Day 8: Homesickness Epidemic

I woke up this morning ready to start a new day, especially since I learned how to fix the shower problem. I was fully dressed and ready to go get breakfast so I went down a floor to Cynthia’s room. There we met up with Olivia, Mackenzie, Maddie, and Selena. We headed to breakfast together and we soon learned that we were all growing increasingly homesick. Our friend, Maddie, was so sad that she cried. Despite all of our tears, the students are so welcoming and nice, and I feel like Brown is a big house for our small family.

We got to class and sat down. I chose a different seat than yesterday because I knew change was good but I stayed near the side because I have trouble seeing the board. We got into many more circles for the group activity. We talked about how the circle is the most unifying shape because there is no double parking, meaning no one is blocked from view by sitting behind someone else. We started our first activity, which entailed that we take three pipe cleaners and mold them into symbols of what represents us. This activity moved me so much and it really made me realize what I’m passionate about. I ended up molding a rabbit, symbolizing my love for animals, a tree, symbolizing my passion for the environment, and music notes, symbolizing my passion for playing and composing piano music. After we constructed our pieces, we had to link them together symbolizing that these three pieces linked together create me. We then got in another circle where we went around explaining what they meant to us. I was almost moved to tears when explaining mine because we all got so personal and bonded on another level.

At lunch, Adrianne, Marylyn, and I went to Starbucks and the Brown bookstore after lunch. It was nice to get away from the big group and really focus on one or two people. We got back to the class ten minutes early, so we laid on the floor with other classmates in a circle and talked about our funniest memories. We soon had to get up because our guest speaker, Dean Robin Rose, arrived to speak with us about group speaking. I was glad to see that I had already met her before at the brunch on Sunday. She remembered our names which indicated to me that we made at least a small impact on her. It was then that I realized that we ILCers were truly lucky and privileged to have met our Kisa Takesue and Robin Rose before class even started. It made me feel like we have the upper hand and more experience going into the class.

Her speech was followed by many exercises of speaking to a partner and the partner using new tools of non-verbal communication to continue a conversation. It was a very packed activity and I was shocked when she said we could go because I felt like the class just started.

I almost immediately started on my homework as a way to perfect my time management skills, which I had been lacking in yesterday. I wanted to get a good night sleep, something I haven’t really had since the first day of summer. I decided to relax and stay in for the most part of today just because I haven’t relaxed since I arrived in Rhode Island.

Finding Your Passion

I have a hard time believing that this is the second day of class. While logic tells me that I have only been at Brown for 52 hours or so, I feel that I have been here for a very long time. Already I find myself thinking, “Oh, it’s time to go to class/dining hall/check in with my RA again,” as if I have done these things for many days if not weeks. I can only imagine what I will think once I have actually been here for a couple weeks.

In the morning, we attempted to identify our passions and purposes in life as a way of beginning to brainstorm for our action plans. One exercise that we used was building “passion sculptures.” Each student was given three pipe cleaners and asked to bend them into a shape that represented something important to them.

Staring at my blue, brown, and yellow pipe cleaners, I realized that one of my problems is that I have a lot of things I care about. It was difficult for me to narrow it down to only three. Possible topics that flitted through my head included soccer, music, community service, family, and reading. Perhaps surprising to those of you who know me well, I did not choose soccer, nor did I choose music as one of my topics.

Instead, I chose three topics that people do not always associate with me: community service, reading (that one is not so surprising), and, for lack of a better word, relationships. To clarify, by relationships I mean the way people interact with one another; I hate it when people don’t get along just because they misunderstand one another or make judgmental assumptions. (While I know that it’s easy to make assumptions about others and I do it too, I think that’s important to be conscious that you’re doing this and to challenge your assumptions. This was brought up in class as we all got to know each other a little better.)

I chose those topics because I wanted to choose topics that I thought would make more of an impact. I think that it might be easier for me to come up with an action plan based on community service, relationships, and reading (which can tie into education) than soccer or music.

Lunch was a fun break after a thought-provoking morning session. My friend Kaylyn and I wandered around campus finding the mail building and dealing with student ID card issues (hers, not mine–don’t worry, Ms. Williams).

This afternoon, we had an extremely intense session with Dean Robin Rose, who I met on Sunday. Practically the first thing she did was to ask us to make a list of things we usually do when we do homework. We ended up filling one side of the whiteboard! Her point was that it is very easy in our culture to become distracted and not put our full attention into the task at hand. She then asked us to please try to be as focused as possible during the next two hours. I realized afterwards that I actually had been concentrating almost solely on her lecture!

Another sage piece of advice that Dean Rose offered was to never tell yourself that you are “bad at something.” For example, when you tell yourself you are “bad at remembering names,” you are stressing about forgetting everyone’s name instead of focusing on repeating and retaining it for the future. She calls this an example of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Our discussion covered three main topics: listening, communication, and feedback skills. This included learning about the importance of non-verbal communication and tips for group facilitation. Dean Rose was amazingly fascinating group leader and I feel like I learned a lot today. I’m happy to hear that she is coming with us on the ropes course on Thursday.

2nd Day of Class

It's only the second day of class and I already really feel a special connection with the girls that are here. Not just the girls in my class, but all over Harkness Hall. I even met girls from Marcy (Abby and Kara). There is such a positive vibe from everyone in Providence. I meet people just walking down the street or seeing them in a dining hall. I met Abby on a random college tour, and I met Kara at Starbucks. At first, the idea of coming to Summer at Brown with so many people felt socially intimidating but to be completely honest, people here are so much more friendly than in California. People take care of each other. There is absolutely no drama. When I'm with friends and we see anyone by themselves we always ask them if they want to join us. That's pretty much how you make friends here. That sense of unity and just general kindness is something that I definitely want to take back to the West Coast with me.
I think today's class was crucial to all of our development as leaders. Today we really focused on listening. We learned about how to be a good listener and how to train yourself to be the kind of person that people will want to talk to. We really learned the importance of body language. For our listening exercise I was paired up with Alli. We were asked to share difficult experiences with each other and to really try to listen. She is so sweet. The only thing we had to do for the exercise was to just try to show the person we are listening by using our body language. Allli actually hugged me after we talked. She is definitely the kind of person that anyone would be lucky to have in their lives.
Starbucks is pretty much the place to go right before class and we always come in with something new and end up having everyone try whatever is good. Today as we started filtering in after lunch, we laid on the floor in a circle and shared some really interesting and very personal facts. It was hysterically funny.
Dean Robin Rose came in to talk to us about all things regarding listening and negotiating. She was extremely helpful and chill. I really hope she comes back at some point to talk with our class.
I just got back from the mall and I am really thoroughly enjoying myself here. We have a lot of reading and homework, but the joy of class is so worth it. Speaking of homework, that is precisely what I should be doing right now. Adios!

Communication is Key

This morning when the lesson began, Ms. Kisa had us sculpt our passions out in pipecleaners. We were then told to talk about them and what was supposed to be a simple exercise turned into a deep, emotional talk by each participant. Stories came out involving past experiences and the support for each other was so strong it was tangible.

Not only that, but today's lesson included a visit from the amazing, Ms. Robin Rose.


She is an amazing speaker/teacher and knows how to really touch her pupils and have them relate to what she preaches. The lesson was on communication-- I never knew there were so many skills involved with socializing!

I feel like everyday, I learn so many new things. My theory on why that is, is that the environment we are placed in is engaging and eager to learn. These students are all here because they want to be here. There is a totally different attitude amongst these people and they make you want to do your best. There is a challenging, but manageable, workload that makes you think and come up with your own opinions. People are not scared of voicing their thoughts because there is an unspoken, mutual understanding already. Opposing opinions aren't taken offensively because we all understand that we each have different thought processes. Unfortunately for me, I have a sore throat and can't really talk. I actively participate as much as I can and went to CVS to buy cough drops in hopes that this will clear up.

As for the social scene, Thayer St. is remarkably diverse. There are shops of all kinds; many many boutiques as well. The nearby CVS is the biggest convenience and a majority of us has already went there to pick up necessities. Providence Place is the local mall and we have yet to explore it.

Listening and Feedback Skills

Today was my second day of the Women and Leadership course and I have learned multiple things already. It is incredible how much I’ve taken to heart from this program.

Class started off with an activity that involved us girls creating three things that we felt described ourselves and our passions out of pipe cleaners. Through this activity, we discovered more about each other, and we were all surprised at how similar we are. At least three girls expressed themselves with a soccer ball, two girls shared the usage of nature to describe themselves, and Rebecca and I both expressed our love for animals through the pipe cleaners.

Kisa taught us how to begin brainstorming on what we were going to do our capstone project on. She taught the class about the brainstorming tree, in which one starts out with a general idea and branches out different options that can be integrated with the general idea, as well as the “who, what, when, where, and why” of the project.

After a lunch break, Robin Rose, whom the ILCers met at the brunch held on Sunday, greeted us back in the classroom. Like Kisa, Robin remembered our names, which, to me, felt like a great honor. Robin’s lecture was titled “Listening or Feedback Skills.” She stressed the importance of communication in a successful leadership setting, referring it to “the bedrock of leadership.” Robin taught us how to effectively facilitate meetings and organizations without screaming. She told us what to do in case of an awkward silence situation, which is to wait for the group to think up a response and ask the question again. She also stressed how rephrasing what one person says in order to show that you’re listening is a valuable way of communicating. Robin Rose explained everything, from the arrangement of chairs in the meeting place to forms of communication that reduced one’s defensiveness, in great, but not too much, detail.

Although it’s only been two days in the Women and Leadership course, I’ve already gained a lot of knowledge that I cannot wait to take back to my community.

A Taste of College

Today was the longest and most challenging days of the entire trip. It was my first day of class, and I had no idea what to expect. I entered a room with about twenty girls, and sat down randomly amongst them. Right away Kisa Takesue, our teacher, introduced herself and what the class was about. She went over the syllabus, and we became aware that we were going to have nightly reading, journal entries, three projects, and an action plan for our capstone project. She also wanted to make sure that we were aware of a few concepts. She stated that there was no such thing as a perfect leader, and advised us to get rid of the concept of perfection because it inhibits one from taking risks. She also stated that leadership comes through meaning. Finally she challenged us to look at all topics through the lense of women and gender, from ovarian cancer to environmental issues.
Next we did some team building and ice breakers. Right away I was shocked to see so many girls who participated so strongly in class and who voiced their oppinions as much as I do. At first I was worried that so many strong leaders would clash and cause conflict, but by the end of the day I was extremely impressed how well everybody was able to communicate and cooperate to be productive.
After lunch we were given a paper with statistics about various issues concerning gender, and were asked to guess whether they were true or false with the person sitting next to us. When we went over them, it was interesting to see the different guesses, the reasoning behind those predictions, and the true statistics that Kisa presented to the class after each one. After that we went over ground rules, and then we discussed leadership values. These values seemed to be the theme of the day, as they were brought up again in the leadership workship from 7-9 PM, and also in the assigned reading and journal writing.
I faced two challenges today, and both of them challenged each other. The first one was meeting new people. In class it was easy to talk to the other girls in such a controlled and forced environment, and all of them seemed to be incredibly intellegent and friendly. However, as soon as lunch started, I was again faced with teh challenge of stepping outside of my comfort zone and trying to meet new people, always with the fear of rejection in the back of my mind. When I finally gathered my courage, they all responded really well and seemed to try their best to be inclusive. All of the girls had their own stories, came from all over the country (and one from Hong Kong), had different accents and were different ages. Despite all the differences, however, I felt that we all had a lot in common, especially in regards to our mentalities and approaches to academics.
The conflicting challenge became very apparent later in the night. I spent so much time trying to get to know people and develope relationships that I made my classroom assignments a second priority. I later regretted this, as I wasn't able to finish until 1:30 AM. If anything, this experience will truly teach me about time management in college, because I am now finding that it is much different from managing your time in highschool.
Although I had some low parts of the day, it ended on a high. I was able to meet some new people, and I truly enjoyed the class. I already know that this will be a fantastic learning experience, both academic and social. I am finally getting a true taste of college.

First Day of School in the Middle of Summer

I’m proud to say that I’ve survived my first day of the Summer@Brown program, and it was truly one of the best days of my whole summer.

Upon waking up at 7 in the morning, my roommate Georgia and I played music to set the energetic mood of an eventful day. After getting ready for the day, I met up with about 10 girls from the same floor as my dorm and we all ate breakfast at the closest cafeteria to Harkness, the Ratty. We met up with more people on the way there. There were so many girls wanting to eat together that we didn’t have enough room on one table for all of us, so we all had to eat on side-by-side tables. We ended up hanging waiting for one table to finish before we left. The instant bond formed between the other students and I was evident.

Class started at 9:30 AM. My fellow ILCers and I were reunited with our professor, Kisa Takesue. To my surprise, she remembered almost all of our names. It was then that I fully appreciated having the opportunity to dine with her a week ago before having entered her classroom. Kisa’s class of 22 strong women had finally arrived its starting point. We started off with introduction after introduction, and a lot of name exercises. They proved to be useful because I now remember the names of all of my classmates and I can openly say hello to them around campus.

We played games of “this or that” that involved leadership. The simplest things were used as complex metaphors that were interpreted similarly or extremely differently by each of the individuals. For example, we were asked when describing our leadership styles, “Would you see yourself as a hammer or a nail?” Although it may sound like nonsense, Kisa knew we would all interpret the question as whether we would be the leader, who initiates the productivity in a project, or as a partner, who is glad to take after the leader’s words and do what they say. This as well as many other questions were asked, and different activities were done that encouraged us to learn more about ourselves as women and as leaders.

Although today was the first day of class, the girls immediately formed a type of sisterhood in which we would selflessly support other girls who we’ve only met for less than a day. New friends of mine loaned me money when I needed to launder my clothes. More new friends accompanied Cynthia to the basement when we were scared to go alone. This immediate bond shared by the ladies in Kisa’s course is yet to blossom.