Hope Podcast: Featuring Miriam Pellegrino, MTS Candidate

LEXI POTTER: Wow. 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: I've never actually fact checked myself on that, so give that a Google. But I believe that to be true. And it is just so stunning. And every time I'm back in the desert, I feel truly at home. 

LEXI POTTER: That's so beautiful, Miriam. 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Oh, thank you. Yeah, so as far as a spiritual autobiography, I guess I should say I come from, I suppose, a multi-faith household. My dad's family are pretty devout Roman Catholics. My dad's parents came from Southern Italy, and I grew up a lot with my nonna, my dad's mother, who was very invested in her faith. And we would go to church, and we would make palm crosses together for Easter. 

And that side of my family definitely had a big effect on my, I guess, aesthetic understanding of religion and spirituality. The Catholic aesthetic is very powerful and has really stuck with me. You can tell from the crosses in my room. 

But my mom's family is Jewish, and that identity was always very culturally important in my life. And I consider myself Jewish. And as I've gotten older, I've found myself increasingly compelled to be involved in Jewish community of various kinds. So that's probably my biggest, I would say, religious through line at the moment, is growing my attunement to my Jewish identity, and how that kind of ties in with my other personal cosmological beliefs that are more, I would say, ecotheological and more in the realm of animism. 

LEXI POTTER: Very cool, Miriam. Speaking of someone who has seen your room, I definitely see those influences in your decor. Can you tell us next what brought you to HDS? 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Yeah. So coming to HDS, I think for those who know me well, it's not surprising. But it definitely wasn't the most obvious choice, let's say, career-wise. 

[LAUGHTER] 

So I have always been really interested in art, design, aesthetics, meaning-making. I studied art history and human-centered design in undergrad, and I was very interested in questions of how iconography, aesthetics, and the systems set up by physical spaces guided people's understanding of purpose in their own lives and their meaning-making behaviors. So, yeah. So these were the questions I was percolating on in undergrad. They were very adjacent to religion, but I never took any classes. Well, I took one class that was actually one of my favorites in undergrad about the anthropology of religion. But other than that, my classes weren't really directly about religion. 

When I was in my last semester of college, we were talking about post-grad plans. And a friend of mine said she was going to use Chicago's Divinity School. And I had never heard the phrase Divinity School. I asked her what it was. And she was like, oh, it's just like a further degree in religion where you talk about existential questions. And I was like, oh, that sounds cool. That sounds fun. 

I, at the time, had been taking a bunch of ethics classes and had been doing a lot of work with the human-centered design Initiative at my undergrad institution. I was very interested, like I said, in meaning making. And I was like, wait, maybe this could be a fun next step at some point. 

So I did a little googling, and I read about the big Divinity Schools in the US, which is, from my understanding, UChicago, Harvard, and Yale. And Harvard really stood out to me as more of an-- I guess a divinity school that was focusing on innovative applications, which stuck out to me as somebody who is thinking about meaning-making in a roundabout way or a not explicitly religious way. 

And I tucked HDS into my back pocket and worked for the next few years as a design researcher and strategist. And while I was doing that, a lot of my job involved doing qualitative interviews. So I was doing work around early-stage product venture and service design. And part of doing this kind of early stage design of things meant talking to potential users of these hypothetical products and trying to dig into their values, and their needs, and really, ultimately, things that are pretty intimate. 

So what I found was even though this was kind of commercial work, so to speak, these-- I was talking with people in a way that was-- ultimately felt quasi-spiritual, and people were getting very vulnerable in these interviews. And I didn't feel like I necessarily-- I had design training. I had research training. But I didn't have any kind of training in spiritual care or being able to create a safe, ethical container to hold such intimate conversations and facilitate them. 

And that's when I remembered that Divinity School existed and thought about, one, that it would be fun to go there. And, two, that that actually might be the place to both address my interest in design for meaning-making and start gaining some of the more caregiving skills that I felt like were relevant to design work. So I was already starting to feel like I wanted to move away from the product and venture design space and start thinking about, well, actually spaces themselves. 

So I ended up making this pivot where, instead of getting a master's in design or something that built, I guess, my more tangible design toolkit, I decided to focus on the meaning-making aspect of my interests. And, yeah, I ended up at HDS. And I'm so glad that I did. 

LEXI POTTER: Thank you so much for that background, Miriam. It's cueing me up perfectly for the next question I plan to ask you, but I want to make two comments first. Speaking of someone who also-- like, HDS, was not a natural career trajectory for me. And the fact that you heard about HDS through a friend, and I also heard about HDS through a friend, and multiple other people I know have heard about HDS from other friends, it's just a really interesting trend that I've noticed in my time here that I feel relates to the theme of this podcast, The Hope Podcast. 

And I love that those kind of relationships have brought people here so that they can explore a niche like yours. Because I think a lot of HDS students are doing really remarkable things that they're kind of inventing. Nobody else is doing this work. And so on that note, I know that you've gotten a few really cool design project opportunities recently. Can you tell us about the work you just did on the Harvard Chaplain's Office? 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Yeah. Yeah, thank you. To your point, I think that's the kind of innovative nature of the work being done at HDS is what convinced me that this was the right place, despite it not being a normative design path. And then I've been so lucky that I feel like that intuitive inclination was then supported by some amazing opportunities that I've had the privilege to come into while at HDS. 

So most recently, I did a design project for the Harvard Chaplain's Office. So Harvard, as an institution, has over 50 chaplains. 

LEXI POTTER: Wow. 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Yeah, it's really, really incredible. And these are chaplains who serve anybody under-- like within the Harvard institution. So that's students, undergrad, grad, staff, faculty. They're a really incredible resource for the institution. Many of them have access to some kind of religious institution around the Harvard campus like, say, a church, or a synagogue, or a mosque where they can meet folks. But there's a good number of chaplains who don't have a designated office or of religious space affiliated with their tradition where they can meet with care seekers. 

So Harvard has a building called the Smith Campus Center. It's a hub for a lot of stuff across the Harvard campus, and it's located in Harvard Square. And there is a Chaplain's Office in the Smith Center. So it's a pretty small space, but it's a designated space where the chaplains, particularly those that I referenced, who don't have an office elsewhere, can have a private space to meet with care seekers. 

And this was a space that, though it was designated, there hadn't been a lot of time or resources for anyone to really think through the setup of the room. So the chaplains had been putting it together piecemeal to meet their needs. But there was an opportunity that I was lucky enough to learn of to make the space, to Polish the space, and help it better serve the constituents. 

So basically, I was asked by a dear mentor, colleague of mine to rethink the space. And he said, there was opportunity to have some budget to do so. And since this is my area of interest, the design of meaning-making spaces-- particularly, I'm interested in what one could call idiosyncratic sacred space, places that are not traditional religious buildings or sacred space, in the normative way of thinking about it. I'm interested in places that are pluralistic, or places where people make meaning in unconventional ways. 

Something like a chaplain's office fit very nicely into my interests. It's used by chaplains of all different faiths and chaplains who work with people who are atheist, agnostic. It had to serve a bunch of different people, ideally equally well. And that presented a really unique design challenge. So I was really excited to be introduced to this project, and I just proceeded to test out what I've been developing as a human-centered design process for these kinds of sacred spaces, which was really incredible. 

And I was able to talk to, interview chaplains and care seekers. So go back to my roots of these qualitative interviews, and then create a design plan based on the needs, the unique needs of the constituents using the space, which was definitely a significant design challenge because the space is quite small. And there were actually a lot of different user needs. 

And then, of course, this isn't a secular space. I mean, it's not a space that has meant to you serve or promote any particular religious or faith tradition, but it also needed to feel a little different than just a secular meeting room. So part of the design challenge was, yes, meeting all the practical needs. But also, how do you make a space feel special, feel-- to use a word people love at HDS, numinous without privileging any particular tradition? 

And that was very new for me. And this is-- it was exactly the kind of design challenge that I'm interested in tackling. So it was really cool. And I worked on that. I wrapped that project recently. I'm actually right now just finishing a user guide for the space to help new chaplains acclimate and know where everything is. But it was challenging and really, really rewarding. 

LEXI POTTER: Speaking of someone who has seen the Chaplain's Office in its final iteration, it is extremely well done considering the size of the space and the budget. Miriam did an incredible job. And I'm so glad you got to share this with us because HDS students getting to find opportunities in their niche that I think actually is really helpful for people is something that provides me hope. So thank you so much for sharing all of that. 

Are there any sorts of insights or practices you have that give you hope that you might share with our listeners? And also, are there any clubs or communities that you participate in on or off campus that give you hope or nourish your spirituality? 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Yeah. So, I think first and foremost, any creative practice is about hope. Creative practices are, by their nature, imaginative. And I think to engage in an imaginative process, you have to believe that there is something new and fruitful that can come of it. And I think that's just kind of inherently a hopeful endeavor. 

LEXI POTTER: Absolutely. 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Even, obviously, I find that in my design work. That's one of my primary creative practices. But I think one of the things that reminds me most that life is meaningful and, quite frankly, not to be hyperbolic, worth living is just doing a silly little drawing. I don't even care if anyone sees it. That, to me, gives me hope that there is something in my existence that is meant to bring something unique into the world. And-- 

LEXI POTTER: That's beautiful. 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: --not even in a grand way, just in a-- wow, I just created something that has never existed before that is bringing me joy. And that makes me hopeful that could happen each day. We could all do that each day. 

LEXI POTTER: Absolutely. I also love to craft, as you know. And I totally agree with you on the way that that-- just the ability to create and the fact that humans love to create things really speaks to our hope for a future. 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Totally, totally. Yeah, I mean, that gives me hope. And then I think the other big thing is community. And I've been so lucky that I've found a really amazing Jewish community at HDS. And all of the inspiring ways that that community presents itself and some of the really incredible events that a couple of clubs-- Jews for Liberation, Jewish Ritual Chavurah, Feminists Making Midrash. Those are just the names of a few Jewish clubs at HDS. 

The way that they convene people in a way that is explicitly hopeful, hoping for just and also imaginative world. That makes me feel, almost more than anything else, things might be all right. 

[LAUGHTER] 

LEXI POTTER: Yeah, that's so true. I've gotten to see you participate in those clubs and go to some of those events myself, and I just really appreciate the nature of pulling so many people into the rituals like they did at [? noon ?] service recently, and giving people a different way to think about the future of certain religious traditions. And so thank you for sharing that. 

Kind of to wrap up, I wanted to ask, can you share maybe a book, or a poem, or a practice, or a piece of media? Anything you'd like to recommend to our listeners to foster hope? 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Yeah. So part of my own personal practice is, every morning, I like to do a little breathing exercise and prayer. And then I read a little excerpt from whatever more poetic book I'm working through at this time. So for the past couple months, I've just been reading one entry a day from the poet Ross Gay's book. It's called The Book of Delights. And it was a practice that as a writer cultivated and then published as a book, where every day, for one year, he wrote something from that day that delighted him. 

And a lot of them are very small things. He's really into gardening. So a lot to do with flowers he would see on his walk, or just little human micro-interactions that show people love and delight in each other. And, of course, he extrapolates about these-- each delight in a really profound way. And he's a lovely writer. But it's just that, as a practice, has been so grounding, just hearing another person describe the minutia of their day in a way that makes me hopeful about the future. 

Really, particularly reading it in the morning sets me off on a really good path for my day. So I highly recommend that book. And I also recommend to anyone the little tidbit of reading in the morning, reading something that's maybe centered around joy. It takes me literally three minutes each morning, and it has a really profound ripple throughout my day. 

LEXI POTTER: That's so beautiful, Miriam. It's reminding me of the way that sometimes in the evenings, we would send what we are grateful for in our day. And I feel like that's such a nice bookend to what you're doing. So thank you so much for joining. I'm very grateful that one of my closest friends was my first guest to interview on here. And I have this school to thank for introducing us. And thank you so much for being here. To our listeners, stay tuned for the next episode. 

MIRIAM PELLEGRINO: Thank you so much, Lexi. It was a pleasure. 

LEXI POTTER: Thanks, Miriam. 

[BIRDS CHIRPING]