Join us every Monday for a wrap-up of the week’s hottest stories! For this week’s “Mondays With Melanie” podcast, we begin with Evie Steele’s (SFS ’26) and Caitlin McLean’s (CAS ’24) article about Ukranian First Lady Olena Zelenska’s visit to Gaston Hall. Then, the conversation shifts to Oliver Ni’s (SFS ’26) recap of the men’s soccer team’s wins against Seton Hall University and James Madison University, and what this may mean for the rest of the season.

Transcript

Melanie Elliott (ME): Hello Hoyas! And welcome back to this new podcast series, titled “Mondays with Melanie.” Through this series, I will be bringing on the authors of each week’s top stories to discuss their articles and provide a brief synopsis of their topics. This week, that of Sept. 18 to 24, has been filled with visits from fascinating political figures and major sports wins. Firstly, SFS sophomore Evie Steele discusses her article with fellow Hoya staffer Caitlin McLean about the Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska’s recent talk here at Georgetown.

Evie Steele (ES): In an event this week at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall, First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska warned that a potential Ukrainian defeat could spur global instability. She said that supporting Ukraine is “supporting democracy over autocracy and upholding international norms.” The event was hosted by the Office of the President in collaboration with the Georgetown University Institute for Women, Peace and Security. At the event, Zelenska stressed the importance of supporting Ukraine, including vulnerable communities and school children, and said that universities and education have been particularly disrupted by the Russian invasion. Zelenska has made education a focus of her tenure as first lady and donated Georgetown books on Ukrainian history as literature as part of her Ukrainian bookshelf project which has donated 47,000 books to libraries in 40 countries. Zelenska said, “Education at universities such as Georgetown is crucial in shaping thinkers who can truly solve future global problems.” Zelenska said at the event that Western countries need to continue supporting Ukraine. “To turn a blind eye,” she said, “would mean to turn your back to your own future.”

ME: Thanks so much for that Evie! I can’t wait to see what other special visits this school year brings. Next, SFS sophomore Oliver Ni talks about his article, which provides a rundown of this week’s big Georgetown soccer win.

Oliver Ni (ON): Hi. My name is Oliver Ni, and I am one of the Senior Sports editors of The Hoya. One of the teams that we’ve had a lot of fun covering recently has been Georgetown men’s soccer. On Friday, they won 1-0 in their Big East Conference opener against Seton Hall, and on Tuesday they came back home to win 2-0 against the number nine James Madison Dukes. And, from these two games, we’ve learned a decent number of things about the team. The first is that the offense has no plans of slowing down. They’ve had no trouble scoring goals this season, and they’ve been led by sophomore striker Jacob Murrell, who has had five goals in just six games. If Murrell is able to keep up this runner form, then he can lead this offense to great things, and hopefully collect some all Big East honors along the way.

ON: Perhaps, more importantly though, is the defense. And they’ve been able to secure their first back-to-back shut-outs of the entire season. This is a very significant improvement from non-conference play, where they were conceding a decent number of goals to very competitive teams. And if Georgetown wants to make a deep postseason run, then they will have to maintain this quality of play on both ends of the game, and hopefully, they’ll be able to repeat their Big East titles from last year. 

ME: Thanks Oliver and go Hoyas!

ME: And that concludes another hectic week here at the Hilltop. Thanks so much for tuning in! I’m Melanie Elliott, and this has been “Mondays with Melanie.” Be sure to check back in next week for another round of top stories. And until then, have a great week!

ME: This podcast was edited by me and produced by Amna Shamim and Emily Han.