Detroit Mercy Law student Olga Wierszewski also is president of Red Metals Recycling, Inc.
Photo courtesy of Olga Wierszewski
By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
A widow in her mid-50s, Olga Saenz Wierszewski acknowledges she is an “unconventional” student at Detroit Mercy Law.
“But that ‘otherness’ is precisely what makes me notable,” she says. “I’ve always embraced the diversity that makes up my background and appreciated it as a source of strength and character-building throughout my life.”
The motivation that fuels her drive to be a late-life law student is best understood within the context of three major challenges Wierszewski has faced and overcome: finding the resilience to successfully rebuild a business for which she was unprepared to save and run after the sudden illness and passing of her husband; developing ways to overcome learning difficulties that challenged her from childhood into adulthood; and recognizing the strength she gained from growing up in a first-generation Mexican-American immigrant family in Southwest Detroit.
When her husband of 22 years passed away in 2014, six months after a cancer diagnosis, Wierszewski became president of a business— Red Metals Recycling, Inc. in Redford—she knew very little about.
“My role up to that point was always very limited to managing the company’s financials, as that was my professional background,” she says. “When it came time to step into my late husband’s role, I found myself running—and rebounding—a company as a woman in the vastly male-dominated industry of metal recycling.
“The trauma of our family’s loss was weighted further by the fact that we were faced not just with running the business in his absence, but also with trying to rebuild the business. And although my four sons had been working with him for years, slowly learning the business, none of us would have considered ourselves ready to take the reins.
“Today, the business is thriving again, generating over $20 million in annual revenues, and I’ve learned a tremendous amount about the industry and operations of the business, as well as discovered much about myself and the extent to which my drive facilitates my ability to accomplish and grow.”
This wasn’t the first time Wierszewski found strength by leaning into her “otherness” as a source of unique perspective.
The middle child of five with Mexican immigrant parents, Wierszewski grew up in a predominantly Polish enclave on the west side of Detroit.
“Growing up in a Latino family in a white neighborhood of one our nation’s greatest Black cities was a beautifully unique experience to say the least,” she says.
But the experience didn’t come without challenges.
“The path to higher education for people in my community and in my family was littered with roadblocks,” she says. “Neither of my parents had extensive schooling—my mother had the equivalent of a high school education and my father that of a sixth-grader. And as a working-class family with five children to support, they had neither the time nor the experience to help us navigate school. Like many immigrant parents, their barometer of success was getting good grades, but they didn’t really know how to help us achieve them.”
Wierszewski struggled as a student, which she recently discovered was the result of Attention Deficit Disorder.
“I didn’t realize as a child that I was ADD, nor did my parents – those were different times,” she says. “I knew I still had to get good grades though—that, for my parents, was non-negotiable. So, I simply learned how to work around my disadvantages. But this often left me feeling frustrated that studies came so much harder for me than it did for others. Ironically, that experience gave me another kind of strength – a grit and stick-to-itiveness I’ve carried with me ever since.”
Wierszewski’s parents struggled and sacrificed to send their five children to private school. All five attended college, three became engineers, one earned an MBA, and Wierszewski, who holds a degree in accounting, is now attending law school.
In preparing for the LSAT, she spent nearly a year engrossed in studies—and confronting her learning challenges. She made adjustments to further optimize her concentration and focus, including controlling her study environment, and being mindful about diet and exercise and managing stress.
Wierszewski, who aims to obtain her JD in 2026, plans to use her expertise to build on her firm’s success through an elevated understanding of contract law, and to better communicate and partner with outside counsel. She is modeling for her adult children that age is not a restriction to education and skill building, that they should recognize challenges for opportunities, and she is demonstrating that drive and purpose are qualities people must remain committed to, regardless of their stage in life.
She also plans to provide legal assistance to the immigrant Latino community of Southwest Detroit, and to inspire young Mexican women whose experiences mirror her own.
A member of the Detroit Athletic Club, Wierszewski enjoys relaxing dinners there and at Detroit restaurants; and also has been practicing Bikram Yoga for many years to help her deal with the stresses of life.
Wierszewski says she is fortunate to now have the opportunity to be more purposeful in her personal and professional pursuits.
“My commitment to the growth of Red Metals is now driven by ambition rather than necessity,” she says. “By pursuing an education in law school, I can help take our business to the next level and continue to secure a legacy of financial security for our family. The experience and knowledge I gain will help me expand networking opportunities and explore new avenues for growth.
“I also look forward to the time when I’m able to pay forward my accomplishments by joining the ranks of UDM alumni as a successful businesswoman, and to repaying the Latino community of my youth, to which I owe so much.”
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