Introducing Marissa!

From intern to staff member, meet our newest survivor advocate, Marissa (she/her)!

Hear more about what brought her to this work, her tips for out-of-state students, and where her love for crystals came from.

If you are in crisis and need immediate support, please call our 24/7 interpersonal violence helpline at 303-556-2255.

Request an Appointment with an Advocate at
https://www.thepca.org/online-appointment-request

Request a Violence Prevention Presentation at
https://www.thepca.org/prevention-education

Instagram @phoenixauraria

Transcript

Racheal Reed-Maloney  00:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the Phoenix cast

Racheal Reed-Maloney  00:20

Hello, Hello, happy summer, everybody. I hope y'all are getting some rest. You're probably like, whoa, y'all exist still? Yes, we do. It has been a busy semester as you are all, I'm sure, aware of. But enough about me. We are here to introduce our newest member to the Phoenix Center team Marissa. So Everyone clap your hands on their side of your phone or whatever you're listening to. And welcome to our team, Marissa.

Marissa Moreno  00:43

Hi. Happy to be here. I feel like a celebrity. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  00:47

Yes, because you are and after this episode, especially people are probably going to walk in and be like, Oh, my gosh, I heard you on the Phoenix cast. What! they'll probably try to get your autograph and all the things? 

Marissa Moreno  00:57

Oh, wow.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  00:59

Um, so why don't we get started! As all of you are probably familiar, we're going to ask Marissa, a bunch of really personal deep questions you so you can get a really good understanding about who she is as a person. So just to start off, can you tell us more about you, Marissa, who are you? What is your education, your background?

Marissa Moreno  01:16

Yeah, so my name is Marissa Moreno. I am currently a second year at DU in their master's in forensic psychology program, about to graduate 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  01:26

Whoo. 

Marissa Moreno  01:28

USe she/her pronouns, and 25 cancer, like long walks on the beach, all the fun stuff,

Racheal Reed-Maloney  01:35

Noted noted. And what got you interested in that program?

Marissa Moreno  01:40

Um, I come from a background in psychology, I got my BA in Psychology with a minor in criminal justice. And then I took a forensics class, my junior year of college, and really fell in love with how psychology interacts with the law. And so it's kind of like the melding of two together. And then there weren't really any programs back home in Texas, where I'm from that, like, specialized in that, and then I found DU's program and it was a top one, and it looked really cool. So I was like, let's go there. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  02:11

Nice. And clearly, you needed an internship for that degree, and then you decide to intern here. So what about the program here at the Phoenix Center for advocacy was interesting for you? 

Marissa Moreno  02:22

Well, I heard about it first, because Katherine, who is our director here was one of my professors, and just talked all the amazing things about Phoenix Center. And I really didn't know what advocacy was, but it sounded really cool. And it was something I had been interested in but never had like, fully jumped into. So after that class ended, and I was looking for my second year internship, I emailed Katherine was like, "Do you know of any advocacy positions open?" and then she recommended Phoenix Center, I interviewed, and here I am.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  02:50

Look at you, see another intern to staff member story, there is a trend people. Wink wink, nudge nudge. So you were interested doing advocacy, got the internship here. And then obviously, while you were here as an intern, this position for the survivor advocate position opened up. So what made you feel like I'd rather be a staff member here, I don't want to end once my internship ends here? 

Marissa Moreno  03:12

All the people were really nice. And just the work environment here was amazing. And then getting to work on a campus and do this work, I think was really cool. And they're like, at least from where I'm from. There wasn't anything like this. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  03:24

Oh, wow.

Marissa Moreno  03:24

And so getting to work with this specific population of students and that range, ages, anything. It was really cool, and something that you don't see a lot of -

Racheal Reed-Maloney  03:33

Yeah.

Marissa Moreno  03:33

- And then just seeing all the staff, interns, everybody who I have interacted, that has worked here has been amazing. And everybody really cares about each other and looks after each other. And that was something that was really important to me with whatever job I chose in the future. So everything just kind of fell into place. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  03:50

Amazing. Look at that. Actually, I forgot to mention to like Did you do any like full time work before you went back to get your master's degree?

Marissa Moreno  03:57

I struggled a little trying to find like work with that just because of psychology with just my Bachelor's was a little harder. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  04:03

Yeah.

Marissa Moreno  04:04

 I did a lot of work with kids. Like I worked at a daycare center. I did some nannying. And so that was my initial what I thought I was gonna go into. And then I had an internship where I worked with kids too. And then coming here, this was something different for me to kind of hone my skills in and then come to find out a lot of my clients that I see now. It's a lot of family law. So it's like I'm still working in it just in a different way.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  04:27

Definitely. Yeah. And is there anything that you're really looking forward to like, especially once you're all graduated, have the fancy degree and you could just like focus full time here.

Marissa Moreno  04:36

Just getting into the swing of everything's taking on like a bigger caseload, getting to work with more people who come into our office and providing like any support that they need. I'm just kind of really excited to fully immerse myself in it because I think it hasn't fully hit me now that I'm still in school.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  04:54

Yeah, we have a lot of overachievers here y'all. So - and what are some of your career goals? You - Sounds like you're interested in working with family and children is there any bigger goals you have with that outside of advocacy? 

Marissa Moreno  05:06

Yeah,I think it would be really cool to work with, like kids, families, survivors, like if I could tie that all in somehow, whether that be like, a place that does clinical and advocacy. And if I can bounce between the two, I think that'd be really cool. Because I feel like advocacy goes like so far. And then I still find myself like, you can't step over the line of doing therapy. And then the same thing with therapy, that you're a lot more limited with what you can say, and I feel like with advocacy, you're allowed to call things out a lot more and like feel feelings with the client versus like, having to stop yourself. And so I feel like you kind of need both whenever it comes to healing in those certain ways, and working with folks who have experienced trauma in those ways. And so I feel like if I could either create a place or work in a place that does both that would be like the ultimate dream.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  05:50

Awesome. Love that. And like you mentioned, you're graduating pretty soon. Do you have any fun plans for graduation? 

Marissa Moreno  05:57

Yes, my family is going to come up here and visit and watch me graduate. So I haven't seen them in like I think six months. So it's really cool to see them in person again. And then me and my partner are going to go to Vegas because my birthday is the week after I graduate. So we're taking like just a little trip to celebrate all of that and you know, relax a little once I get out of school and before I start full full-time here. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  06:23

Amazing. You - I heard Vegas has really good food. So I hope y'all eat really well out there.

Marissa Moreno  06:28

Yes, that is like our main budget is for food. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  06:32

Priotities.

Marissa Moreno  06:32

Yeah, slowly panning out the itinerary of like, where we want to go. We've seen like, I've heard things from friends being like, you have to go here. And then I've also like looked on Tik Tok, and it's like the buffets. And like you don't really ever think  - I ever think of like how expensive it is. But yeah, you know what, we're gonna budget? It's fine. We're treating ourselves. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  06:50

Yes. And you know, you're currently a graduate student, and you're working full time. Do you have any advice for students who might be going into grad school in the fall, and they're going to be working full time or just grad students?

Marissa Moreno  07:02

It's the most cliche thing, but take time for yourself. Because I know my first year I really focused only on school and like, had a few friends. But like, I didn't do anything outside of school. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  07:13

Yeah.

Marissa Moreno  07:13

I didn't have like a lot of hobbies. And so I think that really caused me to like burn out a little bit more my first year. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  07:18

Yeah. 

Marissa Moreno  07:19

And then when second year came around, I made an amazing group of friends who we have like a girls night, every Sunday, like every standing Sunday, to make sure that that's like our time to watch trash TV. Like all the junk food just hanging out with each other gossip about like other things. And so just making sure you have even if it is like a couple hours in like the week, just take time to like watch your favorite show, like, take a hot bath, like just do something for yourself. Because as much as school is important, it doesn't need to be everything. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  07:51

Yeah, for sure. That's so true. Yeah, I think especially for like marginalized folks or folks who are like, first gen. I know, like, because I was that student too, or like I can only focus on school and I was so exhausted, especially after getting my degree. So that's really great advice to give to students.

Marissa Moreno  08:04

And I think having a support system, because at least for me, and in my program, a lot of us are out of state. And so having, like a group of friends or someone to kind of like when you're having those hard times, I think is really important because all of my family is back in Texas, and so not seeing them was really hard. And then having people here who I know I can count on who are like in the same situation as you and you see each other pretty much all the people you interact with. And so just like making those connections, and also for like, in terms of like once you graduate and everything, we're all gonna be working in the field together. So it's like, do you have those connections? If you ever need like a resource or recommendation for something, then you have those people.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  08:44

That's awesome. And you're from Texas, if you don't mind sharing what part of Texas are you from? And what is the best spot for food in that area? 

Marissa Moreno  08:52

So I'm from I claim Houston, but if you're from if you're from that area, I'm from a town called Lake City, so we're right in the middle of Houston and Galveston, so like city and beach. And we're known for our seafood and Mexican food down there our Tex Mex. And so there's a little place not far from my house where I grew up called St. Pinella. And it's the best place to get like tacos that is my favorite. It's street tacos. It's like five little mini street tacos for like 12 bucks.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  09:19

 What! 

Marissa Moreno  09:20

Yeah, compared to here. So much cheaper. So that's always the first place that I stopped whenever I go back home. Because the workers there have been the same since I was a kid. And so that's awesome. Anytime we go back, they're always like, Oh my gosh, you're so much older because I haven't been back in so long. So it's nice that - to see some familiar faces and have people remember and just like have that sense of like I'm home.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  09:42

Yeah, sounds like almost like it's a tight knit community too. 

Marissa Moreno  09:45

For sure. Its definitely grown a lot since I was there. It seems like every time I go back home something new is built like we just got a Dutch Bros. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  09:52

Oh wow. 

Marissa Moreno  09:53

And it's busy all the time but I love it. It's nice.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  09:57

Awesome. So - Alright y'all if y'all are in that part of Texas, you know where you need to go for street tacos specifically. And you said you came out to Denver, did you specifically come to Denver for DU or were there other things that attracted you to coming here? 

Marissa Moreno  10:10

DU was a big part of it. And then looking around, like how close we are to like the mountains, and I'm not like, I know everybody here loves snowboarding, I can't do it. I'm much more a hiker and like getting into camping a lot more. And so that was something that was like, important to me to get to do, especially because I didn't do a lot of that growing up, like I wanted to, I just never really did. And so I'm like, Well, I'm going to be in this beautiful part of the state. Like if things aren't far like might as well. And then that's also how I made some friendships within my cohort too, like a friend of mine and I are planning a lot of hikes this upcoming summer to kind of enjoy it. Now that we're out of school, we have the time to do it. Yeah. And so I think that was a big factor, just all of the prettiness of Colorado, colorful Colorado.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  10:54

Nice. So it sounds like your favorite things like hiking and camping, was there any advice you would give to other students who maybe they're coming to our campus, and they're from out of state about, like, things to be aware of, or things that they can look forward to, to being in Denver? 

Marissa Moreno  11:09

Explore as much as you can, there's a lot around here, whether you're an outdoorsy type person, or if you really like thrifting, there's so many stores here. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  11:17

Yeah. 

Marissa Moreno  11:18

And just like all the little shops, like anywhere you go, and so it's like, explore as much as you can. And even here on campus, they have so many things like, I'm still getting used to everything, like all like different food places. So like, explore when you can and find, like, the little hole in the wall places are always the best like, like, I know, we have a lot of chains here that are great. But yeah, it's the smaller ones that like, you know, you just happen to pass by and you're like, let's go try that. And it's the best. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  11:44

Awesome. And then fun fact about Marissa, she just won an award for having the most crystals in the office. So with that, when did you get into crystals, like what got you into that?

Marissa Moreno  11:56

I always collected them as a kid I just didn't really ever know like much about them, I just thought I was like, Ooh, these are pretty and I liked them. And then as I got older, I kind of started looking into like the metaphysical properties of them and like how they can help reduce anxiety and can help with kind of like sleep and stuff like that. And then it my sister also got into instead of my mom. And so it kind of became like a bonding experience for all of us, like anytime we go to shops, and then we're slowly getting my dad into it, but he's a lot more picky. And then even my partner now has a small collection that he's getting into. So all that kind of stuff. Also, I joke crystals are the way that I show love, I love giving people them.  This is accurate, I've experienced this. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  12:40

That's how I just love to give them out as gifts. And that's kind of what I do. And I'll just like make little bags for people or like give out little pieces where I'm like, This is good for you because of like XY and Z. And even if people don't understand that they're like, it's pretty and I'm like, that's all you need some time. Exactly, yeah, if y'all go ever go into Marissa's office it's like very calming, like I try to stay outside the door. I get sleepy. And I think it's because of like the really cool crystals you have noin there, they're very relaxing.

Marissa Moreno  13:09

Then all - the all the low light in.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  13:12

Your office is very cozy, you've done a great job of decorating it.

Marissa Moreno  13:16

So many trinkets that I'm like, I don't know where to put them. And I feel like I'm gonna wind up reorganizing so much. But it'll be fun. It'll be good.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  13:25

So now we have a couple fun questions for you. Because again, like I said, we're getting to the core of who Marissa is with these questions here. So, first core question I have for you. If you were a vegetable, what kind of vegetable would you be?

Marissa Moreno  13:38

I love this question. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  13:40

Oh!

Marissa Moreno  13:42

I was going - I'm going in between two because I would say a cucumber because I just love them. They're delicious. You could put them in water, you can just eat them by - like with ranch, you can eat them with hummus. So it's like a versatile one. Or my more fun one is garlic because I put that on everything. So garlic. And that's like my favorite thing when you walk into a kitchen. Someone's making it and you just smell it. Yeah, so the nostalgia of it. So probably one of those two would be me as a vegetable. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  14:07

I'm trying to think of like, if they were morph cucumber and then garlic together. Like what would that flavor be? 

Marissa Moreno  14:14

I feel like it would have to taste like a garlic. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  14:17

Yeah.

Marissa Moreno  14:17

Because then it's like you could use it in so many things. But then it's like because the cucumber is a little more like watery so it doesn't have as much flavor to it. So like if you had the look of that but then the like taste of a garlic I feel like that'd be so confusing.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  14:31

I also try to think of the name a cu-carli - That's a hard name. 

Marissa Moreno  14:35

Something that starts with a g 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  14:37

Like a gar-cumber 

Marissa Moreno  14:37

A garlucumber. There we go. That's the new name of garlic.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  14:43

Or a Carlic. So y'all have ideas for names posted on our Instagram under the Welcome Marissa instagram post or just send us an email like I have a name for garlic and cucumber. Or maybe you're a student and you have like a project for your science degree combining garlic and cucumber making it taste good. 

Marissa Moreno  15:02

There we go. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  15:03

There we go. And what is the weirdest or most interesting food that you've ever eaten?

Marissa Moreno  15:09

Oh, um, I mean, certain foods aren't weird to me. But I feel like within the Hispanic culture, we eat a lot of things that people are like, What the hell? And the first thing that pops to my mind is lengua because that cow tongue. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  15:23

Oh! 

Marissa Moreno  15:24

It tastes so good has so much flavor, but when explaining to people like the different parts of the cow that we eat, they're like, why do you eat that? And I'm like, because it's the best part. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  15:33

Yeah. 

Marissa Moreno  15:34

Another like, weird thing I ate it was in undergrad for an anthropology class. It was like a little beetle or something that if we ate it, we got extra credit on our test.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  15:42

Oh my god 

Marissa Moreno  15:42

So I did that. It tasted like a stale chip because it was just crunchy. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  15:46

Uh, huh.

Marissa Moreno  15:47

It didn't have much flavor. But that was like a cool thing I did. But I think those - that's like the weirdest one. I ate frog legs once, never. will do it again. Because I love frogs. And I just did it once because someone dared me to. But yeah, I think those are like the weirder things.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  16:04

What is like the texture of cow tongue?

Marissa Moreno  16:06

Um, the way that I usually eat is like in like a taco. And so usually it's like, it can be a little bit more like, fatty. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  16:14

Okay. 

Marissa Moreno  16:15

But it has like a lot of flavor. It can be a little more on the salty side, depending on who's cooking it. But yeah, usually paired with like all the usual taco ingredients. It's like, you don't even realize you're eating it until someone tells you and it'll make people be like a little freaked out. And it's like, but it's still good. So I'm gonna eat it.  Yeah. And then for the beetle, was there a lot of protein in that beetle? It was small. Like, it was like the size of like, maybe like a penny. So it was very small. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  16:42

For extra credit 

Marissa Moreno  16:43

That's why it was like it was a test that we had to I was like, you know, what, an extra couple of points. I'll take it out. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  16:48

Yeah

Marissa Moreno  16:48

No, it's fine.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  16:51

And then what are the frog legs tastes like? 

Marissa Moreno  16:53

Like chicken. And so that's what I did. I didn't fully know like what it was someone was like, eat this I dare you. Because we were out at like dinner. And I was like, okay, and it was as I was eating it that they told me and I was like, why would you have me eat this? I was like, frogs are like my favorite animal. Don't do that to me. Like this was cruel, cruel and unusual punishment.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  17:15

And what is your favorite kind of trash? The history to this question, this was randomly asked by Shanae, they like mentioned - So we're talking about something and then we start talking about trash. And then favorite trash. So this is just a funny question. So Marissa, what is your favorite kind of trash?

Marissa Moreno  17:30

I love bubble wrap. I don't know what it is. But only like the little ones because whenever it's like the big ones that are almost like squares. I hate those because they're just too loud. The little bubble wraps are fun, because then I just sit there and like go to town on all of them. It's bad. Like my mom will personally like if she's packing me like, like a box to send to me. She'll put those specific ones like that's what she'll wrap it in there and play with.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  17:56

So you probably like those fidgets that have like the bop bop bop bop.

Marissa Moreno  17:59

Yes. Yeah, they're so fun. I found them many times when I was working in retail that like kids would leave them and so we would always have them at the front in case like someone came back and we would always see like, who could do it the fastest. One talent like the secret talent, like what can you do? I can do those poppets really fast.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  18:20

That's a cool talent. And then of course, listeners, if you've been listening to me specifically do these episodes for a long time. You know, I always ask this question because it's the most important question. So, Marissa, there is a right answer to this. So let's see if you have the right answer. Is The Nightmare Before Christmas, a Halloween movie or Christmas movie?

Marissa Moreno  18:42

It's both hands down. You watch it any time of year because it's got the Christmas aspects. It's got the Halloween spookiness so it's both always.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  18:51

Congratulations, you've kept your employment here. Just kidding, that's a joke. But yes, good answer. And that is all of our fun questions for you but is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners about who you are.

Marissa Moreno  19:07

I'm just happy to be here happy to like get to stay full time because I was really sad about like possibly having to leaving once my internship was done so happy to be here. If you ever have to stop by whether that be volunteering with Racheal and our amazing VPE's. Like feel free to if you want to volunteer for our helpline we got some cool people on there. 

Racheal Reed-Maloney  19:27

Yes. 

Marissa Moreno  19:27

Or if you do have to come in for services. It's very scary. But hey, we got some cool advocates here. And like Racheal said, I got cool office so you know, fun time.

Racheal Reed-Maloney  19:38

Awesome. Thank you so much for Marissa for joining me today. I'm really glad our listeners got to learn a little bit more about you. And listeners. As Marissa mentioned, we have a lot of great events and volunteer opportunities coming up. If you are looking to get more experienced with crisis work, you can volunteer for our 24/7 helpline. You can head to our website and learn more about that opportunity or join our advocacy or Violence Prevention Team. You can also go to our website to learn more about that. If you're not already following us on Instagram, you can follow us at @Phoenixauraria on Instagram. And you can listen to this podcast on any place where you get your podcast at. If anything in this episode was activating to you and you're needing immediate support, you can call our 24/7 Helpline at 303-556-2255. I'm Racheal Reed Maloney and thank you all again for listening. I look forward to learning with you next time.