Marielle Verano and Aimee Fritsch

00:01 My name is Amy Katherine fridge. I'm 22 today is May 30th 2015 and we are in Minneapolis Minnesota and I am Mars roommate. My name is Marielle Verano. I'm 23. Today's date is May 30th, 2015. We are currently in Minneapolis Minnesota. And Aimee is Awesome by Mark. Could you start by talking a little bit about your faith background? Yeah, so I am Catholic both my parents are Catholic and I was born and raised it to this tradition. I went to Catholic school all of my life through actually and

00:53 Yes, I'm Catholic and I think it's a lot there a lot of Filipinos that are Catholic and said they're very popular tradition to be a part of okay, how would you say your family and then your Filipino culture has influenced your faith.

01:13 Being Catholic is one of those things that I was kind of just born into my parents would take me to church every time they went even if I was kicking and screaming that to go and because I learned it in school I learned

01:29 Play Bible study in school all became a second nature to me.

01:35 And

01:37 There's a lot of Filipinos that are Catholic and so our Parish would have just really big Filipino community that my parents were part of and so all of their friends were part of our parish and so I was just around it a lot and because I grew up with it. It's just something that I've wanted that I've been apart of and want to be a part of

02:04 Sure, do you have or could you talk about like are there any particular moments that kind of reinforced like this is something I want to be a part of so.

02:19 Let's see any of the biggest biggest event that I can think of are the one that most influenced me was when I went to World Youth Day in Brazil in 2013. 2013 World youth day is just as big giant prayer celebration really where the pope comes and people from all over the world come to this pilgrimage. I mean, it's in a different country each every happens every three years and it's in a different country. So when I went it was in Brazil in Rio specifically and

03:00 I think it's amazing how people come together for this one particular event. And you meet people from all from from everywhere. I was part of this program called Magis. That is a Jesuit.

03:19 Event or it's like a dungeon 8 program that happens two weeks before World youth World youth day, but it's actually the whole week. And so I met people we do activities together. And so I made friends in Chile and France and Brazil and other people from the United States and there's a lot to this is just an amazing event for me cuz it's one of those things that everyone was there for the same reason and everyone seeing the same songs. Everyone knows the same songs and it's not it was one of those events where you go and it's not weird to be like, let's pray before we eat or let's all sit and have a reflection for 10 minutes, but it was cool because it's from its people who like don't even speak the same language, but then you talk to them and you're thinking the same thing.

04:19 But you just met them and they live across the world like it's it was amazing and I think being a different country for that was.

04:30 It's also mind-blowing blown mind-blowing because I had never been outside of the country. So I've been outside the country but only to the Philippines and with my parents and so going to Brazil was the first time that I was out of the country by myself and that also in itself just has a lot of

04:53 I had to mentally prepare for going on this trip. It was it was a lot. Also we were backpacking and like sleeping in the room like a school gym fell three weeks. And so I can only I literally had like three shirts for 3 weeks and you have to wash your clothes and it was cool as it really great pilgrimage. I got the opportunity to go to produce a hundred. And so I remember it being so intense and having so many memories from the are there any like moments and memories that you just let standout and I know that sometimes you get specific, so you cherish from neck you want to share those.

05:37 I think one of the biggest ones is in Rio. There is the Christ the Redeemer statue has giant Jesus. I called the giant Jesus statue and it's like Jesus has his arms wide open and it was crazy. Cuz everyone wants to see that statue. I think they're like six million people during World Youth Day in so there's like a lot of people at the Statue.

06:05 But just looking at it and seeing why all of those people are there plus it's on this giant Hill that has like wonderful view of Rio and so just being there and realizing that like I am here for this purpose and two I like and just looking back on all the people that I met and what it took for me to be out there. I'm and how much strength I had to have to go on this trip with people that I barely knew but just like meet all these people and just be in that place and be present to it. It was it was amazing. It sounds like it was such a journey to get to that point with the group coming from USF and traveling in

06:57 Being there. Yeah it was.

07:00 It took a lot of preparation, I think so when you the trip was in July of 2013, and I applied.

07:11 When you in October of the year before that we were going to go and so each month each month. We would have at least one meeting in preparation for how to get a visa and making sure your passport is up-to-date contact information like all of the logistic things but also reflecting on why you want to go on this trip and what do you think has how do you to go on this trip and what has encouraged you to be part of it? Yeah, there's a lot of perforation. Yeah, both practical and spiritual emotional prep to it. So who were you with when you were there both on the world Youth Day pilgrimage and part of the Magis program. So Magis is a program that it said Jesuit.

08:02 Program is headed by the Society of Jesus and it's for youth that are.

08:12 Enrolled or have some sort of connection to Jesuit institutions all around the world. So everyone either went to a Jesuit college Jesuit High School or was chaperoning people from those institutions and so all of those people and so that's a smaller group of people. I went with I think there were eight of us from the University of San Francisco.

08:41 Which is why I went to college and it was just kind of a mix of people. I went with one of my friends Sarah.

08:51 Okay, so that Jews are the now in New York, right? Yes. Okay. Sorry about what Sarah so we we've just also went to high school with her. And so we have a lot of we have a lot of things that we do a lot of things together and some of them a lot of them. I was one of the older ones so it was me Sarah and one person Evan who is one year older than us. He also did JVC to in Maine but everyone else was younger than a spinach is a handful of people that wanted to go on this trip. And so how it works is that the United States delegation has about 200 people and so each Jesuit college that was to have people go gets about 10 people. We had ate some colleges had like twelve or Fourteen. And so what time are people from Fordham Holy Cross?

09:51 Clara

09:53 What are the Marquette there's just a lot of people?

09:58 And I saw that same group goes to World youth day with me. But will you stay just like anybody who wants to be there? And so you meet people that are you meet I think it's interesting cuz you meet a lot of different kinds of Catholics. And so I I like love the Jesuits and so I was there with the Jesuits but then you see like the Dominicans and I don't all like every

10:25 Every order you can possibly think of ways of there when we went we played the name that order game behind a guess based on people's. Yeah. That's when to order they were from. Yeah. It's really interesting. I think you have to go to and look at and just watch people do you keep in contact with anyone that you met from other countries? So before going to Brazil, I didn't have a Facebook and I or I had like not had my Facebook. I just wasn't using its I deactivated it but I reactivate it again.

11:03 Before going like right before going and so that's the main contact of how I talk to those people but yes it we're all still on Facebook and if pictures come up for all comment on them or especially birthdays since I went with people who

11:25 Are from Brazil Chile and France?

11:29 I will like Google translate how to say happy birthday in their language because a lot of them speak English. So I feel like I should begin effort to try to speak with them, but it's cool because that kind of effort is needed. It's great that everyone has that that willingness to learn. I remember when we saw some people didn't speak English, but I I know it's a little bit of Spanish and so I'll try to talk to them or talk to them even just like, where are you from or what? What are you studying? What's your favorite color? Like just being able to have that conversation with them? Even if it's really small was is it was it was great to cool experience.

12:20 How would you say that the whole experience of world Youth Day? How did it shape? How did it continue to shape your faith it or change your faith that you were brought up with?

12:38 I think because

12:41 World youth day was out of the country and because it was my first time like leaving or like being on my own in a different country. It made me understand that there is so much more than the little city that I grew up in my from the Bay Area. And so the Bay Area could be such a bubble of just yet. It's it's a really big bubble, but I think if you don't leave it you don't really understand what else is out there. Give me a premier personally at least and so leaving.

13:18 California leaving California and going to different country and meeting people who

13:25 I didn't speak their language or how to dislike the differences that I have with those people really opened my eyes to

13:35 Understanding like there's much more out there than all the little petty things that I that I wanted that I like cared about and so because because I went on that journey, I think it's mostly mostly helped with my JVC experience and kind of understand that like, there's so much more out there in the world. I don't need to I'm going to go if I could go back in like work eventually, but I also don't want to do that yet. I want to be able to like give of myself and I don't understand what else the world has to offer me and how I could be a part of that and contribute to that and just be able to see

14:18 Just give more of myself and be able to be able to do I say this.

14:29 Just to be more open and understanding to what else God has there for me? Cuz that's a big commitment to go from World youth day. And then now we moved to Minnesota and committed to a year out here has you're expected to experience being in a different place with World youth day. Has that been a source of strength while you're out here? What how is it like being gone for several weeks and then living in a new place living?

15:02 It's been it's definitely been challenging.

15:07 So before World youth day I had gotten is really like clean shaven or like a really bad breakup. And I think that is what helped me do to push me.

15:20 Out the door kind of and be like, hey, you need to go experience new things and so being in Brazil like after Brazil. I just wanted to not be in the Bay Area and learn what else there was for me. So I went to Mexico on an emergency trip to learn about migrant workers and immigration and how that affects people and how we can help people and I went to Hawaii just because my friend could take me there and but it was cool because I got to see other cultures and other ways of living that I that California doesn't have

16:02 And being able to understand that really really like all these little petty things that I'm upset about are probably not like there's much more to be thankful for or upset about or

16:15 Just to be more appreciative of things that I have and that's why I wanted to do JVC cuz I wanted to make sure that I didn't forget that after I graduated but also too because I know that all of my problems are probably not like they're probably I think now that now that I look back on it, they're pretty small and I wanted to be able to focus on something else rather than the problems that I had.

16:46 And it sounds like

16:49 Taking that desire to serve in that desire to learn new things about new cultures into jvc's it's a great way to come into a year of service. What if you found like from that openness and you're working with primarily homeless individuals, right? So I work for a nonprofit that provides free phones and place Melton homeless and low-income individuals and what if you found in that culture cuz it is such a different culture than even like a middle-class.

17:20 Community kind of culture

17:25 We can you repeat the question. So what have I learned? What have you learned? What a few what have you experienced? That is that different culture that I know you're interested in. I think there's a lot that people don't see that's one of the things I think people would I have noticed with a lot of like my advocacy work with the nonprofit is

17:49 At

17:50 People think they know what other people want and

17:56 But they don't actually ask those people what they want and it's interesting where you can work for you can work for an organization that quote-unquote helps the homeless, but you don't ever see like a homeless individual there and advocating for themselves. And I think it's really interesting that how do you how do you know if they want if you don't ask them some type of thing?

18:23 I think that's one of the things that I've learned but also had to deal with our like had to understand and taken.

18:33 But also it doesn't this year has just been so

18:39 Social learning experience the learning curve has been crazy.

18:46 Also had to be patient with people for people I would typically quiet person but I think this year has definitely push me out of my comfort zone I think.

19:00 2

19:01 So because I have not like an outspoken person I have to

19:08 Make myself known so I have to push myself out of that but also understand that the people that I work with don't always have.

19:19 Consistency in their life. And so to repeat my name to somebody out for months after I've met them is

19:30 Is it interesting after I understand that like they don't remember my name and that's okay because they don't have to or they have other things to think about and living being able to understand that that's just something that's going to happen.

19:48 Would you say that your faith has been his support through that and through that learning in that kind of changing how has your face played into that?

20:02 Yes, yes. I think it's by faith has definitely helped and been in support of it.

20:10 I do for me you and I

20:13 I'm upset about things. I will go into church and just sit and kind of stare at the altar and just just let my thoughts run and somehow direct them to God.

20:29 And but I think

20:33 Because I am the type of person that

20:38 My faith is because something that I grew up with I don't think it's going to change it's there and it's I I'm like a Catholic forever basically, and I know that

20:53 If I'm going through something, I know that God is still there supporting me even though I'm going through the worst.

21:02 I think I'm a lot.

21:06 Yeah, so I don't it's something that always be there and even if even if I'm going through the toughest times, I never think like God has abandoned me or anything like that. It's the opposite is like God is still there supporting me because I'm I'm still walking and I'm still breathing and just a small things you have to I just remember that these are things my problems are really full probably so

21:32 It sounds like this has been a challenging year. Yeah, and a lot of ways.

21:40 What is it been like because you're Catholic a Catholic forever. But that Dynamic still changes like you grew up in a church. That was so much about your culture as well. What has that been like moving to, Minnesota?

21:54 It was interesting.

22:02 All my faith has changed because I moved here or just your experience with I mean the Catholic church is universal, but it is still lived out very differently in different churches. What has that experience been like

22:18 I think I've come to the conclusion. I was actually talking to a friend about this last night that

22:27 I like I believe in God and I think and I like traditionally Catholic but I think if you come to the understanding that like if you just believe that there's like a higher being or like the universe has a higher being than great. Like it's all to me like now it's all the same and

22:48 It's just more accepting of the glass of traditions like structure is not structured like for me personally, like I like the structure of Catholicism, but if someone else doesn't then okay cool. It doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be

23:09 Anything and I think that's great moving here because

23:16 I don't know you meet so many different kinds of people and I've connected with so many people who like don't believe in religion or just don't have like that traditional faith that some people have but they are the most like

23:35 Spiritually connected people I've ever met and that's so that's so what like, it's great. It's a listen Quran encourages me to

23:48 Be more open to meeting new people and understanding that we're all kind of in this together and part of being a part of JBC means that you're very much in it together with a small amount of people to what has that Dynamic been like in like because in JVC, we live in this intentional Community what goes in face and however else you want to take it. What's that Dynamic been like in community?

24:20 I think communities really interesting an intentional communities are very very challenging in my opinion especially so I live with you and three other people and we all met a week before we moved in together and it's really interesting like learning about people and trying to grow together, but also just learning about each other at the same time and

24:53 Not understanding

24:56 Like what your actions could do to other people or what their actions can do to you but just being but also like being open to it and needing to think about it. I've been working on being assertive but also like what maybe that person just having a bad day if like something happens and I need to like sit and think about it and like is it really worth it to bring it up or should I be assertive about it and bring it up? Because if it's bothering me, but you also need like great people you guys are all wonderful people and I am so glad I met you all.

25:39 And also those things like Help Me Grow also, so yeah Community stuff, but it's definitely a learning experience and I think it's one that I wouldn't trade.

25:51 Can you describe what your intentional Community is like and what it's like a day in your life. Okay, so intentional are intentional Community. There's five of us me Amy Conner Sarah de una we're all from different places. Amy and I are from the West Coast Canada from the east coast and Anna and Sarah both from the Midwest.

26:23 I think one of the best things about intentional communities is we're all kind of growing together and we can come together. And if someone's having a bad day at work, we can we all talked about it at the dinner table and we'll talk about each other day and it our conversations roll off of those and so we can get into heated conversations about like voting rights and like free phones or like school lunches and it just the whole conversations that roll off of that and it's I think it's because you know that those people want to have those conversations with you.

27:06 And also we share like a budget and utilities and everything. So we really were really working together to live together. But that just helps us grow so much. So for people who haven't heard of desert volunteer Corps before what is like a typical day living in community doing service. What does that look like?

27:30 Typical day. So for me a typical day would be going to work. I work for a nonprofit called Open Access connections, and we provide voicemail and are now Distributors of the free government Lifeline cell phones. And so I would go to a shelter or a drop-in center and distribute phones for like 2 hours and then go back to the office and works at some stuff at the office and then come home and say we're all having dinner that night and so one person would cook dinner and we would all sit around the table together and talk about our day and kind of go off at the conversation about that and then maybe after that if it's still if it's early will watch a movie we've been really, it's Mad Men lately, but just sitting and like watching something together and then

28:30 Having conversations about it later and understanding that these people want to have these conversations with you and growing together. We also do a lot of volunteer work together, which I think is great and it's all types of

28:47 All types of volunteer work. My favorite has been cookie cart. It's a nonprofit that they sell cookies and high schoolers get to Arthur at and licking work experience inside. That's that's fine. And I think if we weren't doing that together, it would be different for me. But because we're all in this learning experience together. It's what makes it better.

29:15 What are some of the unique parts of JVC? I know it's based off of these four values of social justice simple living communities which reality but even in like a day today. I know that those things influence like how you get around and what you do and could you talk about some of those unique JVC moments ABC moments

29:39 I think

29:42 Simple living has been one of the harder things to the one of the higher values to for me personally for me that, I was really easy to work a job and like spend my money on dinner that night and if I like Chinese takeout or something like that for us, we have to intentionally think about everything that we've I and so it's really interesting will

30:14 We'll have to even small things like orange juice is just like to be really need orange juice this month this week and we can we can do without.

30:28 Or like since we we don't have a car anymore, but when we did have a car planning around who is going to take it. Could you drop me off here or I'll like it I can pick you up on my way from work or like what's the easiest way for me to get to hear I'll take you there and then you can just take the bus back or there's a lot of planning into this but I don't know. That's the only thing is so great. I couldn't think of a very specific moment, but it's not coming to me right now. We we do stretch Molly and Community nights and one of ours Community nights is just like time that we want to spend together.

31:16 And we went to the Minneapolis Lantern Fest that Amy wanted to go to and it just turned out to be or not to be very very cold and we were kind of freezing. It was like -20 with the yeah. It was very cold and we are not having a good time. But we stuck it out long enough that we saw the parade at least but then but now it's just one of those things that we always think about and we can look back at it and be like that was a great not really that was so ridiculous, but we did it but it's something that we wanted over and like that'll be in my memories forever.

32:02 So that was a community night, right? Is there any speech rally night that stands out in your mind is a memory from this year spiritual at night.

32:14 I really like the first one that we did you.

32:20 What it is to write letters to our future selves. I honestly don't remember what so we wrote letters with the intention who wrote letters to ourselves with the intention of opening at the end of the year. I honestly don't remember what I wrote but I'm kind of excited to read it because I feel like this year has been so challenging and so life-changing that I'm not the same person that I was when I wrote that so I'm interested to to reread it and be able to think about what has changed in who I am who I am now as opposed to who I was at the beginning of the year and think about all of the steps that have changed me in that way.

33:04 What do you think you're going to take with you when you leave this year because we are at about two months left of being JB's. What what from this year you going to take with you? And how have you changed it? Take it as you go forward.

33:19 So I definitely changed the way that now I'm more outgoing and more outspoken and more assertive and things that I feel like should be addressed. But also just my view on the world.

33:38 There's a lot of things that I think.

33:42 Are not talked about that. I wish I could know everything to talk about them.

33:53 But it's like that that's on the on the like social justice range, but I think personally one of the things that has affected me this year was in Filipino American and

34:09 I've just started to learn about like Philippine history in Filipino American history in the past like 545 years of my life because I'm from the Bay Area. There is a lot of Filipinos there and I had that support

34:25 Had that support in finding our roots in finding out our history and then I moved to the Twin Cities and there's not a very big Filipino Community here. And so I had to I have to kind of reach that and like relearn my history on my own but I think that's one of the Byzantine back is to go black when I

34:52 Because I don't have the support of other people here in terms of like us learning about our Filipino history together. I have to do it on my own but it just encourages me to keep going.

35:07 I know that I was very discouraged about it for a little while because I because I moved out here but then you understand that while I understand that I should be proud of it instead of feeling different all the time. I think that's one of the things that I want to be able to focus on after I leave here is being able to focus on being kind of to be a person of color and understand like how this will affect me and the people and our history of Filipino Americans are definitely appreciated how you've brought your culture to our community to that has with your work in different events that you've brought us to it's been an opportunity for me and for the rest of us to learn more and I love teaching that stuff about it.

36:06 It's a gift definitely is is there any other part of like your journey as a JV or your faith Journey that you want to share?

36:19 I think a lot of people should do volunteer year or at least lived in intentional community.

36:29 I think I've gained so much experience this year that I probably would never have if I didn't.

36:37 Leave the Bay Area or move to I mean even maybe maybe don't do it. I volunteer but like moved to a different state move to a different city be somewhere where you could be yourself or at least learn who you are typing. That's when I also one of the things that I struggled with was like personal identity, but then I moved here and I didn't know anybody and so there's no one to like tell you who you are or like identify you with anything. And so I picked up a lot of things when I came here. I started to learn how to play the ukulele I

37:19 I don't know. I Found a Love candles like those little things are just I don't think I would have learned them if I didn't move away from home. So I encourage a lot of people to move away or spend time just reflecting in different spaces and change change change it up a little bit because you never know what you're going to find.

37:42 Cool. Well, thank you for thank you to interview and sharing this JVC journey and your thoughts with me ABC ruined for life.

37:57 Who to get question?

38:06 So I was a finance major in college and I want to go back into the finance world and be able to I I like it.

38:19 But I want to be able to find a organization or a company that's in line with my values. And so I know that's going to be really challenging but that's kind of my personal Journey for the next couple of years out of cars need like that work experience and working for me. Just working to have that work experience, but eventually finding a company that that wants to help others like I do.

38:52 Thank you.