WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week in Review: April 9th, 2026

Episode Date: April 12, 2026

This week on the Collegian Week in Review, hosts Catherine Maxwell, Alessia Sandala, and Tayte Christensen first go over some of the top headlines. Then, they talk to Francesca Cella about how the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist got their start in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Finally, they discuss the results of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Awards with show producer Megan Pidcock. 

You are listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Here are your hosts, Catherine Maxwell, Alessia Sandella, and Tate Christensen. Welcome to Collegian Weekend Review, where we give you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. We're your host, Alessia Sandella, Tate Christensen, and Catherine Maxwell. Today we're talking about Radio Free Hillsdale winning Best College Audio Station, and Francesca Sella will discuss her feature. on Dominican Sisters of Ann Arbor. First, a few headlines.

Hillsdale had its spring convocation today. Sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma won the Sorority Scholarship Cup, and Fraternity Sigma Kai won the Fraternity Scholarship Cup. The Emily Daughtry Award for Teaching Excellence went to Michael Clark, Associate Professor of Economics. This week in City News, We had a story on how the Fayette Township Board adopted an ordinance called a Creo to restrict the Hartwood to Solar Project at its meeting last week. At this week's City Council meeting, Mayor Scott Sessions declared April 11th a citywide day of service, which the city will participate in along with Hillsdale College, who does this event annually.

The mayor encourages Hillsdale residents to take part in community service projects and give back to the community. Also, Silo's Fun Park is now on the market. The park has been listed for $1.3 million, and the owner, Donna Olmsted, said that she is selling the property due to her husband's declining health. Also in city news, gas prices have reached the highest points since summer of 2022. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency amid rising gas prices in the state, especially after the start of the Iran War. On Wednesday evening, gas prices at Hillsdale's Marathon were at 389, and at Meyer, they were 395.

According to AAA, Michigan's average gas price for a regular gallon was $4.8 and $8. Making Hillsdale's gas prices less than the state average. And those are our headlines for this week. This is the Collegian Week in Review. I'm Tate, and now we're talking with. Francesca Sella, our assistant features editor. And this week, she wrote a piece for features about the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor. Francesca, could you talk to us a little bit about your experience visiting the convent and just what your conversations with the sisters

were like? Yeah, so over spring break, I had hoped to get in a meeting with some of the founders of the congregation because they're from my hometown. And I, had the fortune of meeting with both Mother Asumpta Long and Sister Joseph Andrew. And funny story is that my family has been fairly close with them since their founding. And one of the things Sister Joseph Andrew brought up in the interview was that they actually took me to the private area of the convent when I was a baby. And so I have been to a place where only the nuns or the sisters go when I was an infant. Anyway, so it was funny returning back to interview them. But they were, I would say this is probably one of my favorite interviews I've ever done with the sisters because they were so on fire

for what they do. Also, some of the longest interviews I've done, like 45 minutes talking to these sweet sisters from Tennessee with their southern accent. So, I mean, they just welcomed me in, and it was the Feast of St. Joseph, which is a big celebration for them. We spent a lot of the time talking about how they founded their order, but also they were just giving me life advice and talking about what a joy it is to see so many young people flocking to them. One of the things Sister Joseph Andrew talked about was how much she's, how happy she is to see young women looking for their vocation and seeking what to do with their lives. And they come to the Dominican sisters and they see how much the sisters want to serve the Lord with their lives. And the women realized that that is what they're

also called to do. She emphasized a lot. Each sister is a unique woman who has been given a call by God. And just like every woman who is married is called to that, that's her vocation and how she will get to heaven. Every woman who is in religious life also has that imprinted on her soul that that is how she's meant to grow in relationship with Christ. And I think all of the sisters I spoke with were just rejoicing in not just that their convent has grown so much in the last 30 years, but that that means so many women have found how they're called to love God. And you talked about the four founders of the convent are from Tennessee. So how did they get from Tennessee to Michigan? Yeah, they, it sounded from talking to them, they were all stationed in different areas of the

country through their order. They were with the Nashville, Dominicans of sisters of St. Cecilia, and they're stationed across the country teaching in schools. And I think each of them had this sense that the Holy Spirit was calling them to found their own congregation. They said, Sister Joseph Andrews said, we didn't know that each other was thinking about this until we had each approached the mother superior of the Dominican sisters in Nashville and said, we think the Holy Spirit's calling me to this. She said they ended up just leaving at the same time because they realized there were three other sisters thinking about it as well. And so they sort of banded together. But they said it wasn't anything that was wrong with that order. They just felt like we have a

calling to fulfill a mission that's not being fulfilled right now in a particular way. They had a funny journey up to a barn in New York that a sister's family had lent to them. to start their congregation. They kind of took an out of the out of the way route, stopping, I think, in Chicago and then in Ann Arbor of all places to get to New York. And Tom Monaghan at the time was the multi-millionaire owner of Domino's Pizza. And he was in the newspaper. And they stopped to get gas. At a gas station, one of the sisters went to pick up a newspaper and saw the photo of Tom Monaghan and said, Mother Asumpta, could we go talk to him and just chat with him about what we're trying to do? And they said, you know, of course, he's probably busy.

He's the founder of Domino's, what are we thinking? But they went to see if they could meet with him at his office quarters. And he was in the middle of a board meeting, but he stepped out so that he could speak with the sisters. And they continued on their way. Mother Asumpta said a couple days later, they were heading into Vespers in a barn. It was an old horse stall that had been converted into the chapel. So they're going into this old horse stall that is now where they reverence the Lord. And they hear the phone ringing.

And Mother said she went to answer the phone. And Tom Monaghan said to her, I want to go to heaven. And I want to take as many people with me as I can. So I want to start all these schools to educate children and especially help them grow in their faith. So I will give you money and you can run these schools. And Mother Sumpta said at the time when he said this, I did it. thinking, is this from God or is this a temptation just because it was so unbelievable. One of the things I really enjoyed hearing from Mother was she was just reflecting back to them 30

years ago and she was like, I don't know what we were thinking because how were four sisters supposed to start a congregation? You need millions of dollars to build a convent. We had nothing. We were penniless living in a barn on another family's vehicle that they had lent us as well. So she said Tom Monaghan really came out of nowhere to give them the opportunity to fulfill the mission they thought they had been called to. And looking back, she realizes they really couldn't have done it without him. Tom Monaghan flew them out to Ann Arbor in his private plane and took them around to pick a spot. And mother, I think, was pretty particular. She said, rejected a couple places because they were ugly or too close to the water tower.

She's like, this needs to be a place of contemplation. And so they ended up with a beautiful 20-acre spot of land on Joy Road in Ann Arbor. It has a lot of rolling hills, and they've really expanded it over the last couple years. That's where their mother house is. And they're building a second one now in Texas. And she said that one is, they've gone through a couple of phases, but that's supposed to house 115 people. So through the generosity of Tom Monaghan and also several, many people who have donated to their mother house, they built one there. and now we're expanding across the country,

and they have sisters living in Rome and all across the United States teaching in schools, but their second location will be started in Texas, hopefully in the next couple of years. In this piece, you talked with a family who moved across the country to send their kids to this school and is very active in going to Vesper services at the convent. What does the sister's ministry look like both in the convent

and out of the convent? And what did the sisters have to say about that? I don't think the sisters can reflect enough on how much they give to the community because they don't know if they're quite aware how much good they do or if they are, they're so humble about it that they are almost hard to get enough out of. So that is why I spoke with this family actually because I wanted to hear from them. And for the Manny's, I know that Melissa Manny had discerned entering when she was a post-grad from University of Michigan,

and decided not to met Uncle Nathan Manny, and they got married. So she moved out to Washington to be near his family, and they came back. He thought it was because her family's from Michigan, which I'm sure was part of the reason. But she said, no, I want my children to be educated with the Dominican sisters. I couldn't go there, but I really want my children to see what the beauty of their lives are like. And one of the things Nathan Manny talked about a lot was how they, He and his wife can witness the beauty of marriage to their children, but they cannot witness the beauty of religious life on their own because they're not living that vocation. And so they're really grateful that growing up, their kids have been able to go to the final profession of vows in the summer and see the sisters praying Vespers.

I think, especially because I've grown up in Ann Arbor, I've spent summers going to the profession of vows. I've met sisters who are sisters and both in this convent together for me and for the manis and many people in our kids. community. The sisters are just such a witness of the joy of the Lord. And they're always, they're always out and about. You know, the stereotype that I think they've heard about so much is like the sister with the ruler who is strict and only telling you about how you're not doing your math homework and not praying the rosary enough and all these negative portrayals. But I grew up not only with the gift of seeing sisters, but also seeing that they're really fun and they're happy and they're beautiful women. And they're wearing a habit, but they're just like any other woman.

and have a particular relationship with the Lord. So they serve the community just in witnessing what religious life is meant to look like, how having a relationship of prayer with the Lord changes who you are. And I think also teaching, they are such wonderful teachers. So that's their main ministry that they actively pursue is teaching in the Ann Arbor Schools. And I know they're very sharp women. Most of them have several degrees and then they'll come teach at a grade school or high school. school and they're wonderful at what they do.

And kind of with their ministry and expanding their ministry, there was a New York Times article a couple weeks ago about their new podcast. And you mentioned it in your article as well. What did they have to say about their, I guess, more public facing and like launching into that podcast? And what do they hope comes out of that? Yes. The Dominicans, this Dominican congregation formed because, because Pope John Paul II talked about how the church needed to start a new evangelization and spread the gospel in ways that the church had not yet before and be more vigorous in our love for the Lord and spreading that through different methods

that hadn't been used. Their way of fulfilling John Paul II's call right now has been through an online presence because they saw that as a good way to reach many people. the current mother of the community, Mother Amata Veritas, said that she thinks of social media can be like an online classroom for the whole world. After their name, each of the sisters and the Dominican Sisters and Mary puts O.P., which stands for order of preachers because their vocation and their charism is to preach and teach the words of the gospel to draw others into love with Christ. And so in a particular way, they're able to continue teaching through the reels that they make about prayer and all of the ways that they live and why they live that way. It's not to gain a popularity presence. It's to spread the life of how they live and also to teach people.

It's really a way for them to continue the instruction that they have done in the classroom and on street corners for hundreds of years. years. So that was something Mother Amata Veritas emphasized a lot was like, one, she's so grateful that through social media, they're able to show what life is like. The New York Times article in particular showed a clip of two sisters kind of teasing each other about playing Ultimate Frisbee and how one sister is always talking to other people on the field. And so she distracts them. That's her tactic for defense. And so that was the one that really took off just because it was so entertaining, but she said that was such an authentic interaction between those two sisters. When we watched it, someone had showed us and said this, you know, this has gone viral. We were laughing because we said this is a really accurate depiction of how these two sisters interact. They're always like this. And we just happened to catch them on this podcast being exactly how they are. Then someone made a reel of it and it went, went all across the internet. But in addition to that, she said the main purpose, the second purpose that's more central to our vocation is to talk. about our relationship with Christ and how to grow in relationship with Christ and why that

the father loves us that the son loves us and he sent the son so that we can be drawn closer in relationship with him so next to that real is like a reel about prayer and how no soul can pray the same prayer because we're all created uniquely by by our heavenly father and so mother said it's it's wonderful that it's going popular about these things that are more worldly like playing ultimate frisbee but our ultimate purpose is to continue our mission of evangelization and you talked with some of the sisters about the type of women that are in the convent and what they did prior to joining the convent and their careers and just their lives outside of the convent um what did they have to say about that yeah one of the questions i asked sister joseph andrew is um what would you say to people who

think that all nuns are the same because i think some of the reasons that catholics are afraid of entering religious communities is because they think their identity will be washed away. They put on the habit. They look like everyone else. And then they're just a sister and they teach and pray the rosary and that's their life. And non-Catholics the same, I think, you know, why would anyone want to spend their lives just living like everyone else in a habit and look exactly the same and wash away who you are? Sister Joseph Andrews said, people who think that are totally misunderstanding what religious life is like, an image that she used I thought was very beautiful was like every sister in the convent is part of a mosaic, and they're all a different color and a different shape and quality

that makes together a beautiful picture. She was like, if you see a mosaic and it's all just one color splashed onto a sheet of rock, that's not beautiful and it doesn't draw anything to your, any of your attention to it. But she said, God loves variety, and so he creates a lot of variety among his spouses referring to the sisters who have made their profession of vows. So she talked about how, in fact, every person with their unique personalities and gifts and temperaments that they bring to the community creates, makes the beauty of the community if they were all the same and did the same things. It wouldn't be, it wouldn't have the same beauty that it does because they all bring different aspects of the outside world, their experiences there, and also just their interior differences. So Sister Joseph Andrew went on to talk about the kinds of people who have come in.

She mentioned just, I mean, first of all, people will enter at very different stages, even very different stages in their faith life. Some people come right out of high school. Some people come in the middle of a career. And some people drop out of college to come join the sisters. And she mentioned, like, we've had a CEO of two car dealerships in the Bronx come. And a sister that I spoke with, Sister Mercedes Torres, said she was working a dream job in Manhattan where she was traveling, working for a nonprofit agency. And she had been fallen away from her faith for a while and started really getting more into it after college with one of her cousins.

And she said they had just been joking about, you know, if you had to be a sister, what name would you pick? And she said something to do with Mercy. And Mercedes is Mercy in Spanish. she said she got a flyer from the Dominican sisters on her doorstep and was like, oh, that's so funny. I would never join the sister. So funny that we were just talking about that. How ironic. And she kind of forgot about it until she went to the march for life and saw these beautiful sisters in a habit she'd never seen before and was like, I'm not going to go look. I love my life right now. I think she had a boyfriend at the time. Everything was great. She didn't want to mess it up. But her cousin saw her look at the sisters. I was like, let's just go talk to them. Sister Mercedes said, when you talk to his sister, it's dangerous because you might become a sister. I don't want to go talk to them. She did. And it is dangerous because she is a sister now. So even just stories like that, people who are unwilling, who are unwilling even to answer the vocation or to consider religious life, when they meet these sisters and see what their lives are like, they will drop everything for the Lord. Awesome. Well, thank you for joining us

today, Francesca. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. You're listening to the Collegian Week in Review. In some major news from last week, Radio Free Hillsdale, WRFH, won Best College Audio Station at the Michigan Association of Broadcasters for the fourth year in a row and our fifth year since 2019. Alessia, you attended the award ceremony. So what was that like? It was a lot of fun. I mean, I've been going for the past three years since I was a freshman. And this year it was extra fun because I actually won something.

And it was a big accomplishment to be the college audio station of the year for the fourth year in a row. But the event itself is a lot of fun. You get to hang out with other radio people and you get to meet so many cool people from the industry. And there was a keynote address. And they all gave really good advice for people who are looking to go into journalism and especially radio. But also TV because there is a visual component to some of the awards that they give out. And the event is also for high school and college, which means there's two different categories. It was a lot of fun.

Tell us a little bit about what you won, since you just kind of dropped that in there and moved on. You got that. So I won first place with Megan Lee, who was our co-host last semester. We won for our five-minute feature called Undetected. It's about spies from throughout history. And we won best on-air personality or team. And we've been doing that show since we were freshmen and it was kind of like our baby, basically. We spent so much time on it.

So for it to finally win something was really awesome. And we were super happy. I was sad that she, Megan, couldn't be there because she's on WIP in D.C. right now. But it was still really awesome to get the award. And she came up the next day and got to get her little certificate. So, yeah. And then I also won a scholarship for third place. place for the Mab Foundation. So that was pretty awesome. Who were some of the other winners for Millsdale?

So among some of the winners were Emily Shuddy, who won for a public service announcement called Sneeze in Your Sleeve. Luke Miller won for multiple things, actually. He won for another public service announcement, and this one was about human trafficking. He also won for Best Promotional announcement, which was just promoting the station on air. And he also got an honorable mention, which is really just third place for his talk show or podcast called Alamo of the Pacific, which is really awesome, actually. Those were a couple of the other winners. There was a long list. I can't list everyone here, but we all did amazing work, and I'm so proud of everyone.

It's impossible to talk about winning Best College Audio Station of the year for the fourth year in a row without thinking about the previous three wins. And to tell us a little more about that, let's hear from special guest and Collegian Weekend Review producer, Megan Pitcock, who's been here ever since WRFH's winning streak got started. Megan, what's it been like to be here at the radio station the entire time we keep winning these awards? It's been so much fun to see how the station has grown in the past five years. because the station as we know it like when Scott Bertram our faculty advisor got here and started to get it off the ground running it was in 2016 so this is our 10th year so we've won college station

of the year at Mab for 50% of the time that we've existed as a station which is really really great it speaks to both the quality of the student content that we put on air and also just how good our support is with Scott and teaching us how to do what we do. And it's also just been very fun to see the station grow, not just like with the student population, but physically we have more space now than when I first started. We used to be in a closet in the old student union and now we have this really amazing talk studio and radio station. And, we have a that's really at a professional level, which we did not have when I first started doing radio. So it's just been really, really neat to see the progression and also see us rewarded for the hard work that we put in to making content to put on over the air.

Are there certain things that the radio station has done consistently well over the past four years? or are there things where you've seen a lot of improvement? I'm thinking about maybe awards that we kind of win year after year or maybe wins that sort of surprise us, things like that. We normally do pretty well in sports categories and then also like newscasting and then a couple other miscellaneous, like random other categories. There's a lot of categories at the MAB Awards.

Like, I know that one of the ones that won recently was Gwen Thompson's The Timberl and the Liar, which is a folk music history show. But I also know that there's one specific category, which is, I think, like, use of social media or something that every year, Scott's like, we are going to get it this year. And I think we finally were nominated, like last year or this year, if not both years, which is kind of fun to see, like, oh, initially we weren't. nominated in this category, but now we've upped our games. So we are now. So things like that, too, we're just sort of constantly improving so that we can continue to be the best station of the year. I remember someone, I forget if it was Mr. Bertram or if it was John J. Miller, the head of the journalism department, who was talking about one of these bigger schools that we often compete against complaining about us as this tiny random little college that no one's ever

heard of, but we keep showing up and sweeping all of these categories. It's like, how are they doing this? Why are they so good all the time? We're just too awesome and too cool. Actually, I have a funny story from this year's MAB Awards. So since for the scholarship winners, you had to go to this breakfast thing before. And I ended up sitting at a table with, I think it was a faculty advisor and one of the students who had won something from their school. And I can't remember the name of the school at the moment. But the faculty advisor asked me what school I was from. And Grace was sitting next to me and we told him Hillsdale. And he was like, oh, they keep winning everything every year. And the student was like, oh, really? I've never heard of it. And I was just like, I didn't really. I didn't

really know what to say that. But I was like, yeah, we have a great faculty advisor and like a group of kids that just really love what, we just love what we do and we're willing to put out good content. You've been listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Catherine Maxwell. I'm Alessia Sandala. And I'm Tate Christensen. You can find the Collegian Weekend Review online at CWIR. transistor.fm. You can find more news at Hillsdalecollegion.com and on our Instagram at Hillsdale Collegian. Thanks for tuning in to the Collegian Week in review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.