By Danielle Pajek

“This was my back up plan. The first plan was Major League Baseball.”

Immediately after moving to the United States, Dave said he attended McDowell High School in Erie where he experienced a “severe culture shock.”

After Dave finally adjusted to the new culture, the Cambridge native said his mother was ready to move back to England and planned to take her son with her.

“I was going to move back to England as well. I did move back. For like three weeks. Then I missed my friends and decided I wanted to come back to America. This was like 1994. I stayed and went to college. I got my own apartment and just sort of figured stuff out. I worked at a pizza shop in Erie. Patti’s Pizza. Good Pizza too,” he said.

Despite the good pizza, Patti’s was in no way Dave’s forever career. The ambitious Englishman worked hard to get an education that set him up for a future outside of cheese and dough.

Dave said he attended Edinboro for his college education where he got involved in campus organizations and worked to improve the institution from within.

“My senior year I was President of the student government at Edinboro. We got some outdoor basketball courts built. I think that’s a big thing we did there,” the dedicated worker said.

Like Patti’s Pizza, Edinboro was a driving factor in Dave’s eventual future. After graduating from Edinboro Dave shared that he moved to Pittsburgh and got involved in sales.

He said, “I started selling advertising for the Pittsburgh Business Times because I was a communication major, so I thought I was going to get into sales. But I didn’t really like sales at all. I ended up getting laid off from that job and I got a job at Penn State McKeesport doing student activities.”

For some, getting laid off is a terrible thing, but luckily the Director of Student Development isn’t just anyone. Dave took the opportunity to pursue other routes and reflect on the things he’d enjoyed in life thus far.

The husband and father of two girls went on to say, “That’s what kinda led me into higher ed, but I’d been involved as an undergrad student at Edinboro. You know, like student government. I liked college life. I liked what it did for me.”

Dave’s work at McKeesport and his studies in higher education ultimately nudged him in the direction of La Roche. The now Assistant Dean of Students said that he first started working at the university in 2004 as the Director of College Activities.

From that moment forward Dave has worked tirelessly to make the university and, more specifically, student life what it is today.

Dave shared some of his biggest accomplishments that highlight his impact on La Roche.

“Going back some years, we got the field built. You have no concept of what was there before, but it was a shitty grass field,” the once LRU Men’s Soccer coach said, “and every time it rained half of it would be flooded or we would have to practice in one corner. We got that whole athletic complex redeveloped which was definitely a big thing.”

But Dave didn’t stop there. He also said that he’s done “things that people don’t even notice. Like, we bought vans so that we can transport people. A lot of people don’t think about how you make things happen, but that’s a big way that we make things happen- having transportation.

“If we want to take 12 people to the zoo we can do that. If we want to run a shop and shuttle, if we want to go to a Pirates game, we can do that.”

Throughout his interview, the busy man repeatedly expressed this theme of creating opportunity at La Roche.

Dave let out his well-known jolly chuckle and said, “I always wonder about people who are bored here. Because I can’t imagine being bored, but some people are. I always laugh at people who say there is nothing to do here or ‘I’m bored’. Look around, there are a hundred things to do any given week. I feel good about that.”

Anyone brave enough to say they are bored at LRU should speak to the king, or maybe the jester, of the Student Development office.

Dave proclaimed that no one should be bored because, “If there is something people want to do, we work with people to make it happen.

“There are a lot of positive interactions in this office. I think a lot of people find it easy to tell the students no, but it’s always been our philosophy that we tell people yes. We will figure out a way to do it, if you want to go to a Penguins game, or go to the theater, or start a club, we say ‘okay let’s do it,’” Dave said.

“When students demand more of us, we give them more.”

David Day, Assistant Dean of Students

And the man is true to his word. La Roche University can be praised for its multitude of events and organizations from the famous monthly bingo to student government and Biology Club.

But Dave won’t take all the credit for this success. He said that a lot of what happens at La Roche depends on the students.

“There are a lot of good opportunities, but people just got to want it. You guys have to be the driving force to want things and to challenge us, to say, ‘You know what, here’s what we want to do. We want to go to conferences in DC and go to conferences in West Virginia. We want to see other campuses. We want to develop ourselves,’” Dave said.

He even admitted that student run events are more successful than administrator run events.

“The biggest thing that makes people go is you guys putting on the event and generating interest from your peers. It’s not something that we are putting on but something organic that you guys are putting on. Those are the best events,” he said.

Dave said the role of his office is simply “to meet the needs of the students and get them engaged with what’s going on. The main thing is meeting you guys where you’re at and giving you guys the best possible experience. You know, helping you make the most of this experience but also prepare yourselves for beyond.”

This is really what it comes down to for the man who built the foundations of the Redhawk’s Nest- student success.

Dave said, “The thing I’m happiest about is helping people graduate. Helping people get that foundation for your life because if you graduate your chances of success are exponentially greater, your chances of making money are greater. It’s such a massive building block for people’s lives.”