A College Epiphany

Today I had fun on one our last college tours. Wellesley College is an all girls school, where students live in a Hogwarts-esque castle-looking College campus. The fact that it looked like a mix between Hogwarts and a Disney movie made me love the campus even more. However, it’s an all woman school and that scared me away from wanting to apply to Wellesley.

This is where I’m hoping the Women and Leadership course I’ll be taking next week will strongly help me. I feel it has the power to open my eyes to looking past the fact that Wellesley is an all-girls college. I cannot wait to study my Women and Leadership course and demonstratioing excact what I’ve learned back from this program.

After the college tour, an alumni from Wellesley joined us and ate lunch with us, which was held at the famous Ming Tsai’s restaurant, Blue Ginger. The food here in Rhode Island is extremely good and unforgettable.

For dinner, more questions and answers were shared between students and a Brown Alumni as well as a Wellesley Alumni. They made me realize that I want to go to an open-curriculum college in which the student chooses his or her own classes. Although I love California colleges, what the East Coast has to offer to me really appeals to me and the barrier between East Coast colleges and my California-only college "wall" has officially been broken.

Day 4: Rain, Rain Go Away

My hotel roommates and I woke up late because our alarm didn’t go off. We woke up to the sound of the hotel phone ringing. Cynthia answered it but no one was on the other end so she hung up. Then we decided to look at the clock to see how much time we had but realized that we had to be ready and in the lobby 15 minutes earlier. We rushed around putting on clothes when the phone rang a second time. I answered it to be greeted by Mr. Ramsey, where I apologized for our tardiness. We ran into the elevator and went to the cars parked out front after getting a speech from Ms. Kronenberg.

We headed to Wellesley College in Massachusetts. It took about an hour to get there and it started raining on the way. Our first time with rain on the east coast was weird because it was still warm. The campus was absolutely stunning and almost immediately won me over. Our tour guide, Anna, passionately described the campus as we walked through it. The tour itself was about the same length as yesterday’s tour at an hour long. However, the tour was filled by bouts of hot rain. I loved the campus and all it had to offer with the dorms, buildings, and architecture. I was intrigued by the mention of quidditch as a sport. Other aspects of student life told me that this school was original and strongly believed in expression. The only drawback for me was that there was only one air conditioned building on the whole tour, despite others’ concerns of it being a woman’s only college.

After the tour, we drove just a few minutes to the restaurant for lunch where we wet Lucy, a Wellesley Admissions Officer. We ate as she answered numerous questions about the school. She was extremely nice and patient. After lunch we headed back to the hotel where we would have a few hours of free time. We spent that time getting our outfits ready for the dinner. We were proud because we were early, but it started raining, which saddened us.

We went to the restaurant for dinner to meet with another Wellesley alum, Joan, and her husband, Guy. They gave us great advice on the admissions process. Joan told us what to tell the admissions officers in the application, but our conversations took a turn for the argumentative when Mr. Ramsey mentioned our essay topic, which we wrote to apply to the Ivy League Program. Then we debated for the rest of the night about the topic until we had to go back to the hotel.

Once we got to hotel, we went directly upstairs to blog. However, we thought we had a meeting with our chaperone, but there was a misunderstanding and the meeting was cancelled. So we went back upstairs to our rooms to blog. I made sure to set our alarm clock correctly this time.

Goodbye Brown—For Now

Today was such an emotional day. We spent our last class taking and reviewing our final exam, which was based on past AP Macro and Micro tests. The test was open notes and open partner so I collaborated with my friend Emily. Working with her is so much fun. The test contained many problems that we tried our best to answer. It was harder than I imagined, but if it were a real AP test, we would have passed. I think I mastered macroeconomics well within this abridged three-week course and thoroughly enjoyed the subject.

Emily and I working on our final exam

The end of class was touching. We took many pictures and said our goodbyes to Mr. Coleman. I wanted to take a picture with John, our TA, but he dashed out of class as I was calling out to him. Too bad.

Half of our class with our teacher

Before dinner, Erinn and I hurried to the John Hay Library to see a book bound by human skin that I heard about from an RA. I was nervous to see this disturbing book, called The Dance of Death. I asked the librarian if we could see it, and she willingly brought it out from the back room to show us. I was surprised to see it looked like leather but just knowing that the material was human skin made me uncomfortable. Before she said that the oils on our fingers speed up deterioration of the book, I poked at the book. It even felt like leather. The book was only one of the many interesting aspects of Brown.

Skin-bound book

We met again with Ms. Larson for a celebratory cohort dinner at 6:30 PM. We went to a nice restaurant on Thayer Street called Viva. This dinner marked our last meal with just the five of us. I feel so fortunate to have Andrew, Frank, Erin, and Erinn as not just my cohorts but my close buddies, and Ms. Larson as an amazing chaperone. We have made so many memories including the awkward octopus and the flying turkey, which have become trademarks to our trip. We have really bonded throughout this trip, and I couldn’t wish for a better group.

Last Lunch at V-Dub

Tonight is our last night at Brown. I really can’t believe our program has come to an end. I have met so many friends that I will have for life and will continue to keep in touch with. Thank goodness for Facebook. The hardest thing is saying goodbye to people I’ve grown so close to in this short but seemingly long period of time. As I’m packing, I can’t help but feel like I’m leaving home. Speaking of packing, I’m having difficulty cramming all of my belongings into my suitcase. I listened with disbelief when Erin and Erinn said that they are already finished with packing. The rain is pouring outside, mocking the sorrow I feel inside. But I’m so grateful for this experience and am so happy that it happened. This isn’t the end of me and Brown.

Warm Rain

Today we woke up to warm rain outside. I thought it was so cool because, in California, chances are that if it’s raining it is also freezing cold outside. We picked up our umbrellas and piled into our Tahoe’s and drove to Wellesley.

I was extremely impressed by several things at Wellesley. Without a doubt, the school greatly exceeded my expectations. First of all, the student giving our tour was very charismatic and energetic. She seemed genuinely excited to show the campus to us. The campus itself was very beautiful. The architecture and furniture was all very classy but had a cool Harry Potter/castle feel to it. Wellesley is an all women school, but our guide made sure to explain that they do get opportunities to spend time with men. Basically, the classroom life is all women (with some exceptions from sister schools) but social life is co-ed. I personally do see some of the benefits of being in an all women environment, but also I recognize the importance of having male perspectives around.

Any topic regarding gender equality seems to naturally stir up disagreements. I believe that when looking at the whole picture, men and women are equal but certainly are not the same. Women do face many double standards and stereotypes. Some of which I believe are unfair, and others I do not object to. For example, when I see a man open a door for a woman I think it is very respectful and chivalrous and I believe all men should behave that way. However, when I see a woman holding open a door for a man who is not elderly or handicapped or holding a baby or otherwise unable to open the door himself, I find myself feeling upset with the man. If I am on BART or a bus and a woman walks on and has to stand and a man doesn’t offer her his seat, I have a problem with that. I find it more inappropriate for a man to yell at a woman than at another man.

Arguing for complete equality would really be asking to eliminate chivalry like this, because if women are just like men, they aren’t entitled to extra polite-ness right? Well personally I don’t believe that. The way I was raised is that men are to be more courteous to women. That is not to say that it is because women cannot fend for themselves, it is just how I believe things should be. It is nice.

We got to have a delicious dinner at Blue Ginger and were accompanied by Lucy Pellum, who explained to us what admissions officers at Wellesley are looking for. She was very friendly and informative.

Later in the day we had dinner at Camille’s. This was quite possibly the most enjoyable dinner so far. The food was incredible and our guests were quite pleasant. The dinner was not tense and we had a lot of good laughs and interesting debates. We discussed whether funding child care facilities for teen mothers was a good idea and everyone was very into the conversation. I had a fantastic time.

The End.

It's raining.

When I woke up this morning, I knew that today would be the best and worst day of Summer@Brown. Wielding an umbrella, I started my last day at Brown fully prepared.

Class was sad. Of course it was intellectually challenging and educationally beneficial, but it was still sad. I was sad to know that the class was coming to a close and that our time together was almost over. Of course, that was all undermined by my anxiety. We were all presenting our figures!

We each had 3 minutes to teach the class about a certain topic. I didn't gain a lot from the presentations, 3 minutes was definitely not enough to learn about the wide range of topics. It was interesting to see people face their fear of public speaking--which is, in fact, one of the top fears of the American people.

It rained harder.

I ate lunch with classmates and friends, cherishing our time together. In the rain, I went with my friend Rachel to finish our homework. Class was officially over, but we still had homework! One of my friends told me that the weather reflected our moods, and I completely agreed with him.

The day was sad, seeing everyone leaving the campus was emotional. I cried, and I'm not ashamed to have. I met some people here who have become very important in my life.

Summer@Brown may be over, but the trip continues for two more days. I'll never forget my time here at Brown.

Life Lessons

“Life is Short,” “Do What You Love,” “Find Your Passion,” three cliché words of wisdom that I have heard in a new perspective from Ms. Hall. Her wisdom was demonstrated in a graph proving life is short and through her anecdotes opposing the gist of the sayings.

My calculus teacher reiterates almost every day his “life lessons,” with the most important lesson “life is short.” The common interpretation of this advice is to seize the day or to not worry, but as Ms. Hall said, realizing that life is short will not stop end worrying or make you do something outrageous. As college applications approach,and the stress increases, no matter how much I stress, it will not change whether I get into college or not get into college—stress will do two of the following: one, keep me up late hours of the night considering and reconsidering what I should put and two, lead to more procrastination and subsequent stress from procrastinating.

The other two lessons held less meaning for me because those are not pragmatic. I would like to “Do What I Love” and “Find My Passion,” but these are not found by looking; it can be random and that is what Brown is about—allowing students to test what they think they love, not necessarily finding it.

On top of the emotional good-byes from my professor and her TA, it has been storming, so I cannot spend too much outside with friends. It has been exciting, though, with several thunder storms throughout the day and the heaviest rain I have seen in Providence. As I am writing my blog, there is thunder sounding and lightning flashing through my window. I think Providence wants to give us this weather to show its overall beauty and a good-bye present.

I have not been affected by the prospect of leaving yet. It feels like it is home, and there is a premonition that I will come back to it again in the near future. I feel sad for some time, but it is not enough to shed a tear.What will happen is once I get home and start reviewing all my pictures, I will start crying.

In the morning as I get ready to go back to the hotel, I will close off my dorm room, return my key and take a final picture of Brown’s mascot.

The Final Farewell

Today was the final day of our class, and most people’s final day at Brown. I have made so many good friends, and I really am glad that I had the opportunity to meet them. If I relate this to economic terms my opportunity cost was very low and efficient. Opportunity cost is defined as what you give up to get, gave up some free time but also boredom at home in order to receive a great education, a totally new experience, and many great new friends. But in class today we took a practice AP test, and my partner and I performed very well on the exam. This is just a true indication of how hard we worked in order to get the end result that we desired.
After the test many students were departing back home. This was very emotional to see people you have made such a strong connection with, in just three weeks depart. But with all the advances in technology via social networking, video chat, or any other form of communication it should be fairly easy to stay connected. I am positive that most of the people that I have met will be very successful and we will all help and motivate each other in the future.
After this I said my goodbyes, exchanged contact information and all the other sentimental things that are included in the departure package. Our cohort met with the Peter Newcomb the Northern California admissions officer for Brown. He gave us great insight in to the Brown application process and made all of us a lot more confident about the upcoming college applications. I am glad that our chaperone was able to arrange this for us, I appreciate her greatly. Later on that day our cohort had dinner together. We discussed this whole almost four week process the ups, downs, good and bad.
Tonight is my final night at Brown and I can truly say that I will miss it. But all stages in life require development, so I guess this is just part of the maturation process all must go through. Tomorrow we will be going to Harvard with Cohort two. I am very excited to see them again as well as to see Mr. Ramsey, and Mrs. Kronenberg. Tomorrow should be interesting. This is my last farewell, so in conclusion Brown was an amazing experience for me. I am so blessed to have had this opportunity. I learned a lot about not only about economics, but myself as well. The people surrounding me were just amazing and I cannot express how blessed I was.