Destination Success | Jack LaSalla

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May 06th, 2026

Destination Success | Jack LaSalla

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Chapters & Transcript

0:00

Hi, my name is Jack LaSalla. I'm from Garden City, New York. I majored in finance, marketing, and international business with three minors in Spanish, sales, and theater. I graduated in 2024 and I work at BNY Mellon in their Global Finance Leadership group in New York.

0:29

When I was at my internship at BNY Mellon, I was competing with many other students from many other big schools. At first, I thought I was the odd man out, but then I thought about it with the skills that Dr. Qubein had taught me, and I can definitely say that they had helped in the long run.

I was able to stand out from the rest of the crowd and successfully get a job at BNY Mellon because of the skills that High Point brings.

0:54

Life skills are important at High Point University. Everything has a meaning – the choose to be extraordinary, the life skills, everything.

I think that the life skills are an extension of your family values that you learn at home, and then you bring them here, and you're here to improve upon those family values and bring them back to not only your own family but the workforce.

I think that it's really a great improvement upon those skills that can help you anywhere you go at any time.

1:22

There were goals that I had set for myself at High Point University, and I think if you would have sat here and told me now that I would be in the position that I am today, I probably would have said wow, that's a lot of work put into that – that's a crazy amount.

It was from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. I wanted more. You know, I'd gotten into the business frat, I'd gotten into a social frat. Now I want to take EC positions in those endeavors. In my junior year, I got the job in New York. What's the next thing that we're looking for here, which is always what I'm thinking about?

It's that hunger, that passion to always want to succeed and continue.

1:58

I think mentorship was a really big deal on campus. It was definitely about the memories that I had created with those professors, the advice that they had given me on how to be successful.

They have the tools. They've worked in the finance world; they've worked in the professional world before, and they've seen how it is. They can come back and give you blunt advice – that hard advice that you need to hear. They give it to you straight; they don't sugarcoat it because they want you to succeed.

But they also want you to understand that failure is one of your biggest successes. Success is everywhere – when you succeed, you succeed, but when you fail, you also succeed by learning.

2:39

Professor Quinn is one of my biggest mentors. I went to him in his office one day, and at the time, I was a triple major, double minor. I was talking to him about my success and what I had done, and he mentioned to me that he wanted me to get a sales minor as well.

I said, 'Well, am I going to be able to handle this?' He said, 'I have every piece of faith in my heart that you will be able to handle this, and I will help you along the way if you need it.'

We would just plan everything out. We had gone through it, and we had consistently and constantly met up and talked about what the plan was – talk about NYU, talk about everything that I was going to be doing in the future. He was there.

3:21

The first time I had met Professor Lee was in class, back in sophomore year. I would go to his office, and I would talk to him about my aspirations, what I wanted to do within the finance world.

Sometimes I would just go to him for advice. I was able to really get a lot out of his classes and learn a lot and use them even within my finance industry today.

3:48

High Point University has a call to action, and it is choose to be extraordinary. One of the biggest words in that call to action is not the extraordinary part; it's the choose part. Everybody is successful in their own ways, but I think that the choose part, Dr. Qubein is giving you the tools to be successful.

He says it in his speeches; he explains that he, at High Point University, is giving you the tools to be successful. It's not like other schools where what can the student do for us. It's also what can we do for the student. And it goes both ways.

I think the biggest thing is picking those tools to be extraordinary – that's the biggest thing. You're using the clubs, the activities, the drive in order to be extraordinary. And that is what will determine whether you are successful or not.

Jack LaSalla, a 2024 High Point University graduate in finance, marketing, and international business, shares how HPU's life skills training and faculty mentorship at HPU prepared him for success in BNY Mellon's Global Finance Leadership program. He credits Dr. Qubein's skills, Professor Quinn's academic guidance, and Professor Lee's finance instruction with helping him stand out among competitors at his internship and secure a full-time position. LaSalla emphasizes that High Point's philosophy of 'Choose to Be Extraordinary' is not about the destination but about actively choosing to leverage available tools – from clubs to academics to personal drive – to succeed, even recognizing that failure itself is a path to growth.