So let's go ahead and get started, welcome everybody to another episode of the nonprofit show. We're really excited you're with us today because I'm one of my favorite people and banker extraordinaire Pamela Keefe is with us who, Pamela M. Keefe, vice president, nonprofit relationship manager at National Bank of Arizona. And we have with us today, Mario Muzerot, oh my gosh, Muzerot. You're on the right track, you're on the right track. I doubted myself, Mario, I doubted myself. Mario is good and I typically go by Mario. I don't expect people to break their tongues and pronounce my name. Thank you for the introduction. Thank you for having us. Oh my gosh, well we're really excited. It's going to be a lot of fun again. If we haven't met yet, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Jared Ransom, the nonprofit nerd and my trusty co-host is speaking at a conference today in Chicago and she'll be rejoining us tomorrow. Again, we are here because we have amazing sponsors and most of these folks have been with us day one. We're now 800 plus episodes in on the nonprofit show and our friends at Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd and nonprofit tech talk make these episodes possible. So thank you to them. Hey, we have exciting news. We can come to you on your sofa, in your office, on your phone, wherever because now we have our own new app that the team at the American Nonprofit Academy created for us. It is remarkable. Go ahead and download the app. You can simply scan this QR code if you're watching this live or via one of our archives and we'll get you started. You can also speak into your smart speaker and we will come up on your TV. It's kind of freaky, but it's true. And then of course we are in podcast format. So if you'd like to consume an audio broadcast, you can do that as well. Okay. My friends with the bank. Pam, let's start with you. Sure. And have you tell us about your journey into nonprofit banking? It's not nonprofit banking. It's banking service, serving nonprofits. Yes. So I have been with National Bank for over 20 years now, 15 of those years. I've been in nonprofit banking and, you know, I love my role. You get to meet so many people, the so many people that have this passion for what they do. And there's so many great missions and it's, it's like they're changing the world and we as a banker get to be a part of that. So it's, it's a great relationship with National Bank of Arizona and nonprofit banking. And it's so important to be a part of what they do and in our community. They nonprofits are the economic engine to our so very important. And we try and we do different things for nonprofits to really try to help them in so many different levels. So yes, my journey so far has been wonderful. I'm not going anywhere. We've met so many years ago and it's great. You've built a lot of great relationships. Yeah, you do. Mario, talk to us about your journey on being a commercial banker and then working with the nonprofit sector. It's been amazing. It's, it's, it's been a blessing to be part of the nonprofit community. I started in banking about 20 years ago. I would say to be closer about 18 plus was with Wells Fargo for about 17 of those years. And I just made my, one of the best moves in my life to, to switch to National Bank of Arizona and work with Pam. Pam has been great. Pam and I known each other from different times. We worked together in different events that we supported some more clients and it's been a great journey. So I've been assisting nonprofits for about eight years now. So the, the best part of my day is coming home and having the feeling that not just that I was able to provide for my family, but also I helped the community directly or indirectly. So that's kind of, it's a win-win. It's not just a J-O-B. It's something that I take pride in and day in and day out. And it's, it's very rewarding. So I love it. And I serve on the board and I touched so many, not different nonprofits, not just my clients. Something I have passion for is I have two old girls. So they're in public schools. So education and kids that need our assistance are. So top of my priorities. Well, let's get into this a little bit more because I want to start off by asking you both and Pam, I'll start with you. Sorry. I gotta ask you, do banks even want nonprofit clients? Cause you know, we're not always like a head of the curve when it comes to money and all these things. So is that even something that's a thing? Yeah, absolutely. Banks want to work with nonprofit organizations on so many different levels. Number one, we created nonprofit banking 15 years ago, 15 plus years ago and created dedicated accounts for nonprofits, dedicated services. We're very mindful of our fees for nonprofits. So we offer everything from an account all the way to a 403 B for retirement for nonprofits. You know, we bank upwards of 3000 nonprofits in the state of Arizona. So and growing that we have our work cut out for us. Mario and I, I mean, we have about 16,000 nonprofits in Arizona from A to Z, you know, very small to very large. So we want to assist nonprofits in any way that they need help from their accounts to a commercial loan. So yes, absolutely. Banks want to work with nonprofits. So Mario, tell us what some of these instruments are. I mean, Pam mentioned that you have, you have different, you know, resources and tools for nonprofits. But I think a lot of times nonprofits don't realize that, that there, there are lines of credit. There are things that they can secure. Talk to us a little bit about that. Exactly. We do have different products, deposit and credit products that suit the needs of a nonprofit. So the main thing for right now, the big push and the big focuses on the FDIC protection.  So what we did as a bank, we wanted to make sure in this, during this turbulent times that we have a solution for our client that they don't have to go, if they have, for instance, they have a million, they don't have to go to four different banks and open, open four different accounts so they can protect money. It's a lot of work. It's not the best use of their time. So what we do, we are part of the Intrify. So we are able to open one single account here and place the funds in different banks, but they only get one statement and they are doing only one account opening versus going to four different banks. So they're just one of the solutions that we came up to help our nonprofits. We have a community checking account which has low requirements for, for instance, the new nonprofits, they don't have a whole lot of funds raised already. So what they do, they start with the minimal amount. So we want to make sure we cater to those too. We're not just looking at the big, you know, mature phased nonprofits. So we have that product. We also have a consortium card, which is a commercial card that helps nonprofits exclusively. So what we did, we were able to put all the nonprofits in one bucket to maximize their return, rewards or revenue share, we call it. So that's another product. And last but not least, it's a nonprofit financing. We have a product that's called tax exam financing. And for capital projects, two, three or more million, we have a product that can help them about, roughly about 20% on their interest rates. If their interest rates 5%, we can help them out, maybe get it down to four. There's other things that the issuance costs and stuff, but in the long run, that's a great product. And we're very proud to be able to offer that kind of product. So we do have, we listen to our clients. That's the first and foremost. And we get the feedback. Then we go back to our management and say, this is what something that nonprofit needs. So let's try to cater to them, make their life easier. So they are engine, like Pam said, of our economy. And our community is here. So we want to make sure they stay in existence and they're able to serve our community. So we want a good client, but at the same time, we want them to be able to survive. So Pam, let me ask you about this because it seems to me that nonprofits are maybe reticent or even to the other extreme, afraid to talk to their banker and talk to them about issues of finance and actually more than just that checking account, but more of these strategic pieces. Can you explain that to us? I mean, what it is you see? Absolutely. So I think when a nonprofit comes to us, we not only give them a list of items that we would need in order to process a line of credit or a commercial card, we'll walk through whatever it might be. I mean, it's different for every nonprofit, but I mean, we'll definitely have a discussion with them, a lot of hand holding and our underwriters are mindful as well of looking at a nonprofit. Sometimes I think cash flow is an issue, but we work with our nonprofits and a lot of hand holding, a lot of discussion. So and aside from that, I think we've really tried to offer services to let them know, we're here for you as a consultant or if you just want to talk about what does it look like if we were to do a commercial loan down the road, purchasing a building or whatever it may be. And so we want to be their partner and that's how we look at it. And as Mario said, we're out in the community quite a bit and we just want to offer and create value and whatever that might look like, whether that's educating on what a bank looks for in financials. So it's very important to us that they know that and to take fear out of that equation because we are there as their partner. And I think that's a very important, it's very important and it differentiates, I think Mario and I from everyone else because we want them to feel comfortable and to know what is needed and what we are looking for as a bank. You know, Mario, that's an interesting thing to ask about when you talk about a relationship and working with nonprofits. I hear a lot of nonprofits and I have say, and I've been in this discussion, well, let's go to the bank to get them to sponsor something or to help underwrite or help fund because they have all the money. So how do we get a different mindset and to be looking at banks across this country as somebody that we can engage with? And I got to ask this blunt question, what are you as a banker looking for in creating a relationship with a nonprofit? Not just the banking services but kind of some of, you know, maybe that bigger level thinking. What does that look like to you? So honestly, integrity, they come first. So we need to have the communication, open channel. So we need to talk and set expectations. That's the most important thing. We want to be a trusted partner, like Pam said. We want to be an integral part of their growth and their success. So like Pam mentioned on credit. So as we all know nonprofits, 5-1, C-3, C-6 are not owned by owners. It's a nonprofit that doesn't have owners nor guarantors. So that's something we talk to our clients or prospects and we let them know when it comes to financing there's different aspects we look at and we educate them. Maybe it's a no today, but it's never a no three years from now. We try to let them know this is what we look for. For instance, cash flow. That's something they'll look for. It doesn't look like you can support the building that's X amount of money. Maybe we can look at something maybe a little bit cheaper or maybe we can work on these numbers and maybe three years from now, maybe we can get to the finish line. So I feel like the integrity of a banker also a client and then being open, having those open communication channels, I think that's the most important. So it goes both ways. We need to be available for our clients and clients also, I know they get busy, but they also need to be proactive. They need to talk to us and we need to work together to accomplish our goals. So it's a partnership. It's not just a we're a client and we want to make sure that we support them in different avenues like you said, fundraising, community events and different aspects of their day-to-day operations. So we are here to be a partner. So along those lines, we have a viewer that's just asked this interesting question and it's like, do we have to bank with an organization in order to expect financial support from that institution? Yes and no, I would say. So we all look for partnerships. So we both benefit from having the relationship, but we do have passion for different type of nonprofits. So for us, we will even support a nonprofit that's not our client. As long as they're doing good thing for the community and we are seeing the impact they're making, we'll definitely support. Pam's been with the MBAZ for more than I have. Yeah, absolutely. There's so many different ways to work with nonprofits. I know that the bank has tasted the Biltmore. We have it every year and we use a nonprofit as a benefactor for that event, which that event, there's over a thousand that attended last year. So it's getting bigger every year. And so as a bank, we try to create different channels to add value to a nonprofit, whether that be featuring them in our Elevate Arizona magazine, which we do once a quarter. We look at nonprofits that we can feature. And then relationships with the media, like I said, it's all about relationship and it's all about partnership. So I think that's a key component. To add to the answer and to address the question more precisely, Taste of the Biltmore is one of the events that we have once a year in October where we're inviting everyone to come. It's a fun party. It's like a block party and all the proceeds go to a nonprofit. Last year was Gabriel's Angels. This year is Circle the City. So Circle the City is not our client, but we love their mission, what they do in the community, helping homeless individuals with their health issues. So we are donating all the proceeds to a nonprofit that's not our client. So to answer the question. Pam, talk to us about a part of the resource that any financial institution has, is their leadership and getting board placement from financial institutions is a big thing. How does your bank look at that and do you have restrictions or are you welcoming this idea to put your leadership onto boards? Because that can be a little dicey. It's very important. I know all of our executives, including myself and Mario, sit on a board or a committee or an advisory council. It is very important. It's part of who we are. It's just not joining a board or joining a committee and putting on that hat. And just sitting there not really offering much back to the board or the committee or advisory council. So it is very important. So we are very involved in that. And so I think a lot of banks are, we're here, local in Arizona, but I know across the board, across the country it is very important. You want to be a part of their mission and it has to pull at your heart. You can't just join a board just to join a board. I mean it has to be something that you're passionate about as a person. And that's first. Yeah.  Have you encountered that? I think I have. That was a softball question because I mean, you know, that's the reality. So then let's go to the next level. How do you manage that? And it's managing expectations into what you said earlier, communications. But how have you dealt with that? I provided different support for the organizations, but if I wasn't able, if I didn't have passion for it, I would just, like you said, integrity and honesty is number one. So I will tell them I already have, because I'm on the board already. And I have passion for it. And like Pam said, we want to make sure that the mission aligns with us individually, with the bank, with the community, and we're all benefiting from it. It's not just being on the board to pool or source some funds or just to be on the board as a banker. So I feel like it has to be a joint need and a joint effort. So yes, I have been asked before and I try to be honest, and honesty doesn't kill, and I feel like people are going to respect you for it even more, just being not sugar-coating things and just telling how it is. But be able to provide, because all those nonprofits are doing a great job. Even if you don't have 100% passion for it, they're doing something good. So go out, help out. What we do also here, I try, Pam and I, we try to gather volunteers. So that's something that we do, because we feel like it's an untapped potential that we can do here. We have over 1,000 employees, 60 branches, corporate building that hosts a lot of different events, but we do that as well. We host events for nonprofits. We will go out and Habitat for Humanity, we'll do the walk. We'll go pack salads for homeless folks. So it's many different ways. I might sit on the board. Sit on the board is great, but there's other things that you can get involved and help a nonprofit. Pam, what do you see in that space with your leadership getting involved and the expectation, or not even the expectation, but the unwritten, you know, ask that's going to come to your leadership once they join an organization? I think it happened, yes. So let's just say one of our executives is going to sit on the board or I sit on the board and they expect, you know, you to be, either donate what you can or be a part of getting the monies, the funds needed for whatever that might be. So that is just a given up front. You know, that is the expectation. That's why I think it's so important as an individual to truly have that passion and not just do it, just to do it. I mean, it's got to be from the heart. And yeah. So with Mario and I, too, we have, we get to work with all these nonprofits and figure out ways that we can help. There's so many different ways, so many different ways to get back. Writing a check is just one. Volunteering your time, connecting, maybe with other like-minded organizations, giving them your center of influences. So maybe a CPA or an attorney that's focused on nonprofits. All of those, I think are just very important and it helps. It just helps both the relationship and it helps build trust, you know. So Mario and I know you're doing that now, too. So it's just, it's just who we are. It's something that we do just inherently. We don't have a lot of time left, but I kind of want to end with this question and I love it. It's kind of like a two-part question. So the first part is what makes a good customer? And Mario, let's start with you. When you're thinking about the nonprofit landscape, what makes a good customer for not only your institution, but, you know, banking systems across the country? Clear expectations, communication channels, number one. Passionate CEO, CFO and executive team. We typically see good standing a nonprofit with the passionate team of leaders. So that's something that's a must. To respect our expertise, I feel like that's a big part. They need to respect our expertise and our time. I would say willing to spend some resources as well to improve their business. At the end of the day, it's a business. They're running. So they need to invest a little bit to get something in return. For instance, I'll give you an example. Right before COVID, I was trying to get all my most of my clients to switch everything to have ability to do their banking online. And it did come with the cost. But some costs, for instance, why if you go into the branch computer, it's maybe 15 bucks. So we said, why don't you have this? Why don't you have the ACH ability? And they were kind of postponing some of them, not all of them. Most of them already had it because they took our lead on it. So it was when the COVID hit, it took a little while to get those things implemented. So we're going to spend some resources and trust in us as their trusted advisor. And it goes back to the first thing, trust and being open to communication and being open in our ideas. And again, commitment to a relationship, I think that's the main thing. So we are building here, it's a partnership. So it's a relationship and I feel like that's where it starts and ends. And fear and flexible. Come to us, be proactive. Come to us, we always tell people in our clients and the CFOs, executives, come to us when you can get credit. Don't wait until you have one bad or two bad years. They'll bad history of credit with us before we can move into different things. But that's my take on it. So then Pam, on the other side of the desk, what makes a good banker? If we're a nonprofit and we're going out there and we're trying to determine what's going to be the best fit for our organization, what does that look like? Well, I will say National Bank, we're more about relationships than we are about transactions. So I think of the banker being proactive, being committed, being available. All of those are very important and just knowing what their needs are and how we can assist and being proactive and like when COVID hit and had the PPP loans that we assisted with, we reached out to our clients and said, okay, this is what we need, this is what's going to happen as we were building our system as we went. And so we helped hundreds and hundreds of nonprofits and for-profit businesses with PPP loans. It's just, instead of sitting back and waiting for a customer to call you, it's just being proactive and reaching out to them saying this is what's going to happen and this is our timeline. So I think and I know I would as a customer would appreciate that. And so it's, yeah. It's interesting. Well, you two have been great. It's really been amazing to get this perspective. I feel like it's somewhat, we have this fear with the banking system in the nonprofit sector. We feel like we got to go out and raise the money and then we can work on our mission and we forget that there are instruments and there are tools and relationships that we can have with our financial institution. So I appreciate you sharing some of your thoughts and giving us kind of a different lens with which to explore this. Again we've had Pamela M. Keefe, Vice President and nonprofit Relationship Manager with National Bank of Arizona. Mario Muzrozhevich. Pretty good. Thank you. Yeah, that's okay. I've had challenging names this week, my friend. I really have. Vice President, Commercial Banker of Nonprofit Banking Division. Again, also with National Bank of Arizona. It's been really fun to see the two of you engage with us. And also I'll just say engage in the community with which I live in. You do a lot of work. Pam, again you and I worked on, we first met on a nonprofit action that was very of historical significance to our state in 2009. And so it was fun to see your trajectory in our community as a nonprofit leader, banking leader. So thank you ever so much. Thank you, Julia. We so appreciate you allowing us to be on your show. This is wonderful. So thank you. Oh my gosh, it's been a lot of fun. Hey everybody again, I'm Julia Patrick, the CEO of American Nonprofit Academy. Jared Ransom, the nonprofit nerd will be back with us tomorrow. Again, we want to thank our supporters who allow us to have these conversations with super guests like Pam and Mario each and every day. And they include Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Your Part-Time Controller, Nonprofit Thought Leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Thought, excuse me, Nerd, and Nonprofit Tech Talk. These are the people that really help us navigate all the things going on in the nonprofit sector which can be a challenge and but very, very exciting. As we like to end every episode, we want to remind ourselves, our viewers, our guests, our listeners, even our sponsors to stay well so you can do well. Thank you, you too. Go out and do more good work for us.


Hi everybody, my name is Jason Klein. I'm the Director of P20 Initiatives at Northern Illinois University, and we're back with another episode of Career Pathways Virtual Trailheads. We're really excited about this. We've had wind energy. You may have seen that episode and the individual who was our guest in that episode, his background, he was a nuclear engineering student for his bachelor's degree and his master's degree. He's never done anything with nuclear engineering. Well, we're going to take care of that with this episode because we're really excited to have a guest today who works at the Byron Nuclear Power Plant. So, Jackson is our guest today. I'm going to turn it over to you, Jackson, to introduce yourself and then we'll start asking questions about your career and your work. Awesome. Well, thank you very much, Jason. It's a pleasure to be here. Hello everyone. My name is Jackson Martinez. I'm an operation shift manager with Exxon Corporation. I'm a civil engineer by background with a bachelor's degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. I work at the Byron Nuclear Power Station, which is located in Northern Illinois. I am licensed by the federal government to operate the two nuclear reactor units at Byron Station. I use electricity 24-7 and all year round, supplying about 2,500 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power approximately two million households. Organizationally, I work for Exxon, which is an electric utility. As a corporation, we work in all major areas of the electric utility business from generation of electricity to distribution to competitive sales. I work within the generation division producing electricity for our customers. This is awesome. So, I mean, those numbers are just incredible to think about. We'll come back to that. You have two million households being powered and having the power plant running 24-7. We obviously all, if we're watching this, understand the importance of this. I almost made a dad joke there and said the power of this. So, with this, tell us what a typical day or a typical week looks like in your work. Sweet. I'll give you a month. So, I lead a crew. So, my crew and I work on a rotating 12-hour shift schedule with a five-week rotation. We rotate between working days, nights, weekdays and weekends, with our fifth week being a training week, during which my team goes through a re-qualification process that includes dynamic scenarios in our May control room simulator, as well as written exams. Now, a rotating shift work can seem tough, but it does come with some perks. For example, between two of our work weeks, I do have a span of seven days off, which is part of my normal rotation. It's effectively a seven-day weekend. Now, on a typical day, I arrive at the nuclear power plant and go through security checkpoints to access the plant. It's very much like going through an airport. We have a dedicated security force on site given the nuclear technology that we use. From there, I make my way to the main control room of the plant. Visually, the main control room is like the inside of a spaceship. The control room has indications and control switches for planning equipment and is where my team monitors and operates the two nuclear reactors we have on site. The main control room is manned at all times, and when I arrive, I take a turnover from my counterpart on the previous shift. During the day, my team works with other departments such as maintenance and engineering to perform surveillance and work on plant equipment. We test equipment to ensure that the equipment functions as designed. We also modify our plant to upgrade components for safer and more reliable operations. At the end of my workday, I am relieved by a counterpart shift manager working on the next shift. Very cool. Can we go into a little bit more detail about the training part of that, the ongoing training? If I understand you correctly, every five weeks you're re-engaging and on-the-job training essentially. Is that correct? Yes. I think it's one of the most surprising aspects of the job that a lot of folks don't necessarily know about. Training is a cornerstone of what we do. We go through rigorous training to do what we do. To start, to even be qualified to be in the position, I had to pass an intense two-year training program to obtain my federal license. This program involves written and dynamic test scenarios with evaluations from representatives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. My training ensures that I know the plant like the back of my hand and can respond to equipment failures. It's very much like flight pilot training. My team and I operate Byron Station day in and day out, but we are trained specifically for responding to casualty situations to ensure that under all conditions we maintain our reactor units shut down and cooled. My primary function is to protect the health and safety of the public. Once qualified, I attend training every five weeks to ensure I remain proficient in my role. Training is a cornerstone, as I said, and it's not just for operators. We train all sorts of individuals, for example. Our maintenance and chemistry technicians also attend training to ensure proficiency in their field and to learn about changes in the plant in terms of processes and designs. Yeah, that level of training, I mean, I've worked in school districts where teachers have time for professional learning every week, which is fantastic. But that level of training that you're doing, it actually reminds me of pro-athletes or musicians who are training, really, right, all the time and then performing just as well. And that's really what you guys are doing. So that's really neat. I want to come back and talk a little bit more about the training, but let's go back in time. Walk us through kind of your education. I mean, you said you went to IIT, but walk us through what those steps of required education were. And one of the things I want to know about is that two-year training program to get qualified. Like where did that fall into all that? So if you can, you can take us back to high school if you want and walk us through from there, the educational process. Okay. So I would say it started really in high school with my love and passion for math and science. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew that I was very good and enjoyed math and science. So I stuck with that. That led me to an afternoon program in high school where I got to learn about the engineering, project management and architectural fields. That's where I learned that I had a passion specifically for engineering. I chose civil engineering going into college to a degree as a guest based on the experience that I had thus far. I had learned through this afternoon program about opportunities within civil and architectural engineering and structural engineering as well. Now in college is where things really blossomed. I was involved in a number of organizations for professional development and a network and was able to talk with a lot of representative from Exalon. So I landed an internship opportunity with Exalon at the Byron nuclear station. While I was there as a civil engineering intern working on structures monitoring and looking at the health of cement structures, I did get insight into Exalon as a whole and the operations field as well. When I came in full time, there were opportunities for me to expand and broaden my knowledge base beyond civil engineering. So it's a plant engineering role where I work hand in hand with operations looking at specific systems within the plant. You could think of the plant as like a human, just a human body. It's got all these plants that work together simultaneously to make the plant work. So I was in charge of a number of systems within a facility and that allowed me to then gain insight into the mechanical and the electrical engineering fundamentals. With that, there was the opportunity to go to initial license training or ILT. That was the two year program that I completed. To be part of that, you have to go through a screening process which involves basic math and science as well as what we call a speed test to a degree. It's called a POS test and the intent of that is to evaluate a candidate's ability to respond and analyze data quickly to garner solutions and reach conclusions. So those two prereqs were what allowed me to then go into the program and the program itself is very intense. To learn the plant like the back of your hand, you have to have exams effectively every week and the passing minimum is 80% with an expectation from our management team of 90%. You're looking at integrated plant knowledge and understanding how things fail and what actions as an operator you would need to take to stabilize the plant. Having completed that and now working on rotating shift, we do go back every five weeks to retrain and the intent of that is to keep us on our toes. A sort of proficient to make sure that we understand the different circumstances that can come our way and we go through as many scenarios as our training staff can think of. So tell us about what type of knowledge and skills. I mean you've just said the math, the science, the analyzing data quickly and accurately. But if you were talking directly to someone who was 16 or 17 or 20 years old, they said, I think I might be interested in this. What do I need to be good at? What are the things you would say, any kind of skill that they need to be good at to be successful? Okay, for that I would say teamwork and communication. That's the key. I work in a team environment where we look to each other's knowledge and experiences to solve problems. We are open to one another about where we may need some help to improve and aim to support one another while we're at work. We have an expectation for communications, which we call three way communications. So when we have two or more people communicating, we validate communications by repeating a person's communication and ending it with that is correct. So for an example, if a field operator is going to turn a valve and they have to communicate to the main control room, they'll say control room. This is field operator John looking to manipulate valve XYZ. The main control room will then say, understand John, you are ready and in the field to manipulate valve XYZ. And then the field operator will then ended with that is correct. And so this type of communication is what we do day in and day out. It's second nature to us. So it's interesting when I find myself doing this at home to some weird looks that I may get from my loved one. But it is it is overly important for us to communicate clearly, concisely, and so that everyone understands where we're at in say a surveillance procedure or an operating procedure. So I listened to a very, very long book last summer about the Apollo program. And in that book there was a lot of excerpted ex transcript excerpts from actual mission control to astronaut conversations. It sounded very much like what you just described with three way communication. It's it's not the fastest way to communicate but it is definitely very accurate and and when you want to avoid making a mistake. Oh no, that's not what I meant. This is a better way to communicate for sure. That's right. That's great. So teamwork and communication. I mean right if someone's just going to focus on math and science and think that they can be an individual engineer and be successful. It sounds like that's probably not going to work out so well. Alright, it does take I would say the the science behind it builds a foundation, but the teamwork, the collaboration, the communications is what really makes it work. So thinking about we actually let's let's turn this into two questions. Civil engineering first, and then not just nuclear energy but the energy field second. In fact, how would you what would you consider the job prospects to be over the next 10 years for civil engineers as well as for people looking to get into the energy field. So within the energy field I would say definitely stable with an excellent itself. It is important for us to maintain a talent pipeline to ensure continuity of the business into the future. We need electricity. So that's the commodity that's something that we, we as a society need. And frankly we take for granted right we take for granted when we turn on the light switch or to turn on the light switch in a work. So we really focus on maintaining a talent pipeline. And for us, it's really our new employees that bring so much to the table for us in terms of innovation and drive building on the culture of inclusion that we have an excellent. We've seen our employees approach situations or challenges from a different lens, allowing us to use innovative technologies to solve problems. For example, we used to send divers into perform inspections of underwater structure. Nowadays we use robotics and drone technologies for these applications. This is exciting stuff and we are in need of employees that know and appreciate this technology to allow us to test the status quo and find ways to leverage these technologies. Now from a civil engineering and just broadly engineering perspective. Engineers, we solve problems and our world will always have problems to solve. So it's certainly something definitely for for like a young individual to look at prospects. There are always advances in technology with regards to structures with regards to roads bridges and even in broader terms like the medical fields for for other engineering disciplines where we need folks that have a passion for for math and science to really take us to the next level. Awesome. What do you like most about your job what do you what do you love about your job. Oh man where do I start. Let's see so I think the biggest thing with regards to my job that I love is the opportunities that my job grants me. My job allows me to be so let me let me take a step back so excellent we have employee resource resource groups or ERGs that allow us employees to volunteer and be involved in their community. I love to do that. And excellent grants me the time and actually really prioritizes for me to to be involved in my community. So as part of many of these employee resource groups. I had the opportunity to volunteer at high schools at colleges presenting what a career may look like with an excellent within the energy field as well as serve as a science judge for various competitions. So for me to be able to give back and and have a company like excellent that really showcases that and and emphasizes that as part of my career is great and I love that. The second part of that would be. I love the people that I work with I work with on a team with nuclear professionals top notch individuals, folks that are frankly smarter than I am and that's great to have an opportunity to lead folks. Such a caliber is awesome. We're able to to really pull on each other experiences and knowledge to look for innovative solutions. And I think that's what really makes things turn for us, especially when we're working on a night or on a night shift weekend. That's that's awesome stuff. So thank you for sharing that. Now you already told us that and you saw my reaction to the amount of training and the ongoing cyclical nature of the training that was very surprising. You said that's one of the most surprising aspects of your job. Is there anything else about your job that's either surprising to an outsider like me or that may be as part of the job that people in the control room don't really like to do, but it's an important part of the job and anybody who's interested in in becoming part of that field should be aware like hey this is part of the work too. Okay, so I've touched on it a little bit. I would say a tough a certainly a challenging part of our job is the fact that we have to work. We're in an industry where we have to work 24 seven every day of the year. So that's that's days that's nice that's week days weekend and even holidays. So to accomplish this, my workplace has five operating crews that work a rotating shift schedule. So we're all offset to be able to meet the schedule. We have minimal manning requirements. So this can be challenging as one has to be accustomed to working both days and nights. This requires balance and preparation that would say, for me, key to being successful while working rotating shift work is to plan ahead and to know when I will be off to make family and personal events and to look to take time off as needed. I also invested in blackout drapes, which is a month during sunny summer days. I work with many operators that have worked many years on a rotating shift and have families. They would also say that planning ahead is key to also enjoy that seven day weekend. Our work is like like that of like a hospital staff that we the workplace has to be open 24 seven so so we make on all accommodations necessary for that as well. Cool. That's great. Maybe this is an easy one. I suppose there's a whole group of people who might argue that it's not an easy question to answer. How do you believe your job has a positive impact on the world? Okay, so I would start off by saying that we power lives. So we provide our community communities electricity 24 seven every day of the year. I feel we've we've grown as a society to take electricity for granted. So we expect it to be there. So there's a lot that goes into being able to turn on our light switches reliably expect to have electricity available for use. My team works diligently to produce power safely and using the technology, i.e. nuclear, which does not produce greenhouse gases. So in that respect we are agreeing technology. Awesome. And then we'll wrap up with this. Thinking broadly, it doesn't have to be about your career specifically. If you and maybe you've had the chance to do this when you've been interacting with high school or college students. But if you get to talk to a young person 14 16 18 20 22 years old, just what advice would you give them in general as they're thinking about what career they might want to engage with? Great question. I would say, first, look inward to see what drives and motivates you. For me as a kid, I knew that I love math and science. So I knew that I want to do something in those fields. The next is to be open about opportunities. As a kid and never thought I would be working at a nuclear power plant. The opportunity with an internship at excellent. I took an internship with an open mind, seeking to learn from here. I never look back. I've continued to learn and build on new experiences. I think it's important for young people to be open about things that may not necessarily, they may not necessarily know much about and to see if they could see themselves in such career roles. If anything, this can help people or individuals make an informed decision about what to do and don't like while removing any of the unknowns or uncertainties about certain jobs. That is great advice. It is almost like all of the people who are working on career ed kinds of stuff with students throughout the state of Illinois.  One of those teachers or administrators at the school district or the post secondary level. So thank you for that great advice. It has been a real pleasure, pleasure having you. I guess I'm going to finish with one last question because there is going to be all kinds of young people watching this and they're going to wonder about this. You know, their exposure to a nuclear power plant is in one form and it's a cartoon. So you know where I'm going with this, right? Oh, you know it. Yeah, so tell us how much, how similar or dissimilar is it to Homer Simpson's experiences in a nuclear power plant? I know what I'm hoping you'll answer. Oh yeah, so I get this question a lot actually. I figured you did. I figured that. So we're nothing like the Simpsons. So I would say we do have cooling towers, so that is a similarity. But beyond that, I'd say that's probably where it ends. We, the nuclear technology that we use, so the fission process, it's powerful stuff. We're looking at uranium pellets that may be the size of your nail and that small fragment can produce so much energy, thousands of equivalent pounds in coal, hundreds of barrels of oil in such a small volume. So that's, that's powerful stuff. But I'll quote Spider-Man, right? With great power comes great responsibility. So one thing that's overly important for us is what we work around is to make sure that we produce electricity in a responsible and safe manner. So my team, whether it's in our training in the way that we monitor equipment, we're always thinking about how are we going to keep our reactor safe so that we can continue to produce electricity for the long term. So that is, that's what I would say regarding just the nuclear industry as well as a whole is these facilities are robust structures.  So with that, there's, we as operators just validate that automatic logic schemes are occurring and we take action if not. But generally speaking, ultra safe facilities, they have backups upon backups to make sure that we can accomplish certain functions. And like I said, day in and day out, we hang out 100% power producing the electricity that our society dearly needs. Awesome. Well, thanks again so much for being with us. And for those of you watching, this is this is the shift from school year to summer career pathways, virtual trailheads. You may be watching this in the middle of the winter, of course. And so it doesn't matter. We are going to keep producing career pathways, virtual trailheads, and we want you to let us know what careers you think are useful careers for us to highlight in a career pathway virtual trailhead. If you have a specific individual you think would make a great guest, or if you have specific questions that you would like us to ask, connect with us on Twitter at P 20 network that's at P two zero network. All one word and we look forward to bringing you more in the future. Thanks again for being with us today.


Hello, this is Buona from Buona.tv and today I want to talk about getting combat rank in Elite Dangerous by killing Thargoid's scouts. Now if you're familiar with Elite Dangerous, you know that we have various ways of measuring progress. We have a rank called Elite which you can get in trade, you can get in combat, you can get in exploration. Most recently I've been trying to get Elite in my combat and you know it's been kind of tough and I recently learned that if you had if you use a ship launch fighter and the ships that supported it You actually got 50% less XP. So that was kind of this heartening. So recently I've been looking into ways of gaining more and more combat rank I'm sitting on deadly right now and trying to get even more. So I was given a tip by some people in my chat I believe it was DBRN who hooked me up with the info. He said Buona, you know those combat You know those Thargoid scouts out there They give you just as much XP as an elite pilot an NPC pilot or even more and I was like, oh All right, well, I guess I'm doing that So I've been doing that for like the last three or four live streams on my Twitch stream at twitch.tv slash one to come I visited the avatars And I've been doing that for like the last three or four streams and I've gotten about 10% through deadly Now that doesn't sound like a lot. I'm talking zero to a hundred percent. It doesn't sound like a lot But man. Oh my goodness. It is Took me almost a year to get that before So this method I'm talking about You know, I'm gonna be using the chieftain you can use any ship you want There are some anti-zeno weapons out there that are you know and classified by Multi-canon and you have the Gauss weapons the the Guardian weapons You also have the remote flash Flashy flash launchers you have those as well so I opted to go with the with the chieftain because I like how it maneuvers and I can keep my My eyes on the scout very very easily and I can you know Position very very easily so I'm going with that and I decided to go with three anti-zeno weapons all multi-canons And then the rest of my slots. I'm gonna go with small multi-canons now You can choose to do whatever you want You know, you can take four anti-zeno weapons max on any ship so you can imagine you got a lot of choice And I'm gonna put my fit in the description so you can check that out if you want to But by all means, you know, don't take this as the de facto best build because it's probably not So as you can see i'm fighting zenos and i'm doing very well That the anti-zeno weapons tend to chunk damage quite a bit now if you're good with fixed weapons I highly recommend you use the guardian gauss cannon and you also use the The plasmas because when I use the plasmas I was taking them out in like two volleys But the thing with fixed weapons is that you got to hit your shots And the longer I do this the more shots I miss and I plan on kill killing thousands of these because I need about I need about 40 percent I think i'm sitting at about 58 59 percent. I need about 40 percent And according to the wiki according to some data people told me I think Debarian told me 10 to 15 scouts give you about 1 percent and I was like, oh, okay That's actually not that bad.   That's right.  How do you know what the thargoid scouts are? Well There's a handy dandy little group called ages and they have this handy dandy tool which tells you Where the scouts are going to spawn In this case, I'm in mentor mentor is the current system that I'm in But the the the ages Ship or whatever you want to call it. I don't know what that thing is called It'll probably change as the as the as the servers flip over on thursday morning Uh, so, yeah, I just wanted to share what you guys this method if you're grinding combat in the league dangerous bio means please Please consider using this method if you just want to get ranked you're going to get a lot Especially if you're not already deadly You're going to fly through ranks killing these thargoid scouts and they're not that difficult trust me Uh, even if you don't have an engineer's ship, they're not going to wreck you now I do recommend you only go into the grade four five and six Us s's or i'm sorry Non-human us s's or nh s s I go three four and five I don't go anything above that if you see a signal source. That's above six I'm sorry above five Carefully consider going in even if you got a big ship because you can get swarmed you can get swarmed by a lot of these things Uh, so I take three four and five And uh, those are those are the ones I take and again if even if you're not engineer You can take the threes and fours. I think pretty easily, but the fives may give you some difficulty I do recommend you engineer your hull recommend your you engineer your shield and engineer your drives Especially if you're not going to be using something as nimble as the the lines chieftain that i'm using here All right guys, this is wonderful born.tv I just wanted to throw up a quick video talking about this method and I highly encourage you to do it If you need elite combat rank so you can get yourself access to founders world It's pretty awesome. All right guys. Take care. Have a great night day morning times on appropriate exit right here. Bye


Welcome to my living room.  It's up Corbin. I'm Rick and you can follow us on Instagram Thank you to everybody supports son patreon. Yes, we can't subscribe. Yes, the like button because why? Oh, I didn't realize it would do that too. Well, it's a lot of the liking this video helps the algorithm and gives you an Oscar interesting don't Quote me on that But today obviously you all by the time you're seeing this you'll know what has happened Obviously, yeah, maybe you won't maybe you're just in the dark obviously when the Oscars starts It'll be 5 30 in the morning right for India and the song probably won't be till much much later in the evening Yeah, because they have to perform some early birds, but this will this video right here is for the Oscar Nomination of not to not to an original song and so this is pre-recorded. We do not know what has won right now red carpet hasn't even started out.  This is about Brendan Fraser and and and Austin Butler and Chilean is wanting Austin and exactly wanting. It's exactly, but obviously we will be reacting live to the Obviously all the nominations and then whoever wins the song and the speech But by now, you know who it was, but we don't know we do not yet Well, but we will in a few seconds, but we will have lots of thoughts if it is not a certain song Yeah, but we will also give our thoughts once it wins. It's going to win 95 plus percent chance. I say I'm calling it right now, and I'm not gonna edit it out Even if it loses, that's right. That would be so bad. That was anyways Let's just get into this in a few hours Okay, all right, here we go You guys already know what won by the title But get ready to see us real happy or real mad. Yeah, there's no middle ground on this one No middle ground. Oh, come on Academy do the right thing You will raise me Not do not do not do not do not to leave the house Yeah, there's only one the house went nuts. There's only one song that come on of an Oscar and you just played it Don't screw it up should be from the minute we saw it Give this man his time to speak, please Look at that ovation. Yes Oh man, are they going to commercial it's a little bit beautiful. You might have Might if I pause it now, we'll go pause and pause it and then we'll catch up here a little bit Whoo, thank you God You would have seen a fiery reaction from us if uh, it would have been one of the greatest Injustices in Oscar history, and I thought it was a beautiful acceptance speech. Like he said I did not expect him to sing it No, but did you mean I guess he first of all did you when the way the audience responded to Dupika introducing this song? Yes, and then the way they responded to The announcement of the nominee here And then their reception when they came up this movie is loved like no other Indian film in the history of this country It's true. Yeah, absolutely And I'm absolutely I told you it would win by the way, and I'm very proud that my son has called me Natu that's true He does call Rick Natu because he recognizes them from when we did the Natu dance for the rr review And now he just calls him Natu But man, yeah, this is a this is a huge moment. I'm so excited. We called it two Oscars would happen for India Oh, yeah, yeah, dude It should be more it should be more and it will be more in the future Um, but that was one. I love seeing all the people's reactions. I loved his acceptance I thought that was beautiful the the pride of everybody in India Uh, enjoy it. Yeah, I was incredible. I was watching that and looking at the screen behind him when I thought Look at them accepting this Oscar and behind them as junior NTR That's just that's unbelievable on the screen. They had they had his face up there for No, no, no, that's a picture of it. Okay, got you. I understand. I just it's just so so freaking. Yeah, that was awesome Yep, uh, congrats to everybody part of our team Uh, this is uh, this is so awesome. Uh, we've been waiting for this I mean we haven't waited as long as most Indians have had to wait. Yeah, but We're finally hopefully it'll be in the future for a picture for a foreign picture Yeah, for for different stuff like that and in the same way I anticipate we will watch an Oscars where India has a film that's celebrated the way germany's all quiet was celebrated. Yeah, absolutely well They already did one. I mean the um one with the vicky Um the about the massacre Huh vicky vicky crucial. Yeah, what about the film? Um sardar udam. Yeah, but that wasn't No, the Oscars like well, no, I'm saying it should have been. Oh, okay. That's what I'm saying. Anyways Congrats everybody. Congrats everybody in India. Uh, celebrate this one like you just won the world cup


We got some good umpire confusion here Ole Miss Hawaii tied up four runs apiece bottom of the 12th inning Winning run is on first base for Hawaii and he's off. He was running on the pitch. That's kind of important It goes deep to right field deep to right field catcher right fielder number one makes a great catch Throws it into the cutoff man. They got the dude. He didn't tag up But they throw it to second Which is a weird thing because he's standing on second should have just thrown it the first he tags him No response. So then the infielders like, okay, I'll throw it the first we can double up fielders the runner says no, no, no No, no, he said safe Yeah, he said safe I was looking at him. He said he said safe What's and what's he talking about because it was clearly caught but he's saying no, no, no That dude said safe and no right fielder says out Uh, and then everyone's like a gas like wait, what what's happening? So he definitely caught the ball No doubt about that. He kind of like stabbed at it and came down But he clearly caught the ball. I think everyone knew that he caught the ball. The runner isn't watching the ball He's watching the umpire and if you look here, you can see the umpire's arms Are very spread out because he is signaling safe Uh with his arms you can see his arms spread out. This is one arm right there and that's the other arm and He's saying safe. So he's saying it wasn't caught So then the runner Thinks it wasn't caught so he doesn't go back to first and the umpire to the tall one and left is just like Yeah, I know. Let's let's go check the replay. I guess but I had safe They're like, okay, we'll check the replay right feels like no, you're out Dude You're out. I caught it umpires say, okay. Here's what happened. Uh, yes The batter is out But the runner batter's out the runner he goes back to first base Because it was our fault basically and the runner's like, yeah Yep, he called it safe right feels like wait, what? What happened? The announcers couldn't figure out what happened.  No chance and then We in my in the office.    Or he could say Uh, the umpire is running. He's running and making the call brian like, I don't know or Who's running this ballpark? That's where we landed on.    I think I that's my best guess is he's saying like, hey Get control of your dudes because you're the head ump and he's running this ballpark right now making all the calls And it's wrong.  You're talking about, you know That's the go ahead runner. They should have been two outs Instead it's only one out and the go ahead runner stays on base. So a pretty big miss for just simply Not seeing that the fielder caught the ball Doesn't matter because they go on to strike out the next batter And then the batter after that they induce a ground ball to second where they do get that runner out justified You're out number four inning is over and then Ole Miss They get their chance to hit in the top of the 13th inning. They get some runners on They move them over they score the go ahead run So that's all good. And then the next inning they come out and they get the close and they win the game So and in the end it didn't hurt that much, but Straight up just missed a ball being caught. This breakdown was brought to you by Jolly Olive Just got 100,000 subscribers on youtube if you're one of those I thank you very much if you like mlb and baseball and stories and good storytelling Go check out jolly olive on youtube


It just started to rain, so I'm making my video here with my umbrella. Today, I want to talk with you about what I believe the purpose of life is. Typically, you will hear oftentimes that the purpose of life is happiness, to be happy, or that the purpose of life is to have great experiences. I think that is a dangerous definition of the purpose of life, and I'll explain why. When you think the purpose of life is happiness, or experiences, it becomes easy to get into the fear of missing out. Oh, I really want to go to that concert, or I really want to go to that festival, or I really want to have these experiences in my life, and if I don't, I got to make sure I make it happen.  It's easy to start blaming other people for getting in the way of your purpose, because your purpose was to be happy and to have these experiences. So let me give you an alternative idea, one that I believe, and it's made my life very meaningful, which is that the purpose of life is growth. The purpose of life is to become the best version of who we are in terms of our mental well-being and our spiritual growth, our emotional maturity. I believe that's the purpose of life. So therefore, it doesn't matter what experience I'm having right now, it's very cold right now, it's lightly raining, maybe it stopped for a little bit. But I'm here making the video, and it's helping me grow, because it's teaching me persistence. And it's teaching me to enjoy the moment, no matter how freezing, literally my hands, I'm holding the camera right now, my hands are freezing, it's extremely cold right now. But every moment, it doesn't have to be, oh god, I went to a great vacation, it could simply be I was at home, I had a staycation, and I just had some time off to rest. Or I'm working on a very challenging project. Where is the purpose of life right there too, is how can I bring more courage to this challenging project? How can I bring more wisdom to this challenging conversation or this challenging relationship? If we are willing to take on this purpose of life as growth and becoming the best version of who we are in any moment, then every moment is purposeful, and every moment is meaningful. And we don't ever have to worry about the fear of missing out. We don't ever have to worry that somebody else has better life experiences than us. Somebody else has more things, more vacations, a better job, a better relationship, you know, more money, better, you know, they look better, better looking, they have, you know, better health, it doesn't matter. Because every single moment you have been given has been given to you to live your purpose right now. Your purpose is not to have the perfect job, the perfect business, the perfect, you know, relationship, the perfect body, your, I believe, let's try on this idea that your purpose is to bring your best self into this moment, and therefore you can always live your life's purpose right now and in every single day.


So we have the all-winner Hello everybody, welcome to Owena And here I would like to introduce to you Owena's first 64-bit 4-core chipset So this is the first time you show the H64 Development board Yes, it is also the first development board based on 64 chipset in China mainland Alright So there's an Ethernet You can turn on There's an Ethernet Yes And USB ports and Ethernet HDMI Alright, so this is a feature right here We have the Novel 64 board And it's up to 17 billion gigabytes of RAM 2GB Alright, so how soon is this available? Everybody can buy it soon? Enough that it will be available at the full one of 2015 Alright, and here you're showing the new H8 This is the core resolution for Octa-Core So Octa-Core H8 right here So right now we're looking at the gaming on the A80 Yes, it's based on the A80 Octa-Core So that's the A80 with a 6230 GPU And can we connect the H8? Okay, okay So the potential price is just $48 for Octa-Core with these specs right here Alright, and over there you're showing Fedora You have Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux And you can show something You can click on the menu So that's all running on the A80 You have Windows Alright XBM-COS Cool So how about this wall here? What are you showing here? Octa-Core and a wall called Tablet And here we have our latest Octa-Core for Tablet That is A83T And this is Octa-Core based with A80 So this is the best Octa-Core for Full HD And it's working right here So you have UI Everything is smooth and stable And then the A33 is mass production This A33, A33 And Octa-Core, A80T Alright, let's go over there So over here you're showing the video accelerators So this is an IP camera So if I go in front Here we're showing the V15 So I look like this guy, 10% Alright And this is the V15 V15 is the most complete solution for an IP camera So IP camera market right here And over there You have the V10 Smart car DVD recorder So it's for the car And it goes right here And this is Android So you can do a bunch of things here in Android Android in the car All these apps Alright