, I think I asked him that question.