For our second highlight, we met with Jason Mero, a first year from Brooklyn, NY concentrating in Public Health. Read his interview below:
Favorite class you’re taking this semester? Why? A First Year Seminar, it’s a bio research class —it’s fun because the professor is very lax about it and even though you’re in lab a lot, everyone in lab is fun and everyone has a good time while there. I also like Arabic. Learning a language is so fun and the sounds you make are so different. We laugh together about our mistakes and the professor is really cool.
What have you found to be most challenging so far about Brown? Even though you take less classes, it’s a lot more intensive work. In high school, weighting is everything. Homework is worth so much in high school. In college there’s an incentive to study more and do more work, but in the end I’m learning a lot from my classes.
What are you currently looking forward to? Seeing what Brown is like over time, seeing what sophomores and juniors are participating in, and I’m excited to go home for Thanksgiving, especially for the food.
Meet Leticia Wood, a first year from Bergenfield, NJ intending to concentrate in Cognitive Neuroscience and Africana Studies. Read her interview below:
Favorite class you’re taking this semester? Why? Intro to Africana — since it’s an intro course we have to study a lot of different things like history, philosophy. We also have a lot of really cool guest lecturers. It’s a very open dialogue and I feel very comfortable in the space, especially because the professor is a black woman.
What are you currently looking forward to? I’m really looking forward to taking more Africana classes and seeing what directions it can take me in. I’m taking two classes in Africana next semester and they’re both very different but it’s under the same discipline. One class is Gender, Slavery, and Freedom, which I’m seeing more as historical and theoretical, and the other one is Hip Hop Culture.
Favorite place on campus? Is it weird if I say Andrews Commons? I really appreciate the food there.
For this week’s second FLi Highlight, we interviewed Adela Herce, another FLiSP participant. Check out her interview below!
Hometown and intended concentration? Hayward, CA and biochemistry.
Why did you apply to FLiSP? I felt like it would give me a community and people I could relate to. It would help me make friends and it seemed like a really good resource. But a lot of us knew each other before. We all met each other on Twitter and ended up in U-FLiSP together.
What do you like best about Brown so far? Aside from my friends, I like the fact that it is a very academic environment but not to the point where it’s not a collaborative environment. Brown isn’t a place where people are mean to each other just for asking for help.
What are you currently looking forward to? I’m looking forward to building closer relationships with my friends and to see the growth from when I started at Brown until the end of first semester, end of second semester. Also going back home.
In this week’s first (of two!) FLi Highlights, we interviewed Tony Almazan, a FLiSP participant hoping to concentrate in neuroscience. Read our interview with him below.
Hometown and intended concentration? Los Angeles, CA and neuroscience.
What do you like best about Brown so far? I really like the campus. I really like the buildings, walking around campus, and looking at some of the buildings. It’s cool to feel like, wow I’m at Brown, or I’m taking a class in Solomon – who else might have taken that class? The atmosphere of being at Brown is my favorite part.
What have you found to be most challenging so far about Brown? Navigating the open curriculum is pretty hard. I don’t want to take too many classes within my concentration and I want to take some fun classes, so it’s about finding the balance of being able to take whatever you want and stay on top of it.
Favorite class you’re taking this semester? Why? Neuro 10 – it’s also the hardest but I think that’s what makes it my favorite, because it’s my concentration so it’s really interesting to me to learn about the brain and how our behavior and everything we do is controlled by chemicals and electrical impulses. That’s crazy to me. I haven’t been challenged by a class like this in a long time.
Meet Josue: a first-year student hoping to concentrate in Political Science, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Visual Art. Read our interview with him below.
Favorite class you’re taking this semester? VISA100 – it gives me a break, it’s a way of therapy, a way to still do work but work that you enjoy doing.
What kind of art are you interested in? Primarily sculpture and ceramics. Sculpture is such a broad term, but I want to learn how to weld. I like making clay heads and clay plates and clay cups. I want to learn how to glassblow too.
What do you like best about Brown so far? I’m not sure yet – it’s a big transition for me right now. It’s a lot of work but I like how uncomfortable it’s making me, because I see that as room for growth. It’s a good uncomfortable because I know it will help me in the long run.
Why did you apply to the FLi Scholars Program? I knew I was going to need a support group to help me out and start my family, to handle Brown and it’s elitism. It’s a way for me to make friends also and get more comfortable with my surroundings.
If you were a building on campus, what building would you be? I’d be Granoff because I’m interested in modernistic architecture. There’s something so pretty and out of this world and elegant, but it also has so much personality.
Meet Lynna and Valerie – the new co-presidents of First-Gens@Brown! We met with them last Sunday to discuss their experiences with the group & any advice they might have for students who are struggling to adjust to life at Brown.
Valerie Castro (’20)
Why did you decide to run for eboard positions? “I was really interested in continuing to be involved with the group, in having a main position. Last year, it was nice to talk to Amy, talk to Ashley, so I wanted to continue being involved and I thought one way to do that was to know what’s going on behind the scenes.”
Lynna Ngo (’21)
Why did you decide to run for eboard positions? “I think coming as a first year on campus, there can be a lot of challenges. Not only readjusting to Brown, learning how the college system works without having parents to guide you, and I think going to FG@B provided a community and direction, not only for myself, but for other students who are learning how to navigate Brown, and I thought it was a great community space.”
What would you tell someone who is thinking of joining but hasn’t gotten involved yet? V: If you’re curious, you can either talk to one of us or you can show up to meetings at any point during the semester, whether you’ve been here for a week or you’re a senior, you’re completely welcome to come a meeting to see what we’re all about.
L: If you are looking to make new friends and build a community space, come join – we welcome people no matter how involved you want to be with the FLi or First-Gens@Brown community. Come check it out to see how it is, learn about the resources, and connect with friends.
Advice for first-years struggling to adjust to life at Brown? V: Based on my personal experiences, I’ve found that joining clubs and not being by myself all the time was really helpful. When I struggle, I tend to isolate myself. Once I started having the confidence to go to clubs by myself and meet a bunch of new people, go to different events, it was a place to find other people that were struggling like to me and it’s easier to overcome them when you have support.
L: Take advantage of campus resources, whether it means going to tutoring, going to CAPS, talking to Dean Elie about financial support — don’t be afraid to ask for help, because Brown has the resources, you just have to go and utilize them.
Have you ever considered taking time away from Brown? Ever wondered what you would do while you were gone, how it would affect your financial aid, or how to talk about it with your loved ones? The U-FLi center, in collaboration with the Curricular Resource Center is hosting a conversation about leavetaking with U-FLi students who have been on leave before. Find out about what leavetaking can mean for you. Food will be provided!
First Gens@Brown, Project LETS, and the U-FLI Center will be hosting a Fifth Floor takeover as part of National First-Generation Student Day where we’ll collectively explore what it means to thrive as U-FLI & neurodivergent students. Join us as we facilitate a conversation over lunch with current undergraduate students and Peer Mental Health Advocates (PMHAs) about what thriving looks like for them and their communities. Directly following the panel, we will have self-care stations where students can begin practicing healing as a form of thriving.
The stations will include: -Guided Meditation -Stress Ball Making -Movie Watching -Face Masks -Snack Pack Making And More!
Be sure to RSVP so we can ensure that we have enough supplies and food!
CareerLab has invited MissBeHelpful (Yanely Espinal, Class of 2011) for an evening conversation on finances. Yanely was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and is one of the first in her family to graduate college. After two decades of school, she still can’t believe that she never had a class about making smart money decisions! Now, she’s on a mission to help young people learn financial literacy in a fun and engaging way! After completing Teach For America, Yanely paired her love for teaching with her passion for financial literacy, creating a unique YouTube channel for people to engage with topics like students loans, credit cards, budgeting, investing and saving for retirement. The U-FLi Center is happy to host an informal lunch with students hoping to connect with Yanely.
