Professionals share paths to success with Lordstown High students

LORDSTOWN

Three finance professionals kicked off a series of presentations for Lordstown High School students Friday designed to help students become career-ready.

Jakub Waksmundzki, a 2007 Lordstown graduate; Rodger Jordan, a 1983 Lordstown grad; and Matthew Thomas, 2012; gave short presentations, followed by a question and answer period.

Waksmundski said he believed in paying his own way through college, so he worked full time. He still graduated with his bachelor’s degree in accounting in four years from Penn State University and completed his master’s degree in business administration in three years. He held down his student debt to around $10,000.

Jordan took an alternate path to a finance career, working 11 years at the General Motors assembly plant in Lordstown and becoming a family man before starting his current position in 2015 with Western & Southern life insurance as a representative and investment adviser.

Jordan said the students should not be “afraid to fall or fail.

Thomas has a degree from Youngstown State University in finance and is a financial adviser with MassMutual Financial Group. He remembers how difficult it was when he was a high school student trying to decide his career choice.

He said a personal finance class he took as a college freshman suggested an opportunity to him because of how useful the information was.

Read more about the speakers in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.