Harper College offices are currently closed for an all-campus meeting. Offices will reopen shortly after noon to serve students.
Harper Talks Show 1 — Scott Lietzow (.mp3)
Scott Lietzow is the Harper College 2020 Outstanding Recent Alumni Honoree. Having served in the U.S. Marine Corps, Scott Lietzow used the G.I. Bill to earn an education at Harper College. Hear as he and Assistant Professor of Communication Arts Brian Shelton discuss how his time at Harper College and in the Marines prepared Scott for his future. Scott became a member of former U.S. Rep. Bob Dold's congressional campaign and would come to work at Allstate as a military talent senior consultant.
Harper Talks: The Harper Alumni Podcast
Show 1: Scott Lietzow — Transcript
[00:00:02.430] - Brian Shelton
I'm Brian Shelton, and you're listening to Harper Talks, a co-production of Harper
College Alumni Relations and WHCM. Like so many community college students, my guest
today came to Harper College because he had trouble finding work and needed to bolster
his education and build a skill set before Harper College. Scott Lietzow was a United
States Marine and he would use that experience at Harper College and in his current
career, after all, once a Marine, always a Marine.
[00:00:34.470] - Brian Shelton
Good morning, Scott. How are you? I'm good. How are you doing today? I am fantastic.
It's good to see you. Thanks for agreeing to be on our inaugural show here for Harper
Talks. I'm happy to have you.
[00:00:46.110] - Scott Lietzow
Oh, thank you. It's great to be here. Thank you for inviting me. All right.
[00:00:49.890] - Brian Shelton
So in our introduction, I talked about how when you left high school, you joined the
United States Marines. And I always ask every person that I meet who joins the Marines,
what what brought you to that? I mean, the Marines have the reputation for being
the absolute toughest basic training. It's kind of the toughest life of all the military
services. What brought you to the Marine Corps?
[00:01:14.160] - Scott Lietzow
Well, yeah, that's a good question. My family has a history of being in military service,
so I can always knew I wanted to join the military. And when I was looking at all
the branches, I was like, the Marine Corps seems to be the toughest and the hardest.
And I always like to set challenging goals for myself. So I knew I wanted to separate
myself from the other branches and join something that would be very challenging and
hard to get into the Marine Corps.
[00:01:41.700] - Scott Lietzow
One of the things I learned real quick is that a lot of other branches, like they
have a lot of sign up bonuses and incentives to get in. But when I walked in the door
of the recruiting office, they said, we don't do that in the Marines. You joined because
you want to you want to join the best. So I was hooked that they said that. And I
joined up and I left right after I graduated high school.
[00:02:04.530] - Brian Shelton
That's fantastic. So you just knew that's what you wanted to do. You wanted to be
in the military after high school. And that was the plan. Yes. Yeah. The Marines certainly
have a great recruiting tool. Right. You either want to be one of us because you want
to be the best or go join someone else, right?
[00:02:18.840] - Scott Lietzow
Yes, pretty much so.
[00:02:21.600] - Brian Shelton
After the Marine Corps, you kind of weren't sure what to do next. And how did you
get to Harper? What brought you there?
[00:02:28.470] - Scott Lietzow
So when I first got out of the Marine Corps, I was looking around for jobs. I couldn't
find anything like that.
[00:02:37.110] - Scott Lietzow
I went into the Marine Corps as an infantry guy. So, you know, companies aren't looking
for guys that know how to kick them doors and blow things up. So, you know, I realized
real fast that no one is going to give you a job just because you were in the military.
And so I looked at, you know, going into law enforcement and stuff like that when
I realized that I had, you know, this post 9/11 GI Bill, which is probably the one
of the greatest benefits of getting out of the military.
[00:03:04.110] - Scott Lietzow
So I go to any school I want to for four years for free. So I was like, I should consider
going back to college. So I looked at going to college. I had not come before. So
I looked at universities and such and I was applying. But then I was like, you know
what? I think Harper College is the best fit for me because was really close to my
school and it was known as a really great community college.
[00:03:28.440] - Scott Lietzow
So I was like, I think this is the perfect place to transition. So I picked Harper
College, didn't really know what I was going to get myself into. I didn't know what
I wanted to do in my professional life. I just knew I wanted to learn and just keep
moving forward. So that's why Harper was the best pick for me and it really turned
out to be a great thing.
[00:03:50.910] - Brian Shelton
That's great.
[00:03:51.540] - Brian Shelton
I know that you were really actively involved in student organizations and such while
you were at Harper College. Can you can you talk to us about that? What were you doing?
You were doing the business club, right?
[00:03:59.310] - Scott Lietzow
Yes, I did a couple of clubs, actually. I was I first got engaged with Business Club
because a friend of mine at the time, people concerned, was running the business club.
He said, hey, you should come join this club. And I was like, you know, I would like
to start meeting people because I feel like at Harper College, like there is that
learning aspect. But there's so much more to Harper College than just going to class.
[00:04:24.540] - Scott Lietzow
And students that are not getting involved, I think are missing out on a whole different
type of learning experience.
[00:04:32.820] - Brian Shelton
So I'd have to agree with that. If you're not involved in something while you're there,
you're missing out on so much. Yeah, yes.
[00:04:38.580] - Scott Lietzow
And part of that is because Harper has it's a community. It's a commuter college.
So people, you know, it's harder than regular schools to organize and such. But if
you do take the time to get involved, you meet a lot of good friends. You'll learn
a lot of new skills. For instance, when I got into this club, I got exposed to all
the other clubs are Harper offer so there was student government. So I joined that
was on for about two years during that time.
[00:05:08.860] - Scott Lietzow
I learned a lot about working together with as a team, with people. I also learned
how to you learn a lot about settling differences, especially in student government,
where you have a lot of, you know, good intentioned people with a lot of strong ideas.
So coming together, trying to compromise all that stuff is something you've definitely
learned to government and just getting involved. So after that I said, hey, I run
for student trustee. So that was one of the funnest times.
[00:05:39.130] - Scott Lietzow
So we put together a campaign and we won student trustee. And that was great because
I got to get on the board of our college and the sitting on the board for a year was
one of the biggest learning experiences ever, because if I really recommend. You know,
running for that, if if that's something you're into because you're going to sit on
a board, you're going to learn from leaders in the community and how to run a whole
organization, oversight of the college is a big thing.
[00:06:09.210] - Scott Lietzow
And you're going to sit there and learn from the best and you're going to learn how
how you oversee funding, how we obviously hire and how how the president makes decisions
on the school. So it was one of the greatest things that I did. It was really Eye-Opening
to me. It really helps. You know, if you want to become a public servant or something
like that, it really humbly, real fast to see what they do. And then also, one of
my one of my favorite accomplishments was I started a group called Young Americans
for Liberty at Harper College.
[00:06:40.650] - Scott Lietzow
In our first year, I started from nothing. And it's a national organization. So there's
colleges that, um, see you, Duke, on the big campuses. And they have a competition
every year for national chapter of the year. So to win that, you have to put together
like a lot of volunteer events in the community, a lot of awareness events on campus.
So I was like, I don't know how much longer I have it, Harper.
[00:07:07.710] - Scott Lietzow
So I'm going to try to get when that my first year. So we we set out recruited like
twenty kids to being in the group. Those guys are great, put together tons of events,
tons of community service. And we actually won national chapter the year, beating
out all those big name schools, going back to Harper, being a commuter school. You
know, I think it's a lot harder to do that at a commuter school because, you know,
kids on college campuses, they just walk out of their dorm at six p.m. and go to a
meeting.
[00:07:35.490] - Scott Lietzow
You know, you can't do that at your school. You know, people have schedules and they
usually are working after school. So just to do that and one year was probably one
of the best accomplishments and the most memorable one at Harper College. And I really
enjoyed that time.
[00:07:50.290] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, I have to say, as a student organization advisor myself, like any time that
your organization is winning national awards or even competing in that level at a
community college, it is unbelievably difficult. Right, for exactly the reasons that
you're talking about. So that kudos to you. That's awesome. Thank you. I wanted to
go back to the student trustee thing just for a second. I don't know, maybe I'm putting
the wrong spin on this, but that seems like a pretty thankless job.
[00:08:17.160] - Scott Lietzow
Oh, yes, it definitely is. So especially when you when you're running for it, you
have, you know, as a student and you're I mean, I was a little older than most around
four thousand twenty two. So most of the eighteen nineteen you have. And I was in
this mindset too. You have a student centered mindset. You go in there like this is
one to do. Then you get there and you realize that is not the job.
[00:08:42.590] - Scott Lietzow
But you know, your job is that your job is to run a college. And it's not about putting
your ideals or anything into that. It's just to make sure that all the stakeholders
in the college are taking care of the students to the faculty and everything else.
And you have to learn a lot quick and you have to ask a lot of questions. I was really
thankful to have some good mentors on there, like Laurie Stone and Rita Canning.
[00:09:10.590] - Scott Lietzow
were great. They would take you out to lunch and explain everything because, you know,
you could get a packet this thick every month. You have to try the retail thing and
then you have to understand it and then make decisions off of it. So you rely on them
to help me out through the process. And it was really it was really humbling. And
it's also a really good experience for future. And I like thinking big picture and
how things work.
[00:09:38.250] - Scott Lietzow
Yeah.
[00:09:38.640] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, absolutely. And so I know from that and from what I read in your bio that you
took a philosophy class at Harper that got you really interested in politics. Can
you talk me how you got from taking a philosophy class at Harper and being a student
to being the executive director for a congressional campaign? I mean, that seems like
a pretty big leap for me.
[00:09:58.770] - Scott Lietzow
Yeah, so.
[00:10:01.170] - Scott Lietzow
I would say it's all because of Harper College, so I had basically, like I said, I
went to Harper, didn't really know I was going to do that. I got involved and I went
to this. I think it was a critical thinking class in the philosophy department. And
we had a deal. It was an assignment like we had a report on the election or something.
It was about the election. And so I picked the Republican primaries because it was
like the only it was during the primary season.
[00:10:32.280] - Scott Lietzow
So the Democratic Party already had their nominee because President Obama was already
the president. So I was like, well, it's the only competitive one. So this might be
interesting. I have a lot more material views. So I started doing that and I was like
looking at this presidential candidate, Ron Paul, he just seemed like a lot different
than all the Republicans like. So he was more like pro freedom, like know like not
like super conservative, all that stuff.
[00:10:57.540] - Scott Lietzow
So I started looking at that and I was like, no, I think I should start like getting
more involved in the community because, you know, I am more of a freedom loving person
instead of trying to restrict people to do things, you know.
[00:11:10.800] - Scott Lietzow
So I started, you know, that's when I started Young Americans for Liberty around that
time. And once I was building that out and people in the community started seeing
what their organization was doing because we did a lot of community service, I was
asked to come work on the Bob Dold for Congress campaign. So when I started doing
that, at first I started off as just like the field organizer. So I would come I would
recruit people to come into the organization and volunteer, go knock on phones, knock
on doors, make phone calls, that kind of stuff.
[00:11:49.260] - Scott Lietzow
And I ended up running about three different regions. So I drive a couple hundred
volunteers I was overseeing and we won that election and then after that started working
in Congress for a little bit until thenext campaign. That was a really fun time. As
well as working in the United States House of Representatives was a really great experience.
And we did a lot to highlight military veterans issues such as veteran unemployment
and issues at the VA. I'm pretty proud of the work we did there.
[00:12:21.150] - Scott Lietzow
And then the campaign started again. I was put in charge of all recruiting, so to
put together a whole recruiting team. So I had about a staff size about eleven, and
we had three hundred volunteers put together a great campaign. And then after that
all state gave me a call because I had done some work inthe past through Congress
with so I'll say create a new military program. And the person they hired on the for
the director position was somebody that was working on a military program in our district.
[00:12:51.660] - Scott Lietzow
I combine insurance and it became the number one military program. I could buy insurance
and he moved us. It was like I really liked working with you. I think you'd be good
in this role. And I was like, private sector seems like something I can go into. Definitely
pays a lot more than the public sector. And I love working with veterans. So that's
where that all started. And going to Allstate was a great experience. I loved working
with veterans, getting them employed, retired thousands of veterans in the last two.
[00:13:22.350] - Scott Lietzow
It's almost been four years, but it was, we'll say three, three years and some change.
And we in less than four years, we became the number one military friendly hiring
company in the country. So there's a ranking system and we beat out all the other
companies, all the fortune. One hundred companies. So we're pretty proud of that.
And it all comes back to Harper College. It's a trend.
[00:13:45.660] - Brian Shelton
So all roads lead back to Harper College
[00:13:50.580] - Scott Lietzow
So some of the best advice I ever had to was when I was a student trustee and I got
access to Dr. Hunter, who is the president at the time. So I was sitting there talking
and having lunch and I was like, hey, I don't really know what I want to do in my
life. Like I'm about to graduate. I have no idea what I'm about to do. I hadn't really,
I would say, really fun and successful student career.
[00:14:14.790] - Scott Lietzow
But what what happens next? And you looked at me and you said, Scott, I'm the president
of college. If I was here when I was your age, if you asked me what I was going to
do and if I was to be the president of Harvard College, I would tell you that that
was not a possibility. And I had no idea what I wanted to do either.
[00:14:30.700] - Scott Lietzow
So, like somebody like attain that level of being a president of a college, just knowing
that at my age he didn't really know what to do either. Kind of like let me have a
philosophy that I'm going to live my life to where I may not know what the destination
is, but I'm going to keep moving forward.
[00:14:50.970] - Scott Lietzow
If opportunity jumps at me, an opportunity comes my way, I'm going to jump at it and
take it. And, you know, just because you don't really know. What you're going to do
in a year, five years, doesn't mean it's not going to work out if you just are open
to opportunities and you just you just go with the flow, like if you see if you have
to jump on it. Because you know what? That I'm just going to stay for a while.
[00:15:16.040] - Scott Lietzow
And if you miss out on that, you might have missed out on a whole life changing experience.
So, as you mentioned before, it's kind of a big jump from being in grants of college,
working on campaigns and then going to all set. But as long as you do what you do
and you work hard at it and you get results, people are going to notice. So you might
end up at a completely, completely different place than you were five years ago, but
you'll be in a better place.
[00:15:44.480] - Scott Lietzow
So if you don't keep moving forward, you always end up in the same place as my philosophy.
So. So just keep that's my that's what I do.
[00:15:51.890] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. I'm always telling students, you know, that your degree is important and what
you do in school is important. But having actual experience and doing something is
much more important to employers and to moving on into doing something with your life
than just going to school. So it's not just about taking classes, it's not just about
getting the degree. But you've got to actually do something in your field or what
you think it is you're going to your field is going to be while you're here.
[00:16:17.240] - Scott Lietzow
It makes a big difference. So. Exactly.
[00:16:20.300] - Brian Shelton
So you are currently the vice president of all states, veteran engagement team, and
you've talked about that quite a quite a bit already. But I'm just curious what. Hmm.
I guess maybe why why does a large corporation, like all states, want to put so much
effort and energy and money into recruiting veterans into their organization?
[00:16:45.130] - Scott Lietzow
Well, companies like Allstate want to hire veterans because. Let's start from the
beginning. So back a couple of years ago, when I first got into got out of the military,
there was no military hiring program.
[00:16:57.110] - Scott Lietzow
So it was when I got out, it was. You know, the the the wars were still going on and
pretty hard core intense. No one really paid attention and veterans are coming back
and veterans unemployment rates were sky high. So then companies started paying together
like, you know what? It's the right thing to do is to try to get veterans into our
companies. So when they started doing that, they were trying to get veterans in and
they realized there was some issues like maybe it wasn't a good fit.
[00:17:25.290] - Scott Lietzow
Like, you know, you can't just give a veteran a job just because they're veterans.
Right. You have to find a good fit. So companies started putting together these programs
because they wanted to find a good fit and ensure that veterans stay with the company.
So I'll say created their military program with that in mind, because not only is
hiring veterans the right thing to do, it's the right thing to do for business because
veterans perform, they have higher retention rates at companies if they're in the
right spot, and also they perform at three percent higher level than their non-veteran
peers, according to certain studies.
[00:18:02.810] - Scott Lietzow
So it's the right thing to do for business, and especially Allstate, where its sales
have been such that veterans are very good sales because we're mission oriented or
goal oriented. We're not going to get we're not going to stop until we hit our goals
to become a salesman. We're going to do whatever they can to hit it and not shop.
Right. Not shy at all.
[00:18:23.810] - Scott Lietzow
So and so that's our military veteran hiring program. And then you mentioned the vice
president of our engagement team. So our engagement team is like an employee resource
group at Allstate. So that is probably one of the best things I'll say put together
for like employee retention of veterans. So veterans get to get to come together,
talk about their work, and it offers networking opportunities. When you have a
company that's a Fortune 100 company, there's thousands of people that are working
there.
[00:18:56.240] - Scott Lietzow
So not only they're giving veterans the chance to come in and say to give veterans
and network, which gives you access to other opportunities of the company, and you
wouldn't think that's great.
[00:19:08.450] - Brian Shelton
You recently organized a big event in Arlington Heights in your community called The
Night Out. And you did that to help the restaurants and businesses in the area gain
some business during this pandemic time that we're talking about. Can you tell me
about that a little bit? How did you get involved with what was the the motivation
there?
[00:19:26.630] - Brian Shelton
Yes. So I was sitting me and my wife was sitting here. We have a we have a newborn
baby, so we just couldn't really go out anyway. And when the pandemic hit.
[00:19:37.230] - Scott Lietzow
But I was sitting there with a newborn. Yes.
[00:19:41.180] - Scott Lietzow
So. But when I was like Arlington Heights, I moved to Arlington Heights because it's
such a great place to raise a family and a lot of the appeal of Arlington Heights
is the downtown area where we have tons of vibrant restaurants. You know, it's not
like your typical suburb where, you know, not knocking Chili's or anything like that,
where you have Chili's to hover. It's like tons of restaurants. You go to the next
restaurants, they have Asian restaurants, they have Italian restaurants, and they're
all mom and pop stores.
[00:20:14.930] - Scott Lietzow
Right. So they're not these big brand, big corporate entities. So they need help.
And part of the appeal of the downtown is those restaurants. So I was looking at I'm
like, if nobody can go out to eat. How are these restaurants going to survive at these
restaurants don't survive that will affect the community as a whole. So I would think
we need to help these guys out. So I worked with my friend Harris on getting together
with a couple of restaurants.
[00:20:43.570] - Scott Lietzow
We try to reach out as many restaurants we possibly could just to let them know about
it. We don't want them to have thousands of orders come in. They weren't ready for
it because that would be bad, too. So we put together a Facebook group and an invitation
and kind of got up to like seven hundred people in the community that would just say,
hey, we're interested to do a national I mean, on a night out, we all order out food.
[00:21:08.650] - Scott Lietzow
And so it was a very successful event. Like the restaurants were slammed with business
that night. And I was just really.
[00:21:19.540] - Scott Lietzow
They loved it.
[00:21:20.440] - Scott Lietzow
A lot of the restaurant owners were like, thank you for doing that. We really appreciate
it. And it's just something that, you know, we can do. I think, you know, when times
get hard, like there's a lot of there's a lot of division in the country right now.
But when times get hard and we have you know, we have an issue in the community and
shows that, you know, people can come together and do things nice to benefit each
other because, I mean, at the end of the day, we're all we're all in this together.
[00:21:47.830] - Scott Lietzow
And that's one of the the greatest things about that event is to see the community
come together and, you know, support the restaurants to make sure that our community
can stay afloat after covid-19 restrictions go.
[00:22:03.160] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, I think I worked in restaurants all through college and that sort of thing with
culinary school for a little while and all that. I don't think that people realize
how much of the local economy is tied to restaurants. You have so many people working
there from all the way from the dishwashers to the people who deliver the produce.
Right. And in the meat and that sort of thing. I mean, it's a very interconnected
system and our economy really depends on it in a way that most people don't quite
understand.
[00:22:31.300] - Brian Shelton
So it's really cool. That's really awesome that you organize. I think that's fantastic.
[00:22:35.740] - Scott Lietzow
Thank you.
[00:22:37.270] - Brian Shelton
You are working on your MBA now. Yeah. Yes. And so I was just kind of curious two
things. One, what's the end goal there? And the other is now I went to graduate school,
so I know what it's like. So but could you tell our students, you know, how does going
to graduate school compare with going to Harper College?
[00:22:57.350] - Scott Lietzow
So, I mean, Harper College will prepare you for a lot of your future endeavors, that's
for sure. So graduate school. So I'm going to University, Illinois Urbana Champaign
MBA program, which is online now. So that's like if you're working full time, go to
school. That is crucial because I don't know, it's hard. You work all day. You don't
want to have to travel to school and come back. So all is online now.
[00:23:28.420] - Scott Lietzow
And they moved their whole MBA program online. So it worked out for me to go there
because for two reasons. One, our military veteran and I already used up on the GI
Bill and Harper and then my you know, and I got my four year bachelor's degree. But
I don't know if you're a veteran of veterans. Check this out. You can go to any state
school in Illinois. If you are originally from Illinois. When you signed up and you
come back after military, you got any state school for free through the only veterans
grant.
[00:24:02.710] - Scott Lietzow
So I was like, hey, I want to get my MBA. And I applied to all the other schools too.
But I was like, hey, free is free in Illinois. It's a really good school. Right?
[00:24:12.610] - Brian Shelton
So, yes, free is free!
[00:24:17.050] - Scott Lietzow
So I was I'm going to get my MBA. Illinois is a great school to get from. I'm going
to go here and it's online. I was like, I need an online program in Illinois. It provided
for me. I love it. I love it's very challenging. A lot of the stuff you learn as long
as you like, kind of learn the basic study habits and you kind of wonder in high school,
I mean, in Harper, if you use the basic study, applications you learned
there and what you used to be successful in classes there, you should be fine.
[00:24:46.090] - Scott Lietzow
But it's a lot more work intensive, especially when you're you're going to, you know,
work during the day and then come back tired after work at night. But I recommend,
I think, one of the biggest benefits to me about going to the graduate program. And
I think a lot of people don't really consider this when they think of going to a graduate
program is having work experience before you go, because working in a company, you
take a lot of the experience you had from that and you can use it to your graduate
program.
[00:25:17.950] - Scott Lietzow
And that coming from a recruiting standpoint, since I was in military recruiting,
that helps out a lot, too. I mean, if you have. If you have experience working in
that business degree, it goes a lot farther than just going straight into your your
program and coming out with no work experience at all.
[00:25:38.210] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, absolutely. I'm speaking of school and work experience and all that sort of
thing. You know, there might be some Harper students, current Harper students who
are listening to this. What advice would you give them while they're in school? What
should they be doing? And then about starting their early career?
[00:25:55.190] - Scott Lietzow
I think some of the most important things are is, first off, get involved in Harper.
I know that some students may not even know about some of the student activities.
To have a go and look for those, there is going to be groups that will give you your
experience and the things that will help you out. I mean, it's not going to be direct
work experience, but there's life skills that you'll learn from being in those groups
that will help
you and help you get into jobs.
[00:26:21.650] - Scott Lietzow
Also, if you do have an interest in a certain career, this is something that I wish
I had known as the Harper College. You start researching those careers, finding out
it's a lot harder to do during covid-19 because there's no physical meet ups anymore.
But when the restrictions do pass bigger, I figure out who's in those careers, who
you want to learn from, like reach out to. Hey, I'm going into this career. You tell
me what you like about it, what you don't like about it.
[00:26:52.340] - Scott Lietzow
You'll find out a lot of good things. Networking is crucial. So you find out if you
like the job and find out if you don't like the job. Also build connections and people
people want to help young people and they want to feel like they're making a difference.
So don't be afraid to ask somebody who's already in a career field, you know, for
advice or just sit down and talk. They will talk to you. The worst they could say
is no.
[00:27:19.370] - Scott Lietzow
So many things that somebody else tells me no
[00:27:22.430] - Brian Shelton
I tell students that all the time, the worst somebody can say is no and then you move
on.
[00:27:25.330] - Scott Lietzow
yeah. So just reach out to those people. And some people actually might end up being
your mentor and, you know, and use that to your advantage.
[00:27:34.800] - Brian Shelton
I think now actually, you know, you see the physical meet up is a problem. I think
now it might be even easier to get people to chat with you because you can contact
someone and say, hey, I'm a student at college. I'm thinking about exploring this
field. Can we do a quick zoom chat, you know, at lunchtime today? And I think people
are more willing to do that. And yeah, I think it's a lot easier to to contact people
who you wouldn't normally, you know, geographically be able to meet up with to because
everyone has become so accustomed to doing all this web conferencing stuff.
[00:28:01.670] - Scott Lietzow
Right.
[00:28:01.880] - Brian Shelton
It's it's so different. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So you were recently named the outstanding
recent alumni at Harper College. What does that mean to you? That had to that had
to be cool, right? When they told you that that had to be.
[00:28:16.280] - Scott Lietzow
Yeah, that that was really cool. I love Harper College. I it's one of the. It had
a profound impact on my life, so when they told me I got the award, I was pretty excited
about it because I mean, like I said, I attribute a lot of the things I've done in
my career goes back to Harper. So and I found out about it. I was pretty excited.
And I'm always willing to give back to Harper College.
[00:28:45.890] - Scott Lietzow
And I'm always willing, hopefully, to be an example for students. And you know that
Harper College is a great place. Harper has you know, I know that Harper has a stigma
sometimes that comes on like, oh, it's not for your school and all that stuff, but
it really is a place I'll set you up for success.
[00:29:04.010] - Scott Lietzow
And if you just
[00:29:05.510] - Brian Shelton
So many students really have to get over that, right?
[00:29:07.580] - Scott Lietzow
Yeah. I mean, it's it provides opportunities to so many people, like, for example,
especially during covid19 years. Right. If you can't even go to a four year school
on campus right now, why would you spend all that money? You go to Harper College
and get a very good education, you know, and and you will the quality of the quality
of learning is great.
[00:29:33.230] - Scott Lietzow
And if you get involved, the community is even better.
[00:29:37.220] - Scott Lietzow
I have some really good friends that I met at Harper and, you know, they changed my
life. And some of them are still friends to this day. So get get get involved. And,
you know, that's why I love this this award so much, because it just reminds me of
all the happy times. I was it was fun.
[00:29:57.500] - Brian Shelton
That's great.
[00:29:58.220] - Brian Shelton
Scott, thanks so much for talking with us today and look forward to chatting with
you some more at another date. OK, good luck on your MBA.
[00:30:06.950] - Scott Lietzow
Thank you.
[00:30:07.580] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, that's going to be rough, right? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:30:11.270] - Scott Lietzow
One year left. So hopefully, hopefully, hopefully it's easy.
[00:30:15.890] - Brian Shelton
One one year, one year to go. All right. Take care, Scott.
[00:30:18.980] - Scott Lietzow
All right. You have a great day.
[00:30:20.930] - Brian Shelton
Scott Litzow is pursuing his MBA at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
and was named a 2020 Harper College outstanding recent alumni. You can learn more
about this honor at the Harper College Web page Search for Alumni.
[00:30:36.530] - Brian Shelton
Harper Talks is a co-production of Harper College Alumni Relations and WHCM. Our show
is produced by Shannon Hynes with technical help from Eric Bonilla Sanchez. Our theme
music was created by Aidan Cashman. I'm Brian Shelton. Thanks for listening.