Cougars Uncaged, with Julie Vartoogian and Jeremy Walker

Get ready for one of our most entertaining episodes yet! The Den Dwellers sit down with two of Cleary University’s top leaders — Julie Vartoogian (VP of Human Resources) and Jeremy Walker (SVP of Enrollment Management) — for a fast-paced, heartfelt, and downright hilarious conversation.

Julie and Jeremy share their journeys to Cleary, what they love most about campus, the people who have shaped their lives, and even their favorite hidden spots at the University. From Lions vs. Packers banter and Thanksgiving game predictions to rapid-fire personality questions and a competitive sports showdown, this episode blends authentic leadership insights with fun, unscripted moments that show the real people behind Cleary’s mission.

Stick around until the end for a special trivia challenge — and your chance to win a holiday surprise!

Transcript

Lonnie Preis  0:00  
She's giving us a call. Hello,

Lonnie Preis  0:09  
everybody. Welcome the dead dweller, Kylie Walker, Bonnie priest, are here with our special guest.

Lonnie Preis  0:18  
Welcome. I'm sweating and exhausted from that. That was the longest drum roll I think we've had this entire time. How are you guys doing? Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. Are you excited? Super excited, super duper excited. All right, we're gonna jump right into it. Get to know you all a little bit better. So we'll start with you, Julie. Ladies first, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do here, and also how you got here at Cleary.

Julie Vartoogian  0:44  
My name is Julie Vartoogian, and I'm the Vice President of Human Resources here. I've been here about a year. I've been in Human Resources my whole career. I did a little bit of stay at home mom time, so took a break to raise some kids. I came here about a year ago. I came from Concordia University. So that school was ending. A lot of its programs really shrunk. So an opportunity was available here. It worked out perfect, because I live in Howell. Lived in Howell. There it is since 1999 so right in my backyard, it kind of worked out perfect.

Lonnie Preis  1:20  
Coming home. We had a one. We had a young lady on a different podcast. Some of our athletes say, how'd you come to clear? And somebody, a friend of hers, said, Get your butt to clear. You get your butt to howl. And boom, here it is. So back back at how love it. Jeremy, how about you? Jeremy Walker,

Jeremy Walker  1:34  
I'm the senior vice president enrollment management. I oversee financial aid and the admissions process here, been here about four years now. Been in higher ed for three decades, almost. So a long time. That career started after I got out of the Marine Corps. I'm a veteran as well. So awesome, but yeah, coming to Cleary was a long path. I'm originally from Michigan. Spent 25 years in Colorado, had the opportunity to come to clear as something came open, and come back to Michigan and spend some time here. So came back and loved the opportunity. Brought my family with me. Love it so, which is great. Some came after we moved here after a couple years?

Kylie Walker  2:21  
Yeah, the cool people came late.

Unknown Speaker  2:23  
Yeah, the cool people came late.

Lonnie Preis  2:24  
Oh, you get a couple of comments,

Speaker 2  2:26  
I can imagine. Yeah, totally. All right, thank you.

Lonnie Preis  2:29  
Couple questions about Clery. So what do you love? First question, what do you love most about Cleary?

Speaker 3  2:35  
That's so easy. It's the people, the students are amazing and the staff and faculty. It's such a warm and welcoming environment, and I think that Clery does a great job recruiting students and hiring staff and faculty, because it's it's a great place to work and and be every day.

Lonnie Preis  2:54  
Nice. Love it. Love it. Jeremy,

Speaker 4  2:56  
how about you? I agree. I think it's the staff, students, faculty, us in the community. We've really started to grow in the community. The community has brought us into their folds. It's been a lot of fun. It's it's laughing, and there's things that happen, but we are a small institution that can pivot very quickly and address anything that's going on and and the sky's the limit. If we want to do it, we can do it.

Lonnie Preis  3:23  
Yeah, love it all. Right. One more question about clearing by the way, I forgot to tell you, I'm gonna move this little closer and be careful. Don't, don't hit the table too much, because I yeah, we'll do it at the end when we close this sucker out, because it picks up everything. So another question about Cleary. This is a little bit unique, favorite spot, your favorite specific spot on this campus?

Speaker 3  3:42  
Yeah, it's a cool campus. One thing I discovered recently, I do bring my dog once in a while, and I was walking my dog, and I ventured into the woods, and I didn't realize there was a little trail there, and I was really impressed by that, and hung out there for a little bit. So that's my new favorite spot.

Lonnie Preis  4:02  
That's awesome. And I've heard little birdie told me that people are going into clear clear out those paths even more. So, yeah, look, look forward to that. Jeremy favorite spot,

Speaker 4  4:13  
I would say Lake trust stadium, in the stands. I love just going out there, taking a break during the day, especially when baseball is going on, or softball, fall ball, whatever is taking place, I can go out there, sit in the stands, I sneak into the press box occasionally, and bring my laptop with me, which is great because it's the best of both worlds. You know, finish some emails and answer the emails, but still watch our student athletes just perform at the highest level, which is awesome.

Lonnie Preis  4:43  
Yeah, do you have a specific locate, maybe not seat number, but specific spot you'd like to view a game from,

Speaker 4  4:50  
actually, just right underneath the press box on the aisle there. But yeah, that's it's easy in and out. And when we have parents, it's great to talk to the parents and.

Kylie Walker  5:00  
Anywhere where he can take a picture of the water.

Lonnie Preis  5:04  
We've had two or three people on that have said specific, like they can say specific seats almost at Lake trust that they like sitting in. So that's cool. That's awesome. Okay, we're gonna jump into this new segment called Hot takes. I don't know. We don't have any sounds for that, do we? Let's give them something, little something to whet the appetite. Okay, all right, hot takes is new. We're going to bring up a topic that you guys probably have differing opinions on, and just kind of see where it goes. So of course, knowing a little bit about something about you too, we we have a Lions fan and we have a Packers fan. So Julie, I'm going to start with you. Why are the lions the team? Why? Why the why are they going to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl? What? Why the lions?

Julie Vartoogian  5:44  
Oh, that's easy. Grit. The Lions have grit. If you saw the game this past Monday with a decimated secondary defense, true names we've never heard and they they took the bucks and showed them who's boss, because it was a it was a good game, and they won pretty well.

Lonnie Preis  6:09  
So so that's a great argument. And let's obviously packers. I mean, what? Why are they going to represent?

Jeremy Walker  6:16  
I think the Packers just know how to win compared to how many Super Bowls we have versus the lions. So I think that's one thing. And then, you know, the quarterback. So nothing against golf, great quarterback. But the Packers have only had three quarterbacks in the last, what, 50 years or so. So we know how to breed quarterbacks. So and then our, obviously, our new wide receivers and our running backs and Jacobs and everything. It's pretty good. Plus, I have to say, mean, Parsons. I mean, he's a, he's a defensive record, right? So he just,

Kylie Walker  6:47  
should we start the Jared golf chant?

Julie Vartoogian  6:53  
Okay, I'll give you the Packers were great through Brett Farb, Aaron Rogers, I can't, I can't hold that to Jordan love. Jordan love is good. He's not Brett Rogers or Brett Farber, Aaron Rogers, he's not. I think that the Packers, I give them their due, they have their time. Sure.

Speaker 4  7:14  
I think they'll have their time again. Because if you look at the stats with Aaron Rogers and Jordan love in the four years that they've been starters are almost exactly the same as well as this is the year that they won the

Speaker 3  7:25  
Super Bowl. Okay, maybe, maybe. But they didn't play against the Jared Goff led offense and the Aidan Hutchinson Jack Campbell led defense.

Jeremy Walker  7:37  
I agree. I think we did play them the first game of the year, but I can't remember who won. Oh, wait, it was the factor. So we did play against the Jared. What about last year? Well, how did the games go last Oh, we still made the playoffs and everything.

Unknown Speaker  7:50  
I'm looking forward.

Unknown Speaker  7:54  
Yeah, I love it.

Kylie Walker  7:59  
We could go on. Maybe we should call HR real quick. This is getting a little aggressive

Lonnie Preis  8:03  
Thanksgiving we want, and this will probably be released, I think sometime around Thanksgiving in November. It might even be that week. So prediction for the Thanksgiving game packers, lions. Julie, what's the score going to be? And I think you know who's going to

Speaker 3  8:19  
Yeah, the lions are going to win. I think it's gonna be close. I go 3128 lions.

Lonnie Preis  8:24  
Okay, all right. Jeremy, what

Speaker 4  8:26  
do you I agree. I think it's gonna be close, but I do think the Packers will pull it off with a 24 to

Lonnie Preis  8:33  
17. Okay,

Kylie Walker  8:35  
can we put our guesses in?

Speaker 4  8:37  
Yeah, the other Packer fans in the room? That would be great. I was, I was being neutral.

Kylie Walker  8:41  
I started a Jarrett golf chant, like, all right, I got it. It's gonna be six to three packers. There's gonna be no offense.

Lonnie Preis  8:51  
And I'm going to even though I will say I love the line, if the Packers don't go, I want the lines. But I will bet I will choose the lines to win. Because when I do that, the Packers tend to, I don't know, it's just, it's just weird superstition thing. So I'm going to say the lions are going to win 2817, so they do have home field advantage. That is, that is going to be the lines are phenomenal at home. I think, I think for both of them, this is my two cents. If either one of them can secure home field I do think that is going to play a big factor in the playoffs, if they can do that, to go through to go through Ford Field, or to go

Kylie Walker  9:26  
through lambe. All right, I think our lions season ticket member that's in here would like to give the tickets to the Packers fans for Thanksgiving.

Lonnie Preis  9:35  
Are we talking about a wager here? No, I don't

Speaker 3  9:38  
if what I do think we should do is maybe the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, have a wear your football, you know, Jersey choice, whatever.

Lonnie Preis  9:50  
I love it. That's that would be good. That'd be good. Okay, next segment rolling right into this is a little bit we call behind the curtain. Get to the. Are you? We never heard that one. All right, this is ask you a couple questions. These are the questions we gave you. So my first question for you is, if you could meet, we'll start with Julie, any person on this planet who you have not met before, who is it? And what would you ask them

Speaker 3  10:16  
that I'm going to stay with the football theme, and I'm going to go Peyton Manning. Oh, I love Peyton Manning. Not only is he, you know, one of the best quarterbacks who ever played, but I think he's hilarious.

Lonnie Preis  10:30  
I You've seen him on SNL.

Speaker 3  10:34  
That's really when I first started to love him, because I, you know, people knew his football persona. I never expected him to be that funny. He was hilarious in the sketch where he was playing with the

Lonnie Preis  10:47  
I literally was thinking of that. I'm like, did you really drill those kids in the back of the head? Right?

Speaker 3  10:52  
Yeah, that that's in his commercials. Those are so funny when we're at home watching football, if it's Monday night and the Manning cast is on, that's what we're watching unless, unless it's the lions, because I realized we we watched it when they were playing the ravens, and it was not as fun listening to Peyton and Eli banter back and forth when I really when you want to be dialed in on the game, but as long as the lions aren't playing, I'm watching the man.

Lonnie Preis  11:25  
And cast, okay, what would you ask him he walks in his door? Yeah, what would you ask him?

Speaker 3  11:29  
What would I would want to sit with him? And Eli on the man and cast, oh, although I love football, huge fan, there's so many things that I don't understand. And would love his perception, his explanation of, you know, not only you know different calls that I don't understand, the you know refs thinking, but different plays and why that didn't work. And you know, when they make comments, that's, that's what I would want. Just one question. It's picking his brain for for a whole game. Yeah, that'd be

Lonnie Preis  12:04  
fun. Jeremy, how about you?

Speaker 4  12:06  
So this is probably a first Peyton Manning was my pick for real.

Lonnie Preis  12:10  
No joke, that is amazing. They're bonding. We're bonding over football.

Speaker 4  12:15  
The reason why is because, again, like I said at the beginning, I'd spent 25 years in Colorado, right? So, seeing Peyton Manning come to the Broncos and then doing the things he does, I love him as an athlete. He is super funny. I mean, he is one of the funniest guys around, and it's just fun to watch. And then he is so smart. He is so football and just people smart. When he is talking to individuals, he I don't want to say he can dumb it down for people. It's so people understand it, right? But then his leadership and how he is such a leader throughout everything he does, and he is such a great role model, I think, as as our student athletes and anybody is looking up at role models. He is a great role model just because of what he does in the community, what he does for individuals. He you see him everywhere, his dry humor is so unique. So, yeah, it's so unique, but it is just, it's fun, right? And then just because people gave up on him in Indianapolis. Said, you're never going to come back, you know, you have this neck issue, everything else. And then for him to say, You know what? Yeah, I am, and persist through and then to go win a Super Bowl, yeah? I mean, come on, guys, amazing it is, yeah.

Kylie Walker  13:33  
So I'm I met Peyton Manning last summer at Rocky's game. He came for Todd Hilton's Hall of Fame induction game, met the guy. He's the same person on TV, in person, like everything, but found out that Todd Helton was actually a better quarterback than Peyton Manning in college at Tennessee, but their relationship built when they both played quarterback.

Lonnie Preis  13:59  
Wow, that's awesome. That's cool. All right, on a more personal level, thanks for sharing that, and that's great. We have not had the same person. That's wild. I was expecting Dan Campbell, and I was expecting, you know, far or you know what. So, on a more personal level, who in your life has impacted you the most, and and how, why?

Speaker 3  14:21  
So I thought about this. And this may seem like an odd answer, but it's my kids because, and I'll explain why. I grew up with older brothers, and I grew up, you know, playing football with the neighborhood boys. I was a tomboy. I was a tomboy. I never thought I would have had three girls. I if somebody would have told me that when I was, you know, newly married, I wouldn't have believed it. I just wasn't a girly girl. And my girls are girly girls, and so they really changed me as a person from that aspect. Back, but also, and I know everybody learns so much from their kids, but I'm just such a different person from learning patients and from their different personalities and their struggles, you know, mental health struggles, it's helped me to learn to be, I think, a better HR person too, because I have more understanding of, you know, different struggles, and I'm just, I'm a completely different person than if I wouldn't have had kids, or if I wouldn't have had these girls.

Lonnie Preis  15:33  
That's so awesome. Well, if, if we don't get the 1000s of viewers, just make sure your three girls watch this so they can, they can. No, that's awesome. That's awesome.

Kylie Walker  15:41  
Julie and our next person to go should also take notes on that answer.

Lonnie Preis  15:45  
So Jeremy, besides, I don't want to take your thumb to what you're gonna say, but yeah, who has impacted you?

Jeremy Walker  15:50  
Actually, it's my wife. So we've been married a long time. She is my rock. She's been through everything with me. She's giving me two amazing kids, right? So, but she is the glass half full person. Sometimes I come in and I'm like, you know, oh my gosh, the sky is falling sometimes. And, you know, how are we going to do this? And then she always brings it back to, you know, what? Least we have this, we have that, or we're not going through this or going through that, right? So she is. She has been my rock. She she's a special ed speech pathologist and does different things. So she has brought a whole new element into me on understanding things I never you know. I grew up on a small dairy farm. I had no idea any of that, right? So, but she's been, she's been there through it all, and it's been amazing. She's my rock.

Lonnie Preis  16:46  
That's great. That's great. Thanks. Thanks for sharing that. Now, back to a not so serious segment, rapid fire, bring it. Here we go. Oh, are you doing that one? I just like that. That's a rapid fire. Rapid fire, we're going back and forth. You're both, you're both answering the same question. Don't spend too much time. First thing that comes to mind, keep it appropriate, HR. HR is here, all right. Here we go. We're rapid fire. There's, some weird questions here. What we like it? Advice for freshmen,

Unknown Speaker  17:25  
go to class, perfect, make friends.

Lonnie Preis  17:28  
Oh, that's, that's one we hear a lot. Well, both of those. Okay, one food that you could eat. We'll go to you first. One food that you could eat every day,

Unknown Speaker  17:36  
chicken wings.

Lonnie Preis  17:38  
Oh, boneless. Bone in, bone in pizza toppings, spinach and garlic. Very interesting. Is there a special name for that? Like, it's not a pesto, okay? Special, the Julie special dream vacation spot.

Unknown Speaker  17:55  
I've already been there in Scotland, but I want to go back.

Speaker 4  17:58  
All right. Nice. Wow, that's a tough one. I really enjoyed Hawaii, but I've never been to Alaska, so I'd like to go to Alaska.

Lonnie Preis  18:05  
Oh, love it. Favorite sports team,

Speaker 4  18:09  
I would say, the Green Bay Packers, lions,

Lonnie Preis  18:13  
the Detroit Oh, who would have guessed that texting or calling?

Speaker 4  18:17  
Texting, pick the phone up. Call into the voice. You never know when that person is not going to be there again. You're going to hear that voice. So call them.

Lonnie Preis  18:29  
This is we got some new ones coming. Who would play you in a movie? Who would you like to play you in a movie? Mark Wahlberg, oh, I could see. No.

Kylie Walker  18:37  
This is a serious problem, because I, when I played softball, everybody thought he looked like Mark Wahlberg, so they call him Marky marks all the time. And like multiple people have said,

Speaker 4  18:48  
it Island walking through, some lady stopped me and said, Are you Mark Wahlberg? And I'm like, No, I'm not.

Lonnie Preis  18:53  
Did you like, yeah, ma'am, come here.

Unknown Speaker  18:56  
It's weird. It's funny. I

Speaker 3  18:58  
have had a couple people tell me I look like Julia Stiles.

Lonnie Preis  19:02  
Oh, yes. All right. I like it, okay. Favorite season of the year, fall. I guess I could guess I would say fall. Okay, celebrity crush. Celebrity crush. Is that appropriate? Yes, okay, Jessica.

Speaker 4  19:18  
I will snitch though. Oh, Jessica Beale, Jessica Beal, Mom already knows.

Unknown Speaker  19:24  
Gerard Butler,

Lonnie Preis  19:25  
Oh, all right, okay, three more weirdest thing you've ever tried to eat oysters. Why? Why they just, it's like a big chunk of mucus. You don't even chew them. Okay? I agree.

Unknown Speaker  19:37  
So similar, but Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Lonnie Preis  19:40  
Interesting. We just had that happy is everything I do.

Speaker 4  19:43  
There's a big difference between oyster and Rocky Mountain

Lonnie Preis  19:46  
moisture, you know, the difference of those, right? We had this on another podcast. It's both testicles.

Speaker 6  19:57  
Little bit different, slightly different. Right? It's kind of like a chicken nugget, though.

Lonnie Preis  20:03  
Julie needs to get after it, get after some Rocky Mountain Oysters. Okay? Biggest pet peeve

Unknown Speaker  20:10  
drivers who don't know how to drive.

Speaker 4  20:14  
That's a good one. I have two texting driving, drives absolutely crazy, but my family likes to leave the screen door open and close the glass door, and it drives me absolutely bonkers.

Kylie Walker  20:24  
No, there's a new competition in the household. How long can we go before he has to shut the screen door?

Lonnie Preis  20:31  
Now you put it out there. It's gonna keep happening. Oh, it does, all right. Last one in only three words. Describe yourself in three words. That's you, Julie,

Unknown Speaker  20:47  
so I can copy you.

Unknown Speaker  20:49  
That would be funny.

Speaker 3  20:51  
I would say funny. I try and intentional with how I talk to people, and empathetic.

Lonnie Preis  21:02  
Oh, good ones. I thought you're gonna when you said in, I thought you say intense but intentional. Yeah, that's that's good. I would say short, funny

Unknown Speaker  21:13  
and direct,

Lonnie Preis  21:17  
very good. What it's interesting is, obviously, everybody we've had on here knows each other a little bit. And people, when people talk to other people, are like, nodding, like, yeah, yeah. Like, it was kind of cool. And so I'm sure, no, I'm just saying she's affirming what she's affirming in that. Okay, thank you so much for taking part in rapid fire. Love it. People got to know you in a fun way a little bit. So last segment is called Showtime. You're both competitive, obviously, you know lions packers, or whatever. We're going to see how who's going to take home the bragging rights for this little competition. You guys, you chose a topic called sports. So basically, what we're going to do is this, Julie, you're going to say a sport. He has three seconds. Jeremy has three seconds to say a different sport. And we're going to go back and forth until someone cannot think of one. Or you repeat, okay, I'm expecting, I'm expecting the longest running competition right here. There's been people here. I'm not going to say any names that said, Oh, we got this. They froze after four Okay, I'll probably freeze up. Not to put any pressure on y'all sports. All right, on your mark. Guess, Echo, Julie, football,

Speaker 7  22:23  
wrestling, soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, racquetball, cricket, pickleball,

Lonnie Preis  22:32  
tennis, yes,

Speaker 7  22:36  
croquet, horseshoes, ice skating, figure skating.

Unknown Speaker  22:42  
It's a say. It's a different kind of right? We're

Lonnie Preis  22:44  
gonna, you're gonna have to come with a different one. Okay, snowboarding,

Unknown Speaker  22:47  
okay, hockey, skiing, snowboarding.

Speaker 7  22:52  
That's what I said, didn't I? That's the same. She just,

Lonnie Preis  22:55  
he just said, We'll give you a second chance. We gave him one, one second chance here, one Mulligan.

Unknown Speaker  23:00  
We'll say rowing.

Speaker 2  23:08  
Nice. All right, good job. High five. Well done, both of you. That was actually probably one of the largest All

Lonnie Preis  23:17  
right, gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, we have come to that point in the show. Get out your laptops. Get on your email studentlife@cleary.edu We have a very special trivia question. Julie is going to share this with you, and the first person to answer this correctly will win a tremendous prize. It's a surprise from Kylie. You'll get it around the holidays, wrap it up, give it to your parents. We don't have an idea what it is, but it's going to be going to be special. So student life@clery.edu Julie, what's our trivia question?

Julie Vartoogian  23:47  
All right, so Clery is an awesome business school, but that's not how it started. What type of school was Clery when it started?

Lonnie Preis  23:57  
Everybody got that what type of school was Clery when it started. Kylie, do you know the answer? Don't say it. We'll figure it out. Okay, we'll figure it out. Julie, thanks for sharing that student life at cleared idu. Julie Jeremy, this has been awesome, fun, exhilarating, emotional, heart wrenching. How do you guys feel? All right, we're gonna do this like we brought it in. We're gonna pound on this table, and then we're and then we're gonna go. 123, go, cougars, as loud as you possibly can. Sound good, yeah, all right, here we go. Let's go, everyone, thanks

Lonnie Preis  24:29  
for showing up today and listening to the podcast. Julie Jeremy, thanks for being here. We got stuff lying on the table. 123, go Cougars!