A new campus monitor and alum, Jordan Bral ‘08, will be joining the campus in the fall of 2021. After graduating college, Bral did many jobs. Bral is constantly bringing new experiences to his life and the job experiences have helped shape his personality.

“I like to talk with people, I like to hear about their days and their experiences and share life with them,” said Bral

Bral started working in the “prefect” position during the online learning years standing in, in-person, for teachers who decided to stay online. Now, as a campus monitor, he keeps an eye on Jesuit’s perimeter, helps with parking, drop-off, pick-up, and helps with deliveries.

“I remember I just always loved the community here and it was just always something unique and special,” Bral said. Even as a young kid I could just pick up on it. Just this environment, the welcomingness, having people with similar backgrounds and experiences, goals. 

Bral believes you should always be finding new hobbies to add to your life experiences and says that, “it keeps you growing and it keeps you learning and pushing your expectations of yourself and pushing your limits. I think it makes you a better person.”

Full Interview Transcript (edited lightly for length and content)

What are your job responsibilities as campus monitor

We wear quite a few hats here, the main one is just keeping an eye out on the perimeter to make sure we’re not having unwanted people wandering onto the campus. That’s a big importance we have. Another one is helping kids with the parking situation. As you guys know, it gets a little hectic here in the mornings and afternoons, so we’re helping out with kids parking and getting parents out of here as efficiently as we can. A couple other things we do we help with deliveries here at Jesuit a lot of times you’ll see UPS or Fedex out here. Then just any time faculty needs an extra set of hands or eyes we are usually one of the go to people for that. 

3 adjectives you would use to describe yourself

Myself, yeah, I would say I am pretty easy going but at the same time I am driven. I want to succeed in what I do, I want to do a good job and that’s important to me. I guess the third thing is that I’m charismatic. I like to talk with people, I like to hear about their days and their experiences and share life with them.

Where have you worked prior to Jesuit

Definitely so I’ve had a few jobs since I got out of college at Oregon state. I started in sales. I did a route sales rep for an ice cream company. That was a crazy job waking up early selling ice cream to small stores on a route. After that I went down to do car sales for Alfa Romeo and Fiat and that;s actually just down the road. I worked there for a couple of years and worked my way up to finance manager there but I ended up not enjoying the cutthroat nature of the car business, it just wasn’t my personality even though I did okay there. After that my brother and I started our own company, just a contracting company doing stone work and masonry, really high end and high quality stone work and I did that for 3 years. We started our company but then Covid hit and that was tough on us and I started looking for something else until I ended up here.

So you went to school at Jesuit, right? What was your favorite part of jesuit? Did you partake in any activities? 

I remember I just always loved the community here and it was just always something unique and special. Even as a young kid I could just pick up on it. Just this environment, the welcomingness, having people with similar backgrounds and experiences, goals. Things like that, just being surrounded by people who want you to succeed and want to share that with you is just awesome and one of the coolest parts of this place. I was here from ‘04 to ‘08 and just coming back as a faculty member now and seeing that that is all still here it’s really cool.

Is there anything now that was different about Jesuit before?

Definitely, I will say I started here doing the prefect position and that was all with your hybrid learning and of course with Covid and everything. That’s a whole new outlook on what school is like so that was very unique, transitioning from an online classroom to in-person. Something different just as far as what I’ve seen is that Jesuit has grown so much. Just new buildings and the campus has grown so much. Just things like that are what I’ve noticed but I think the feel and the way they educate is pretty much the same as far as I can tell.

Is there anything you would like people to know about you

Sure. I guess I would like to say I am kind of a jack of all trades even though I am security guard here I’ve done a lot of things in my 31 years of life so I like to wear a lot of hats and I think it’s good to always try new things, to always be growing, and to be learning and pushing yourself. I guess something about me is that I am always willing to learn something new, try something new, and talk with people about that.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received

The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is to find a new hobby every 1-2 years. Just find something new and just push yourself. Doesn’t mean you have to drop your old hobbies just piggy-backing off my last answer. I’ve done everything from athletics and fitness to the other side being guitar, drawing so I’ve done a lot of things and it keeps you growing and it keeps you learning and pushing your expectations of yourself and pushing your limits and I think it makes you a better person so don’t be afraid to try new things, always try new things even if you don’t do well at them just one more bit of experience you can relate to another person with.