North Philly students get real-world lessons from Temple’s president

Growing up in Chester County, Jason Wingard used to quiz everyone he met about their life experiences — his school bus driver, the clerk at Wawa, his teachers. He was a kid who wanted to learn more about the world, where he fit in it, and what kind of paths were open to him.

It’s a skill that has served him well. Wingard has worked on Wall Street. He has written books, served in leadership positions at Ivy League schools, and now is Temple University’s president, the first Black person to hold that job.

On Thursday, he encouraged a class at Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School in North Philadelphia to do the same: to approach the world with curiosity, and to learn from everyone.

“I have a really wide network, I know people all over the world,” said Wingard, the son of an educator father and a mother who worked in human resources. “Now when I need something, I know people everywhere because I have put myself out there to do that.”

As president of Pennsylvania’s second-largest university, a school with 35,000 students, campuses on multiple continents, and thousands of faculty and staff, Wingard keeps a schedule that’s jammed. He hadn’t had time for a visit to any Philadelphia school since he became president in July 2021.

But a letter from Fabian Austin, a college and career counselor at the school, moved Wingard, and he cleared his schedule Thursday morning to visit Cristo Rey, a private, college-preparatory high school in a gleaming converted factory on West Allegheny Avenue.

“He thought the students would benefit from meeting me — what I symbolize historically, but what they could learn from me, from my path,” said Wingard.

On Thursday, Wingard sat on a chair in front of Austin’s college counseling class, answering questions fired at him by student moderators Diana Albino and Anala Thompson, who spoke on behalf of their classmates.

What’s the hardest decision he faced as Temple’s president?

On his very first day as president, Wingard had to decide COVID-19 protocols for the entire university for the fall semester, figuring out whether classes would resume fully in-person (they did) and whether Temple would have vaccination and masking mandates (it did).

Wingard threw in a recent example of a tough decision he had to make: A few weeks back, Temple’s women’s and men’s basketball teams were playing at exactly the same time. He had to choose which game to attend.

“I have four daughters,” said Wingard. “I will always choose the women’s game.”

Albino wanted to know what advice Wingard had for students, like her, who aren’t sure which career path they want to follow. What did he think he wanted to do when he was growing up?

“I wanted to be a professional basketball player,” said Wingard, who graduated from West Chester Henderson High and Stanford University. “I was taller than the other kids, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

Basketball didn’t work out, but Wingard’s path, in business and academia, has led him places that were perhaps more interesting. Temple’s president encouraged the Cristo Rey juniors to be open, to have varied experiences.

“Don’t feel the pressure to say what you’re interested in right now,” said Wingard. “When you do your best, you find where your skills lie and where your passion lies.”

Relaxed and personable, Wingard answered every question thrown at him. But he also had a few of his own for the students.

Who inspired them?

Albino said it was her parents.

“You would really say that? You’re 16 and you would say that?” Wingard, the father of five children, asked.

Albino nodded.

“They’ve been through a lot and they’ve sacrificed a lot for me. My parents came from the Dominican Republic, and they started down here and they worked their way up — I’m really grateful for that,” said Albino, who wants to study architecture or medicine.

Thompson said she was inspired by her little sister, who’s 7.

“I just feel like I need to be a leader for her,” Thompson said. “She don’t have anything to look up to right now. I had more when I was younger than she did.”

Wingard may run a massive organization now, but he said he saw himself in the Cristo Rey students.

“I will give you one last piece of advice: Have confidence in yourself in whatever you choose to do,” he said. “Sit up straight, speak loudly, speak confidently, because you are all really smart. ... I’m president of Temple University because I was sitting where you were sitting, and I took advantage of what I had in life.”