Molly
My Alumni Website

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
Author

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
Hello.

 

Molly
Hi, Ellen. This is Molly from My Alumni Website.  Thanks so much for joining us today. 

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
Hi, Molly. It's my pleasure.

 

Molly
First, I want to start with information about your school.  Where did you go to school?

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
I went to undergraduate school at Robert Morris University out in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, they also have a campus in Pittsburgh, and then graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh at the Katz Graduate School.

 

Molly
And how would you say your education affected your life and your decisions?

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
I think my education was really paramount in helping me prepare for my career life and my personal life too.  Particularly in my undergraduate school at Robert Morris, there was a particular professor and an organization called "Students at Free Enterprise" that I was involved in that made quite an impact in helping me see other role models and also understand where I could - - what I could achieve in my career; and then in graduate school, it sort of brought it all together, more or less the strategy of what I would be doing in my career.  So it really made a good connection to the working world, I thought, and bolstered my career.

 

Molly
Do you have any fond memories or remarkable funny stories from your college years?

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
I have a number of fond memories, but I will go back to the Students at Free Enterprise.  This is an organization that is on college campuses that encourages students to develop outreach projects in the communities to help people improve their life situations by using the principles of business, and I was a business major in marketing, and we worked sort of night and day.  You sort of don't know how much time you have until you're really, really pressed and asked to do a lot.  But the camaraderie that I developed with other students and the interaction I had with our business leaders at that young age and the opportunities for communication/teamwork/leadership really made an impression on me in my college years; and then I have to say at PIT, they have an 11-month graduate program, which I thought was fantastic.  Because to tell you the truth, I was ready to hit the working world and really didn't want to spend a couple years of graduate school.   And the same thing, I think that pressure cooker type of atmosphere where you're going to school from 8:00 to 5:00 and then working with them on projects and homework, that, the relationships I built there had been lifelong.  So just really wonderful and a lot of funny things I think from the extracurricular things from water polo teams in inner tubes to softball teams to, you know, you really just live and breathe that school.

 

Molly
That sounds wonderful.  Now it sounded like you were using business principles in helping other people, and it sounds like a lot what you do with your series of books, Girls Know How, is that you're trying to reach out to young girls and teach them to plan.  So in some way, you're using your business to help other people again, right?

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
That's exactly what the whole concept is.  I think that the series is a fictional series.  They're fun entertaining chapter books, but they encourage kids to explore and pursue the careers of their dreams.  And when I mentioned about the professor early on my school life that inspired me, when I - - later in my career, I look back and I realize the impact one person can have on helping a youngster reach their full potential, and that's really why I wrote the books, to help do just that.  That's just a part of many things, you know family/teachers, but I think the books can play an important part in that too.

 

Molly
And then you've recently launched a series of books on QVC, and it's also available in Barnes & Noble.  Is that correct? 

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
We did.  On April 23rd coinciding with Take Our Daughters and Sons to Workday, because that's a day that helps children connect what they're learning in school with the working world and really encourages them to dream, so we launched on that (inaudible) QBC, which was a fascinating experience, and then we had the national launch in store at Barnes & Noble on Saturday where we had - - we honored… This third book is about teachers or teaching and so we honored area teachers, and the kids arrived with a pink limousine and walked the red carpet, and it was just a fantastic event to launch those, both of those days.

 

Molly
It does sound for the kids and for the author, right?

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
It was a little corny and so much fun.

 

Molly
So what's next for you and your books?

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
Well we own both Girls Know How and Kids Know How.  Kids Know How is the overwriting company, so we hope to not only continue writing books about different careers, particularly on the short list are books with science and for some fun sports as well, but we like to write some pieces that are not just a series books but encouraging kids to learn life lessons.  You know how to write a check, how to set the table, how to - - you know those type of things, just some life lessons as well.  One thing that we weave in all of our books now are things beyond just the career, we try and weave a theme of balanced work, family, and community outreach throughout the books so each one introduces the idea of building important traits such as communication or teamwork/leadership/giving back to the community.  So we hope to do more of that as the organization grows.

 

Molly
I think that sounds wonderful, and I think as new generations of alumni come up through college, hopefully they will also be able to sort of pay-it-forward like you've done and influence other young people.

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
I really love that term about paying it forward, and that is something that we hope that we're doing here.  There are so many things that people can do to encourage career exploration.  It's never too early to start because you see kids that are coming into school or getting ready to graduate and still wondering: What will I do?  So whether it's starting with a kid with toys that help encourage role playing to visiting a local college and learning how majors translate into careers or perhaps job shadowing, those things help at any age to think about what it is what you want to be, and then we'll have some very helpful alumni to help the people that are coming up the ranks.

 

Molly
Well thank you so much for your time today and we wish you the best of luck.

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
Thank you. It was a pleasure.

 

Molly
Take care.

 

Ellen Langas Campbell
Thank you.  Bye-bye, Molly.