EP. 27: jennifer nolan, PHD - podcast transcript

Announcer (00:03):

Welcome to the Purpose Nation Podcast, inspiring conversations with Christians in science, technology, and industries of the future. For more information in order to make a tax deductible contribution, visit purposenation.org

Brad Cooper (00:16):

This is Brad Cooper with Purpose Nation. And any parents out there with kids in high school get in elementary school, kind of starting to think about colleges? We've done it in our family and it can be a daunting task and sometimes it's just really hard. It's really hard to find a college that's the right fit, especially for your student. Do they have the right degree programs? How much is it going to cost? And then for Christian families, there's also the question of faith and how that will impact their child and which college they go to. So it can just be really frustrating, especially if there's not many strong options for your child. Well, our next guest on the podcast said enough is enough and decided to change all that by starting a college college or own. Wow. Uh, who does that? Anyway, so I'm happy to have on the podcast, Dr. Jennifer Nolan, Dr. Nolan, welcome to the Purpose Nation Podcast.

Jennifer Nolan (01:08):

Thank you so much and I'm really grateful that you invited me to share my insanity.

Brad Cooper (01:16):

No, no. Yeah, that's not insanity at all. I mean, I think you're doing what I think out of the folks out there, wish they have thought about and wanted to do probably.

Jennifer Nolan (01:24):

I know it's, it's a little crazy to think that I could start my own university, but it was really out of a need. My husband and I have been looking at each other for years with a big shrug, saying, "what are we going to do with our kids for college?" And the experience that a lot of people have, at least here in LA, is their kids will go to a secular college and lose their face almost within the first semester or stop going to mass. And we don't want that for our kids. And yet our kids really want to be scientists and engineers. So where did we send them? The Newman guide colleges in Southern California are Thomas Aquinas college and John Paul the great, but my kids do want to be scientists and engineers and so those colleges wouldn't be a great fit for them. And so I thought, you know, I've been a professor at UC Irvine at Loyola Marymont, Glendale community college, and I think I know enough to be able to put something together and gosh, it's just come together in such beautiful ways. I'm kind of floored by the way the Holy Spirit has brought all of it together and it's really forming into being I think something like the vision is kind of Catholic Cal tech or a Catholic MIT. That's really what we're trying to build. It's shaped shaping up to be like,

Brad Cooper (02:50):

That's great. That's awesome. Yeah. So yeah, again, most parents would just like sharpen the pencils and get out the Excel spreadsheets and try to do the formulas and stuff like that and try to figure out what the right one. So it's, it's Catholic Polytechnic University. So I love that initials are CPU. Was that on purpose?

Jennifer Nolan (03:08):

It was not on purpose, but it was definitely something that we embraced. So Catholic Polytechnic University, I was just thinking one day, what? What do I call this? I want it to be Catholic, I want it to be technical. So Polytechnic sounds great and university, we want it to be a full fledged university. So part of that will be to have the lower division courses taught in classical curriculum because we really enjoy and embrace that curriculum as something that teaches kids critical thinking and teaches them writing skills and debate skills. It's a wonderful curriculum. So lower division courses would be taught with that. And then the upper division courses would be science and technology, engineering, math and business degrees. The whole foundation of all of it really is a foundation of faithful Catholic teaching. We want to immerse them. It's what I called Catholic immersion. I want an immersion in Catholicism so that there is no chance that they lose the faith. But on the flip side, they actually gain more state than more understanding of their faith and grow in it and grow, become stronger, faithful Catholics.

Brad Cooper (04:22):

So this is, I mean it's just getting started next fall. Is that when you expect to start starting classes?

Jennifer Nolan (04:28):

Well, it's really hard to say. We can make tentative plans, but all of it will really depend on when the funding arrives. We basically spent last year forming the university on paper, so forming it legally. We're a 501(c)3 getting a trademark status application and getting legal paperwork done, accounting paperwork done. We did that all last year. We also formed, Oh, fantastic team. So we've got a Catholic provost, Catholic CFO, and these people have worked at major Catholic universities. We've got a team of scientists from NASA and engineers from NASA who want to teach for us. We've got top Catholic theologians who are designing our faith and science curriculum. One of the board of directors is on the Vatican committee for bioethics, so it's a, it's an amazing team that's come together. The idea would be that this fall, if all goes as planned this fall, we would start online offerings aimed at professionals in probably cybersecurity and what we are calling STEM ethics. So you've heard of bioethics. This would be ethics course in certificate based on all the STEM fields, so you'd get to know the ethics of each individual field at the same time. We would also hopefully start accepting for the following year, so fall of 2021 for the undergraduate program.

Brad Cooper (06:03):

Got it. Okay, great. So it's CatholicPolytechnic.org please do check it out. Kind of sign up for more information. I think you have like an email signup or something. I'm sure that people can or you can donate and go check it out. So please do check it out. I do want to talk more about that in a bit, but first give a quick bio here I guess. So Dr. Nolan, as she mentioned, the cofounder of the Catholic Polytechnic University, and prior to that she was a neuropsychologist, some deep heavy stuff here, light, light stuff. I mean was the CEO a CEO and cofounder of a stroke and brain injury rehabilitation center and she's taught university courses at places like UC Irvine right here locally and as well as Glendale Community College. She's conducted local and nationwide clinical trials and published in scientific journals. Got your BA in psychology from Loyola Marymount University, LMU and the PhD in psychology from the department of cognitive science at again UCI, UC Irvine right here, and a specialization in memory, dementia, stroke and insulin resistance.

Brad Cooper (07:00):

Some great colleges. Obviously UCI a right here, a great program. They're now showing, showing my age here, but so when I used to apply to colleges, it's kind of like the application time. So we've got a senior and he's out there applying to college and stuff like that. About this time I'd be afraid or you'd be afraid to go to the mailbox because if you got the thin letter, that's the rejection. And the thick letter was the, did you have that experience? I imagine you got all thick letters anyway, so I don't, probably an overachiever.

Jennifer Nolan (07:26):

Funny because I don't even remember applying. I mean, I kind of remember applying to my undergrad, but that was so long ago. I only applied to a couple of schools. I knew I wanted to be local, so I just, I wasn't sure.

Brad Cooper (07:40):

Yeah. Well, I, I don't even know what they do now. It must be like email. It's email I think. Right. So I guess if you get like the email attachment then you're in... Or if there's no attachment....you're not?

Jennifer Nolan (07:51):

Honestly I have, I don't know what is currently going on...

Brad Cooper (07:53):

Well you have to figure that out, Dr. Nolan, cause you're going to have to be sending these letters, you know, at some point.

Jennifer Nolan (07:58):

Yep. We will be figuring it out. But first thing's first. We've got to get our funding. You probably only got thick envelopes anyway, an over achiever.

Brad Cooper:

So along those lines, taking a step back kind of a little bit and your child, a little bit of background there, what started your interest in science and then maybe more specifically in the field that you're in in psychology and neuroscience?

Jennifer Nolan (08:15):

So much of this, based off of my father, I mean he was, it was really kind of a Renaissance man. Not only was he a star boxer and judo instructor in the air force, well he used to spar with Rocky Marciano. He was Rocky's a sparring partner, but he had a love of knowledge. And so he knew a lot of medicine. He knew, even though he had a business degree from Cal State LA, but he knew a lot of medicine. He knew a lot about history. He also had a photographic memory so he could tell you any location in the country or in the world actually in their population. And they were, he really gave me a love of the physical body and its workings and physiology because that that was of interest to him. So it was kind of passed down. But likewise, what's interesting is that he also was a star salesman.

Jennifer Nolan (09:12):

And so later on, his whole career was in sales for the Bearing Companies. That man had no fear of anybody. And he could walk up to anybody at any time, no matter how big or small the person was in, strike up a conversation. And we would often see, see him spotted across the room talking to some big star and just, you know, completely hitting it off with them. But as a result, I grew up a Disney watching this and he, he really gave me an innate knowledge of sales and of people. And how to make relationships with people. So over the years I've really enjoyed teaching in a scientific point of view because it combined both the science knowledge and that relationship with people.

Brad Cooper (10:01):

Was that sort of what maybe drew you to the psychology aspects of science and neuroscience?

Jennifer Nolan (10:06):

To some degree. The thing is, I'm not a clinician at all as far as therapist, I have no license to practice therapy. I don't know anything about it. Those classes were taken as an undergrad and they were very interesting, but my knowledge in psychology is really limited to experimentation, experimental methods, statistics, gerontology and more neuroscience. I studied at UC Irvine at the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia and had some wonderful instruction there and wonderful experience there. But what I didn't get, it was the faith component and, and that's really what I want to offer to all the kids nationwide is I want that tie in that deliberate connection between science and faith. I want that to be so obvious and so that they, they know it, they can articulate it, they can go out with their STEM degrees into the world. Just like the apostles years ago going out two by two, speaking in the tongues of the local people. But here what we do is we teach them to T to speak in the tongues of STEM. So that's what the goal of the university would be.

Brad Cooper (11:17):

Right. And just kind of just kind of stick along the lines there. So learn a little bit about how you came into the science aspects of, in your career. And now if you wouldn't mind just touching a little bit on the, on the Catholic Christian faith background. Was your family Catholic growing up? Go to church, tell us a little bit more about that and then maybe, I don't know how that journey has been for you.

Jennifer Nolan (11:38):

I was a cradle Catholic. My father was a hundred percent Irish from uh, Hartford, Connecticut. And so I was raised in the faith, but my mom was a convert. She converted when I was, I think seven. And then she became a CCD teacher. I was, I was raised really going to church a lot and, and love the church. And I always knew that it was part of who I was. It's, it's more of an identity to me. I think good sometimes in today's world people are missing if they don't get involved in the Catholic church in some way. Like I was involved in youth groups and singing in choir, just involved in the church. So much so that it became part of my identity. So basically when I started college and I started to veer away from Catholicism and not go to mass as much, I would take my elderly grandfather out on every Sunday.

Jennifer Nolan (12:34):

And so I kind of justified it in my head that will I, I'm doing this for him and not going to mass, but spending my time with him. Realistically, I could have done both. But my point is that when you make it part of your identity, you're missing it when you leave it. I found myself realizing that, Hey, I really need to be dating Catholics, number one because this is who I am. And number two, I need to be going back to church and reigniting that Catholic faith within me. And so when I did, and this was in graduate school when I did, it was a coming home. It was an acknowledgement of who I really was as a person, was a Catholic woman who loved her Catholicism with every part of my life and every part of my soul. And uh, I, I know now and I knew then that I could never leave it again. It's just part of who I am. And so I'm hoping that I'm able to do that for my kids as well. And I did end up marrying a Catholic and he's a wonderful Catholic man who also works in the, in Catholic nonprofits. So the two of us together just kind of made it our lives goals to, to spread the gospel to the world.

Brad Cooper (13:48):

And yeah, and I know they have, so at UCI, I know they have Catholic groups and student groups and things like that. Another other colleges, kind of more secular colleges they do as well. But I can totally understand why, again, why you're doing this and kind of what you're saying that you know, it's, it's a little different to sort of be there part time or you know, doing those go in those groups and be there part time and kind of being immersed in things. So did you check out any of those groups or they didn't work out for you or...

Jennifer Nolan (14:12):

I did. I was, so my department was, was kind of on the smaller side. We only had six entering people in graduate school the year that I started grad school. And so it was pretty intense. I didn't have a whole lot of extra time to commit to any extracurriculars for that matter. And when I did, it was, it was more of a commitment to my family. So my, my elderly grandfather, I really, that was high priority for me, so I could have spent more time at the Newman center there. I did go to masses daily masses on occasion, but it wasn't really a, a strong pull for me as it should have been.

Brad Cooper (14:54): Right.

Jennifer Nolan (14:54):

Again, that's why I wanted to develop the university because we should be able to have our kids go to a university where there's sacraments on campus all the time. There's faithful Catholic masses, there's confessions, there's adoration, there's maybe a Sunday mass that's offered that's in Latin for people who want that. I'd love to have an order on campus or, or even diocesan priests. So this is high priority for me. I want kids to learn not just their STEM degrees and classical curriculum, but I want them to learn more about their faith and have required courses in catechism and in sociology, philosophy and apologetics.

Brad Cooper (15:43):

And now, now talking about the work that you did, I guess after college and the science and things like that. So it's, yeah, it seems like you were pretty heavily in your degree and will as well your work heavily involved with things like stroke and brain rehabilitation and dementia and things like that. Was part of that due to family, I mean, so many of us out there have family members who were impacted by these and I imagine that was part of it as well for you.

Jennifer Nolan (16:06):

Yes, actually, but I laugh say that, uh, my dad was my biggest patient failure. It's a, it's funny. So he had a stroke in, Oh gosh, it was, he's lived for 19 years, passed his stroke, but he had a stroke and I wanted the best rehab for him. And because my field was in neuroscience, I see joined up with [inaudible] with one other woman who had business acumen and she and I opened up a stroke and brain injury rehab center called advanced recovery rehabilitation center. What was neat was that I was able to get training from the people who created constraint induced movement therapy, Dr. David Morris, out of university of Alabama at Birmingham, I believe. He was the one who came out and did the training and I was able to get into it even though I wasn't a physical therapist, but I learned from the makers of this what techniques worked, what didn't.

Jennifer Nolan (17:11):

And it was all about how to reorganize the brain by constraining compensation techniques and using massed practice in order to force the brain to reorganize. And it did. It was amazing. The different clinical results that we got. Interestingly enough, we were able to get kind of moderate results with hand therapy following a stroke. So when you have a stroke, it usually happens in one side of the brain or the other. And so it's the opposite side of the body that gets paralyzed. But usually the peril paralysis is not complete. Usually there are some connections left. So true masked practice, so not the usual meant like Medicare will only reimburse 45 minutes a day of therapy, maybe three days a week after a stroke, not after the acute phase, but in the chronic phase. And basically that's kind of useless on the chronic space. You're not going to reorganize the brain in 45 minutes sessions two to three times a week.

Jennifer Nolan (18:23):

So art therapy was six hours of therapy for five days a week for two to three weeks. And we, we got movement back, we got movement back in the hand, we got movement back in the leg. But the biggest recovery was we then took this therapy and applied it to aphasia and aphasia is where you can't, you can, you can speak, but you come up with the wrong words, right? So we would get people in for therapies three, three hours a day, five days a week for two to three weeks. And man, they would just be talking again at the end of it. It was, it was so remarkable. There was even one woman who was an ex CNN executive, she hadn't spoken in nine years because she had both aphasia where you can't come up with the word and she had apraxia where you can't form the word in your mouth coordinating the muscles of the mouth and the tongue. And it took us long. It took us like three months, but we got her talking again. And, but it just shows the brain is plastic. The brain will recover if you push it hard enough. And if you take away compensation techniques, like the people would wear an oven mitt on the unaffected side to force movement with the affected side.

Brad Cooper (19:49):

Right.

Jennifer Nolan (19:50):

When you have a stroke, there's a lot of neglect and even neglect basically the effected limbs. So you stopped paying attention to your hand that's somewhat withered, right? And you don't use it anymore even though you actually have a lot of people have the capacity. So we used to tell people, look, get one of those watches that beeps on the hour and every time it beeps. Think about moving your thumb. Think about moving your fingers, think about turning a light switch on. Think about trying to a spoon food into your mouth. You've worked with what you have and then you keep going forward. Grabbing a washcloth. It could be as simple as that, but you've got to do it like six hours a day in order for you to make those brand new connections.

Brad Cooper (20:37):

So with CPU and the college, you know, colleges can be kind of expensive, uh, to start. Obviously for the people going there, sometimes it can be expensive. How will, I guess this be different if at all, in terms of both the structure of it, but then also just in terms of setting it up. I mean, what are some of your thoughts on that and how it might be different than other colleges that are already out there?

Jennifer Nolan (20:57):

Well, interesting. You ask. With regard to the cost, and this is top priority for me because I have seen families at our local Catholic school where they have big families, they've got lots of kids, and as the older kids advanced into college, they've had to pull the younger kids out of this great private Catholic school that we have. And homeschooled the younger kids because they can't afford both. Right. And to me that just broke my heart. Not that homeschooling is a bad option, but not everyone can homeschool. I certainly know, I did it for 10 years and I loved it and, but now my kids are in this local Catholic school and I love that too. So my goal when it's to informing this university to make it so that child who is going or the student who's going into Catholic Polytechnic University would bear the entire burden of the cost themselves so that the family didn't have to choose between educated one in Catholic school and not the other.

Jennifer Nolan (22:05):

The way that we are planning on doing this is by forming strong relationships with the business sector. So we want relationships with the companies in LA and Pasadena and worldwide, even where our students can get hands on training in these companies and at the same time earn paid income for their internships. So there'll be earning income while they're in college to pay off their tuition or toward paying off their tuition, I should say. And then at the end of it, we're looking at doing on the back end, an income sharing plan where you commit to a certain percentage of your income over the first five years when you're out of college. And some people have said to me, well that's indentured servitude. But honestly, student loans or indentured servitude, I'm paying my graduate school off 20 years later. So...

Brad Cooper (23:05):

Well that's also similar to like an employment agency I guess too to some extent, right? Where sometimes the employment agency will get a percentage of your income.

Jennifer Nolan (23:13): Yeah, that's true. That's very true. So we really want to be able to have the families afford it, but also this would allow us to take kids who are from underprivileged families in a socioeconomic status, ways that if the family is, maybe you have never gone to college before and this kid has a desire to get a STEM degree and they're from a poor economic strata, then this would allow them the kid to come in based on merit alone, not on ability to pay or not on their family's ability to pay and be able to bear the entire burden of college tuition by themselves. Right. So that's mostly what we're thinking about. We are also, honestly, we're considering not taking government dollars because we're concerned about the legislation and how it would impact a Catholic college in the longterm. Like right now in California, there are a lot of laws that have the potential of effecting us as a Catholic institution down the line. Like providing abortion pills on campus right now under current legislation. I don't believe we'd have to, but you never know what's going to happen down the road. So we're, we're considering ways of putting the financial burden solely on the student, but then making ways of making that affordable for them and realistic for them.

Brad Cooper (24:37):

Right. And it sounds like you also, um, as I understand it maybe especially in the beginning may have a hybrid kind of online versus on campus I call it courses, right?

Jennifer Nolan (24:48):

Yeah. We've already been approached by two major Catholic universities across the country for relationships. And so one Catholic college has an entirely developed engineering department. It's got the labs, it's got all four major engineering degrees. And so it would make sense for us to partner with them and do some type of hybrid online learning program and maybe ship the students off during summers to do their lab work at their labs so that they would end up earning a dual degree. So we're looking at these programs or the science and technology and engineering. It's likely though that we would probably do more of the technology here and then do more of the engineering and sciences, maybe online. It's all kind of up in the air, but it is forming. We're forming these ideas and these plans now. Okay. Once we get the money, we just want to hit the ground running.

Brad Cooper (25:46):

That's great. And w what's been the response so far? I know you've, you've done a couple of interviews now and I know you've gotten some press. What has the response been to from other parents especially?

Jennifer Nolan (25:55):

Oh gosh, it's been 100% positive. Well, 99.9% positive. I had one professor in choir and uh, eventually and so I send them our business plan and they came back and said, no, I don't want to take an oath to the magistarium. I've never had to take an oath. I'm like, okay, well that's your decision. But we are going to require our faculty to take a note to the magistarium. It just again ensures that we maintain that Catholic identity. Outside of that, Oh my gosh, people have been so supportive when we sent out. Very simple LinkedIn post back in September saying, Hey, I'm starting this new cat at Catholic university and we want to get your input here, take our survey. That post went viral. We got 12,000 views in three weeks and, and I've had podcast offers and we're, we're about to get on Zenit the Vatican news agency. We did also meet with Archbishop Gomez and he's fully supportive of this endeavor. He's given us permission to use Catholic in the name

Brad Cooper (27:03):

And this is the, for those around the country around the world. This is the Los Angeles, uh, Archbishop. Yes?

Jennifer Nolan (27:09):

Yes. And I believe he's now elected to be president of the USCCB and we also will have a member of his staff to be on our board of directors so that we are always in compliance with the art, local archdiocese. That's high priority for us. So yes, the response is an amazing, people have been coming out of the woodwork saying, Hey, I want to support you. Hey, I want my kid coming to you. We've also had a huge response from Catholic scientists and engineers across the country who are saying, I'm a closet Catholic and I want to come work for you.

Jennifer Nolan (27:47):

I don't like where I'm working because...they want me to do embryonic STEM cell research or they want me to do something that's not ethical according to my Catholic faith. And so I want to come work for you or I want to teach at Catholic Polytechnic university because I want to share my faith and the science or technology. Right.

Brad Cooper (28:06):

At the same time, we don't want them all to leave. We want you to have some and have some good ones, but we will have also people out there working in those fields too so that they can bring them into the workplace and things like that. But hopefully they'll teach at your place part time and then go into the workplace and, and, and bring it in there as well.

Jennifer Nolan (28:21):

Exactly. And actually that's, that's one of our goals for the students because what we want to do is we recognize that in the fields of science and especially technology and the engineering, that there's kind of, technology is a giant snowball going a little out of control like unguided as far as ethics are concerned. And so we want to educate people in the ethics of STEM so that they know when they go out into the fields and they, they become these innovators and leaders in the field that they can guide that giant snowball in ethical manners so that the world is more compliant with Catholic teaching. Basically we want ethical technology to be developed, but, but we, at the same time, we also want our Catholic students to become innovators and leaders in the field. We want them to have a higher socioeconomic status too, that they are able to support large families and uh, sure more people and more money back into the Catholic church. We really want to rebuild that Catholic church from the inside out. I think higher ed really has the capacity to do that.

Brad Cooper (29:33): What are some of your hopes and dreams, an ideal outcome for CPU in, you know, five, 10 years from now.

Jennifer Nolan (29:38):

I want to build a sustainable university. I want the university to have an endowment that is going to allow it to be working a hundred years from now. I want it to be able to continually educate people in STEM degrees and in faith so that we can help keep the Catholic church sustainable. That's the ultimate goal.

Brad Cooper (30:03):

Right. Some small goals there. So at least you're thinking, thinking big. (laughing)

Jennifer Nolan (30:09):

(laughing) Yeah, exactly. But you know, look at how little mother Teresa was and I, and look how, look at how little Joan of Arc was. Joan of Arc said once it matters not how big or small, the hand that holds God's sword is. It's God's sword. It's going to be effective no matter what. So my hands are are little and actually they're quite frankly, they're crippled from an arthritis I had years ago. So that's not stopping the Lord from using me to implement this vision that I think he's given me of what this university could be.

Brad Cooper (30:46):

That's great. And so if folks wanted to get involved or participate in some way or in what, what sort of, uh, what could they do at this point? Obviously go to the website, which is CatholicPolytechnic.org. Any other things that they can do?

Jennifer Nolan (30:58):

Well through the website, they have an opportunity to donate. There's a way of contacting us, what we're looking for at this time when need to reach out to foundations and benefactors in order to get going because we've got everything in place now to launch. So that's our next step. And then our, our next step beyond that is also to start the accreditation process. But really we can't do any of that without, without the funding. So if people think about their networks, their Catholic networks, and they think, well, I know this person, this person might be really in a great person to get involved. Um, reach out to me through the website. I'm very approachable. That's really how people can help the most. But also we need prayers. We need prayers to be efficient in our work and to always maintain division and the focus on Christ. And to be able to draw in people who also have those visions, you know, that same vision of focus on Christ and focus on service to our students.

Brad Cooper (32:04):

So for you working as a scientist, and I realize, again it's been a little bit, and I'm not currently doing that, but just thinking back to when you were, how has your faith influenced your work and vice versa? So I mean, did they reinforce each other and if so, how so?

Jennifer Nolan (32:20):

Oh gosh, that's a, that's a good question. I was kind of in a field where faith wasn't really involved as much, but at the same time, anytime you're doing service to others, there is the opportunity for faith because it is the corporal acts of mercy. And so as I was ministering to stroke and brain injured patients, they were an opportunity to bring hope to them, and joy to them.

Jennifer Nolan (32:49):

There was a time when my husband and I, we conceived our last child and I found out that she was trisomy 18 And that she had multiple birth defects. And so I carried her for as long as I could. I carried her for seven and a half months and she died upon birth and we knew that she would die upon birth. But during that time I was facing fighting the medical community. They kept pressuring me to abort and I said, no, I'm not going to abort this child and give her a violent death in my womb when I could give her a peaceful death upon birth and just love her the whole time that I'm carrying her. But what I learned during that time is that we as Christians are called to faith, hope and love, and most of us, if we're truly faithful, we aim to heroic faith and heroic love. That's how we can minister to us in every walk of life, every single part of our world, we have the opportunity to express faith or to love others.

Jennifer Nolan (33:55):

But you know what? I never thought of heroic hope. And sometimes that's what the Lord calls us to. Heroic hope? I Had never thought of that before, but when I was faced with this pregnancy with a child that I knew would die upon birth, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was going to be required to have heroic hope. That number one, maybe my, the Lord might heal her and number two, if not, that I would survive it and recover. And I did. I mean, it's always a hurt in my, in my heart, but I did. But also you look at your mission in life and you look at your career and you think, "Am I living a life of mediocrity? Or do I choose to have heroic hope that I'm going to make a real difference in this world and I'm going to be a hero to people. Whether it's a hero to, an elderly parent who's suffering or a hero to, a sick family or a hero to someone at work who's really struggling. I think the Lord calls you to be heroic in faith, hope and love. And so that opportunity is always there. You just have to open your eyes to it.

Brad Cooper (35:08):

Yeah. That's amazing. That's amazing. Thank you for sharing that. And it's a wow, very powerful. So, um, so for a young person out there who, uh, either for parents of a young person or a young person who might be listening who might have an inclination [inaudible] math or science or engineering or building stuff or just maybe there's some thought that they, you know, maybe a STEM career, I'm not so sure. Obviously we want them to go to CPU. Other than that, what would you, what kind of advice based on your experience would you or you know, kind of what, you know, what would you give them? And obviously, you know, this is mostly, well mostly kind of a Christian or Catholic Christian audience out there, but, um, but, but maybe not, but you know, in terms of someone who's, you know, going to church and, and faithful and wanting to stay in their faith and, but you know, maybe have some concerns about going into a STEM field. And what would you say to them?

Jennifer Nolan (35:53):

You know, I would say go for it. Go into the STEM field. It's, again, the statistics showed that that's where the jobs are. That's where job security is. That's where you get higher paying jobs. For us to not encourage people to go into STEM fields I think is kind of a a big mistake. We as Catholics have done liberal arts institutions, higher ed institutions really, really well over the last several centuries. We have such a wonderful track record of doing liberal arts really well. But if you look back far enough, we have also done science really well. So it's time to bring that back and bring in technology with it and bring in engineering with it and, and to really have an influence in these fields. That's what I think that we're missing is I think we need to send people into the technology sector and to have people who can articulate the faith and who are, can articulate ethics and to influence the world in really positive ways. But, but yes, it did go into those fields and also be strong in math because math is going to help you in every single one of those fields. Brad Cooper (37:08): Obviously the reason you're starting this is because it sounded like you know, you wanted it potentially. Have some options for your own children, but are there, what are, what kinds of fields are they a kind of exploring right now in D? How, how far away, how many more years before, uh, you know, they'd be eligible for CPU?

Jennifer Nolan (37:24):

I joke that I've got a biological clock ticking because my oldest is 16 and looking at applying for colleges soon so that that deadline is looming over me. But we are hoping to get the undergrad up and running by fall of 2021 that said, I do have younger kids who want to be scientists and engineers. Their path isn't clear yet. They don't really know exactly what they want to do, but I do know what's in those fields. So I just don't really want to send them to a secular college and have them come home at Thanksgiving and say, well, you know, this smooth talking philosophy professor said there was no God and, and I didn't know how to articulate that. Maybe you know, or defend that. So I don't want to take that risk with them. I want to be able to further their faith and push them forward into the depths of Christianity so that it's so much a part of their identity that they will always feel kind of naked without it or unprepared for the world without it.

Brad Cooper (38:31):

So thank you for that. And again, we're talking with Dr. Jennifer Nolan who is a a scientist but also a parent and starting a college starting in a university. So once again, it's a Catholic Polytechnic University and you can check them out at CatholicPolytechnic.org and so that's so great.

Brad Cooper (38:48):

And then just as we're talking here towards the end about to kind of about to wrap up here, the crow decided to come back to the window. So we were talking about this offline before we got started. So, uh, this morning we've had, I've got a, just a crow, that's whatever. He's trying to get somebody's attention. I don't know what's going on. I guess it's spring time. So, um, so it's not, and we were talking offline and it sounds like Dr. Nolan, you, you, you have a cure for that for me that you suggested (laughing)

Jennifer Nolan (39:16):

(laughing) Yeah. In graduate school I had a mockingbird who would show up outside my window at 3:00 AM every morning and just scream its head off in, in many different versions including a car alarm to imitate like the local frogs and the local car alarms so that I would, I couldn't get rid of it. And so I finally ended up getting a super soaker. Uh, so it finally stopped coming back.

Brad Cooper (39:45):

Oh no, I'm going to have like the animal lovers, and animal people emailing in. But it's so funny because, uh, as I told Dr. Nolan, that's my kids know and they're going to be laughing about this because I have the, well it's not a super soaker. It's like this, I don't even know what you call it. It's like the thing you pull back the lever and it's just like really powerful. But you know, to get those high trees... And we had the same thing, we had the same thing. It was like a mockingbird and it was like midnight and for some reason that's the time, I guess they mate or something or try to find a mate out there that was really noisy and we had the high power squirt gun thing like 30 or 20 feet, so my kids laugh at me, but I've got the high power squirt gun. So it's so funny that we both had that strategy. Great. Good. I guess. Great minds think alike.

Jennifer Nolan (40:31):

(laughing) Yeah. With our luck it's probably the same Mockingbird too. Cause I know it, it never got hurt by the water, but it's just, I just scared away.

Brad Cooper (40:39):

Right. Just scaring, everyone out there. So don't send the emails in... You know, it's just scaring them away...

Brad Cooper (40:47):

Well it's so great to talk to you. I'm just so excited about what you're doing and just lots of prayers going your way and success going your way and just hope for a great start for your new university there. So God bless you and the work that you're doing, and God bless you and your family and just thank you so much for joining the podcast today.

Jennifer Nolan (41:05):

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, and thank you for furthering the connection between faith and science. We so need it in this world. God bless you.

Brad Cooper (41:13):

Absolutely. Amen. Thanks again, Dr. Nolan, and we'll talk soon.

Jennifer Nolan (41:16):

All right. Thank you. Bye Bye.

Announcer (41:18):

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