Our last UFLi highlight for the semester is with Morgan Brinker (she/her/hers), a rising junior concentrating in Health and Human Bio. She is from Merrillville, Indiana. Read our interview below:

How’s your sophomore year going?
I’ve been grateful for the opportunities I had this year. I think I had this in the first half, kind of in the second half, but it allowed me to build on the lessons I learned my first year.

How has your perception of Brown changed since last year?
I think the lovely parts wore off of this place, being like wow everything is perfect and it’s like Disney World. I appreciate that it comes with its ups and downs and challenges. While this place wasn’t designed for me, I can be an agent of change.

What’s something you wish you could tell your freshman year self?
Stop trying to be perfect. You don’t have to prove yourself to any other people. I struggled a lot with imposter syndrome. But those people I thought about don’t pay for my tuition, they’re not me, so why should I worry about what they think? You’ve got to focus on yourself sometimes. 

Who’s an influential person in your life right now?
Dr. Rudnicki from the chemistry department. When I felt I was so disadvantaged coming to chemistry, I feel like she really said okay, you may have had those disadvantages in the past but we’ll try to catch you up. She kicked out people who were taking the class but knew the materials. She’s written letters of recommendation for me, and we have breakfast sometimes.

What’s your favorite part of your concentration?
I like how I can focus on a certain part of my concentration, like a theme, and really allow myself to explore things outside of biology. It also lets me look at health and medicine from an interdisciplinary perspective. I came in as biology and english because I didn’t know if I wanted to be premed or prelaw, and I also thought the only way to take an interdisciplinary approach was to keep them separate. I didn’t know I could combine them under one concentration. 

I don’t know if they told me specifically, but I remember my RPL, Gabriel, telling me about health and human bio. Someone also told me about Focal Point, so I looked through the Health and Human Bio page. It really encouraged me to explore.

This week, we interviewed AJ Clifforde Alcover (he/him or they/them), a junior from Hawaii. AJ is concentrating in Health and Human Bio. Read our conversation below:

How’s your junior year going?
It was definitely rough for the majority of 2018. It was just not the best mental health wise but I told myself to change my attitude over winter break, which I think helped in the beginning. I was really happy at the beginning of 2019, but things come up. Exams don’t get the best, grades go down – so that happened. Now I’m like, this semester needs to be over.

I think hanging out with friends, being more proactive in
trying to connect with people, seeing friends I haven’t seen in a while – that has really helped in trying to stay positive.

What community at Brown has been most influential in making it feel like home?
I think it’s pretty hard to answer that because there are so many different humans that provide support in different aspects. For example, the Filipino Alliance, especially my first year, was very influential because it allowed me to connect with other Filipino folk at Brown. But I also find community with first-gen low-income people and people of color generally, and also those with identities of queerness. I think all my friends are queer. I also find community in people that don’t always share identities with me, not in the sense that I can relate to them, but they don’t always have to talk about the problems I face. I find that in some spaces we focus so much on our problems and experiences, but I’d rather we also give time to support solution-based strategies.

Organizations have limitations in lots of places, but having more time in conversation with each other about the amazing things we have – an asset-based approach. I want to try to change the conversation and branch out a bit because sometimes we get so against this institution. Yes we’re at this institution, and yes it’s not great for us, but we can still learn and take from it.

How has your perception of Brown changed over the years?
I was so much more happy at first. I felt like my horizons were wider, not because of opportunity or positionality or privilege from the Brown degree, but I was more excited and more creative. I was allowed to do what I wanted to do.

Brown kind of brings you this mentality of, wow you’re kind of worthless if you don’t get certain grades, you have to do this if you want to succeed, and it takes away from the creativity of students and makes you forget how you got in here. I think Brown tells you all of these things that affect certain groups of people a lot more because they don’t have as much capital in certain aspects of their life. For us, it’s like, oh we don’t have money. All of that is already pushing us down, and Brown is adding all these extra pressures.

I will say though that I’m very happy to see that there are minority, PoC, indigenous professors. It’s good to see a good community with those professors. There is some support within faculty, but there aren’t enough of them. 

Favorite part of your concentration? 
For me, it’s the ability to incorporate humanities in there. I think everyone needs to have a humanities part to their education, and humanities in different aspects – religious studies, sociology, ethnic studies. I like having the freedom to add certain humanities courses.

This week, we interviewed Loretta Eboigbe (she/hers), a junior concentrating in psychology. Loretta was born in Italy but currently lives in New York. She identifies as Nigerian. Read our conversation below:

How are you? How’s your junior year?
My junior year is going well. I feel like it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. I felt like I could connect that with my interests as a person – it’s been really nice seeing how psychology manifests in different parts of my interests.

I’ve been working on movement art, dance, and that’s been really exciting for me. Thinking about different things I can do to remain well and healthy. I’m definitely trying to prioritize things that make me happy and incorporate them as much as I can instead of making them an add-on or after thought. Institutions like this make it seem like there’s only one way to succeed and thrive. The most important thing I want to take from here is knowing what to do when things get difficult, and not relying on toxic behaviors. I feel much happier during my junior year. I’m in a better mindset of, okay the future is going to be okay and I’m going to be okay.

Something you wish you could tell your freshman year self?
I would tell my freshman year self to give people chances and give myself a chance to know more. I feel like college, especially freshman year, is very idealized. You’re going to find your best friend, and fall in love, and these things may happen temporarily or not at all. I feel like when you have moments with people you might think, these are my people for life, and not to discredit that – because it happens and it’s super great – but there’s still a need to put myself out there, to stop idealizing and not listen as much to the idealized version of what college is supposed to be.

What’s your favorite memory of Brown?
Something that I want to take away from my time at Brown is the experience of dancing with people. Freshman year, I used to dance on the Main Green a lot with my friends. We had so much energy, and I found different spaces through dance groups, attending workshop, classes that incorporate a dance portion. Now I’m doing a free form, not any specific group but trying to make sure I’m putting myself out there. I just went to a salsa social. I love freely dancing with people and just enjoying each other. We talk with our bodies, and the energies we radiate off each other – that’s been my favorite part. I’m realizing that’s a big part of my identity because I’ve been dancing for a long time but never anything formally.

What community at Brown has been most influential in making it feel like home?
I think the MPCs I met during TWTP who are now graduating. I’m going to their graduation. I feel like I met so many of them who literally led the way for me in being a leader and what it means to be a caring and thoughtful leader. I’ve seen them wear different caps, and being there for me when they weren’t required to. They also provided the space for me to be vulnerable and break down when I needed to in the most dramatic way possible.

The Bonner program is another community. Being in that space was really great because it gave me an intentional space to think about what it means to be involved with community engagement and community change, to work with students who are working toward that mission, and it gave us space to talk about our experiences of being here. That was one of the initial communities that shaped the way I think about how I want to be involved with communities outside of my own personal interests.