Jared Nosal, Class of 2014

Interviewed by Hannah Kurczeski, Activities Editor

What degrees have you earned?

I graduated from Catty in 2014 and from East Stroudsburg University in 2019 with a dual major in criminal justice and sociology with the goal of going into something related to law enforcement.

How have your plans changed since graduating college?

I ended up getting myself into whitewater kayaking, ultimately becoming a sponsored athlete with a couple of different whitewater companies. My main sponsor, Pyranha Kayaks, had an opening for the US social media and marketing position. After college, I moved down to Asheville, NC to take that position and double as a pro paddler as well as an employee for them, which I am so glad that I took that leap and made that decision.

After almost two years of being down here in Asheville, I came across an opportunity to partner with several of the country's top insurance companies and ended up owning my own franchise of an insurance brokerage, North American Senior Benefits. My main line of authority is life insurance and annuities. So pretty much what I am doing these days is building my brokerage with clients, hiring state licensed agents, and working for Pyranha remotely on marketing ideas/projects, and traveling the country to attend events and races for them. I absolutely love both career paths that I have, and I plan on doing both for the remainder of my professional career.

What is most memorable about your time at CHS?

My most memorable part about being a Catty student was the sheer talent we had during my junior and senior years on the football team. We were the winningest team in school history with a 13-2 record, District 11 Champions, Colonial League Champions, won the schools first ever state playoff game for football, and our group of guys were able to beat Northampton 3 years in a row, from our sophomore year to our senior year. The bond we had was incredible, and we are all super close to this day.

I also truly value the relationships I made with some of my coaches, like Coach Falzone and Coach Schaffer. I attribute most of my adult successes to the life lessons and character building ideas that they taught us during our time together. I still look up to them as my old coaches and parental figures, but the relationship I have with those two these days is more accurately described as close friends.

Do you have advice for current Catty students?

First thing first, BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER. I don't think this can be said enough. To give it a little context, when I was in high school, I did not see how important this five-word phrase was. I was, of course, friendly to the people I considered friends, but I was not always the nicest person when it came to others who were 'outside' of my group of friends. When I found whitewater kayaking, I started to become connected to people from all different walks of life, from all sorts of places in the world. These experiences really opened my eyes and honestly completely changed my character and the way I treat and view people.

Treat people with respect whether you agree with their opinions or not. Go out of your way to help someone who needs that hand to reach out to them, because who knows what they went through to put them in the position that they are in at that time. Be the difference that you want to see in the world, and you'll see the difference that you start to make in people's lives. Who do you want to be remembered as?

TAKE CHANCES. This one really hits home to me. The reason I am where I am today and the success that I have been able to experience has come from taking chances and working hard to get to where I want to be. I quit college football because I wanted to start kayaking, I took that chance. I moved away from home for the first time in my life because I had an amazing opportunity in front of me, and I didnt want to lose it. I had to invest a lot of time and money because there was a chance for me to own a business and become very successful in doing so. I wasn't sure how it would work out if I did, but I knew for sure that it would never work out if it didn't. So I took that chance.

Don't worry if you go through college not knowing exactly what you want to do or if you are studying the right field. If you have a good attitude, great character, high levels of motivation and determination, you WILL SUCCEED. Don't let anyone tell you what to do, what not to do, what you should be doing, etc. This is your life, your legacy, and you only get one. So do what you want, do what feels right, and the universe has a funny way of working the rest out for you.