Students find new voice with launch of The Journey’s Gift Podcast
Above: The Journey’s Gift podcast hosts: Catherinanne George, Lissette Ochoa, Sarah
Al-Sabbagh and Nadine Castonguay
London, ON – In response to current unprecedented times, and the multitude of pressing issues happening across our world, Brescia University College’s Campus Ministry and International Office are pleased to launch a new podcast series, The Journey’s Gift. Designed to highlight the student voice and community connections, Brescia’s new podcast provides a virtual space to explore critical issues, our place in the world and finding light along the way.
Spearheaded by Brescia’s Director of Campus Ministry, Catherinanne George, and International Program Coordinator, Lissette Ochoa, The Journey’s Gift podcast was developed collaboratively with Brescia student leaders to highlight their voice and discuss critical issues happening in the world. It was also created to respond to the need for community, to reach out into it, sharing story, diversity and personal experience through the lens of wisdom, justice and compassion. Hosted by George, Ochoa, and Brescia students Sarah Al-Sabbagh and Nadine Castonguay, each episode of The Journey’s Gift contains a global greeting, a spotlight on current issues impacting our local community and the world and a special guest speaker. In each episode, the search for positivity and light within critical issues are unpacked in an effort to help others find their way, through whatever challenges they face.
“Many are saying that 2020 is the worst year that they ever had,” says Catherinanne George, “but, what if we were to look back and to say 2020 was our most transformative year? Not to dismiss the many challenges experienced by people around the world, but to focus a little more on the gifts we’ve been given.”
“We wanted to look at how we could make a difference in the world,” Lissette Ochoa adds, “our students are incredible gifts, and they inspire us each day. Through this new podcast, we wanted to give them a platform, to celebrate our diversity and to empower them to use their voice – particularly in responding to the complexity of the issues in our world.”
Brescia student Sarah Al-Sabbagh wanted to find a way to reach out to others who are going through similar experiences, “Being part of this podcast has really helped me grow and transform as I dig deeper into my own experience, and how it both impacts and is impacted by others. Really, it has helped me learn new ways of facing life.” Nadine Castonguay is quick to add that the University’s roots give tools and resources from which to draw. “Imagine that our Chancellor, Maude Barlow, was an advisor to the United Nations when water became a human right? This, and our responsibility to the environment, is explored as we share the wisdom, justice, and compassion we have learned and experienced through the Ursulines!”
Members of the podcast team envisioned the direction the podcast would take as they explored this new and equalizing environment, where they could explore critical issues, such as global health, food security, environmental crisis, poverty and racism. The podcast leads listeners into a collective story and invites them to see the ways that their own lives intersect with others, which is essential if we are to understand what is happening in the world, our place in it and the response we are being called to.
Purposefully launching on the Feast Day of St. Ursula, The Journey’s Gift honours Brescia’s history and the Ursuline Way, encouraging listeners to be “living piazzas” – open, hospitable and engaged in the world.
Media and members of the community are invited to visit brescia.uwo.ca/campus_ministry/ for a link to the premiere episode, and to search The Journey’s Gift podcast on SoundCloud and Spotify. New releases will be available on a number of virtual platforms and wherever listeners find their podcasts.
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For more information, please contact:
Rhea Johnson, Director, Communications, Marketing & External Relations at rhea.johnson@uwo.ca
or 519-636-9408, or Caitlin Core, Communications, Marketing & External Relations Officer,
ccore@uwo.ca.
Brescia University College, Canada’s women’s university college, is affiliated with Western University. The 1,600 women registered as either full- or part-time students at Brescia study a wide variety of subjects in the Schools of Behavioural & Social Sciences, Food & Nutritional Sciences, Humanities and Leadership & Social Change in an empowering, compassionate, student-centred and invigorating environment. Degrees are granted by Western. The Catholic University College welcomes students from all backgrounds and values diversity. For more current and archived news, a listing of faculty experts, and photos please visit our Online Media Room, at brescia.uwo.ca/communications/media_relations.