Over 180 incoming first-years participated this year in the Third World Transition Program, a four-day orientation designed to foster community among students of color at Brown. Students attended workshops on issues such as racism, sexism and classism and had the opportunity to meet current Minority Peer Counselors and MPC Friends.
The program has existed since 1968 but has undergone several changes throughout its history, including the switch in 1975 to its current name from the Transitional Summer Program.
Over the past two years, the program's coordinators and the MPC Friends involved in designing the workshops have refocused the program's goals and eased into an almost exclusively student-run curriculum.
Christine Goding '08, one of the program's coordinators, told The Herald she wanted to incorporate more student leadership because it would be "beneficial not only for first-years but also for the students who are facilitating to speak about issues that they're passionate about." MPC Friends - mostly upperclassmen who were MPCs as sophomores - designed and led the majority of the workshops, Goding said.
Goding said this year's program placed "more of an emphasis on the history at Brown." For the first time, participants took a tour of campus during which they learned about protesters and activists in the University's history. Together, they recited speeches written by past students and sang songs popular decades ago.
"The point of it was to connect the history with places," Goding said, adding that the tour allowed attendees to "honor the students that came before us ... reenact the history and embody what they did, bring up their words and appreciate the efforts of past students."
"I like the way Jhale and Christine articulate things," said TWTP participant Max Clermont '11, referring to the program's two coordinators, Goding and Jhale Ali '08. "They're very good at setting the mood." Clermont said he enjoyed the campus tour the most of all the TWTP activities because it was interactive and unique. He said having students run the seminars and facilitate the small group discussions made him feel comfortable in the environment TWTP provided.
Besides connecting with upperclassmen, Clermont also enjoyed meeting students in his own year and making new friends before classes began. He said he has already grown close with several students.
"We bonded a lot," Clermont said, explaining that many of the workshops required students to discuss personal and often emotional subjects that brought them closer together.
"A lot of TWTP kids are saying, 'We wish it was only us,' " Clermont said. "But now there's a whole bunch of other people, and it's going to be hard to meet them."
Emily Taylor '10, an MPC living in South Wayland, said she has heard the concern that TWTP participants often don't want to bond with freshmen who arrive after the program is over.
"It's a valid concern," Taylor said. "But students of color are dispersed in the dorms, and they get to meet the people who live in the rooms next door and bond with them."
Taylor said she regrets not attending TWTP as a freshman. At the time, she said, she "didn't understand the intentions" of the program. Taylor said she had experience going to school in a predominantly white community and thought TWTP was intended for students who grew up around mostly other minorities.
"But it's more about building community among students of color at Brown," Taylor said.
TWTP participant Shristi Pandey '11 grew up under very different circumstances, but also found the program to be a "good experience." Pandey lives in Queens, N.Y., where she said she is accustomed to being surrounded by diverse groups of people. Pandey said TWTP made her "more aware" of what to expect when all of the other students arrived on campus.
But she said elements of the program were inclusive to people like her and like Taylor.
"It's geared towards both spectrums," Pandey said.
Goding said the diversity of perspectives - and the eagerness of the incoming first-years to share them - touched her.
"I was really impressed with the first-years and how honest they were in the workshops, and how invested (they are) in the subjects. I feel like they're a very mature class," she said.
