What's Your Story?

Like I expected yesterday, today was a jam-packed day full of enthusiasm and activities that kept us busy. The buses arrived at the hotel around 8:45 AM and whisked all the students away to Brown's campus. 

Our first of the many activities today was a Q&A to the Starr Fellows. The Star Fellows Program provides undergraduates from Brown training, funding, and mentoring to support their efforts to develop their social entrepreneurship initiatives, or in my case, action plans. Sidney, Drew, Tara, Emily, and Khalil each talked about their inspirations, challenges, and how they over came them. A common obstacle was doubt. The panel claimed they felt self-doubt somewhere in the process of development and wanted to start fresh. To fix this issue, they consulted with the people already involved and reassured themselves that everything was going to be OK. They said having mentors to talk to can go a long way.

After speaking with the panel, we broke into eight groups to meet with our consulting crew. S.M.A.R.T. goals were insisted for my group to follow. We should consider being specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and our time. Specify what the goal is, then make sure it's able to be accomplishment, not just a dream from outer space, and establish a date for execution. Going over these ideal goals helped me organize my action plan much more, restored my confidence, and the nervousness disappeared.

"Beat The Street" Dancing During Lunch

Time for skill-building session one and two! The first session I went to was about fundraising. This taught me that simple ideas such as bake sales can go a long way. Fund raisers don't have to be over the top in order to raise money, you just need to captivate the audience's attention. The second session was about running an effective meeting. We discussed challenges and frustrations everyone have dealt with before and how to reconstruct the meeting where they can be avoided. We also worked on a worksheet to plan out our next or future meeting about our action plan.

Our last and final activity involved Hip Hop 4 Social Change. This organization uses hip hop dance as  a positive and time consuming way for children and teens to stay out of trouble. The dance crew taught us some moves and the room soon turned into a dance studio.

Representing West Coast!

This day was hectic and busy and I couldn't enjoy it any other way. One last day here is all that is left. Argg! I wish I can stay longer! Tomorrow is bitter sweet to leave, but I can't wait to return back home. 

Panels, Workshops, and Interactive Activates

Today’s Symposium agenda changed my definition of a full day. What I used to consider a productive day pales in comparison to what we accomplished today at the Leadership Symposium. The day was filled with panels, workshops, and interactive activates. In addition to all this, we somehow made the time to introduce ourselves to a range of new people and connect with those we met at this summer.

Surprisingly, I woke up before my alarm this morning. After getting ready to leave, my roommate and I headed down to the Hotel Providence dinning room for breakfast. During breakfast, I sat down with a few people I met last night and enjoyed a delicious toasted bagel with fresh fruit and yogurt. After admiring the massive chandeliers in the dining room, we board the busses and headed to Brown.

Upon arriving at Brown, I was intrigued by the fall colors and the actual Brown students on campus. Immediately after stepping off the bus, both the RAs and the brisk air encouraged us inside the Barus and Holley building for a Starr Fellow Panel. The Panel was made up of Brown students who each took part in the creation of a program advocating social change in their community or, in many cases, the nation. One young man, Sydney, created an organization to connect children with cancer to professional athletes. Another woman, Emily, started and organization called Hip Hop 4 Social Change. One man created a program, which integrates math and basketball into the same curriculum. Listening to these wonderful individuals who had contributed so much to making the world a better place really motivated me to start working more on my action plan.

After the panel, we split up into our resource and consulting groups and discussed our action plans with a member of the Starr Fellow Panel and a Brown professor. We first discussed the challenges of our actions plans and then brainstormed ideas to help overcome obstacles. Despite the range of plans, everyone seemed to face similar problems. The most common problem, and a big problem for me, was time management, so we spent the majority of the time discussing ways to overcome this huge issue. Through this consulting session I not only gained insight as to what others were doing for their action planes, but also tactics to carry out my action plan in a productive and efficient way.

After what seemed like just a few minutes, our two and a half hour lunch break had arrived. With a group of Leadership students, I headed to Thayer Street, where we spent at least an hour figuring out where to eat.  After finally choosing a salad and sandwich place, we headed back to the main green to enjoy our short time on the Brown campus.

After lunch, we split up into groups again to take part in the two workshops of our choice. I first attended a workshop on working collaboratively with high school teachers and administrators. While trying to start the school garden, it has been challenging for me to effectively communicate with several teachers who are all part of the garden. Through this workshop, I learned more about the structure of the education system, and gained an understanding of many of the conflicting interests school administrators are forced to deal with everyday. I then attended a workshop on planning and running an effective meeting. I singed up for this workshop because I have never run a meeting, but understand that I will probably have to run many in order to successfully implement my action plan. This workshop was run very effectively and left me with concrete model as to how to run a meeting successfully. These two workshops were each just over an hour, but everything discussed was incredibly relevant to my action plan and I know that what I learned will serve me for years to come.

 

By the time the workshops were over, it was time for dinner. We walked over to the Ratty and ate in the private dinning room downstairs. Despite that we ate in a different room, I recognized the flavors of the fried chicken and macaroni and cheese as the same dishes I ate this past summer.

I was so full from dinner that I was not sure I would be able to dance at the Hip Hop 4 Social Change presentation we attended after dinner. Luckily, the organization began with a quick presentation, so I had a little time to digest my food. After the presentation, we formed a gigantic circle and watched as professional dancers did some pretty amazing moves. Later, they taught us a few of the basics. I’m a terrible dancer, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this interactive presentation.

The panel, workshops, and interactive activates today at the Leadership Symposium provided me with momentum to really kick off my action plan. I gained insight from individuals who, just a few years ago were going through the same struggles as me but, are now incredibly successful.  Having the opportunity to collaborate with students and come up with solutions to our problems was a huge source of motivation. I left the Symposium confident in my ability to start a school garden at El Cerrito High and I can’t wait to go home and make some major progress. 

Action Filled Day

The first full day of the symposium was action packed. After a light breakfast of bagels and fruit, I chatted with a couple of people around my table. By 8:45 AM, the buses came to take us to Brown from the hotel.

Our first activity was in the Barus and Holley building (B&H building), in a medium sized auditorium. There we had the Starr Fellow panel of five Brown students that have made impact to their communities. Each students, and though their names escape me at the moment, had inspiring stories. The purpose of this panel was to motivate and inspire the students at the Symposium and give them a chance to ask questions. Though all of the five students are much older than most of us, they were able to connect with us because just like us, they had stories that drove their passion to act on an issue that is important to them.

Afterwards, we had breakout sessions. We reported to our assigned rooms for a resource/consulting group session. I was alarmed when I could not find my name anywhere on the lists of groups, so I immediately asked Kisa. It turns out that they have left me out! Luckily, she was able to assign me to the first group. Our mentor was Dean Rose. I have met her through the summer program, so I was already familiar with her. In the session, each student in the group shared their Action Plans, our progress, and our challenges. Though most of the plans differed in motives or hoped outcomes, I realized that almost each of us faced the same challenges. Most of which were balancing schoolwork, gaining support from the school staff, and getting students involved. Dean Rose gave us helpful counseling by letting us get our opinions across. We also got a lot of feedback and advice from each other.  It was especially helpful to me because it allowed me to really organize my vision and see some things that I have missed. Since I had to readjust my project, I was able to reconstruct it in a way that makes sense to my audience. I really enjoyed this part of my Saturday. It reminded me how important considering feedback from people is when trying to implement almost any project.

"Beat the Streets" showcase

During our two and a half hour lunch break, Iris, Aby, and I roamed Thayer Street. It was weird how familiar we were with the area. We even knew the street names! I picked up a couple of small souvenirs from the Brown book store. Lunch break was interesting because there was a live art/hiphop show in front of FroYo World. It was a show by Brown University’s HipHop 4, called “Beat the Streets”.  They had acapella singers, b-boy crews, and live graffiti art. It was to promote art and music as an outlet against pressures of growing up in the streets. It was awesome because one of the panelists during the Starr Fellow panel was actually one of the founders of HipHop 4. It was nice to see some of her work in action.

Interesting live graffiti art during lunch time

 

The Main Green is so full of memories!

We reported in front of the Wilson Hall for a group photo after lunch. All 65 students who were accepted to the Symposium arranged for a photo. I have yet to see them, but Kisa said that they will be in the Symposium’s official Facebook page. We then headed back to the B&H building for two skill building workshops. My first workshop was called “What’s your Story? Marketing & communicating your work.”  In this workshop, I worked with a marketing expert that helped us build our marketing and communicating skills. During the workshop, I shared my Action Plan’s background story, in which I as able to provide extra details as to how I ended up wanting to act on that certain issue. I realized how important it is to only have necessary details because too much detail can throw your audience off. Next, we learned how to devise effective speeches that will surely sell our plan. Having a concise, straight forward message with a hint of humility is the formula. Well, in my opinion it is. It is what I learned from my first workshop. I also learned effective ways to advertise and put myself out there. This included utilizing the Social Media and using that as a medium for staying relevantt. I was also reminded about flyers and business cards, and exactly how effective they are. The biggest thing I learned, though, would have to be trying to communicate in a personal level. Setting up meetings to talk in person rather than sending emails is definitely a better way to establish relationships, especially with potential partners.

My second workshop was called “Successful Collaboration with Teachers and School Administration”.  I learned the world of a school administration. Basically, in order for them to take me seriously, I have to first recognize and understand the complicated world that they work in. The two mentors that lead the workshop were former teachers. One is even a real life school principal for a school in New England.  That was great because he was credible. He knew what he was talking about because he is talking about his job. I learned about the different types of people and organizations that influence how public & private schools are run. I learned how this all correlates to speaking effectively with the school admin. A way to get your plans approved is by offering or clearly showing an incentive for them.  Realizing or maybe adjusting your plan so that it can be approved by your principal/teacher’s boss is even better because I think admins would much rather keep their jobs than to lose it by approving a student’s small project. Lastly, we were taught how to properly approach a school staff, including the principal or teacher. Politeness goes a really long way. Being polite and understanding of their busy schedules is a good way of showing that you respect or value their time.

We had dinner at Brown. An hour or so later, we walked to the Alumnae Hall for our last activity of the day: HipHop 4  Social Change. To my surprise, we were greeted by most of the same dancers that we watched during lunch time. They were two b-boy crews that make up the HipHop 4 project:  the 401 crew and the G818ERS. HipHop 4’s objective is to utilize the four elements of hiphop: beatboxing, DJing, MCing, and B-boying to help underprivileged kids find an outlet to keep them on track with school. They do this by holding non-profit showcases such as the one we watched in Thayer Street. They also come to elementary schools and teach children about hiphop and art. After their presentations, they actually taught us some b-boy moves. How awesome, right? I learned some groovy moves. Of course, I will never be as good as they are, but I do think that was extremely fun. Every single one of the Symposium attendees participated, even our RAs.

401 Crew & The G818ers

One of the other exciting things about the hiphop workshop was the fact that the G818ERS is actually based in California! It made me so proud that they persevered through a tough community in the Los Angeles area and gave back to the community. They were also surprised that we were from California. After the workshop, Iris, Aby, and I introduced ourselves to them. It was a fun workshop overall. I really respect what Hiphop 4 is trying to do, especially because I am a huge hiphop lover. (The G818ers’ website: http://thegr818ers.com/).

We headed back to the hotel around 9:45 PM. When we got there, we were given an optional chance to stay at the ballroom and eat deserts. There, I was able to meet three Korean students that are also part of the Symposium. It was cool to meet international students. One even knew how to speak Spanish!

Tomorrow marks our last day here in Brown. It will be a short day. I will also be heading back to California tomorrow. It breaks my heart that I will have to say goodbye a second time to place that means so much to me.

Busy as Bees at Brown

Another early morning in Providence began with breakfast in the hotel. There was a wonderful assortment of fruit, bagels and yogurt. After we finished the most important meal of the day, all the Symposium students boarded two yellow school busses that took us up to campus. From there, we got straight to work. First, we had a panel in which students at Brown talked about their Action Plans and how with a grant awarded to them by the university, they were able to expand their organizations. They gave great advice about pitching your idea and working with other people.  

Brown students making a difference and sharing their experiences.

After the panel we broke in to groups and got spend an hour talking about our Action Plans and the progress we had made. Our facilitators were there to help us with things we still needed to address in our Action Plans and answer questions about anything related. This was especially helpful for me because I really got to evaluate the progress I had made and bounce new ideas off of other students and more experienced college students, one of which was Brenda, whom I met a dinner over the summer. When we finished the discussion groups we had lunch. 

A mini Women and Leadership reunion at lunch on the Main Green! 

During the school year, the Main Green is full of busy students. In the corner, is a new friend of mine,
Hannah from Florida. 

Interesting activity on Thayer St. during lunch.

After lunch, we reconvened for our chosen workshops. First, I attended one about fundraising. There, I learned about fundraising etiquette and got some great tips on how to organize resources to make for an effective fundraising event. Then, I went to a stress management workshop led by Dean Rose. This was particularly helpful because during this busy time of college applications, school and my Action Plan I could apply what I learned to every aspect of my life now and in the future. 

Dean Rose telling us about ways to calm yourself in stressful situations.

When our workshops were finished we headed to the Raddy for dinner and then were rushed to the Alumnae House for a presentation by Hip Hop 4 which strives to teach children through hip hop through dancing and rapping. We watched a video that showed the kind of work the organization had already accomplished and then we got to dance and learn some of the basic dance moves in hip hop.

We didn't arrive back at the hotel until 9:30 PM. It was a day full of enriching and inspiring lectures and activities. Tomorrow is our last day in Providence and I am interested to see what it holds for us.

Trolling Down Amherst

Having to be ready at the lobby by a quarter to seven this morning didn’t really make me “bright eyed and bushy tailed”. Instead, I was more like a sleep deprived grumpy troll trying to make sense of what was going on when my alarm clock rang. When I finally realized the girls and I were going to visit Amherst today, I jumped out of the king sized bed I shared with Aby and got dressed. Now you may think I’m lying about the bed size, but nope! I was assigned to a single room and it just so happened I got lucky. This troll had a comfy night!

Hello Autumn, Goodbye Summer!

We arrived at Amherst College roughly around 9:30 AM; thirty minutes before our information session. Our speaker, Tyler spoke about five key points: small, diversity, selective, liberal arts, and open curriculum. Amherst has about 1,800 students and has a student to teacher ratio of 8:1. Of those students, 6% are multi-racial, 11% are Asian American and Hispanic, 12% are African American, 40% are Caucasian, and 11% chose not to identify. For the school year of 12/13, they received 8,000 applications and had a 12-13% acceptance rate. The thing that stood out to me about Amherst is its open curriculum and its five-college consortium. Amherst is associated with the University of Massachusetts, Smith College, Hampshire College, and Mt. Holyoke College. These schools are within ten miles from each other and all have free transportation available for students to travel to each school. Amherst doesn’t offer pre-professional programs so if one was ever interested in one, this system allows you to travel to the sibling school to take the course you have in mind. When the session was over, we were led by Tito for our tour and later was able to spend some time with an admissions officer. 

Since we had a chunk of time left before checking into the symposium, we drove down the block to visit Emily Dickinson's house. Before the tour started, my first impression of Emily was that she was very reclusive and lived a lonely life, well with the exception of her boyfriend who supposedly promised her he would leave his wife for her. After the tour, our speaker was able to make me focus more on Emily's creative writing style instead of her solitary life. Most of the original furniture in the house are at Harvard University, but the copies still made the story of Ms. Dickinson come alive. The house included a white dress that the poet was known to have worn. From the details, our group concluded that she was a rather short woman. When we came to a close, we walked back to the car and headed to our hotel where the symposium was soon to begin. No more anticipation!


After receiving our information packet for the weekend, I headed upstairs to my room and prepared for tonight's dinner. Mayor Angel Tavares was there and presented a speech on vision, teamwork, and persistence. He was referring to our Action Plans and stated that once we have an idea, our next step is to form a team and work together for our ideas to bloom into motion. Finally, all it takes is some tender, love, and care and hopefully we will become successful. When Mayor Tavares ended, a group called Youth In Action (YIA) spoke. This organization is about empowering the youth in Rhode Island and letting them be heard in a neighborhood of adults. This inspired me to continue on with my Action Plan goals and to not give up once I get back home. Both the mayor and YIA speeches were beautifully intertwined and made me more excited for tomorrow's added enthusiasm. Tomorrow is a mystery but I can already tell it's going to be amazing! Including the weather! 

Just Like the Old Days

It was such an extraordinary day for me today. Although getting sleep is something I'm struggling with, it seems as though some type of energy is coming at me letting me not feel as tired as I really am.

Today was a day full of activities. It started off at 6:00 AM when I tried waking up to begin getting ready. My body did not want to leave the cozy bed and if it weren't for Iris I would have never forced my tired body to get up. I felt as if I was back to the summer days where getting sleep seemed to be mission impossible.

I visited Amherst College, it is one of the many small colleges in Amherst, Massachusetts. Their student body is made up of 1,800 students with a great diversity. Something interesting about this college is that the majority percentage of students accepted are male. Another great thing about this college is that it has an open curriculum, making it a great place to explore. Although it is a great college, I did not find it to be the right college for me. Amherst doesn't offer pre-professional programs, such as pre-med, engineering, business, etc. Amherst has a unique saying that goes like this "Amherst is training your mind and not your hands."

After receiving a great info session by, in my opinion, the best tour guide I had ever met, Tito, to take a tour of the college campus. She explained in great detail about the dorm life in Amherst and the great educational programs that they have.  At the end of the tour we went back into the admissions office and there we received another personal info session from Kia, one of the admissions officers. She  told us about her experience in applying to college, being accepted, and dealing with college stress. She gave advice and also gave us a few tips that would really give a great impression to admissions officers when applying to a certain college.

Leaving the beautiful Amherst campus, we headed to the Emily Dickinson Museum. I was excited about this because I was told by the girls and Ms. Kronenberg that the museum was actually the house where Emily once lived. As we were given a tour of the house I learned that she had written nearly 1,800 gem-like poems, only a handful of which were published during her life-time. She usually wrote about nature, which was inspired by her flowers that she loved; love poems that were inspired when Emily fell in love with a married man (who is a mystery until this day); and about death, poems that she wrote based on the Civil War that was going on at that time. Although many people find Emily Dickinson to be very odd or strange, I believe her life was full of mystery and joy based on how she expressed herself in her poems. I admire her for her passion in writing and for the mystery that she gave each and every one of her poems by not giving many of them titles, and letting us, the readers, try to uncover the meaning behind every wondrous poem.

Back at the hotel was such a rush yet a very exciting feeling. I would race to my room to get ready and race back down to get to where I needed to be in time. Dinner was great. Seeing many familiar faces again brought me great joy. I got to catch up with the friends I had made during the summer and even began talking to new people.

The evening began with a delicious dinner at the hotel and continued with the first Latino mayor of Providence, Angel Tavares, giving a humorous yet inspirational speech. He spoke about his experiences growing up and how many people were impressed with the fact that as a Latino he went to Harvard University to pursue his passion of becoming a lawyer. As the evening progressed we received a presentation from three college students who work with a wonderful program called Youth in Action. They deal with letting high school students know that their voice and opinions matter and are needed in society. To wrap up, we ended with a few fun ice breakers and community building activities.

After going through the day, I realize that I am living just like the summer, full of activities, knowledge, experience, and of course I cannot leave out lack of rest. I am living just like the old days.

All together now!

The view from the car drive. Snow!

Today was a full day starting bright and early. We met in the lobby of Hotel Providence at 6:45 AM and took our massive, white Suburban out to Amherst to visit Amherst College. Along the way we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for tradition's sake and after two hours of driving on the tree-lined, snow covered highway, we arrived at Amherst College in time for the information session. I was happy to learn that they have a very popular and active neuroscience major as that is what I am interested in. In addition, they have an open curriculum so the opportunities are endless. But it doesn't stop there. Beyond the open curriculum are 4 other colleges all part of the 5 College Consortium. The advantage of this arrangement is that any student at any of the colleges can take classes and participate in clubs at any of the schools so there is plenty to do and many people to meet. As if that was not enough, the campus was beautiful. 

Reading up on Amherst before the information session.

After our tour we met with the West Coast admissions officer for a more informal Q&A. She was able to tell us about what a day in life of a Amherst student was like, describe extracurriculars like Homecoming and recommend great places to eat. She was really honest about her experiences in college as well as high school so I felt comfortable asking questions. 

The freshmen dorms were beautiful!

Then, we climbed back in to the car and drove down the road a little bit to Emily Dickinson's house. There, we got a detailed tour from a woman who was passionate about Emily's poetry and life. I always enjoy getting a little look into history when I'm back east. By the end of the tour it was time to head back to Providence in time to register for the Symposium and get our room assignments. So we began our two hour trip back.

We were greeted back in Providence by a table full of Brown Symposium materials. After we got our registration packets and room keys, we went upstairs to get ready for dinner.

Perfect weather for a campus tour.

Amherst has a very prominent natural history museum. 

Amherst also has a beautiful war memorial. 

This is Emily Dickinson's house. She lived here most of her life with the exception of a few years in which
her father couldn't afford the house after his parents (the original owners) died.

The mayor telling his inspiring
 story of success.

Dinner was held in a large room in the hotel with a buffet of lasagna, salad, soup and garlic bread--all very delicious. After reconnecting with some friends from this summer and filling our bellies, the presentations began. First, the mayor of Providence spoke of his experiences in law and how that led to his eventual career in politics. He said he wanted to become a lawyer when he was younger because he wanted to help people. He then advised us that to make a difference you had to have three things: a vision, a team of supportive and dedicated people and finally, tenacity. After he spoke, we had a short break and then came back for a presentation by Youth in Action, an organization based in Providence, Rhode Island and run almost completely by students. They showed us a quick documentary and then opened up the floor for questions. For the last event of the night, we did the always popular and much needed name games to get to know the others participating in the Leadership Symposium. I was so thrilled to be surrounded by other dedicated and smart students and I can't wait to see what the next two days bring. 

Youth in Action presents.

Getting to know each other.