School Daze

"It's kinda like the first day of school!" said Sophia this morning, one of my floormates from Paris, France, as half of the girls in my residential group crowded around the bathroom mirrors preparing themselves for today. She was right. Today, everyone in the Leadership Institute was on their way to the first day of their courses. 

Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Center for Information Technology

After breakfast at the Ratty, Tory, our TA, gather up and guided all the Women & Leadership students to the Watson CIT (Center of Information Technology), which is where our class was located. I was very excited. It was my first day experiencing the Women & Leadership course! This is what I had come to Brown for!

The room was small, but comfortable. There was also air conditioning! When you're in a residential hall with no air conditioning, the heat can become quite exhausting. 

To begin, Dean Almandrez, our professor, had all the ladies sort the chairs out so we were in a horseshoe formation. Mary Grace Almandrez is the Director of the center for students of color at brown and she's also the Associate Dean of Brown. It's very exciting to be making connections with such an important person. After some icebreakers, we started getting on with the concept of social issues and identity. Dean Almandrez went to the whiteboard and wrote a quote on the board. It read "'A misinformed people is a subjugated people.' by Gloria Anzaldua" We started analyzing it and broke into partners to discuss what we thought it meant. It was a good start to the class, as I got to hear the thoughts of really intelligent, young women who were sharing the same experience that I was. Then we discussed the texts we had been assigned to look at the previous night. We went over the 7 main traits of "otherness," including the concept of race and how it changes, as racial labels are social constructs that change with the movement of society. One of my favorite activities during the first part of the course was when we began discussing why, in society, we associate being of a darker skin tone to being something unfortunate, even something wrong. We began brainstorming and discussing why stereotypes are so embedded into our communities, from all parts of the globe. We traced these perceptions way back to centuries ago, during the Age of Exploration, and filled the whiteboard with thoughts associated with the issue. It really made me realize how a stereotype or certain way of thinking can become so prevalent and ingrained into our heads from before we even develop our own ways of thinking. 

At about 11:30 AM, Dean Almandrez let us leave for lunch. The cohort wanted to go to the famous V-Dub (Verney-Woolley Dining Hall), as we had heard tons of great things about the place. Since we didn't quite know how to get there, Julia, a fellow classmate, offered to guide us there. Julia is from London and had a lot of great things to say during the class period.

Wendy, Diane, Mahi, Esme and I during our lunch break.

Tory (left), Mary Grace (right), and I posing with my life map.

At about 1:00 PM, we headed back to the Watson CIT for the second part of the class. When we arrived, there were magazines, gluesticks, scissors, markers, and poster paper on the floor. Dean Almandrez gave us our first assignment: to construct a "leadership life map" as a way of expressing ourselves and demonstrating the events that led us to be in that course.

Although the class had ended for today, the learning was not yet over. At 4PM, the Women & Leadership group was to meet at the second floor at the Faunce building for a workshop. At this workshop, we learned about 4 different types of leadership styles through the Leadership Compass Model: North, the assertive leader who likes to take action; South, the empathetic, and receptive leader; East, the visionary leader who likes to focus on the big picture; and West, the logical, detail-oriented leader. I found that I identified the most with the "South" type of leadership strategy. I have a tendency to want to integrate everyone's ideas into a fair solution, even if I tend to over compromise.

A sorority-style group photo, starring the incredible 24 students and Tory!

I absolutely loved the atmosphere of my class as well as the engagement and participation of the other girls. There are about 20 other girls in my class, so I should be able to remember everyone's name as soon as the week is over. What I love the most about the class is that it's more of a seminar-based learning experience. Instead of a monotonous, tedious lecture, Mary Grace quides us towards speaking our minds.  If today was a sample of what's to come, then I can say with great confidence that these next two weeks will be a truly incredible experience.

After the workshop, I went to the Ratty with some new friends I had made who were also taking the Women & Leadership course. Isabella, Ashley, Emma and I went to the Ratty for dinner and soon were joined by Kalpana. Isabella and I had to leave early. On our day of arrival, we were given a letter from Kisa, the Director of the Leadership programs, inviting us and other Pre-College students who had arrived here as Dean and Partner scholars who had received financial assistance. We discussed our hopes and concerns for our experience at Brown and learned about the resources offered to us and how to adjust to a different environment. I got to meet other students who were here on financial aid. It was a very comforting way to end the day, knowing that Kisa and the rest of the Pre-College staff were looking out for us.