#preorientation

The currently offered pre-orientation programs are New Scientist Catalyst, Mosaic+ Transition Program, Bonner Community Fellows Program, Excellence at Brown, Third World Transition Program, and International Orientation. What you may enjoy best highly depends on what you’re looking for.

(Note: New Scientist Catalyst and Mosaic+ must also do Excellence, TWTP, or International Orientation.)

I actually am not quite familiar with the NS Catalyst program or the Mosaic+ program, but if you identify with an underrepresented group (African American, LatinX, Chicanos, Alaska Natives, Hawaiian Native, Indigenous America, Pacific Islanders) and are interested in STEM or CS (respectively), then you should definitely check it out.

Bonner - I consulted a friend about this:

“A common misunderstanding is that it’s only just a pre-O, it’s actually a 4 year fellowship. Bonner pre-O is a part of every year you’re at Brown, it’s just advertised through pre-Os. If you want to pursue it as the way it is and understand it’s not just a pre-O, I highly recommend it to those who are dedicated to social change and social justice through community engagement! It’s also a special program that emphasizes first gen and low income folks because community service is often only sustainable in college for those who have money versus those who really care but need other jobs. Bonner itself partners you with a community nonprofit/org that you “match” with and then you commit to being with that site for 4 years since Bonner is about sustainable community engagement. On the side, you get trainings/workshops that happen in pre-O and throughout the year. You get a lovely community of first gen and low income people of color who care deeply about their communities and social change. Bonners are often seen in leadership positions across campus too, just because of the type of people we are. My experience has been amazing but it’s definitely a long-term commitment that requires time and energy every week so it’s a big decision to make even before entering college. It’s actually a new program at Brown since we’re the first Ivy to have a Bonner program, so we’ve had ups and downs with the issues of being new, but otherwise it’s been a lovely community and a really worthwhile experience.”

Excellence at Brown - I consulted another friend of mine:

“The best parts of Excellence for me were the people I met in my group and getting to speak to professors from a wide range of fields before the semester even began. Learning how to use the writing center was also super helpful. Excellence is only as much work as you make it to be. If you actually write your daily essays, cool, if you don’t, they’re not going to do shit lol. I recommend Excellence more for people who feel their writing isn’t strong and want to get a taste of what college expectations are like, and for people who think they’d take the program at least somewhat-seriously (so you’re not wasting the writing center staff’s time). I’m glad I did Excellence because through it I made my best friend and I learned a bunch of Earthquake facts thanks to a random geology seminar.”

TWTP! This pre-O is fantastic! I’m a little biased because I did this pre-O and I will also be running one of the workshops! Don’t be scared away by the name - it’s not just for students from “Third World” countries. It’s really actually about working through and learning more about being a minority (in any way) and navigating that in a predominantly white, ableist, cissexist, classist, heterosexist institution. Various workshops discuss these topics, and confidentials are available for students to attend and speak about their own concerns. I personally really loved TWTP because I loved the critical thinking and questioning about my place in society and at Brown, questioning the structure that has been imposed upon us. I especially loved the people - everyone’s really pure, really interested in helping you feel comfortable and safe. It’s predominantly run by and for people of color, people who are queer, people who may not be abled, and people who identify with a combination of these. This is also not an academic pre-O, but rather one about understanding the sort of world you might find yourself in at Brown, and creating a community at Brown to navigate this together.

I  encourage you all do to a pre-orientation program. They’re so much fun and I made the majority of my friends through my program. The program I completed was Filmmaking Bootcamp, I thought I’d just upload the super cool video that I made and let you see how awesome it is for yourselves. WELL, Tumblr evidently does not allow 04:25 minute videos to be posted, and to edit the video would be a disservice. So I will be attaching a link to the video (which I’ve poste on YouTube), because I really want to share how cool my experience was. I’ll just talk about it here, but please check out the link as well.

Like I said, the pre-orientation program I was apart of was called Filmmaking Bootcamp. We started out by interviewing one another and putting those interviews together with iMovie. I had never edited a video before, so mine was absolutely terrible. As the days went on, we (or rather I, because everyone else already knew what they were doing) learned basic editing skills in iMovie, and went all around Chestertown getting footage of whatever we needed to make our own videos as a final product. 

It was so much fun to go around Chestertown, and even more fun to see what everybody had decided to do for their videos. I titled mine “Kenz Meets Chester”, and it was about me making the transition to coming to WAC. I actually got a round of applause for timing something perfectly with the music I had put behind it (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you click the link and watch the video).

As I mentioned, the majority of the people in my friend group were in my pre-orientation program, and I learned a lot (not only about editing videos, but about Chestertown itself). I highly recommend attending a pre-orientation program, so sign up as soon as you get the email that it’s open, because the programs will fill up quickly!

According to my friend who went to UCAAP, it’s “a pre-orientation program that introduces students to Providence and service organizations that work in the Providence area. Typical programs include walking tours of different areas of Providence (Fox Point, Olneyville, etc) and meeting with community organizers, non-profits, and various service organizations. There are also a lot of break-off sessions where you get to discuss related topics with community leaders and other UCAAPers. The benefits of the program are that it gives you a good understanding of what the Swearer Center does and introduces you to a group of great people with similar interests. They have monthly discussions during the school year, which lets you keep in touch with these people.”

He also mentioned that he didn’t particularly love the program, but made a lot of good friends through it. I personally feel that I’m under-informed on the actions of the Swearer Center, so maybe it’s more beneficial than he realized, but I think the general opinion on pre-orientation programs are that they’re not amazing, but good for making friends. 

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