What's the Tea with Ministry?
Welcome to What’s the Tea with Ministry!
Where we spill the tea on the Jesuit and Mercy mission at the University of Detroit Mercy! Bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection, and community connection all over a cup of tea.
What's the Tea with Ministry?
From Campus to Ballot Box: Being Multi-Issue Voters
Uncover the powerful blend of faith and advocacy as we welcome Maryam Qoda, a senior at Detroit Mercy, and Chelsea Puckett from NETWORK, a faith-based political advocacy organization. What if your vote could resonate with your deepest values? Chelsea, who leads the YALL program, shares her insights on empowering young citizens to translate their beliefs into action during crucial election years. We also hear Maryam's inspiring journey as a first-generation college student and YALL Ambassador emphasizing the importance of staying engaged and empowering communities to participate actively in shaping our future.
Our conversation highlights the transformative work of the YALL program, designed to inspire young people across the United States to engage in social justice through advocacy and voter education. Chelsea provides an insider look at how students from campuses nationwide are being equipped to tackle pressing issues from racial equality to economic justice. We explore the intricacies of being a multi-issue voter, guided by the Equally Sacred Checklist, and delve into understanding voter rights, particularly for first-generation students navigating the electoral process in various states.
Wrapping up with a heartfelt discussion on NETWORK's mission, we share personal stories and reflect on how our actions can foster meaningful connections, reminding listeners that every vote and conversation can truly make a difference.
Welcome to what's the Tea with Ministry, where we spill the tea on the Jesuit and Mercy mission at the University of Detroit. Mercy bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection and community connection, all over a cup of tea Hosted by University Ministry and, typically, our student co-host. But today I'm flying solo and I am interviewing on my own. Kateri will join us again in our next episode. I'm Anna Lawler from University Ministry and today I have two amazing guests with me. We're going to be talking with Miriam Koda and Chelsea Puckett. Chelsea serves as the Grassroots Mobilization, outreach and Education Specialist at NETWORK, a faith-based political advocacy organization that transforms our society by shaping federal policies that achieve racial, economic and social justice, serve the common good and honor the dignity of all. In Chelsea's work she supports young people as they advocate for racial and economic justice at the federal level. Her background is in secondary education, with classroom teaching experience in the states of Maine, texas and Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:I also have today with me our guest, miriam Koda, a first-generation college student at Detroit Mercy. She is a senior studying biology and will be graduating with an honors bachelor's next May. She plans to continue her studies after graduation in medical school On the Detroit Mercy campus. She's involved in a lot of organizations from SJP, salc and FEMCO, as well as being the university honors program president. Miriam is also a Sister Carol Koston Fellow with Network program president Miriam is also a Sister Carol Koston Fellow with Network. So let's talk with Miriam and Chelsea.
Speaker 1:I am so excited to have you both on the podcast with me today. Thank you for being here for recording with me via Zoom our fun virtual world. I'm so excited that you're here, and one of the things we always do on what's the Tea with Ministry is we usually sit down in our recording studio here on campus. We're obviously not doing that today and so we're not going to be able to have my little tea set up that I typically have. But I want to know what type of beverage or comfort drink do you typically go to when you need something like as a little pick me up? I know for me in the if it's the afternoon, like after 2 PM, like it is right now I typically need like an iced tea, iced coffee, iced lemonade, something cold. What are the things that you lean to, miriam? What's something you like?
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, anna. I think this is something. It's a little joke between me and all of my friends. I go to this one coffee house and on a good day I'm there once a day. My favorite drink is the iced caramel macchiato and I highly recommend it because if you guys have ever tried Yemeni coffee, they put cardamom in in their blend and the aftertaste is amazing. It brings my soul back into my body every day at 8 am before work and I love it. I just love it.
Speaker 1:That's a great one, Chelsea. What about you?
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for having me here. It's really nice to be here with both of you. I am not a caffeine drinker, so don't drink coffee or tea. But when I was teaching ninth grade and 12th grade in Maine, I got hooked on Polar Seltzer, which is just, you know, the regional New England seltzer brand. So if I need to pick me up, I'll grab a Polar Seltzer out of my fridge. I specifically like the lime flavored ones.
Speaker 1:Yum, I love a good seltzer too. One of the reasons I asked you what your favorite drinks are, or what your like pick me up drink is, is because we do usually serve tea on the podcast. Obviously, I wanted to ask you what you enjoy drinking, but the other part of it is really to talk about the history that we have with the Sisters of Mercy. The Sisters of Mercy, specifically Catherine Macaulay, the foundress, said on her deathbed that she wanted to make sure that the sisters that she was leaving behind in this life sat down to have a comfortable cup of tea in the afternoon specifically, and so we like to live on into that tradition of sharing our time together over a cup of tea or in conversation with one another, and so that is kind of the history behind our little tea segment on the podcast, but also why I'm always curious what are you drinking and what do you enjoy? So again, I'm so excited to have you both here.
Speaker 1:The reason we invited Chelsea and Miriam here onto the podcast today was to talk a little bit more about the upcoming election. We are in an election year. This is a super important time for our country. Elections are always important, and they're not just during the big election years. There's tons of elections that happen throughout the many years in between, but we're really excited to have you both to share a little bit more about the ways you're involved in election prep, getting both our community ready for the election, but also the larger country nationwide, and so I'd love to start by just asking a little bit more about network, which is what you're both connected to. So, chelsea, if you can share a little bit more about, like, who is network and what is your mission?
Speaker 3:Thanks, anna. You explained who we are perfectly a little bit earlier in the conversation. But what I can tell you is who we are perfectly a little bit earlier in the conversation. But what I can tell you is that we are a federal advocacy organization that works for equity and justice for all people in the United States and we were founded in 1972 by a group of Catholic sisters from many different congregations all over the country. They came together in DC in December of 1971, sat on the steps in the main building at Trinity Washington campus, just a couple miles up the road from where I am now in our office, and decided that it was time that they transformed their experience in direct service, in nursing and teaching, like your foundress at UDM, to work in advocacy at the federal level to really make change for people.
Speaker 3:So we continue to do the work that they started. We are inspired by those sisters who came before us and I love that you have this tea tradition in your office. We actually all sit down together for lunch as often as we can. For the same reason, the sisters who started our organization wanted to make sure that everyone gathered for a meal and to be in community and to have that moment of respite and community care. So we do that as much as possible. Sometimes it's not always easy, but yesterday we, you know, we gathered in the late afternoon for chips and guacamole. So we try to do it like you do too.
Speaker 1:Amazing, wonderful, and one of the reasons I mean the main reason we invited you, miriam, to be on here is because of your connection to network through the Y'all program. Could you tell me a little bit more about Y'all? And if, Chelsea, you want to fill in anything, feel free, but I'd love to hear specifically from you, miriam, about your experience with y'all and what y'all is.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So in my opinion, I think the past election really showed that we needed the younger generations, the younger voters to support, to come out to vote, to register to vote and I started that way back in 2020. To vote, to register to vote and I started that way back in 2020. I worked the election, I helped out with voter registration, things like that, and I think it's picking up that around the country that we need more young voters because it is our future. So the Y'all program, I think, is probably one of the first to really have like a program, just where it is. We're all like in our 20s, college students, and we're all young voters, gen Z and I think it is the best way to get other young voters or our friends in class, our friends at home, to learn more about voter registration, voter rights and so we can have an active role in our elections.
Speaker 1:Great. Can you tell me a little bit about what some of the work you've had to do with y'all looks like yeah, so mostly we've had.
Speaker 2:The first few meetings we have had were more like educational. We heard from different sisters, from different organizers in network and lawyers, things like that, about the history, some of history, some voter rights or like voter registration drives, like they just gave us ideas as as well as the Equally Sacred Checklist is what we go by as network and as y'all members and like we go like down the checklist to make sure that whoever we are voting for aligns with who we are as the younger generation, as people of faith.
Speaker 1:Could you tell me a little bit more about what it looks like or what are the things on the checklist?
Speaker 2:Well, these are some of the things that we believe are equally sacred to everyone in the United States your freedom to be healthy, your freedom to live on a healthy planet, your freedom to participate in a vibrant democracy, your freedom to care for yourself and your family, your freedom from harm and your freedom to live in a welcoming country that values dignity and human rights.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. And, chelsea, what is your involvement with the Y'all program in Network?
Speaker 3:I work as the convener of the Y'all program, which is a wonderful space to be in here. I am also Gen Z. I like to say that I'm elder Gen Z. I was born in the first year that you could be Gen Z, so you know my pop culture references are a little bit different than the students in the program, but it's nice to have that similar life experience with the folks that we are working with in this program.
Speaker 3:The Y'all program is a wonderful opportunity for us at Network to continue our ministry with young people that we've been engaging in for over 50 years. We've always welcomed college students and high school students from around the country to our offices here in DC to learn about our advocacy work, and this is a way of extending that, of really getting young people involved in our advocacy work and enabling them to build the skills that they need to be modern advocates, whether that's online in social media or it's in person, and they're deep canvassing on an issue on their college campus and knocking on doors, or they are registering their peers to vote and sharing with them how they request an absentee ballot if they're voting in their home district and they go to school a couple of hours away. And, of course, this program is not just around voter empowerment and education. It is much broader than that. We are in our pilot year right now, but the program will be continuing on for many, many years to come and we'll be working with students in the same 10 schools that we're at right now and actually expanding the program as we continue, into the next year.
Speaker 1:Amazing. So you said you're at 10 different schools right now. Is that, would you say that that's across the nation, or is there a particular region where you have more college involvement?
Speaker 3:So that's a great question. We tend to be in areas're working with in Southern California, a campus that we're working with in Florida, campuses in the New York metro area, in Philadelphia and the Bronx. Out in Western Pennsylvania at the University of Detroit Mercy, where we're chatting about right now. We're in Wisconsin, ohio. We're kind of all over the place.
Speaker 1:Awesome. That's great. That's so wonderful, and I got to hear about the Y'all program a little bit this past year when I was at the Ignatian Family Teaching for Justice. Miriam was there with me and I met Chelsea briefly, and so it was a really awesome opportunity just to hear about this program being created and really trying to start and flourish, and I think it's such a wonderful opportunity not only for students on our campus to get involved and to be aware of, but I think it's a great opportunity even beyond our college campus just to be aware of what Network is doing, what they're working on and what they're advocating for in our community as well as nationally from our political perspectives. I think it's so wonderful. Can you tell me I think this is an important thing most of our listeners on the podcast are students at our institution. Obviously, staff and faculty listen to our podcast as well, but can you talk a little bit about why it's important to vote or to register to vote?
Speaker 2:it's important to vote or to register to vote. Yeah, I think, especially as a first gen coming here, I was not aware of any like voter rights. I didn't know how voting worked. To be honest, um, I was only 10 years old, but, um, I think it is. If you want to be on the forefront of social justice, if you see things in your community or in the entire country that you want to change, your most powerful weapon is your voice and your vote. Registering to vote, voting in not just presidential or federal elections, your local elections, your state elections. That also has a big impact on the policies in the area you live in, even like your city elections, and I think, like I said, voting, putting your voice out there, organizing getting your friends and family to also register and vote, is one of the most powerful ways to combat an issue.
Speaker 1:Amazing. No, I agree, and I think one of the points you made, miriam, that I also came to learn, I think, later in life. I mean, I'm not that old yet, but I'm not in the Gen Z generation, I'm technically at the tail end of millennials but one of the things I didn't really learn until I was a couple years into college was how important it is to vote outside of the presidential and federal elections, how important it is to vote in the community that I'm living in, which, in college, was a little more challenging, because I was going to school in Ohio and voting in Illinois, where I grew up, and now I've lived in many different states and voted in many different states. I now vote in Michigan because I live in Michigan, but that was one of the things that I really didn't learn until later in college, and so I really appreciate the work that you're going to be doing, miriam, in terms of helping to register students on our campus and our community, but also what the work of all of the Y'all program is trying to achieve, which is getting that voter education out there, reminding young people, not just students, that you have a voice and your voice should be used and you have the opportunity in some ways more so at our local level, to really see change in your individual community when you pay attention to those other elections.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I just appreciate you sharing that One of the things in my experience. I've been connected to Network through my work here at Detroit Mercy, mostly through my former colleague, sister Erin McDonald, because she was our contact person with Network for many years while she was here, and one of the things that she always highlighted and that I know Network is very passionate about highlighting is the idea of being a multi-issue voter, and you kind of alluded to this with the sacred checklist. But can you talk a little bit more both of you either one of you about what it means to be a multi-issue voter?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can take this one. So being a multi-issue voter at Network, for us, that means considering multiple different issues when you choose the candidate that legal system reform and immigration and tax justice and racial and climate justice. We know that when we are evaluating candidates to see who best matches our values as Catholics and as people of good faith, we want to look at where they fall on a myriad of issues, not just one issue.
Speaker 1:Miriam, from your perspective, why do you think it's important to be a multi-issue voter?
Speaker 2:I think Chelsea said it perfectly it is very important to look at the intersectionality of how different issues work. Whatever you care about, there is a chance that it's probably interacted with another issue that someone else cares about or you also care about. So I kind of look at it as like layers. You can't just pick one layer. There's like about seven more layers of issues that you have to go down. That's why the sacred checklist exists and is very helpful. That can help you choose which candidates you think would align with your values the best.
Speaker 1:That's great. From my hearing of both of your answers, one of the things that came to mind is the tradition and process within both the mercy tradition and the Jesuit tradition, which falls under our larger Catholic umbrella. To be discerners, you know, to really sit with issues, to think about your own personal values and see how those values align and determine from there who is the best candidate. Because the reality is and I think this is something I think about a lot in my own voting experience is there are a ton of great candidates and there's also candidates who I don't agree with on certain things, and there's never once been a candidate who I agree with on everything either. And so how do I sit down and discern what are the issues and values that are most important to me right now, at this time in my life and at this time in our country's existence? What are the issues that I'm really passionate about? And I need to make sure the candidate I'm voting for aligns with those particular passions. Because the reality, I think sometimes that's what gets really challenging for people, and that's why I think the multi-issue voter perspective is so important, because it can be very easy to be like well, this person feels this way about X, so that's the person I should go with, but then they don't look at, oh, but here's the 12 other things that they also are advocating for, and I don't necessarily agree with those things.
Speaker 1:I think that's something I often think about for myself is like, how is this going to work? So I think that's where that space of discernment, and I like the idea of the sacred checklist. I'm going to have to look at that for this year's election. What is the sacred checklist for myself? To be able to help you through that process of discerning who is the best candidate in my perspective, that aligns best, or as best as they can, with the values I want to uphold, and so I don't know if that explanation aligns. It does in my brain, but does that sound similar to what you all are saying about multi-issue voting?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does, it 100% does.
Speaker 1:Great. So I want to ask, as we're heading in we're in the midst of election season what are some important things that our community at Detroit, mercy but also applicable to people outside of our community should consider and be mindful of as we approach the election season?
Speaker 2:I think, just going from like my background with our community and how a lot of us are first generation, a lot of us have parents that are first generation that don't know all of their voter rights and I think I'm going to be talking about voter rights a lot throughout this but I think that is one of my biggest issues is getting people to know what their rights are. For example, just the voter hotline number, just have that with you. Or, if they know that in Michigan you can register the same day on election day and still vote, or when their ballot is due, or for Michigan, you can request a ballot and you don't need a reason as to why you're requesting a mail-in ballot instead of going in person, like my family members, that they don't know about. That I think is very important to know for this election, for every election, not just presidential, like I said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's really wonderful because I'm trying to think for myself like when was I educated on voting and elections? Like the only time I can really think about for myself was like middle school. We had like a mock election. I'm not going to remember who the candidates were, but whoever the presidential candidates were at some point we're not going to age myself so at some point when I was in middle school it was a while ago, you know we had to vote for who we thought should be the president and they had us go through the whole process. That was the only time I really felt like I ever got an education, and I'm guessing I was in fifth grade, so I'm probably 11 or 12. I'm probably not going to remember that when I'm 18. So, and it probably obviously didn't look the same and this could also be from my own like schooling experience Every school is different Private schools, catholic schools, public schools everyone's education is different when it comes to what they learn about voting and elections, and so it'll be interesting to see how, as we push, as Network works really hard with the Y'all program, with their own efforts to educate people with their voter rights, and just like what does even the process look like, because I think a lot of people I mean good example I shared, prior to starting the recording, a little bit about Michigan's policy to vote absentee and not have to provide a reason, and so I'm actually somebody who's never voted in person, mostly because I've moved a lot in the last.
Speaker 1:This is the first time I've lived in the state for more than like two years and I moved a lot in college and then after college I moved a ton of places and so I just always was voting absentee and so for me I would think about for going in person to vote like that's kind of scary and I'm I'll age myself, I'm 30. So I've never voted in person, I've only ever absentee. Covid also contributed to that and I didn't vote in person those years when I was in the state I was living in. Normally you would have to, but we got absentee ballots at that time, so I truly have never had to vote in person.
Speaker 1:So I think there's also just educating people about what that process looks like. You know what does it mean to go wait in line and then go to the polls and then go into a polling booth? I've never done that, besides the fake polling booth that we had in my fifth grade class. So I just think what y'all are doing with y'all and network is really great. Are there any topics around your work with network?
Speaker 3:with the y'all program that we haven't talked about yet, that you want to share, sure. So some other things that I would love to share that are important for communities to be considering, no matter where they are in the United States and no matter the demographics that make them up. If they are made up of young people. It's super important that we remember that young people do not have the experience with registering to vote before. This is probably the first time that a lot of our Gen Z folks are registering to vote, and we know that by and large in the last couple of decades across the United States, students in public, private and parochial schools do not have a background in civic education, so they have not had this experience in their schools with learning how to register to vote or how our electoral system works. So being able to engage in that voter education work that we're providing is a really wonderful opportunity and a really great place to start.
Speaker 3:We also know that the bigger barriers to voting for young people, besides not knowing how to register, are logistical.
Speaker 3:Young people are busy. They have responsibilities to their family, to their academic careers, to their work lives, to partners, whatever it is that they're doing, and they might just not be able to make it to the polls, so utilizing other resources like early voting or voting absentee can be critical at this point. We're also very aware that there are barriers to people feeling like they should or they can vote. It's a politically divisive time in our country, and folks who may have voted in the past may be considering not voting at this election because of the culture and the climate that we're in right now. One thing that I try to remember when I'm having conversations with my own friends and family around this topic is that voting is a really great opportunity to engage in your civic responsibility and it's an opportunity to provide care for your community, to place your ballot saying this is how I want my community, my neighbors, to be taken care of through policy. This is how I would like it to be done. I try to think about that when I'm having those conversations with people.
Speaker 1:That's great and I appreciate you mentioning that part of the barrier for many people is just the climate that our society is in around political issues, because it does feel I mean, I was watching, I think it was a TikTok a while ago, but it was about two different candidates at one point several elections ago, so several presidential elections ago about the rhetoric of how they spoke about one another and where we are today in our political atmosphere, and how political leaders talk about other political leaders from opposing sides.
Speaker 1:And for me, as I think this is formed by my own faith and by my desire to love all people, even the people that I find challenging is I would love for us to get back to a political society, a political rhetoric, where we can be I just want to use the word more kind to one another, you know, even when we disagree. And I think that's one of the challenges that I am sure many of our students are going to face in this upcoming election, not only for themselves as they discern and come up with who they're voting for and what they're going to choose, but then having to navigate conversations with other people, whether it's their peers, their family. I know this isn't necessarily the work of network. But any advice to our young people about how to navigate conversations when they might have their own political alignment that doesn't match their peers or doesn't match their family, any advice on just how best to navigate some of those conversations or any resources that they could look to?
Speaker 3:I love that you brought that up and I would love to talk more about this at another point too. This is actually a space that we have really spent a lot of time and energy in as an organization network, but also as y'all. We spent a very large amount of time this past spring in our trainings, talking about and training on how do you have a hard conversation with someone Because, like you just said, the political rhetoric in our country is very overwhelming. It can be so overwhelming it can cause folks to shut down entirely, whether that means shutting down from engaging in their civic life and going to the polls or just not engaging in conversation about it, because they don't want to say the wrong thing, they don't want to offend anyone, they don't want to have their feelings hurt or worse. We know we are in a time where there is increasing political violence and that's really real and really scary where their perspectives came from and how they developed those perspectives.
Speaker 3:When you're engaging in a conversation with someone about their political beliefs or how they plan to engage in the election, whether they're going to be voting or not, so really trying to approach your conversation partner from an aura of curiosity and kindness and compassion and as a human being, talking to another human being as opposed to maybe you know competitors on a playing field. That seems to be the best way to approach conversations. We also know that it can be difficult to engage with family and friends, and there are just some conversations that might not be worth having for your own well-being and health and maintaining that relationship. So we encourage you to have conversations that you can have and approach those with curiosity and openness and compassion and vulnerability, and really model that vulnerability in sharing where your own political perspectives come from, where your beliefs come from, hoping that your conversation partner will do the same. It's very effective, but oftentimes also recognizing that sometimes a conversation is just not going to be possible.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 2:I would say I've gotten around to using the sacred checklist a lot with people I've had conversations with and I think I've gotten really good at kind of like getting to know the person.
Speaker 2:If they're all already coming at me in like a defensive manner instead of most of the times it's just like really curious people. They actually want to know, they're willing to have a conversation, even if we don't agree on the same issues, and that's when I'm willing to sit down with this kind of person and tell them about the checklist and have conversations, and then they tell me about their perspective and then it's genuinely a conversation. But then I think, how you guys talked about the culture, the political culture right now, a lot of conversations have also been very, instead of us talking about the issue, it's like my intelligence is questioned, something is questioned, and it's like defensive. And that's when I know to be like, okay, I don't think this is a good conversation to have, because either of us are not going to get educated or informed out of it if we're just going to throw around insults. So I'm just like, okay, goodbye, gotta go.
Speaker 3:And I love that you said that part about sometimes just needing to step back from a conversation, Miriam, for your own health and safety. We talk a lot about that and you go all in our trainings about you're knocking on doors. We'll be deep canvassing and asking people if they plan to make it to the polls, for you know the primaries or the official federal elections, and sometimes conversations just don't go well and that's when you need to step back and say, OK, I got to prioritize myself and my safety and security. And you know emotional wellness and that can be really hard to come to terms with, but it's something that we all need to work on to make it through where we are as a country right now in our political environment and, Miriam, I think you spoke to this very well you know we are not having conversations about candidates.
Speaker 3:We're a nonpartisan organization, we're a 501c3. We do not support any candidates and we do not oppose any candidates. So when we're in conversation with people, we are talking about issues, not candidates, and that can often sometimes throw people off too. They're not used to that kind of a conversation. It's not what they've been used to talking about for the last couple of years in the United States. Hey, let's not talk about the candidates, let's talk about what the issues are that matter to you and where your perspective on that came from. So for us, you know we are nonpartisan. We really believe that the conversations that we're having with folks are about the issues, and so that's where we start, both for sharing all of this wonderful information about your work, your connections with network.
Speaker 1:I have just a couple more things I want to chat with you all about. One is our mission questions, which I'll intro in just a second, and then the next is our lightning round, the classic lightning round. So one of the things that we ask all of our guests on the what's the Tea with Ministry podcast to answer is two questions regarding mission. And so for our guests who are connected to UDM in the sense that they are members of our community, so in this case for you, miriam, we always ask for you to share your favorite part of our Jesuit Mercy identity. What are the things in our Jesuit Mercy world that you find most meaningful, whether it's, you know, one of the critical concerns of the Sisters of Mercy or the universal apostolic preferences from the Jesuits, or if it's just a value that you think we hold here at Detroit Mercy. And then for you, chelsea, I'll ask a similar question, but from the perspective of network and what network's mission is just kind of of like, what's your favorite part of your work? So I'll start with miriam.
Speaker 2:Can you share with me what's your favorite part of the values of our jesuit and mercy tradition here at detroit mercy yeah, um, I think my favorite is which is why I chose to go to teacher mercy in Mercy in the first place is that it doesn't just focus on your education, which is don't get me wrong, it's very important You're going to need, especially if you plan on going to graduate school you need your bachelor's. But for us and for Dichot Mercy, I really really like the fact that we're a Jesuit institution, meaning we follow our Jesuit traditions, and I've been paying attention more to I hope I'm saying it right cura personalis I'm saying it right which, for those of us who don't know, it's like you take care of yourself as well, like kind of like mind, body and spirit, not just your physical body, when you feed your brain information, let's say, like when you learn a lot of things. The Detroit Mercy community, the culture, is also there to teach you how to take care of your mind and your emotions and your spirit. So it's not just one thing. That way, when we go out into the real world, we're not just robots. In a sense, we have the complete package.
Speaker 2:I would say you have education. Of course, we have very smart professors, very smart students. I would say I may be a little biased, but we also are leaving with having been exposed to so many different leadership opportunities, to so many different experiences outside and inside of Detroit. So that is my favorite part. I love, love, love that the fact that we follow our Jesuit traditions. We follow them, not just in like, just talking about it. We are a very action-oriented, student-centered university and that is one of my favorite parts about going here.
Speaker 1:Great. And then Chelsea for you with the mission of Network in your work. What's your favorite part of it?
Speaker 3:Well, our work advocating for equity and justice for all at the federal level is rooted in two things. One, it's rooted in Catholic social justice, which comes out of Catholic social teaching, and the other thing it's rooted in is the lived experiences of the sisters who founded our organization and the lived experience of the sisters who have worked for and with our organization over the last 50 plus years. So to have a mission that comes from both church doctrine that's, you know, been in existence for hundreds of years and from the lived experiences of sisters who've done direct work on the ground with impacted communities, that feels really important to me, that we have those two qualities coming together.
Speaker 1:So now it's time for the lightning round. It's my favorite part. The way this works is I will ask a question and then each of you will answer. Miriam, I'm going to have you go first, so I'll just ask the question, you'll answer, and then, Chelsea, you can answer right after. What, if I don't know the answer? They're an opinion question. There are no wrong answers, Okay. Okay, I mean they could be hard, but they're not meant to be hard, they're meant to just be like quick, get to know you type questions really fast. So that's what we'll do. So I'll have Miriam answer first, then Chelsea will answer and then I'll ask the next question. The idea is kind of to say the first thing that comes to mind, but some of them and I'll prep you for this one of the questions, the last one in particular it's not a quick answer necessarily, and so that question just so you know, so you can think about now is what's the best advice you've ever received? And so our first question is sweet or savory?
Speaker 2:Sweet, a sweet treat, always Chelsea.
Speaker 3:I'm with Mary, I'm sweet, perfect.
Speaker 1:What is your favorite color? Pink, green. What is one food you could not live without?
Speaker 2:I'm a Syrian, so dolma all the way.
Speaker 3:I've loved tomatoes my whole life. I was known to steal pieces of them out of a stranger's sandwiches when I was a toddler and like walking around bakeries.
Speaker 1:So tomatoes Love it what is your current favorite song?
Speaker 2:um ganini by eliana. It's in arabic but it's really good.
Speaker 3:Everyone listen to it please I'm really into geranium day by the michigan rattlers right now okay, okay, I love it, sunrise or sunset sunset, because the pictures will go crazy on instagram.
Speaker 1:Sunrise okay, who is your hero?
Speaker 2:My mom.
Speaker 3:My twin sister works incredibly hard and she shows up to her difficult work protecting our cybersecurity in the US with such a good attitude every single day.
Speaker 1:Nice Love that Very important work, favorite place you've traveled to.
Speaker 2:I haven't been there in a while, but Egypt.
Speaker 3:I lived in Maine for five years and it's still my favorite place on the globe.
Speaker 1:Where in Maine did you live? Sorry, I'm interrupting the lightning round.
Speaker 3:I lived in Brunswick when I was going to school, um, and then I lived in Portland for a while.
Speaker 1:Oh, very cool, very cool. I was just curious. We were in Maine for our honeymoon and so I've been. We went all over Maine. It was great. Oh, very nice. Yeah, great. What is a new hobby you would want to try?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm right now trying to learn the piano better, so it's less of a hobby and more stressful, but it's still. Maybe it'll become a hobby.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, a friend has convinced me to join a pickleball league.
Speaker 1:So we'll see how that goes. Oh my gosh, I love pickleball. Get into pickleball. Everyone should play pickleball. What famous person or saint, dead or alive, would you like to have a conversation with?
Speaker 2:or saint, dead or alive. Would you like to have a conversation with? This is a hard one. Hold on um saint charbel. He is, I don't know, I think he's egyptian and I love him. He's like the saint of healing and I just like his story is very I would love to have a conversation with him.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty basic on this. I think Abraham Lincoln had a very strategic mind at a very hard time in our country and I'd love to you know, listen to him give a lecture to our entire nation right now on what we need to do to move forward. That's amazing.
Speaker 1:And then the last one is what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Speaker 2:I have this that I saw one time and also one of my older professors told me about, from like Macomb, when I did like dual enrollment. She said what we do for ourselves, it's not by her, it's by Albert Pike. What we do for ourselves dies with us, but what we do for others in the world remains and is immortal, and I think that's very beautiful.
Speaker 3:In college a friend of mine was sharing with a few of us that one of the things that she thinks leads to people being the best friends and the best community members is when they take their I'm right hat off. So when you take your I'm right hat off, I think that just opens up your world. So much to different opportunities. Connect with people who you might not agree with at first glance.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Both great pieces of advice. So that really ends our formal time together. I just want to thank you both so much for being on the podcast today, for sharing about Network, about the Y'all program and just how we can better prepare everyone in our community for the upcoming election. I really appreciate the advice you shared and some of the tools and, as I mentioned earlier, I will make sure to link once this podcast episode is live. Well, it's live now. If you're listening. That in the resources underneath the podcast will be the sacred checklist if that's something that you're interested in looking at. But also be on the lookout for Chelsea and Miriam on our campus. They are going to be on campus at different points. Obviously, miriam's always on campus she's a student but they'll be on campus at different points leading up to the election season, and so you'll also be able to find resources from them in person. So again, thank you both so much. I really appreciate you both being here today. It was just so much fun to record with you both.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having us, Anna, and I'm sure if you see a 4-9 person with an iced coffee in hand it's me Just say hi, even if I don't see you.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for having us on. Well, that was a really great conversation that I had today with both Chelsea and Miriam. How fun to hear more about what Network does, what an amazing lobbying group that they're working so hard to educate our nation and, of course, what Miriam's trying to do with educating our individual community here in Detroit, and specifically at Detroit Mercy, around the issues. I think that's such a wonderful approach to thinking about elections and voting to really think about what are the issues that you're concerned about, passionate about, wanna make sure are being attended to in our government, whether that's on the local level or the federal level, the presidential level, making sure that the candidate that you select, whoever that is, is the person that best aligns with the values that you hold and making sure that they address the issues that are important to you and not just one issue, but that is is the person that best aligns with the values that you hold and making sure that they address the issues that are important to you and not just one issue but multiple issues, that multi-issue voter mentality and the discernment process with that. So I just really appreciate the conversation. It was so wonderful to have them both. We're so excited for this upcoming election season. I know it's going to be challenging and it might be hard, and I think we'll just have to lean back into the advice that was given from both Chelsea and Miriam to you know approach conversations with vulnerability and with a mindset of openness, but also to recognize when you need to step back from a conversation that isn't healthy for you. And so I know that's a big ask and it's a challenge, but I think it's something we can all work on and can all learn and grow in, and so just so grateful that they were both able to be on the podcast today and spend some time with us.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to what's the Tea with Ministry. If you enjoyed listening to us today, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Also, be sure to follow us on social media at UDM underscore ministry or check us out at the what's the Tea with Ministry podcast on the Detroit Mercy website. Thank you to our guests, chelsea Puckett and Miriam Cota, for being in conversation with us today. Thank you also to all of those who made this podcast possible, especially the Communication Studies Department, our sound engineer, michael Jason, our music composer, daniel Gregg, marketing and communications and the whole Detroit Mercy community. We look forward to sharing more of the mission with you next time. See you later.