Sunday, June 28, 2009

Word of the Day: CONNECTION

Today at eleven o'clock all of the members of the Ivy League Connection at Brown University reunited with Brown Alumni Guy at the Maddock Alumni Center for Brunch. I have got to say not only was it Delicious but very informative. During the Brunch I talked to a Brown undergraduate senior named Adrienne Buell. She is a student at Brown whom came from Monterrey, California and she told me about her life and I noticed how it was similar to mine. She too came from a Hispanic family with one parent. She shared her experiences at Brown with me and told me about all the different clubs and organizations at Brown that are for and by Latino students.

This one aspect about Brown has driven me closer to the school. Just knowing that I will not feel homesick while being at Brown is comforting. I learn knew things everyday that in the long run will really help me and benefit me in choosing what colleges I want to go to.
Also there were a couple of speeches given today and they all had something to do with. This program is about learning from others and us teaching others.

To make a connection based on what we learned to help one another. That's why I believe I'll be able to go back to Richmond and share what I have learned this past week and what I will learn these following weeks here at Brown.

Mercedes Montelongo

1 comment:

Don Gosney said...

Mercedes,

Of course it's always good to go somewhere where you'll feel comfortable but it concerns me that you may be defining yourself by the color of your skin or the ancestry of your family. Will that be the focus of your life and the center of your being or do you think that maybe you might broaden your vistas to embrace a wider culture that isn't limited by the boundaries of color, or ethnicity?

It's good to remember our heritage and even the language of our peers but do we want to limit ourselves by becoming cloistered?

Even in our own community, I see that as one of our bigger problems. We pride ourselves on our diversity but we're really working overtime to stay segregated. Whether it's Hispanic, Asian, African or even White, don't you think our own community can use some integration? Perhaps we might not build so many walls around ourselves if we did.