Dr. Robert W. Lay II
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ABOUT ME
Rob Lay the professional: Robert W. Lay II, Ed.D has recently successfully defended his dissertation and is set to graduate from Temple University School of Education program. His research area was hazing in Black Greek Letter Organizations. Robert Lay, who goes by Rob Lay, is a motivational speaker, a personal trainer, a published author of the fiction book entitled “The Mydas Touch,” a poet, a brother of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, and most importantly is a man of God. Rob Lay was born and raised in Pittsburgh, but now lives in Philadelphia where he works for Penn State Abington in the office of Residence Life. He received a Bachelor Degree in Accounting from Cheyney University, the First Historically Black College & University. He worked as an Internal Auditor for one of the largest mutual funds companies for 4 years before switching his career path to Education. After making this big decision, Rob Lay obtained his Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from Temple University while working at the Institution as a Graduate Residence Life Coordinator. During Rob Lay’s time in Education he has fallen in love with assisting students through their college careers through mentoring as many students as he can, working as an academic success coach and even starting his own minority need-based scholarship
entitled the #loveliftlifescholarship where he raises and gives out 500 dollars a year. This summer Rob Lay is looking forward to taking the next couple months off from work to get married in June of this year and also planning how he will be incorporating his degree in his future goals. Going forward Rob Lay would like to invest more time into obtaining motivational speaking engagements, completing his follow up novel to his first book, and working towards opening his own fitness center. For those individuals looking to pursue a doctorate degree, Rob would like to inform them that the road is hard and there will be a lot of pressure placed on them during the process. Pressure will be placed from people around them and pressure placed on them from themselves. However, for them to remember that pressure is natural, and that it’s all about how you handle the pressure. They have two choiced, either do what it takes to become a diamond, or become just another burst pipe, but that he believes in them and looks forward to seeing us all shine bright like diamonds in the future.
Rob Lay the Artist: is a Pittsburgh native who was born with an affinity for the arts. From mastering playing the piano at age 6 he later moved to writing music and drawing before falling in love with writing poetry at age 13. This love continued to grow while in High School when he help start a poetry club and enrolled into an advance art class at Perry Traditional Academy. His high school involvement in the arts allowed him the opportunity to perform his poetry at Pittsburgh’s Improv comedy club and for his 12th grade portrait of Malcolm X to be showcased in the Carnegie Art museum. However, his love for art didn’t truly blossom until leaving home to pursue a college degree at one of the first Historical Black Colleges and Universities, Cheyney University. When he was there, he picked up photography while working for a campus photography company and continued performing his poetry on the road at places such as, Washington DC., Maryland, St. Louis and Philadelphia. He later took his writing to another level when he decided to take his leverage his college experiences and poetry to create the realistic novel, “The Mydas Touch.”
Rob Lay the fitness professional: has been an athlete all his life but it wasn't until he went through a state of depression that my true fitness journey begin. Rob had just moved away from his family to a brand new city to start a new job. Being on his own for first time in his life and not used to being alone Rob fell into a slight depression, it was not until he joined the gym up the street from my house that he went to everyday that he came out of depression. After lifting two years straight a guy from the gym convinced me to compete in a body building show. Rob trained for another year and competed in a NPC body building show where he truly fell in love with fitness. However, two months later, Rob donated a kidney to my father and hit a physical and emotional wall when he passed away from surgery complications. What made matters worse, Rob was unable to workout. In order to recover from the surgery he had to stop working out for two months straight and ended up losing 20 lbs. After the two months he was determined to get back in shape. Rob was able to rebound from the lose of my father, the weight he loss, and was back in the gym full time. In three months he was bigger and better than ever! Since then he has not competed because of time doctoral program demands but continue to building a product that will be ready to present on stage when he am able to do so. However, Rob has had the opportunity of training other competitors that have competed and won numerous competitions.