Wludyga tells students to consider what’s next

ANDOVER – Scott Wludyga didn’t think his future included speaking at the Principal’s Breakfast, at least not while he was sitting at that very first breakfast as a 17-year-old student at Pymatuning Valley High School.
Wludyga, however, kept asking himself, “What’s next?”, and the answers led him to on a path to speaking at the 36th Annual Principal’s Breakfast at Andover Christian Church for a third time on Wednesday, April 29.
“Being here for a third time, is pretty special,” Wludyga said. “The first time I was here, I was a TV sportscaster, so I was sports director at JET TV in Erie, Pennsylvania. The second time I did this, I was a new teacher at PV, and now I’m here as the A-Tech superintendent. It’s like you’ve had three different people up here, even though it’s been me all three times.”
The breakfast honors Pymatuning Valley High School students who maintain a 3.5 grade-point average, have a clean discipline record and have attendance a minimum of 90 percent of school days through the first three nine weeks of the school year.
“You’re all here because you’ve worked hard,” Wludyga said. “You’re doing the right thing. You’ve made good choices.”
“This isn’t a destination,” Wludyga continued. “This isn’t the final stop of your big goal. This is a checkpoint along the way. This is just something you do to get where you want to go.”
As graduation looms, high-school students start to believe they have to have their lives mapped out, but Wludyga told the students that wasn’t exactly true.
“That’s not really how it works, though, is it,” Wludyga said. “You don’t have to have it all mapped out. ‘What’s next?’ is just about, what is that next step? You’ve got to have that next step.”
On a trip to Iceland, Wludyga learned that a person without goals to work toward is somebody who’s referred to as “out driving around.”
Having a plan doesn’t mean looking ahead to the next few decades, just to what’s immediately ahead.
“For me, those early steps were saying yes and taking the opportunity, participating in the eighth-grade talent show,” Wludyga said. “I was the first announcer for the basketball games at PV and introduced the starting lineup. Those small steps led to different things. They led to a career in broadcasting. They led to an opportunity to teach, and then moving on to administration and what I do now.”
A career in television was something Wludyga had envisioned for himself as a teenager. He even discussed it with one of his teachers, Steve Urcheck.
“That led to an opportunity,” Wludyga said. “I used to do games on the radio at 101.7 in Meadville with Chuck Stock while I was in college. I didn’t get paid, but I would get wings after the game. That was a pretty good deal.”
Wludyga attended Allegheny College and did an internship at JET TV, the ABC affiliate in Erie.
“I’m like, this is cool, I’m in the building, so how do I get hired,” Wludyga said. “There weren’t a lot of openings if you’re just trying to jump in and be on the air right away, but I saw that some of the previous sports interns got jobs as cameramen. My ‘What’s next?’ went from, ‘I’m going to host a game show’ to ‘Here’s my next goal. I’m going to try to get a job through this.’”
To get that job, Wludyga branched away from sports when opportunities presented themselves until an opportunity appeared in the department he wanted to be in.
“Summer of 1998, it was my first chance to do sports,” Wludyga said. “Brian Duffy was the sports director. There weren’t a lot of people in the sports department. There were only three. Duff’s wife had booked a vacation. Brian was going on that vacation, but there was no one to do sports. I’m in the edit booth, and Duff comes by, and he says, ‘Hey, do you have an updated résumé tape?’ I didn’t. He goes, ‘Well, you better come back in tonight and make one because I just told the boss I’d watched it.’”
Wludyga filled in for Duffy and, eventually, earned a position on the sports staff, but he still had to answer, “What’s next?”
“When you work in television, you have a personal contract,” Wludyga said. “When my contract was up, I go in to talk to the boss and I said, ‘Hey, we’re killing it. We’ve got great shows.’ He said, ‘Yep, you are, but this is the number corporate has on the spreadsheet.’ That’s it. Then you’ve got to decide.”
“Are you going to bounce around the country, work with an agent, and they’ll tell you, ‘I can get you a market this size,’” Wludyga continued. “You don’t know where you might move to. My wife, Carla, and I decided that we didn’t want to do that, we didn’t want to bounce around the country. What do I start thinking when I have the spreadsheet conversation? I’m thinking I’ve got to change my next. What am I going to do next?”
Wludyga’s “next” presented itself during a conversation with the late Pymatuning Valley Principal Jeff Meddock.
“I got a little bit lucky, because that’s when I met Jeff Meddock,” Wludyga said. “Jeff was working here at PV, and he said, ‘Hey, you work in TV? We’re starting a program with A-Tech, what do we need to do?’ I said, ‘You need to hire me.’ I was only half serious. Next thing I know, I’m having an interview at A-Tech, and we’re off and running.”
For a time, Wludyga taught at PV and continued to work in sports at JET TV, and that was when he realized the value of educating students.
“I was working part-time at PV teaching, working out at JET in the evening,” Wludyga said. “The Steelers were really good that year they went to the playoffs. We followed. We went to Indianapolis for the playoff game. We went to Denver for the AFC Championship Game, and then we got to spend a week at the Super Bowl in Detroit. It was an amazing experience, because when you’re there all week, there’s so much going on.”
During Super Bowl Week, Wludyga interviewed comedian Gilbert Gottfried and famed football coach and broadcaster John Madden.
“What I didn’t see coming is how that connected everything with what I was doing working with students and that opportunity because Ross Boggs was the athletic director and he came in my room and he said, ‘I couldn’t believe it. There’s a kid from Andover sitting next to John Madden,’” Wludyga said. “I was thinking, ‘Well, yeah, that’s my job,’ but then I thought, ‘No, this is why we’re here. This is why we’re in school, because we want every student to have that John Madden moment, when you’re taking those steps to your career, to have that really cool experience that relates to what you’re passionate about.’”
It wasn’t long before Wludyga had to consider what his “next” was going to be.
“As things evolved, as I was teaching A-Tech program from PV to Jefferson, and then I started doing more and more on at A-Tech,” Wludyga said. “Then, I was in my office one day and Dr. (Jerome) Brockway, a long-time superintendent, asked me what I wanted to do next. He was getting ready to retire, and that’s what led to the opportunity to be superintendent at A-Tech.”
Wludyga is in his sixth year as superintendent for A-Tech.
“I think it’s an awesome job because we get to work with so many students in all the school districts in the county,” Wludyga said. “We have 20 programs on our campus right now, and we have adult programs, and we have hundreds of youths that we work with through the youthOPPORTUNITES! program. It’s really exciting that I now get to see all these different parts of Ashtabula County and see student success in so many different areas.”
Wludyga also serves as the legislative liaison for career tech superintendents and testifies in front of committees.
It was at that point Wludyga offered his best advice to the Pymatuning Valley students.
“From here, some of you already have that ‘next’ figured out,” Wludyga said. “Some of you are going to college, some of you are jumping into the workforce. Some of you are still figuring out exactly what that next is, and that’s okay, as long as you define that next. You won’t be out driving around like those people in Iceland.”
If the answer to “what’s next” is elusive, Wludyga told the students they can shift it a bit.
“I think, maybe, if you don’t know what’s next, maybe that question is, ‘What do I want to do first?’ because your career path is going to twist and turn and do different things,” Wludyga said. “It’s all about moving forward with that purpose. Take what you built already. You’ve already got the good work ethic and the drive. You’ve made it here today. Take those habits and determine what’s going to be next, be open to those opportunities, because you don’t know what that next might turn into along the way.”
“Someday, you might end up in a career that doesn’t even exist yet,” Wludyga continued. “You might come back here and in a different role than you can even imagine or dream up right now. Or, if you are really lucky, you will get invited back to this breakfast three times. Enjoy this. You’ve earned it. You’ve done a great job representing yourselves, your family, and your school. Keep moving forward, and keep doing great things, and start thinking about that question, what’s next or what’s first? Not forever, not everything you’re going to do, just that next step.”