After much warming up with icebreakers, energizers, and a hearty V-Dub breakfast, TWTP 2011 is roaring to a full day today. Before today’s more chaotic (Third World Olympics) and jocular (bowling) activities tonight, Dr. Jamie Washington kicked off the first of many workshops on cross-cultural communication.

TWTP is a time of self-reflection, growth, and learning. Already, first years have taken to heart what Dean and Director of the TWC Mary Grace Almandrez calls “brave spaces”. While safe spaces are necessary for the sharing of personal experiences that happens at TWTP, “brave spaces” encourages us to explore areas of discomfort and vulnerability in an attempt to grow. For many of the Class of 2015, their first year at Brown will be all about exploring brave spaces – from classroom courses to making new friends to trying that pasta dish at the Ratty. But for those students already familiar with the uphill terrain of College Hill, the opportunities to explore brave spaces still present themselves. At TWTP, at Brown, in college, the conversation never ends.

Up on deck for today’s schedule:

• Racism Workshop
• Third World Olympics
• Classism Workshop
• Dinner with DPS
• Bowling Night!
• (and of course, your favorite energizers dispersed throughout)

August is all about new beginnings. Today is no different as the Third World Center celebrates the first day of this year’s Third World Transition Program (TWTP). While Brown’s newest Class of 2015 begin their years on campus, fellow Brunonians jump in to help scale the flights of stairs up Keeney. At Wayland Arch is the usual exciting mix of first-years, Minority Peer Counselors, sunshine, eager/melancholic parents, and suitcases.

This year marks the beginning of many new changes at the TWC, as Dean Mary Grace Almandrez takes her new position as Director of the TWC. Considering this exciting new year, this year’s TWTP Coordinators have designed TWTP 2011 around the theme “The Courage to Be”.

Want more info or ways to see what’s going to be happening the next few days? Follow us on Twitter and like our page on Facebook!

Twitter: @BrownTWC
Twitter Hashtag: #TWTP2011

Facebook: www.facebook.com/browntwc

I am writing to share with you that Anjali Sridhar, Assistant Director of the Third World Center for the past three years, has made the decision to step down from her position at the conclusion of her maternity leave in order to remain home with her family.  For those of you that had the opportunity to see Anjali recently, it is easy to see why she doesn’t want to miss a moment with newborn Kedar and his older sister, Gayatri.  While she will be missed, we are also very excited for Anjali and her family, and we wish to support and encourage her in the wonderful endeavor of motherhood.

Please join the Third World community to celebrate Anjali and her many and wonderful contributions to the welfare and vibrancy of the TWC and larger Brown communities on Monday, May 16 from 3:30-5:30pm at the TWC.

RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/anjalifarewell

Anjali’s dedication and commitment to the TWC and its community has been extraordinary – and never more so than in the love and support she has shown for our students.  She has actively supported the last three sessions of the Third World Transition Program (TWTP).  Thanks in no small part to her hard work and dedication to the program, it remains one of the premier pre-orientation programs of the University and one that stands tall among all University programs and events.  In addition, she has lead the TWC’s Minority Peer Counseling program ensuring support for the MPCs and first year students of color while also expanding the program to serve the entire Brown Residential Life community, sensitizing it to the needs and uniqueness of students of color.  Anjali has also been instrumental in the programming and implementation of our Heritage Series Programs by supporting and guiding our student staffers in executing numerous convocations, symposiums, workshops, and community dialogues in celebration of various cultural communities and in order to surface the issues and needs of communities of color to the larger Brown community.

Further, Anjali has used her wonderful gifts and skills of organization, financial accounting and management, and personal counseling to assist the TWC in order to leverage our resources, human and financial, for the purposes of promoting the TWC, its programs, and student leaders.  The value Anjali brought to the TWC was never more apparent than when she successfully led the TWC and its programs during Dean K’s personal leave last spring and then gave so much of herself to ensure the transition of the TWC to new and interim staffing.

Anjali’s work and commitment went far beyond the TWC, reaching throughout the Division of Campus Life and Student Services to the entire Brown community.  She has served as a University Ambassador through the Ambassadors Program, representing and advocating for the goals and values of the University.  In 2009 she received a University Excellence Award, the highest honor Brown awards to its employees, for her work in advancing diversity as a foundation of the University.

Anjali will be sorely missed at the TWC and throughout the Brown campus.  Thankfully, we know that Anjali, Gayatri, and Kedar will grace our doorstep for occasional visits.  Please join me in wishing her and her family the very best and on Monday to celebrate her for her unselfishness in sharing of her gifts and talents for the benefit of our students, the TWC, and the Brown community.

Sincerely,

Rev. William Mathis
Interim Director of the Third World Center
& Associate University Protestant Chaplain

TWTPCs

Nicole Parrish

Rahil Rojiani

MPCCs

Becky Bass

Emily Gonzalez

Francisco Oliveira

MPCs

Niina Al-Hassan

Stephanie Chhan

Chance Craig

Jonathan Cruz

Samantha Enriquez

Vanessa Flores-Maldonado

Saudi Garcia

Macda Gerard

Stephanie Harris

Haruko Hashimoto

Hisa Hashisaka

Hayward Leach

Mariela Martinez

Sean McAdams

Cinque McFarlane-Blake

Takeru Nagayoshi

Corbyn Nchako

Alvina Pillai

Harry Ramsamooj

Joe Royo

Paul Tran

Jessaca York

MPC FRIENDS

Ivy Alphonse-Leja

Austin Whittaker

Gavriel Cutipa-Zorn

Lorena Garcia

Ben Gellman

Elizabeth Gonzalez

Sharina Gordon

Laila Handoo

Clarion Heard

Amit Jain

Leora Kava

Gopika Krishna

Brian Kundinger

Juhee Kwon

Tim Natividad

Daniel Prada

Julio Reyes

Rachel Tache

Le Tran

Justin Williams

The TWC is pleased to announce the appointment of Oscar Perez as the new Assistant Director for Diversity Initiatives. Oscar, a Brown PhD candidate in the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, comes to the Center with an extensive background in teaching, tutoring, and working in community. A native of El Paso, TX and Mexico, through his studies and experiences, especially as a first generation student, Oscar has sought to passionately share and apply his narrative as a mechanism of encouraging and facilitating educational goals of students and empowering of students through leadership training and development. In addition, Oscar also has devoted his time as a volunteer in local Providence immigrants communities as an instructor in the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) at English for Action as way to assist and encourage others to share and apply their own narratives.

As the TWC Assistant Director for Diversity Initiatives, Oscar will collaborate with students, faculty, staff, and alumni to enhance Brown’s excellence through diversity in support of the Plan for Academic Enrichment. He will also advise, support, and advocate for student leaders and their organizations and programs, encouraging the connection between the co-curricular and curricular lives of students, and overseeing the heritage weeks, months, and series programs of the Third World Center. In addition, Oscar will coordinate programming and services for international and first in family students and aid in the assessment of diversity initiatives of the Center and the Office of Campus Life and Student Services.

Oscar officially began at the TWC March 14, 2011. Please help us welcome him to the TWC!

The Third World Center (TWC) is in the process of transitioning in order to better serve the Brown community. The ongoing search for a new Director is a huge opportunity for students and the Brown community to articulate their concerns, hopes, and needs.

PLEASE JOIN ADMINISTRATORS, FACULTY, AND STAFF INVOLVED IN THE SEARCH FOR A CANDID CONVERSATION

Saturday, March 5: 2:00-3:30 in Petterutti Lounge

Monday, March 7: 4:00-5:30 in Petterutti Lounge

Points of Discussion:
• Vision for the future of the TWC
• Methods for Student Input
• TWC and Diversity Initiatives on Campus
• Challenges facing the TWC

We want to know from you:
• Your experiences and perceptions regarding the TWC, its programs, and its place in the community.
• How can the TWC serve you best?
• What do you want to see in the new Director or the TWC?
• What information do you want the search committee to keep in mind while identifying candidates for the new position?

Can’t make it to either forum?
• Be on the look out for a survey
• Contact search committee chair Ricky Gresh or any members of the student advisory board to the search (a list of members of the advisory board and other information is available at http://brown.edu/TWC/newdirector.html)
• The Search Committee is willing to meet with individual groups, programs, or networks

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=192666737430571

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145286165533858

Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey and forward it to your listservs/other student groups

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/L5KTQHH

Blanchard is a baritone singer.  His performance of music in the Black Spiritual Tradition was moving and really touched the soul.  He also tied in historical references of slavery in American, creating a space for learning, celebrating and building community.  Check out pictures from the event and look out for more Black Heritage Series events!

A few months out of the Van Wickle Gates, I’m able to look back on my time at Brown and understand that the most important physical and emotional space for me on campus was the Third World Center. I know that not all students, or even students of color, feel welcome at the Third World Center, and I understand that the ideology of the TWC does not align with the views of some people on Brown’s campus, but speaking for myself, I believe in the values espoused in the TWC’s mission statement and I wholeheartedly believe that the TWC should not change its name or purpose. I don’t mind explaining to people the origin of the term “Third World,” and I think that the political charge of the phrase shows that Brown is committed to encouraging dialogue among its students as well as to increasing diversity, in the truest sense of the word: diversity of thought, in addition to the general demographic diversity touted by many other colleges’ multicultural centers.

What the TWC provided for me was a safe space to discuss issues of personal/political importance. As many of us learn at Brown, “The personal is political.” The TWC provides an arena for discourse on a number of topics that are of great importance to not only the Brown student of color community, but also the world at large. I think there are many students on campus who would agree that the TWC exposed them to viewpoints and issues that they may not otherwise have learned about prior to coming to Brown. The TWC expanded my worldview while strengthening my bonds to the Brown community, and it also made me question things more deeply. What is community? What is unity, for that matter? For me, community was the TWC and unity existed even among those with clashing ideologies and different backgrounds: I found that the TWC encouraged disagreement in discourse, and variety in viewpoints.

On Brown’s campus in the past few months, a new class has come through the Van Wickle Gates, buildings have been renamed, and new structures have been erected, and I appreciate the changes that occur, each day, on our campus. But one thing that I hope remains the same, in spirit, for the foreseeable future, is the Third World Center. I remain ever true to Brown, and ever true to the TWC’s mission.

Natasha Go ’10