To Have a Safe Place
Junior Emily Mozdziak Launches Business Blog To Celebrate Her Faith
Her friend yelled jokingly, “Faith is garbage!”
She responded, “To each their own.”
Emily was out with her friend. She was used to the people around her making fun of her Christian faith.
Later that weekend, that same friend texted her, “Hey! I’m at church. You inspired me to get back into my faith.”
This was just another normal occurrence for Emily. Being made fun of for her faith in public only to be praised quietly for her inspiring ways. It didn’t bother her much though. She developed thick skin after being bullied in middle school. She hated waking up every day.
“I remember feeling super lonely being up north with not a lot of outspoken people about faith. That’s how I came up with the name.”
Faith in a Safe Place.
Emily Mozdziak, class of ‘24 from Yonkers, is a Mercy junior majoring in marketing data analytics with a minor in Spanish. Her faith is her hobby. It has been a little over a year since she launched her blog Faith in a Safe Place where she combines her love for her business-related major and her hobby in faith.
Growing up with very religious parents and being sent to Catholic school her whole life, Emily learned about religion through example, especially watching her family and friends struggle and turn to faith. She did the same when bullied and now encourages the same within her blog.
Emily said, “I always tell everyone that everyone’s safe here. There’s no judgment or anything.”
I always tell everyone that everyone’s safe here. There’s no judgment or anything. — Emily
Her blog entails a chat feature that allows her readers to message her with the option not to say their names if desired. But the anonymity aspect sometimes leaves Emily wondering whose life she may have touched.
She recalls the most memorable message she received on her blog. An anonymous message. It exclaimed admiration for both Emily and her open faith. It was a supposed friend of hers who enjoyed having a godly example in her life. Yet, this friend had also admitted to judging her for her faith a lot in the past and being mean to her about it.
Could it have been someone from her high school? College? Yonkers?
She said, “That was like a rollercoaster of a message.”
Emily would never find out who wrote it. However, that is the safety aspect of her blog. Her readers have the ability to learn about faith, whether they practice any religion or not, and talk to her about anything.
Fellow Mercy students may have seen Faith in a Safe Place promoted through flyers taped to water fountains, the handicap buttons to open doors, or even in the women’s bathroom stalls. Emily said, “Being faithful isn’t really cool, so I understand no one really wants to scan the barcode on the flyers. So, in the safety of the bathroom, I place flyers on the back of the stalls.”
She also promotes through social media, such as Pinterest where she has attracted around 400,000 views for her faith-related phone wallpapers that link to her blog posts. She uploads a new blog post every Sunday for her readers. She has attracted over 3,000 views to her blog and around a thousand loyal visitors through her marketing methods. She also includes ads on her blog in which she is in the works for receiving a commission in the future.
Emily also used to promote her blog through TikTok until the controversial side of faith took over. Before getting out of her car to go to class, Emily sat in her car in the Mercy parking lot. She just remembered that she needed to post for that day for her blog on TikTok. She quickly uploaded a TikTok and ran out of her car into class. By the minute, thousands of views piled onto the video. Emily opened her TikTok after class only to see all the negative comments that came her way. Some saying, “Oh, this bimbo.”
Even people attacking each other in the comment section.
Emily said in recollection of the moment, “Sharing faith is hard because if people don’t have the same beliefs that’s fine but a lot of the time people aren’t respectful of it.”
Sharing faith is hard because if people don’t have the same beliefs that’s fine but a lot of the time people aren’t respectful of it. — Emily
After the incident, she veered away from TikTok. The negativity didn’t create the safest place.
The idea of safety also inspired the company Traq that Emily and her two other classmates created and are entering into Mercy’s 4th Annual Student-Preneur Conference and Business Plan Competition. After finding out that every woman they asked is always worried about their safety, they thought, “What are we going to do about it?” 
Traq produces a GPS ring with a button that pressed down five times will tell a person’s emergency contacts to check their location and that that person is in danger. The company is all about providing the idea of safety in unsure environments for women.
Emily said, “You can’t control how other people are going to act towards you but can you at least have some control over how a situation will end up.”
She previously entered Mercy’s Business Plan Competition along with her classmate, Janet Gomez ‘23 in 2021, for their company MyCareer, which helped employers connect to those in the job market looking to work. The pair won second place for the company.
Emily said, “It was crazy.”
Gomez added, “Winning wasn’t my priority. I wanted to learn how to improve my business idea and see if it was a viable opportunity in the market then.”
After the win for MyCareer and the processes of Traq and Faith in a Safe Place, Emily has felt nothing but gratitude for her success thus far, especially towards her college. The kindness of her professors has been the most significant aspect of her Mercy experience.
“Mercy has been the root of all these opportunities for sure.”
Almost as if Mercy College is one of her safe places.
Check out her blog!
Alyssa Politi is a senior at Mercy University majoring in journalism and minoring in business. She serves Mercy University presently as the Director of...
