Living in Dorm (Brown University)

Today was one of the big days for all of us. I was very excited to move to one of the dorm in Brown University. Everything seemed like they were planned out, even the weather. For the past 4 days, weather had been very humid and seemed like it could actually burn you if you stayed out for too long but today was different. Once we stepped out of our hotel, the air did not have the warmth in it but it was very fresh.

Don had mentioned that our luggage will be heavy on the way back and I actually realized it was true. Last night, I was re-packing and my luggage turned out to be heavy, it must have been so because of the souvenirs and clothes I purchased at the universities we visited previously. 

Wilson Hall

Early in the morning, we decided to have breakfast with each other before heading out for Brown University. During the breakfast, we had conversation on our course, Women and Leadership. We had been assigned an article to read and everyone talked about their viewpoint on the article. The article talked about figuring out one’s identity and discovering themselves. I think discovering more about yourself happens on daily basis. Each day is a new day and you get to learn more and more about yourself and changes occurring within you. We ended our conversation and it was the time to leave out for Brown University.

I was very excited and why wouldn’t I be? While my friends are in Bay Area, I get to take a class at Brown University and experience everything a college student would experience. Ms. Neal dropped us at the check in location. There we received our Brown Id Card, our residence hall room keys and orientation schedule. It was relieving to find out that all of us were in same building, Perkins Hall. We took our van to get to the residence hall. On the way, I was able to notice the architecture and surroundings. While some parts seemed like a city area, other had essence of small town. Like many other buildings in East Coast, some of the buildings at Brown were built with red brick where as some had modern designs, built with glasses. I thought Brown University has a small mixture of everything in it. I did not know that Perkins hall had all the students attending the Leadership Institute.

My Dorm room

View from my Dorm Window (Mostly trees)

We got to our room and got things unpacked. My roommate, Mariam, is from Massachusetts. Her mother was very generous to let me borrow one of the fans and I must say, it was a great help. After knowing our roommates and RA of the floor, we left for students and parents orientation at Salomon. Dean Rose gave us quick information on Brown University. One of the best features of Brown is its open curriculum. The University believes that students will be able to get knowledge of different course and will study what is best for them. According to Brown, learning is process of starting a path for them. There are 275 courses offered this summer. There are students from all 49 states and 70 countries. Wyoming is the only state with no student at Brown. I can tell that Brown is a diverse community that places high value on learning about each other.

During Orientation 

Orientation

Student orientation was starting at 3:00 PM so we went to grab lunch by one of the closest restaurant when we had time. Our RA had instructed us to be at our building by 2:45 and following their instruction we met them there and left to the orientation building, Salomon. Most of the time, we were given detail about the policies. I think the policies help to keep things under control and especially when high school students are around, there is a strong need of certain rules and regulation. Brown has their own police and we were advised to call them in case of any emergency. The faculty also gave tips on safety. Even though, we might think everything is safe, it is necessary for us to be careful and be aware of the environment. One of the coolest thing, we did was creating raining noise by snapping our fingers or tapping our knee. When we started creating the noise, it did feel like it was raining. After the orientation, we went to get our dinner with our respective RA. The dining common was pretty big and had variety of foods you could choose from. From what I ate, I can say that food had good taste. I wanted to look around the campus after the dinner so I headed towards the science library and I could not figure way back to the Ice Cream Social where students got to know each other. I asked 3 of the students who were also in summer program and they were very kind to drop me off till the courtyard where the Ice Cream social was happening.

Soon, the socializing time was over and we headed to the Leadership Institute Community Meeting where we got quick introduction of members (our RA). We were able to get in groups and share our ideas and learn about social change. Students talked about civil war, revolution, and famous leaders. In the end, we again went over the policies which were same as the ones we went over at orientation. Our curfew starts from 11:00 PM Sunday-Thursday and 12:00 AM Fridays and Saturday. Before the curfew, we will have to check-in with our RA. After the meeting, we had a small get together with our floor students. As we will be staying in same floor for 2 weeks, we made our rules and regulation regarding bathroom, rooms and each other. It went smooth but I found hard to remember all the students’ name (3rd floor). I hope to remember the names by this week.

I am very excited for tomorrow as it is the first day of class. These 2 weeks are going to be the most memorable days of my life.