For Stephanie Gambone, ‘98, her time at 20^th and Olney was critically important to the trajectory of her career in youth non-profits.

Stephanie Gambone, ‘98, had always planned to become a lawyer when she graduated. An internship during the final semester of her senior year at La Salle University changed that plan—and the course of her career.  

Gambone, a first-generation student who has lived in Philadelphia her whole life, didn’t have a direct line to her La Salle degree, she said. After a semester at Penn State, another working in retail, and two years of community college, Gambone realized she wanted to study criminal justice.  

“I knew La Salle was a good university and it had a really good criminal justice program and professors,” she said. “I was able to live there but also stay in Philly. That’s why I chose La Salle.”  

Her decision to join the Explorer community had a long-lasting impact on her nearly 30-year career in the youth non-profit sector.  

“As you get older, you reflect on how you got where you are. For me, my career journey has been a positive experience, Gambone said. “There are several pieces of my experience at La Salle that one hundred percent contribute.”  

Two of those pieces were “critically important,” she said.  

The first were the opportunities she had to do community service work, including leading a tutoring program in North Philadelphia, which led to a passion for supporting young people and her community. The second was the internship she completed in the second semester of her senior year with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office which allowed her to have significant exposure to the legal world, including going to court.  

“I can vividly remember the day I was sitting in a courtroom and a young man, 17 years old, was on trial for murder. I thought to myself, there has to be better options, and I want to do something before it gets to that point,” she said.  

That was the day that her plans changed, and she decided not to go to law school.  

“The connection to service at La Salle, and the hands-on internship component, absolutely changed my perspective as a person and also informed the past 28-plus years of my career,” said Gambone.  

After graduating, she took a job at Olney High School, where she “fell in love with the work and working with young people, and the rest is history.” 

The next stop of her career was at Philadelphia Youth Network, where she worked her way up to executive vice president, staying with the nonprofit for 22 years. After leaving PYN, she went to Junior Achievement of Southeastern Pennsylvania, another nonprofit where she is currently serving as president and CEO.  

In July 2025, Gambone was appointed as a commissioner on Governor Josh Shapiro’s Advisory Committee on Women. The Commission on Women was established two years ago and focuses on supporting policies that impact women across Pennsylvania, including looking at issues like maternal health disparities, cutting childcare costs, and accessible childcare.  

“Even though my career has been spent in education and workforce development, personally and professionally I am very committed to women’s issues and empowering women, supporting young women, including the young women I work with and my 10-year-old daughter,” she said. “So, when this opportunity came upon me, I really felt it was important, particularly given the state of women’s issues right now in this country, that I use my voice to speak on behalf of what’s important to women.”  

As well as guiding her career, her time at La Salle also impacted her world view and relationships.  

“I’m a Philadelphia kid, born and raised. We’re very much a city of neighborhoods, and I did not leave my neighborhood until I went to college,” she said. “In addition to the solid education I got at La Salle, I got exposure to life outside my neighborhood, life outside Philadelphia, different ways of thinking, opportunities like service learning and internships. Those kinds of experiences, I don’t take them for granted.”  

These experiences, she said, are one of the reasons she got into the work she’s done throughout her career.  

More than just the career and experiences she got from 20^th and Olney, Gambone, who worked as an RA during her time at La Salle, said her favorite thing about her time as an Explorer is the people she met.  

“Those relationships that I built on campus just have stayed with me, through the good times and challenging times, and all kind of things in our lives,” she said. “I’m just eternally grateful for the experiences that I was able to have with them at La Salle.” 

-Naomi Thomas