Affiliation

When we are kids, our parents worried about who we were hanging out with and if they were good influences.?No one understands it until they become parents themselves, or they just get old enough to realize that the people around us really dictate how happy we are and influence our lives.?I have been blessed to have a number of wonderful people in my life and have affiliated with some great groups, but I had an amazing example over the last year with a new group that I associated with.

I received my MBA from Alvernia University in 2016. It was a local program that I thought of as more of a check mark than anything to get my master’s degree.?However, a year ago, a friend of mine asked me to join Alumni Council for the University and because of my friendship, I said yes, despite knowing that my affiliation with the University was on one piece of paper for the most part.?From the first meeting of Council, I was blown away by the opportunities provided to alumni and the effort to bring together the Alvernia Community, Alumni and students.?A major highlight was the happy hour on campus and included transportation to the Walker Hayes concert Homecoming Weekend (Alvernia, please do something like that again!).

Alvernia is actually a Franciscan institution (Catholic) and values are extremely important.?The University has done mission trips and had previously done pilgrimages to Assisi, Italy.?For the first time, they offered a trip to alumni to do the Camino De Santiago pilgrimage (the trip may be offered to students in the future), which is a 100+ km hike across Spain.?Through my affiliation, I was offered an opportunity to go on the trip and it seemed to fit perfectly for me, as I had been dealing with health issues in my family and some personal struggles that could benefit from reflection.??

The trip started with Zoom calls involving all the participants who had mostly never met each other and spanned from their late-20’s-to-mid-60’s to help prepare us for the trip and give us the background of St. James and the meaning of the Pilgrimage.?As the trip started, I was quickly amazed how my affiliation with the University aligned me on a trip with new people that I had never met, but shared many of the same values and had many of the same problems.?We learned a lot from each other.?We also learned a lot from our fellow Pilgrams that we meet on the Camino (The Way) that were from all over the world (Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, and South Africa just to name a few).?We were all walking the same path every day with one objective: to make it to the next town.

In retrospect, for me, it was the opportunity to slow down, unpack the issues in my life, reflect, and repack everything.?My problems did not go away but I had the opportunity to reorganize my thoughts on everything and come back with a headspace that had a lot more capacity.?I had a new sense of calm, a new sense in the present and less worry about the future.?While on the trip, I only did three things (there just was not enough time to do anything else).?I walked, I read a book, and I journaled.?Right before the trip, my wife gave me the book ‘Life Worth Living’ which explains a class offered at Yale about various philosophies on what constitutes a good life (from a religious, philosophical, and practical standpoint).?I had plenty to think on my 12-18 mile hikes every day during the 5-day pilgrimage, so I had full days.

The Camino De Santiago was such a unique trip but one that was so incredibly good for me.?I made new friends, from the Alvernia community and around the world, that I would have not had the opportunity to meet had I not strengthened my relationship and affiliation with the University.?To think that I really viewed my affiliation as only a piece of paper?was so short sighted.?There is so much value in aligning yourself with and affiliating with good people.?When you do, good things happen.

Buen Camino.

Jason Hornberger is a 30-something year old commercial lender at Orrstown Bank in Berks County.?He would likely be considered a dinosaur by his Millennial peers, but he tries to regularly put together engaging content to show his brand and thought process.?Social media is an online billboard and his goal is to establish himself as an ethical thought leader and someone that other people want to engage with (hopefully in business and in the community).