frankly… Episode 63: Michigan Central is Bringing STEM Opportunities to Students

In this episode of frankly…

The transcript below is AI-generated and may contain minor inaccuracies. Tune in to the episode audio to hear the full conversation! 

Transcript

Dan Horn

Hello, welcome to frankly!

Rachel Piligian

Welcome, Welcome!

Dan Horn

Today we are talking with Janelle Arbuckle, Michael, who is the associate director of Talent Development and programming at Michigan Central.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah, the old train station.

Dan Horn

Just the station.

Rachel Piligian

Now called the station, but for those of you familiar with Detroit. I don’t know how you would have missed the news.

Dan Horn

Yeah.

Rachel Piligian

But the train station, now the station, Michigan Central new Lab, all of that. Opened last June with all the new programming, and Janelle is a huge part of their really like a big focus in youth programming for her K through 12. And connecting youth to a lot of opportunities, I mean the entrepreneurs in new lab, mobility startups, huge ecosystem.

Dan Horn

Yeah, I mean, I mean, she mentioned it towards the end, but it’s a 30 acre hub. So there’s there’s so much there to for for people to see for people to experience, for people, to kind of get exposure to all these different potential.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah, innovations hub.

Dan Horn

Potential career opportunities across STEM and and other. So we talked with Janelle about about some examples of the programming talk about kind of how it ties in and. And relates to some of her past work in the economic development world and overall just really interesting and really exciting for the city.

Rachel Piligian

Absolutely, yeah. If you haven’t gotten over to Michigan Central, you should do it. So with that welcome Janell.

Dan Horn

Hi Janelle, welcome to frankly.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Hi, thank you for having me.

Dan Horn

Yeah, thanks for being here. So we always start off with with a question Just tell us a little bit about your career path. And what led you to your current role with Michigan Central?

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Sure. I took a very interesting approach I feel like to my career. When I was just coming out of college, I was a poly-sy major. I wanted to be in politics. I wanted to. Office I worked for an individual, an elected official. When I got out of college and it was definitely one of the hardest experiences I ever had. It taught me so much about who I was at that moment. Taught me that politics was just not for me.

Dan Horn

Yeah.

Rachel Piligian

To see it after going through a whole college degree, but that’s okay.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

And I was. I was so thankful for that experience because it taught me that it’s to be honest, like to this day I feel like no task. Is that difficult? We were responsible for hundreds of kins. Queries that we had to respond to that you know we. E-mail social media at the time had just kind of become a bigger thing, especially with elected. So I am forever grateful to that opportunity because it really jumpstart my career and so I worked in economic development for majority of my career in some fashion and then. Back in 2017, I started working for Macomb County planning and economic development. I was working with companies. I loved building relationships over my whole career. Always felt like relationships was something I was just really good. It was something that I genuinely loved hearing about other people’s stories. I wanted to get to know more about. You know, when it came to businesses, I wanted to know how did they start and how do they keep going and then what can I do from a economic development agency. To help them grow. And so I worked at McComb for about 4 1/2 years, and halfway through they stood up an initiative calling, fueling the tail end pipeline. And so my role was to work with. We had two school districts that were part of the four next Generation Learning program which also used to be under 4 philanthropy organ.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

And and so my role was to connect the school districts, those two school districts. Were the community organization that would connect the schools with. With businesses from all different, you know all different industries, but whatever the need was, my job was to go out and find that and then kind of bridge that gap to give students like job shadowing opportunities, internships. And we had all these grand plans and then COVID happen.So my role really pivoted. And I was doing. I was taking. I was like 8 months pregnant and I was taking. Vaccination calls because we only had so many.

Rachel Piligian

Oh my gosh.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

You know, we only had I think like 1000 vaccines and there’s obviously, you know, almost a million people in Macomb County.

Dan Horn

Just a slight discrepancy. That slight difference.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah. And then we were also responsible for giving businesses over $50 million in, like, covert relief funds.

Rachel Piligian

Yes.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

So my position pivoted a lot. And then I had my daughter and I just realized I was like, you know, I think I, you know, I just want something a little bit more. Fast forward a couple years on a different positions, I ended up working for the University of Michigan Electric Vehicle Center and I was doing some, you know, like pre-K through 12th grade initiatives. It. It’s funny because the EV center felt so similar to kind of Michigan Central, where it was very well established, you know, in this ecosystem, except for it was almost like a startup in and of itself because it hadn’t been done before. And so I ended up. I knew my boss Clarinda from former positions. And you know, I saw that she had this position available. And I said, you know, I had wanted to work with her because I felt like she wasn’t just like a mentor over the years. Was somebody I really looked up to and I really aspired to be. And I knew I wanted to learn from her and. And so I applied for the job. I got. And now I I you know, I go to work every day. And you know, when I was a Polish I major, I actually wanted to be a teacher. And this was, you know, back in during the recession and. There were no jobs in general, but certainly no teaching jobs and so this role kind of combines everything that I’ve worked really hard for, but all my passions together. And so now every day I get to focus on bringing programming to students within the City of Detroit I work with Western International High School on their mobility pathway, which is where a sponsor of. So we’re helping them to create. Have an existing engineering pathway, but there’s about 100 students within a little over 100 students. In that in that pathway, but we are trying to kind of infuse it more with some mobility efforts working on getting them a maker space, working on creating like some projects with industry to give students this like really like this real world experience like working on Teams and you know, trying to, I think my favorite one that an individual from industry said is that I want them to problem solve before they need to problem.Like I wasn’t going to think critically about, like, what could go wrong and how would you fix it?

Rachel Piligian

Yeah. Well, in exposing them to, I know amongst my generation automotive and now really mobility, right, but automotive. Was our parents. That was something that we all saw as like, you know, that’s what that generation does. Why would I want to go into that? Boring and stuffy. I had two parents that worked in automotive my entire life, and then I ended up. I was like, surely I wouldn’t go into that. I end up working in Automotive B to B different than they were, but exposing kids from a younger age to jobs or opportunities in that space? They might not even realize exist within mobility, and what that landscape looks like, I think, is something that your programming is doing a really good job of. Because it doesn’t feel sexy, but it’s coming back to be that.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Well, and I think sometimes even with what students or what kids in general see on TV like, you know, they see electric vehicles and like, doesn’t an electric vehicle look so much cooler than like?

Rachel Piligian

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

You know, just a regular. Yeah.

Speaker

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

I mean, I think like that’s more the sexy part now, right?

Rachel Piligian

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

That students want to. They want. You know they want to drive it. Want to see? They want to know like okay. Wait a. So it’s not you lift the hood of the car and. Yeah, it’s.

Rachel Piligian

Not.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

It. And so I think. Exposing students to opportunities within, like, especially like electrical engineering. I, you know, even working at at U of M you know we we really understood that like the need for going from ,echanical Engineers to electrical engineers. You know, we’re going to need to transition thousands of of individuals to that. And so I think really trying to work with obviously our foreign ecosystem to give students opportunities and create this maker. I think that’s the biggest thing is that we know once this maker space goes in. It’ll be ready, likely in fall of 2025. But it will just be able to provide more hands on experiences. Extend even like the curriculum where it’s not just, you know, you write, you learn and then you regurgitate it. Now, like hey, I’m I’m working in a space. Using my. I’m I’m trying to fix problems. I’m working in a team. I now have access to stuff that I I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Rachel Piligian

Teaching critical thinking versus just learning material, I think is huge and something we don’t. Really well right now.

Dan Horn

Yeah, but I I think the other, the other piece that that you have at the station is kind of this whole ecosystem, right? You have new lab. You have what’s in the. You have kind of this whole. That’s, you know, you can draw a box around mobility and think about just your passenger vehicles, but it’s so much more than that. Like you were talking before done here about about some of the drone programs that you’ve worked with on the education space like. Talk a little bit about what the network is like within Michigan Central new lab, kind of that whole environment and and maybe some of those other opportunities that that people might not think of as mobility or as a Detroit thing.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah, I mean it were, you know, we are a thirty acre innovation district and it’s for creators, innovators. You know, not just, it’s not strictly mobility, but we have over 130 startups in our ecosystem. Stat, new lab. And that’s only going to get bigger overtime and so creating programs where. We’re filling that gap of okay, so here are these companies that are coming up with new technologies, new inventions. But do we have the talent? Like, is this being taught in the classroom? And I think having? Access to all of these companies within New Lab provide students an opportunity. To learn from an entrepreneur but also learn from somebody who is. Outside the classroom. Isn’t a teacher and is really kind of showing them like hey, this is another path you can take. Not just mobility, it’s entrepreneurship. It’s so much more and I think when you’re in that space or, you know, I’ve had middle school students that I’ve given tours to and we’ve we’ve done programming. I’ve had high school kids obviously the Google code next space in the station. You know, we have almost 100 students on that floor every day. And to watch their. Just their eyes are huge as to like what is available to. Because I don’t think there’s any other place that you can go to and see what you see at Michigan Central. And just being able to say, hey, you know what, as you know as you. Progress within school. You know you can become an engineer and then you can come work here. Or you can, you know, be a software developer and then you can come here and work for some of the the startups. And I think that that kind of bridging that gap As to create the programs that allow these innovators are going to, you know, eventually they’re going to need that talent. Do we kind of create that that talent pipeline? And I think we’re? Doing a good job and I think we can only expand upon what we have now.

Dan Horn

Yeah. And we’ve said this before on the show, but and you said it kind of at the beginning like that first experience that you had in politics, like you, you see what you don’t want to do very quickly, like getting getting exposure to all these different like Poss.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yes.

Dan Horn

It sounds like. There’s good opportunity to not just say like, oh, look at how much is cool, but like, maybe pick and choose and kind of get a feel before you have to make some of those big life decisions.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah.

Dan Horn

I don’t want to do what I do. Want to focus on. Know.

Rachel Piligian

Or you take out loans to go to college that maybe you don’t need or don’t end up.I think that’s a shift in how we do things now to be exposed to entrepreneurship at such a young age is something. That I know I really wasn’t. I never thought about that. Parents were corporate.

Dan Horn

Yeah, yeah.

Rachel Piligian

So where everyone else’s parents and that’s what everybody did at the same company until they retired, right?

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Did we even know what that? Like did that word exist when we like? Unless you were like Steve Jobs, like.

Rachel Piligian

Right.I don’t. That if that was.

Dan Horn

Definitely wasn’t out there.

Rachel Piligian

You’ve talked about kind of at large what some of these programs are, but being in charge of programming like. What are some of the favorite things you’ve brought in or will bring in or plan to bring to bring in that that you guys are working on?

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah. So. I. I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter and I think that, you know, girls can do anything, but we also know that girls by the time they’re like five years old, they’re basically told, you know, they’re not good enough in stem.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

You know, they like teachers, have, you know, might have made a mention of it that, you know, maybe you’re good in this area, but, you know, I think from the time I was little, it was, it was always, well, math and science were for boys.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

They weren’t for girls. And I don’t blame them. I just don’t think we just didn’t know what. Didn’t know. Right. And so everything I do, I feel like obviously is very centered around. You know, making sure that girls specifically have opportunities. And so in the fall, we came up with this idea to create a girls STEM summit. It will focus on different workshops, but integrating stem like say maybe. A dance opportunity, maybe it’s AI. Maybe it’s coding. Anything stem related that we can give exposure to or maybe take it to the next level where we, you know for six to eight grade girls and specifically in the city of Detroit to say hey, you know what, I liked math. I like science. And you know, maybe I just didn’t think I was. I was good in it or, you know now like this, you know, confirmed that I was really excited about math and science or maybe a career as an engineer. Now I know I’m excited about that. So we want it to be a very like interactive day. We want it to be where these young girls feel very special, because this is a very it’s. It’s a very special event. Yeah, that’s like all I can say about it is that, you know, we’re looking at local speakers and and partners that we have currently dealt with at Michigan Central and being able to, you know, even workshops. That have drones and you know, like I said, Google Conexus is one of our major partners that they do programming for over 100 students per week. And it’s, you know. They are always looking to add more girls into their programming.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

And so I think with our ecosystem, with our partners that we currently have and then also just really expanding to maybe bring in some national level speakers. To really make these young girls say, hey, you know what, this is an awesome. I know that moving forward I you know when I go into high school, I’m going to be able to. Take more math. Or maybe you take more science. Or now I know that maybe I want to go job shadow a female engineer one day. Maybe I want to go work at NASA like I really just want them to dream super big after.

Dan Horn

Yeah. Well, that’s so exciting.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

This so. So that’s probably that’ll be it happen in the fall. We’re still trying to solidify a lot of the details by yeah, once it becomes available, shout out from.

Dan Horn

Yeah.

Rachel Piligian

I think that’s exciting. It’s. It’s one of those things that we just said what you don’t like to do? Maybe somebody goes in there too, and it’s like, oh, this is fun. But I do like something else, right? Who knows?

Speaker 3

Yes, absolutely.

Rachel Piligian

I feel like there’s just so many opportunities and it’s one thing. You want to reach those students, but also their parents, so you know us commun. You guys have a great team that is doing a lot of communications work for you, but. Just making sure that you’re reaching the right audience for these things, especially because it’s for kids and reaching kids can be very hard in schools. How do you guys make sure that you’re, you know, reaching the Detroit and even broader our audiences? Know what are you guys doing in that communication space?

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

I mean, we’re super lucky that we work with a lot of youth organizations that whatever’s not taught in the classroom, they I don’t want to say. Like they make up for it in, like, after school activities, but.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Essentially they do. And you know, we work with them very closely. So if they don’t have space available to do their programming, they can come do it at Michigan Central. We have one specific youth organization, where there are two women scientists are called the Lab Drawer, and they have they’ve done programming at Michigan Central. We hope to have them do programming again this year and their focus is on middle school girls. They do science experiments focusing on energy. And they were doing programming, I think every Saturday.

Rachel Piligian

OK.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

And so we’re hopeful that we can maybe do some additional programs so that we’re able to support more young girls within the city of Detroit, but I think it’s if we see an opportunity to partner and we can provide that space, we take full advantage of that. I you know, I try really hard to push. For if you know on the 5th floor, which we call the youth floor in the station, if it’s not being utilized, how can I utilize it for another youth organization who’s providing equally amazing work for students so that there is additional opportunities rather you know if the space isn’t being used, let’s use it for another organization.

Rachel Piligian

Activate it.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Activate it. We love that word in Michigan. We. We activate a lot of space.

Rachel Piligian

I mean the value partnerships are invaluable to some extent because they really are allowing you to reach. Your audience, but also the audience they’ve already built and then combine those forces to get it out even further. So.

Dan Horn

Yeah, it’s just kind of like an extra megaphone for you to just spread it out to be able to reach new people in the community because, you know.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah.

Dan Horn

The events, if you can have a more of that variety of events, more community partners in different neighborhoods, even like. Hitting all these different corners of the city, it’s so huge it’s hard to get in touch with everyone.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

This city. Oh my gosh, the city really is so large and there’s, like you said, there’s so many different neighborhoods.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

You know, obviously around us is is southwest, but like you know we want to reach students from outside. So it’s like how do we kind of break a lot of the barriers? How do we, you know, how do we get these students access if they’re on, you know, the Far East side, how do we bring them here for opportunities? And I I think that that’s. Something our team really focuses on is that how do we break down those? How do we, you know, utilize what we have utilized the relationships that we have and the funding that we have in order to bring the most students possible to our programming at Michigan Central and I think like I said, I know we can only do more. But we do have in the station, we have a dedicated floor to youth and when the train station reopened last June, Google was actually or Google Conexus was actually our first tenant in over 30 years. So yeah.

Dan Horn

Fashions. So cool.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

So I think like that’s really telling to what the Ford family. Like how their dedication to the next generation and being able to provide this incredible experience to students, they do programming Tuesday through Saturday and I mean. I see students go up there every day. I mean, they’re just, I I, you know, a lot of times. I’ll be in the space if, like, we’re just finishing up an event or a tour and I’ll just see them come up and they’re just so excited and they’re ready to learn. And I mean, what an incredible space.

Dan Horn

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Mean it’s the. Is Google related, so you know it’s awesome.

Dan Horn

Oh well, yeah, everything is.

Rachel Piligian

The full Google experience.

Dan Horn

Yeah, the building. I mean, it’s not to get excited when when you even just think about the station, like where it came from, where it is today.

Dan Horn

Just the transformation of what an icon is in the. It’s gotta be cool as a kid just walking into there for the first time. Absolutely.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

I mean, even as a millennial, it closed in the beginning of January of 1980. I was born at the end of January of 1988, and it’s funny because you think back and and when we had the opening and I had my daughter and my son there, you know, they’re just toddlers, yeah.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

I think what’s so incredible about this, the station and new lab and. Just the whole, you know, innovation campus is the fact that like my kids will never know what it looked like before then, right?

Dan Horn

Yeah, what a different experience, yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

They will. Yeah, I mean, and I think that every time those students come in, I don’t think that they really recognize like what the transformation over the past six years of what’s happened into this campus.

Rachel Piligian

No.

Dan Horn

Yeah.

Rachel Piligian

Even driving into the city and 1st my whole life it. Dark and empty and. It was pretty, but you were.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah. Wonder what that’ll be someday. Right, like.

Rachel Piligian

A lot of the city has been like that. There’s been so much resurgence in the city that a lot of things look like that. But you know now driving in it’s lit. You know it’s full of people and good things going. And what was it like to be a part of this? Know bringing back the centerpiece in this opening. Know you’ve talked about your kids. What was that? How did you feel kind of going into all of that?

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah. So I started at Michigan Central at the end of April of last year. And our grand opening was June 6. Oh, my God, yes, legit.

Dan Horn

Right into the fire.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

It was just like.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah, drinking from the fire hose is what it was.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah, it was. But it was. I I work with some of. The most passionate, strong and justice hard working people, I can honestly tell you. When I stepped foot. You know, my first day in the Michigan Central, I was in awe of just my coworkers that I hadn’t even met yet. I was just like, I’m watching them just walk around and like, you know, just. I mean, you know, they’re on their way to, you know, 100 meetings. And, you know, when I got to be a part of, you know, the the opening and attend. This humongous celebration. I mean, I felt like even though I had, I had only been there just over a month. I felt like I was a part of this. Incredible team that helped put all this together and then it really kind of, you know it also.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Not only is it a gem, but it’s like the best. Marketing tool, yeah.

Speaker

When he comes to.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Like when it comes to trying to get like because everybody wants to come to you now. It’s like. Well, how can I do all of this programming and it’s just like it’s such a such a big building, but like we have so much where, you know, I have teachers that reach out to me. I have other youth organizations that reach out to me and I’m like. OK, how can I make this happen and rarely do I say no? But I think like that’s the best part is that you know where I get to work, I get to share every single day and I get to share with all of these kids in the city of Detroit.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

You know, I, I I take that so personal everything that I do. Related to programming, for them you know. Is done because I I I want to see them succeed to the highest level. You know, for a lot of these students, you know, their first generation going to college, I mean, we just want to, like, wrap our arms around and say how can we support you? Can we break down those? How can we create programming that is going to be impactful for your future? How can we expose you to these careers so that you figure out what you are interested in, whether that’s just going to, you know, I shouldn’t say just, but whether it’s going to like Community College or a university or a trade school, whatever it is. I just want you to figure out what you want to do and how I can make that happen.

Dan Horn

Yeah. And and something you mentioned, you know, going back a couple questions here, but something you mentioned was about kind of like filling this talent pipeline through some of this youth programming and and your background obviously is in the world of economic development and kind of in that. Workforce planning. Kind of world. I mean, what does that mean for the city, for the region, for the state, like having this larger, larger available talent pool that’s invested or interested in? Kind of like STEM fields.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah, I mean, we don’t want people to leave Michigan. And more importantly, we don’t want, you know, we don’t want Detroiters to leave. I think what was it like this past year was like the first year we. Like. An increase in population, and I think that that’s all we could ever want, you know, we want our students to.

Rachel Piligian

In. Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

You know, we don’t want them to. We want to expose them to all these different careers and innovation in tech and know that like they don’t have to go to California for these type of situations. Don’t have to go to Texas like we have the startups here and we really have to create an ecosystem and and you know, we’re constantly working to evolve. Do we provide more support to our our current founders so that way when these students come out of college or whatever it may? That we can like, plug those students right into working for these companies and create meaningful things that are gonna greatly impact the world.

Rachel Piligian

Back in.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

I mean, there’s so there’s so many things on a daily basis where you know, I, I learn even from just being in our new lab space where I’m like, OK, there. All of these organizations that are doing such incredible work, that is a lot of times over my head. But I’m like, OK, what kind of talent do you need and how can we how can we figure out how to kind of bridge that gap and I think. The more we bridge that gap, probably in high school. And and even start to. You know, I think my focus to share is really to focus even on the middle school kids.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

How do we get them here?

Rachel Piligian

Exposing. Yeah, half the time. It’s just. You you don’t know what you don’t. And if they’re not seeking it out on their own? Yeah, exposing them to. To the variety, right versus even honing in, maybe just bringing them into new lab to show them.

Rachel Piligian

Look at all of these that are out there that you’ve never thought of. Take it in. Keep it in the back of your head. Yes, go. Move through high school and let’s keep this up. Like, let’s keep that, you know, just connection that you make maybe at a middle school level to really solidify it by the time they graduate high school.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Yeah. And I mean, not just, you know, like I said, I I work with International High School on their mobility pathway. It’s like. How do we get those middle school kids? And then feed them into that pathway and then get them into you know, we have a fellowship program at the Michigan Mobility Fellowship program on our team that my colleague.

Rachel Piligian

Yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Manages and so how do we, you know, kind of come from from all those dots?

Rachel Piligian

Connect. Those dots totally.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

And and you know, our team focuses on, you know, we focus on pre-K through 12th grade. Then we focus on post secondary and then we focus on adult learners. How do we make sure like I, you know, we were talking earlier like how do you break down these barriers so that we help. Detroiters succeed. It’s an undertaking.

Dan Horn

The big question that yeah, yeah.

Rachel Piligian

You’re well on your way though.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

You’re well on your way. Working on. I think our team is just we’re so passionate about what we do.

Rachel Piligian

And that’s contagious.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

It is, and I think Michigan Central, you know, working there on a daily basis, I think you know. Working there is amazing, but being surrounded by this ecosystem and this. In tech and stuff, that’s so outside of, like where I work before, I’ve never worked in a in a space like this is just. I mean it’s like. You’re just like, oh, my God, how do I?

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

How can I do? And I think at night when I go to bed, I’m like, OK. How can I? Create this program for me.

Rachel Piligian

It never shuts off.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Like what can I get students in there? I.

Rachel Piligian

Right.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

Them at new lab do I? Every day is something new.

Rachel Piligian

One final question for you. What is one piece of advice that you would give your 21 year old self right? You just graduated that poly-sci degrees. You’re going to work for an elected official knowing.Of where you’re you’re at now.What would you tell her?

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

I would tell her never give up on yourself and I think sometimes throughout my career I had highs and I had lows and. I never gave up on me and I think that that’s something. It’s so easy to do when you’re not in the greatest of spaces or you’re not feeling supported or motivated or, you know, even life just happens. I think it’s just really important that even if you don’t always feel supported that you remembered to support yourself and say, hey, you know what I’m I’m worth more than this. And I was actually, it’s ironic you say this because I was. Was talking with. My colleagues about that one day is that I’m just so thankful that even though there were opportunities, I thought, you know, I was going to, you know, I finally made it. You know, I’m going to stay here for a while. And they just didn’t work. And you know you you internalize. It’s very easy to internalize and I am just so thankful I didn’t give up on me and I kept going and I knew that I was worth more and I I. You know, try to instill that even in with my little 3 1/2 year old, you know, those daily affirmations of like I’m brave.

Speaker 3

Yes.

Rachel Piligian

Yes, yes, yeah.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

I’m smart and I think that even those daily affirmations to yourself are still just like super important and I hope young girls. Just never forget. No matter what life throws at them, just don’t give up on you.

Rachel Piligian

That’s. I think that’s very inspiring. I love it.

Rachel Piligian

Janelle, thank you for joining. Thank you for sharing everything you guys are doing over there. We’ll link to absolutely like your programming information and website in the link of the OR in the description of this episode. And then make sure you share with us when there’s information and girls in stem date. Oh, that’s absolutely all of our activities here, social channels, all that kind of stuff. But really appreciate you coming on and sharing you some stuff.

Janelle Arbuckle-Michael

You guys Rock.

Rachel Piligian

Alright. Thanks again to Janelle for coming on joining us, talking to us all about the programming that she’s working on. We talked a little bit after we stopped recording about all the people that are kind of behind the scenes. It was very surprising, she there’s only 50 employees at Michigan Central which?

Dan Horn

Yeah, right around there.

Rachel Piligian

If you think about how large of an operation that is.

Dan Horn

It feels like such a vigor. Yeah, it’s impressive how much they can do with.

Rachel Piligian

I mean if. Yeah. And if they’re all as passionate as she is, then they’re in good hands over there.

Rachel Piligian

So. Umm. Like I mentioned, we’ll we’ll have some links down in the description for a couple things she mentioned. Be sure to follow their social channels and just kind of keep up with what’s going on there and get yourself over there and see the space. But we will see you next.

Dan Horn

See ya.