EDUCATION:

Temple University

B.S. in Sport and Recreation Management

Concentration in Event and Entertainment Management

​

What brought you to CASA?

I didn't attend CASA for high school, but my younger sister Riley was a student here from 2019-2023.  She was a big part of what made me interested in working here after graduating from Temple, and I really wanted to feel like I was making a difference somewhere with what I was doing during my day. 

 

Where did you work and what was your role prior to coming to CASA?

I had worked in a few different roles during college (including a lot of time at independent movies theaters like Midtown Cinema here in Harrisburg during the summers between semesters), but my first professional experience was an administrative internship with Open Stage of Harrisburg in 2022.  That's what largely got me interested in staying in arts-adjacent fields and places when I was thinking about what I wanted to do after graduating.  I originally majored in Sport and Recreation Management at Temple, so that allowed me to work at a few different major sporting events and teams over the course of my time studying in Philadelphia, including helping set up some of the promos for when the Phillies went to the World Series in 2022 and when the Eagles played in the NFC Championship game in 2023.

 

What is your favorite part of working at CASA?

I love the environment and the people I'm around.  It's great being surrounded by things like art and music all the time as well as extremely talented students who have a passion for that sort of thing, too. 

 

What is your connection to the arts? How are you an artist?

I've always been a movie guy.  Since I was a little kid, some of my earliest memories were watching classic movies with my parents, and to this day it still makes me really happy introducing people to a lot of the older things they might not have seen yet.  I've also been working hard at improving my electric guitar playing, though I think I have a while left to go to catch up to the skill level of our musically inclined students.

​

What do you feel is your impact on our school community, students, and culture?

I'm not always the most visible person at CASA, but I make sure a lot of the essential but behind-the-scenes tasks and duties are taken care of for the students here.  I'm like the Samwise Gamgee of the Academic Wing.

​

What advice do you have for our students?

There is no rush.  It's alright if you don't know exactly what you want to do with your life right now and way more people than you realize feel the same way.  My career path has been all over the place so far, but I don't regret a second of exploring new things after graduating high school and finding the many different subjects and fields I liked to spend my time around.   Take your time, try out all you can find that looks interesting to you, and enjoy the ride. 

​

Fun facts about Mr. O'Connor:

I collect vinyl, and I have what essentially amounts to an entire basement full of records sitting at home in various shelves and milk crates.  My first album (and still my favorite of all I own) was The Stranger by Billy Joel and my favorite bands are Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance.