The Grand Brown Center for Students of Color

I found this quote on the way to the dining hall: 
"I don't always speak right, but yet I know what I'm talking about".

Today’s morning had a pleasant surprise when Kelsey, Esmeralda, Zunarah, and I walked along with Ashley. We were able to learn more about her, such as what she had experienced when she took this class two years ago. She said she liked our class a lot, and the energy we emitted together was lively and positive.

When we arrived to class, Grace led us directly into a card game where five groups of four people had a set of rules to follow. The person who wins moves up one table, and the one who loses goes back one table. We weren’t allowed to talk during the game, and I ended up becoming confused after I realized the rules for each table were different. Grace explained to us why she chose this game after we finished, she said it represented the conflict people had when they don’t bother to see another’s perspective and find everything a competition.

We went to the Brown Center for Students of Color (BCSC) after ending the game. The building was a huge private house that was donated to Brown University. It had three floors dedicated to the needs of student representation in Brown. We were able to meet several faculty employees named Neil, Joshua, and Olivia. 

Our class toured around the center and took in the building’s beauty. On the second and third floors, there were rooms for each race. There were five “Heritage” rooms: Asian/Asian American, Latino, Native American, African American, and multiracial. Each room had their own touch and personalities that tied along with identity. For example, in the Native American room, the walls were painted yellow and the designs on the couch pillows had cultural patterns. In the Asian/Asian American room, the walls were painted light blue and there were posters of several pieces of Japanese and Chinese art. The African American room was painted white, and had miniature sculptures of warriors and animals.

This was the African American room.

Asian/Asian Americans, represent!

Lunch came quickly, and today we planned on having a huge lunch together with the whole class and Grace as well. When we set up the tables, it felt like we were reenacting the last supper. I had a blast talking to classmates I usually don’t talk to as much, and the experience has truly bonded us as a team.

The table we've set up was able to have seats for the entire class.

Several pins I plan on giving to classmates at my school.

Presentations started right after lunch, and I was anxious but eager to hear about people’s action plans and presenting my own as well. I was seventh to present, so I still had some time to relax and focus on the content that I was going to present. Listening to the other presentations definitely helped, I found myself becoming engaged in what other people’s plans were, and even wanted to contribute, myself. My favorite came from a classmate named Emerald who presented her action plan with a song that had her own lyrics and an instrumental from Bruno Mars, it was amazing!

I decided to go to the LGBTQ Center with several other classmates after class ended. Our group rushed there because it was going to close in an hour, and we still wanted to make more buttons. We all had to quickly make the buttons we wanted due to the time constraints, but I was satisfied with the end products.

I met up with the ILC cohort a while later, since we were scheduled to take pictures with Kendra. We started off with taking pictures at the Van Wickle Gates, which is a historical monument for Brown University.

During this day, several classmates have pointed out to me that we’re leaving the program in two days. I’ve realized this before, but never really thought time would go by this fast until now. I’m glad to have met everyone in this institute, and I’m confident that I’ll leave this place with only happy memories in mind when the time comes. Until then, I’ll enjoy these last two days to the fullest.