Tuesday Tea Discusses Leadership Skills with UWM Students

Walking up the stairs to the third floor of the UWM Student Union leads you to the Student Involvement Lounge. Here is where an event called Tuesday Tea takes place. A large sign sits to guide newcomers to the area. A table is set up with free mugs for attendees to choose from. Another table is set up with hot coffee, tea and cocoa and treats for everyone to enjoy. 

According to Isabel Gonzalez, a staff member of the Student Leadership Program, the event was started by a previous Student Involvement (SI) staff member who wanted to create a space to talk about relevant leadership topics in a comfortable environment. This was all back in the fall of 2023. Current SI staff member Ruvimbo Mareya oversees Tuesday Tea with the help of Student Leadership Program students.  

The last Tuesday Tea for the 2024 fall semester was on Dec. 10 and hosted by Student Leadership Program staff member Jackson Rodgers.  

“The reason that this workshop was started was to have good conversations on campus,” said Rodgers. “A good way for a variety of different people throughout the student body to interact when they typically wouldn’t.” 

When asked about his favorite part of his event he responded with this. 

“My favorite part is listening to other people because it’s a lot to set everything up and make sure it runs right, but I love sitting in on conversations and just hearing very interesting stories,” said Rodgers. “We recently talked about responsibilities and just hearing how different people deal with responsibilities has been really awesome.”  

Maryuri Covarrubio is a sophomore at UWM and a business major that attended the Dec. 10 Tuesday Tea. She heard about this event from her friend and that week’s host, Jackson Rodgers. When asked about what interested her about the event, she said this. 

“I am really interested in just listening to other people’s perspectives and engaging in dialogue,” said Covarrubio. 

When asked if she would keep coming to Tuesday Tea, she said this. 

“If they keep bringing hot chocolate, then definitely,” said Covarrubio. 

Trevor Zabrowski was another attendee at the event. He’s a second-year student with junior standing and a business major, with a focus in accounting and IT management at UWM. He was also informed about this event by Rodgers, since they are brothers in the Delta Sigma Pi business organization at UWM.  

“I had no idea what Tuesday Tea was, but I was happy to help a friend out if they had an event going on, so I decided to show up,” said Zabrowski. 

When asked about what interested him in this event, he said this. 

“The free mugs were a nice touch for sure but it’s also good to always build new skills like this, especially not knowing what I was going to get out of it with the leadership work,” said Zabrowski. “There is always a skill to keep building off and trying to resolve and work on. It was a really good time, and I was glad to be a part of this.” 

When asked about what his favorite part of the event was, he said this. 

“I liked getting everyone’s perspective on things and to know what everyone else was thinking and even though we all kind of have different experiences, it kind of leads to the same conclusion,” said Zabrowski. “Honesty was a big one that came up or being direct is a good way to resolve conflicts. So, it was a good way to show that although we are all different, we find common ground with each other.” 

According to Gonzalez, the next Tuesday Tea will take place on Jan. 28. Tuesday Tea’s happen in the winter weeks of the fall and spring semesters, typically the last four weeks of the fall semester and first four weeks of the spring semester. Rodgers had this to say about next semester and the event itself. 

“We’ve got a full slate next semester,” said Rodgers. “It’s a program that we love hosting. As a student I love interacting with the students and I know that the pro staff love interacting with them too. So yeah, we just truly love this program and hope it keeps on going.”