John Palyok (JP) was born in Hobart, Indiana, to John and Jenny and has a younger brother, Mike. He attended Hobart High School, where he participated in football, track and wrestling. He and his high school football team won the 1989 State Championship. Additionally, JP was awarded All-State, All-Conference and Team Captain of the 1990 football season. Later, JP earned a Division II football scholarship to Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. In the last two years at Valpo the football program moved to Division I-AA and he was awarded Team Captain and All-Conference of the Pioneer Football League.

During college, he was a member of the Theta Chi National Fraternity, Vice President of the American Marketing Association and made honorable mention on the Dean's List twice.

He participated in a college summer internship program at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. During the college internship, JP was able to attend several formal business seminars and assist in the recreational department of the company.

He graduated in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in Sports Management/Marketing with a minor in Business Administration. Upon graduation, JP earned a Graduate Assistantship to Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. While there he worked as the Assistant Business Operations Manager for their athletic department and worked at the local YMCA. In addition, he co-founded the organization Students for Responsible Business.

In 1997 he received his Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in Management Information Systems from Western Illinois.

After school JP moved to Chicago, where he became a General Manager for a Computerized Maintenance Management System company called Datastream Systems. He was responsible for managing their Midwest regional office. He then moved to Southern California to assist in starting up an educational software company called SchoolSoft.net. He served as the Director of Technical Support and Services and later became the Vice President of Operations.

In the past few years, JP has been pursing a career in retail management and has worked with one of the largest home improvement company’s in the world - Home Depot. Recently, JP has just transitioned into a new retail management role within Best Buy as a Store Manager. Currently, he is managing one of the highest volume revenue generating stores in the company located in West Los Angeles, CA. JP has also been dabbling into the reality entertainment industry. He was a contestant on one of the hottest reality shows in the market today Survivor 9 – Vanuatu. Additionally, he participated as a reality hunk on Surreal Life 6. He also played a detective role on an internet interactive reality series called Soup Of The Day. Recently, JP just finished filming a holiday giveaway segment on the notorious Dr. Phil T.V. show as the leading spokesperson for Best Buy.

When JP is not working he enjoys several hobbies which include camping, bowhunting, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, fishing, scuba diving, archery, golf and international travel. He was PADI certified in 2000.

He is a member of the Long Beach Bow Hunter's Club. JP was recently recognized by the California Bowmen Hunters's (CBH) club for harvesting one of the top 20 largest deer ever recorded in the state of California with a bow.

JP is single and currently resides in Redondo Beach, California. To find out more about JP and his experiences you can click on his personal homepage at www.johnpalyok.net or visit him on myspace.com at http://www.myspace.com/jpsurvivor