Strolling Through Thayer

I walked to class this morning with a lot of the W&L girls. As we walked, we talked about how great it was to be at a Friday. During our first week of class, we had been given homework from Day One, and had already turned in an essay. Everyone was mutually exhausted by a rigorous week of assignments, emotions, and physical challenge. It was a great first week. I learned so much in these past few days about society as well as about myself and my own leadership and identity. 

Today was a very interesting day. In class, we met Jennifer, a woman who had come in as a guest speaker this morning to talk about public speaking in order to prepare us for our final assignment: the Action Plan.

For every Pre-College session spent at the Leadership Institute at Brown, each and every student -- no matter which course they take on -- must commit to a final project in which they look at an issue that resonates with them, and they create a plan that to integrate into their communities back at home. This project has two main components, including a written and oral presentation. It's a great challenge that I'm very excited about exploring!

Referring back to the guest speaker on public speaking, it was great hearing what Jennifer had to say. Not only did she provide helpful, general advice, she also took questions from the audience that related to their own action plan. I definitely took a lot of notes from her lecture! I'll need them next Friday when I stand in front of other Leadership Institute students and parents as I tell them about how I will contribute to my community.

For the second part of the class, we took what we learned from the lecture and applied it by presenting what we had come up with so far as our action plans. I spoke about my plan, which is to implement a peer mentorship program at my school so English Language Learners at my school could have a buddy, someone who is well adjusted in the school who also speaks the students' native language, so the English Language Learner can feel welcomed and gain confidence with being in a different environment than their native homes. We took this time to ask each other questions about our plans to practice for the Q&A, as well as give each other feedback on how we presented. I'm very excited about having the chance to write about my plan as well as present it to other people. But most of all, I'm excited to put this into action at my school.

Pleasant surprises at Thayer Street.

After class, Gaby, Erin and I decided to visit Thayer Street to look around and find anything of interest. We went through a bunch of shops and looked around and found really cool stores. It was a good bonding experience and it gave us the chance to get to know Providence just a little better. 

Yo! That's my froyo!

In the evening, Ms. Neal had invited us to all meet -- the full Brown cohort -- at FroyoWorld, what I believe to be the best frozen yogurt provider in the world. We talked about how our experiences at Brown had been so far, and our plans for the weekend and decided we would all be heading to the Providence Mall tomorrow and to the beach on Sunday. It looks like this weekend has a lot in store for us, which I'm very excited about.

Later tonight, most of the cohort when to Metcalf Auditorium for a fun movie night featuring the Avengers: Age of Ultron. We stayed for only about an hour and a half, as exhaustion took over and we just wanted to hit the dorms. That was the end of my Friday night as well as the end of my first schoolweek at Brown.

"Every great journey starts with a single step." ~Ava McEnroe