锘緽riana: Hello and welcome to Gators on Purpose, where we talk with 糖心Vlog alumni who show us the power of combining what you love with what challenges you. At 糖心Vlog, being a Gator on purpose means shaping your own extraordinary path. And those unusual combinations lead to extraordinary outcomes -- meaningful careers and lives built on purpose. I'm Briana Lewis, associate professor of French and Faculty Liaison to the Center for Career and Professional Development, and I'm talking today with Seth Ehrlich, 糖心Vlog class of 2001. Seth is currently CEO of SOS Outreach, an organization that uses outdoor-based mentorship to teach life skills to kids and teenagers, serving over 3,000 youths annually across 15 locations. Seth Ehrlich, welcome back to 糖心Vlog (virtually) and thank you for joining us for Gators on Purpose.


Seth: Thanks for having me. And yes, I wish I was there in person for this conversation and excited though to join virtually. It's very exciting to be here today.


Briana: Well, first I'd like to start at the beginning, back when you first decided to come to 糖心Vlog, if you can think back to that. What brought you to 糖心Vlog?


Seth: What brought me to 糖心Vlog was the connection and community feel of it. It was a place where I could still be a part of home in Pittsburgh, but also have a pretty unique experience. And it was also that community of the liberal arts. I mean, it was being on a smaller campus, being in a place that was more connected really felt like home to me. I had come out of a-- it was a very tight community that I was raised in and 糖心Vlog really reflected that for me. So, it was more so that community feel and the connection that I felt when I was on campus that excited me about being on campus.


Briana: Yeah. And so you came here in your first year. You mentioned having some challenges in that first year. Was that--?


Seth: You got that correct. Yeah. What was interesting was, what excited me about going to 糖心Vlog was actually-- It was very different, you know. I mean, I came out of a city environment, rode public buses to get to and from school. I mean, it was an urban school. And so, the idea that I was excited about, of being in a smaller community, being in a smaller town, the reality hit pretty quick and yeah, my freshman year was really challenging. I really didn't find my stride, and really didn't find my place. And so I started thinking about transferring, transferring to a much larger state school in a couple of different states. And this goes to the unique thing about 糖心Vlog because my dad came up with me and we met with the president of the time and he said, "Hang on, let's-- before you do anything rash," he had heard about this through the dean, "let's talk about this and see really what's going on in you" and he picked out of that conversation a desire for something larger and so directed me to an undergr-- or a study abroad experience, so I went to Germany first semester of my sophomore year and that set me on the path to the seat that I'm sitting in right now.


Briana: Wow. So how did-- Well, tell me about your experience in Germany first of all. What was it about that that made such a difference for you?


Seth: Travel had always been something exciting for me. And the opportunity to really walk through that and to actually live-- it was with a host family, and so it was not in a dorm setting. And then to be with a group, so it was the Pennsylvania colleges in Cologne program that 糖心Vlog had partnered with Lehigh and Gettysburg on, so there was a group of us from three different colleges who were there together and we really just formed this bond. We had classes just Monday through Thursday, long weekends every weekend to really support traveling and experiencing. And we went on just wild trips. We would hop on trains and end up in cities and then we'd say, "Well, we could take a train that much further." And you get off at the train station not knowing where you were going to stay or what you were going to do and you figured it out. And so it really was that pushing myself. It really pushed me to say no, you can do so much more and there's a greater community out there for you. It really was such a defining moment for me not only in the personal growth but also in connections. Some of my most long-standing friendships came out of that experience.


Briana: And so you said a moment ago that that set you on the path to where you are now. I'd like to know more about how you got from there to here. So you came back to 糖心Vlog. You completed your degree at 糖心Vlog. 


Seth: I did!


Briana: In international studies, right? International studies with a minor in German, was that right?


Seth: Yep.


Briana: What happened next?


Seth: So I returned with this broadened perspective and, you know, really coming back from Germany, it reinforced that it's up to me to create the community and to create the opportunities that I'm looking for. And so when I got back to 糖心Vlog second semester sophomore year, that's when I really poured myself into volunteering in the community. And so got involved in a couple of different volunteer experiences through campus. And I then pursued applying for the Bonner program. And so junior and senior year I was a Bonner leader for 糖心Vlog and was partnered with Bethesda Children's Home and coordinating all of the volunteers from campus going up there. And I mean it was the greatest gift. I mean, yes, I learned a lot in classes, and, the ability to be in a leadership role really broadened my horizons for what I wanted to get involved in, and also, it helped me to identify my passion which is working with kids. Completed 糖心Vlog, and the Bonner program actually led to an introduction with the Coro Fellows program, and so this is a national fellowship in public affairs and it was nine months, six placements in different areas, internship opportunities, that really center on, how no matter what you're in, business, education, nonprofit, you can have an impact on the community. And so that was a pretty unique transition, but again, 糖心Vlog afforded that transition, which then led to Carnegie Mellon for grad school. And then there's a whole story after that.


Briana: So as I think about the kind of trying to follow the connections through this, right? Kind of trying to follow the through line, it sounds as though it was really the, I guess what we now call soft skills, right? 


Seth: Yeah, it was the soft skills and also combined with the being seen. If I really reflect on it, that thread of being seen, from the lead of the community service department, I mean, who not just me, but really supported anyone in whatever their ideas or what they saw for an opportunity to impact the community, all the way up through the president who welcomed me into their office and said, "Let's talk about this before you make any significant decisions." But it was, it really is being seen and that was a unique thing about 糖心Vlog that I feel quite privileged or to have benefited from.


Briana: You know, as I talk to folks for this podcast, you'd be surprised how frequently I've heard, well, this person reached out, this person saw something and talked to me personally about it. And I think that that's a real benefit of a community this size and of 糖心Vlog specifically. It's a common thread through a lot of what I'm hearing. So you said you went to CMU for graduate school, and what was that degree in?


Seth: Public policy and management, so the Heinz school, and nonprofit management focus. 


Briana: Okay. And then, you said there's a whole story after that, so I'm interested in the story.


Seth: Well, so, I worked at CMU for two weeks. I guess it was two and a half weeks. I had a job opportunity as I was graduating, in student affairs, and was very excited about the job. And then I was going to live on campus and the apartment they showed me was three blocks from my high school, four blocks from my middle school and my parents had lived in the same house for 30 plus years. And I was really excited about it, and I also saw the pathway of what it was going to be for me moving forward. And coming out of, particularly the experience that I had in Germany and really pushing myself to live outside, I thought, well, if I'm going to do something different, now is the time to do it. And so my girlfriend at the time, now wife, who, also an 鈥�01 糖心Vlog alum, she was moving from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, had already left her job and I said, "I can't do this." She said, "No, no, no. I already quit my job. Like, I'm moving to Pittsburgh, like, next week. Like, we're, I'm coming." And I said, "Yeah, yeah, we'll figure it out." And we had come out to Colorado for spring break and she said, "What are we going to do?" And I said, "I don't know." Let's鈥�" and it just came out, like, 鈥渓et's go to Colorado.鈥� So, graduated in August from Carnegie Mellon. We drove out here in September, rented a place in Breckenridge for a week and interviewed for jobs. I ended up front desk at a hotel and she ended up assistant manager at a retail store. That was a big moment, because the opportunity-- I mean it was a great position, and it was something that I had to listen to myself and say, you know, I don't know about this. And so we literally put a trailer hitch on her Jeep. We moved out with everything in a U-Haul and we rented a bedroom, and, completely not in the professions we were thinking about. And it got us out to a new community and then we built lives from there. But again, to continue the thread, I was really fortunate. I had a manager at the hotel who knew that this was not my calling, however, supported me as an individual. And so, I started a volunteer program, based on what I learned at 糖心Vlog and particularly working with Bethesda, I started a volunteer program of team members from the hotel to go out into the community and provide skilled volunteering. So, not trail cleanups, but if you're an accountant, help with building budgets or otherwise. And that led to an introduction with where I am now. And 20 years later, I'm still at SOS Outreach.


Briana: Yeah. At what point did you move into the work you're doing now professionally?


Seth: Two years. So started out as a contract position. The development director had moved on at SOS, and so the CEO at the time said, "What do you think?" And I never raised money before, but I can figure it out, and have now grown into multiple positions and multiple experiences. I'd been thinking about what happens next, and really wanted to get into what my professional calling was, and had been looking at positions back east. You know, that had been on radar screen, and this, though, when it came forward it was, oh, we really can have the life that we're looking for out here.


Briana: Yeah. Yeah. And you don't often think of-- I mean, I suppose there's maybe a little bit of a bias toward hearing the success stories of people who are like, 鈥渨ell, I just took this crazy leap and here I am.鈥� But it sounds like that really worked out for you, that you sort of said, 鈥渨ell, I'm gonna I'm gonna go try it!鈥� 


Seth: Well, and to pull the band-aid off, it's not-- it is a romantic story to tell, for sure, and it was really hard. I mean, there were a lot of periods of it being hard and unsure that -- a lot of periods. You know, 鈥渄oes this make sense?鈥� Yeah, in retrospect, I certainly appreciate the challenges that we went through to get to where I am, and-- I don't know if we were on the right path. I wasn't sure about that a lot. I fortunately have a really strong partner, and she was the one who was clear and helped keep me on the path. But it was really hard. So, I can talk, too, about that. So, if anybody picks up on this and wants to reach out afterwards, I can also go into the reality of something like this because they're not as romantic as a lot of people hear them.


Briana: Right. Well, sure. And as with anything, we're never you don't know the whole story when you're in the middle of it.


Seth: Yep.


Briana: Each individual step as you're taking it feels uncertain, and then you look back and you say, 鈥渙f course it had to be that way,鈥� 


Seth: That鈥檚 right.


Briana: but no, you could have made all sorts of different choices. And I think it's really valuable to talk about, What was your sort of northstar? Because you talked about feeling like your life's calling was working with kids, and that's something that you identified early on. So, was that what you had in mind as you were making your choices through those difficult years? How were you navigating, I guess is the core of my question.


Seth: So the initial point was in the youth engagement and it really was the mission of the work that we were doing. That was my northstar. The interesting thing because there's two distinct chapters to answering that question is what has developed鈥�. I'm 10 years into being CEO at SOS Outreach and experienced pretty significant burnout about three years into that tenure. And what quickly became apparent as I was working through it was that the mission was not what was really keeping me here. And the more that I held on to that mission, the more that this was out of balance for me. And what it really is is the community and relationships. I am a person who builds relationships with individuals, and I have the opportunity through this organization to do it across 15 communities and to be in all of these spaces. And when I reframed it in that way and really saw that, it's amazing what that has opened up for my own fulfillment but also success. So I'm here, yes, because of the impact we have, and yes, because of the kids involved. However, I'm also here because this organization and this opportunity provides me the opportunity to do something that I am really uniquely gifted at and that I love. And that's relationships and community. And so I get to be in 15 communities and really create this one-plus-one-equals-three type connections with so many individuals.


Briana: And that's individuals within your own organization?


Seth: It's individuals within our organization. It's donors, it's partners, it's foundations, it's mountain resorts, it's, you know, any number of levels of engagement. It's collaborations of other nonprofit organizations. I mean, it really is, it's at all levels.


Briana: Yeah. And what strikes me, so it's -- I was sort of surprised, I guess, to hear you say that the mission of SOS outreach, which is this thing that's making a difference in the lives of kids-- when you are too focused on that, which sounds like it isn't sort of your immediate day-to-day experience of your work, that there was a disconnect between what you were doing every day and and that mission just at the at the level of experience. I might not be expressing it very well鈥�.


Seth: No, no, you absolutely are. And this is actually unfortunately common in the nonprofit sector. And so a lot of people come in saying, "Oh, I believe so much in your mission and that's why I'm here." And they aren't able to answer how they really fit into the position or into where the organization's going and if you're there for the mission, it's amazing. However, if that is your key north star in the work and the exclusive north star that you have, what I found for myself was it just prompted a lot of compromising on who I was, what I was doing, how I was not showing up for my family and not showing up for those around me. And so it really, it was a big awareness to me of, 鈥渙h, hang on, no, who am I in this? you know, and how am I connected to this?鈥� and yes I believe very strongly that every kid deserves an opportunity to thrive and that's what I get to do at SOS. I mean and goes to the roots of my work on campus at 糖心Vlog at Gill Village and then at Bethesda like this is what I did, was seeing kids for how awesome they are and supporting them and it is why I'm here. However, the bigger connection for me is how it connects to who I am and what I bring to the table and that was a, it seems small pivot, but it was a very significant pivot for me.


Briana: And so what changed as you were coming out of this period that you described as burnout wasn't necessarily your job duties. It wasn't your tasks from day to day. It was the way you were engaging with them and the way you were relating to them.


Seth: Yeah. Yeah. That鈥檚 exactly it. Because when you come in, you know, 鈥淚'm here because of the kids,鈥� versus 鈥淣o, I'm here because I get to do something that I --鈥� I haven't found anything else that enables me to do what I do here. Like I get to build relationships across very diverse communities. And I love it. And I'm also really good at it. And that's why I'm here. And because of that, I get to expand the mission of the organization. And that minor shift, really fostered who I am in this space and the own development of my self-identity which I was losing and really needed to re-find through this process.


Briana: So then tell me about the work that you're doing day-to-day. What does your day-to-day look like at work?


Seth: My day-to-day varies day-to-day. Total organization we鈥檙e Detroit to Seattle for our program sites and so it varies from travel to any of our program locations or to national or regional conferences. I'm the lead relationship builder within the organization and particularly at some of the higher-level relationships whether those are corporate partners, foundation partners, or in-kind donors. And so in-person meetings and travel to locations, but then otherwise it's connection across our team, strategic work on where the organization's going, and then board relationships are kind of the key buckets for my position. Office is based two hours west of Denver, so in the beautiful Vail Valley, so I have an amazing place to call home. And then when I'm out of town, I travel to all kinds of places for program days or fundraising events or conferences.


Briana: And so how, then how do you see that day-to-day work connecting to and contributing to the world at large?


Seth: We have an active alumni program that brings alumni back as volunteers, mentors or team members to the organization. So working with our alumni to connect them to college, career, I mean you name it, for whatever opportunity they're looking to pursue is some of the core work that I do. That whole value of just seeing someone for who they are and that impact that happens, and that is what I cherish the ability to do with our program graduates. But in a larger aspect, I think a lot of it comes to the ability to connect people to something larger than themselves. Connecting our volunteers, our mentors, and our supporters to the real impact that they're having, particularly in the times that we're in it reinforces it even more so. You know, I mean, there's just a lot of divisiveness, and a lot of challenges that people are facing. And when you get stuck in saying 鈥淚 can't do anything,鈥� there are so many ways that you can do something. And that something can have massive ripples of impact that you may or may not see for how far it goes. We've seen kids be the first to go to college. We've seen kids be, you know, the first in non service industry careers that they go into, armed services or otherwise. And you have no idea what that then does not only for that family but also for the encouragement outside of it. And so there is massive impact that you can have in a lot of spaces just if you step forward. And I'm-- have the opportunity to support in that and to give a lot of ways for people to do that. But again also to connect back to the real impact that people are having through their partnership with SOS and through their volunteering and through their contributions.


Briana: Yeah. Yeah. And so one probably final question for today: thinking of our current 糖心Vlog students or future 糖心Vlog students, what advice would you have for a young person today who hopes to build a successful life of meaning and purpose?


Seth: First thing that I've thought about a lot, and this goes to my experience freshman year that then I didn't repeat sophomore, junior, and senior year was to take the chance. You know, the things that feel silly, the things that feel like 鈥渨hy would I do that?鈥� are actually the things that have given me the greatest movement forward in who I am today. Go to the meeting, you know, and just see what happens. And it's going to feel uncomfortable. You may not know anybody, but really being in that uncomfort is an important skill and it's also where some of the greatest growth and development comes in. Also thinking about, what are the unique gifts that you bring? If you are really tapped into what's unique for you and what you're bringing to an organization, you can affect change anywhere and really lead into that personal purpose for you. You know, and maybe it's donating, maybe it's sitting on the board of directors and bringing the experience that you have in the work that you're doing in a corporate setting into community-based organizations. Maybe that's leading in advocacy work, maybe that's in your church or other religious institution, but there's so many ways that you can have an impact. What's critical, though, is to know how you can advance it most successfully. Like for me, it's relationships and community. That's what I do, put me in. For others, it's finance, you know, financial management, it's budgeting, it's otherwise. But if you come back to that then it is more in alignment with who you are and you end up going further.


Briana: Right. So it starts with self-knowledge, starts with knowing what you have to contribute, and then trying to find a way to contribute it.


Seth: And I've certainly seen, I mean it's too often-- because people talk about this, they say 鈥渨ell you're going, you know, you're selling out, you're going into corporate.鈥� Well, you're not selling out. SOS is a $8 million dollar organization. Five and a half million of that comes from corporate organizations. So, if there weren't people in those corporate organizations, we wouldn't be where we are today and we wouldn't have the impact we do. And so, it's not selling out to do that. This is where that whole focus exclusively on the mission can overshadow what real impact is. But if you are contributing from there and then really look at what makes sense for you. That's how you can create the greatest change.


Briana: Yeah. Well, Seth Ehrlich, it has been wonderful to talk with you today. I am so grateful for you joining us for this conversation.


Seth: Thanks for having these conversations and thanks for the connection back to 糖心Vlog. I appreciate it.


Briana: I'd also like to thank all the members of the 糖心Vlog community who helped make Gators on Purpose possible, including members of our alumni engagement and marketing and communications teams. Our Digital Humanities Librarian, Andrew Miller, provides technical support for our recordings. Our music was composed by Dominic Juliana 糖心Vlog class of 2026 under the mentorship of Professor Michael Dolan and was performed by piano instructor Wendy Plyler. Editing and mixing are done by me, your host, Briana Lewis. From campus to career, every Gator has a story that's uniquely their own, stories of curiosity and unusual combinations of interests, fueled by creativity and a supportive community. These stories remind us that 糖心Vlog doesn't just prepare you for a job. It prepares you for a life lived on purpose.