This week, we interviewed Bruno Felalaga (he/him/his), a junior from Accra, Ghana studying electrical engineering. Read his interview below:

Do you remember your first day at Brown? What was that experience like?
My first day at Brown was my first time in the states. I got here at night. I was super tired. I couldn’t even hold a long conversation with Gabriel [my roommate] but in the morning I was so excited about getting to Brown and meeting people. I walked around Providence and the mall and went to Walmart with Alan. He was so nice. He was the very first friend besides my roommate that I made. We spent the whole day walking around. Because I came here early for Excellence at Brown, no one was here so we walked around the city, and we talked about so many things. It was so nice to meet him and Gabriel.

Brown was my very first exposure to the US. Since then, I haven’t seen much of the states or what’s outside of Brown. My window to what the US is like is mostly what I see at Brown and on social media.

Who is the most influential person in your life?
At different points in my life, I have different people, but I think my mother has always been that person. She’s just a combination of humble and generous, and it’s very inspiring. Once she sets her mind to do something, she’ll do anything to make it happen, especially for us, the kids.

Currently, there’s a really young professor of Biostats named Lorin Crawford. He’s just life goals, and he’s really young as well. He’s young, black, and a professor before 30. He’s really inspiring – the kind of work he’s doing and the kinds of fellowships he already has.

Favorite part of your concentration? What led you to it?
With electrical engineering, it’s very hands on and we get to practice what we learn. There are classes but also labs, a lot of labs, which might be too much but I like that they try to make it hands on. It lets us use our fingers to use what we actually learn. The engineering department has changed a lot in the last couple of years. It looks a lot better and fancier. The professors are very approachable and it’s easy I think to get connected with most of the professors in the concentration.

When I came to Brown, I was biomedical engineering. I had no idea what I wanted to do coming to Brown. I just figured, I wanted to be a doctor ever since I was a kid. In Ghana, after high school, you can go straight to med school. It wasn’t like you had to be a pre-med student before you can be a doctor. Here it’s a different system. You have to be pre-med, go to med school, residency, and I don’t have time for that.

So I decided to study biomedical and still be pre-med just in case I want to go to med school, and then I realized after my freshman year that I’m really not a pre-med kid. I found courses for electrical so much more fun and hands-on, and very intriguing to me.

What community at Brown has been most influential in making it feel like home?
I’m part of the Brown/RISD Catholic Community. I come from a very religious background – everyone in Ghana is religious, so finding a community like that here would help me grow as a person and find people who are similar to me. I thought a community like that would help me stay with the faith I want to keep.