At one point during a group discussion at the Third World Transition Program in 2001, Eldridge Gilbert '05 remembers a student stood up and said, "This is the first time that I didn't have to be the most vocal person in the room."
Gilbert looks back at that moment fondly: "I remember sitting, thinking, 'That's so true.' ... It was the first time that so many people were saying the things that I was thinking, and it made me feel really, really comfortable," he said.
After attending TWTP - the annual pre-orientation program designed for minority first-years - as a participant, Gilbert worked for two years as one of the program's two student coordinators.
In fact, over the past four years, few undergraduates have been as devoted to the Third World Center and the minority community at Brown as Gilbert. He was a Minority Peer Counselor, then a coordinator of the MPC program; he was on the executive board of the Organization of United African Peoples for three years; he coordinated Brown's observation of Black History Month as a junior; and he is a member of the citywide chapter of the black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.
Gilbert said the discussions he participated in at TWTP as a first-year laid the foundation for many of his best friendships at Brown.
"I felt very drawn into the discussions that we had about race, about class, about sexism, about heterosexism and homophobia - those were things I knew existed but I was given a language and a voice and an opportunity to share my experiences," he said. "For me, my race is something that is my primary identification, so knowing that I had people who related to me on that level really helped me feel comfortable at Brown."
Later, as a TWTP coordinator, Gilbert was one of two students who organized the program for the roughly 200 first-year participants.
"It's been the space where I've put so much of myself," he said. "People can feel the enthusiasm and the love that I have for the program and being able to get that back from people is something that I will cherish forever."
Gilbert ranks working as an MPC in Andrews Hall during his sophomore year as one of his biggest accomplishments during college.
"I helped at least one person I know of feel more comfortable at Brown and feel like she has a space at Brown and that's something I'm proud of. ... That meant I did my job well," he said.
Gilbert is also a member of the varsity track team. Though his college career has been plagued by injuries - including bad shin splints his first two years and hamstring troubles his last two - Gilbert, who has been a competitive runner since age 6, said he has grown through persevering.
"Being sidelined - a lot - and having to watch my teammates and be the supportive one when you really want to be out there competing has really helped me mature," he said.
Four years of coursework as an Africana studies and psychology concentrator has introduced Gilbert to the "vastness" of the African diaspora.
"I think coming into Brown, I was like, "I'm black and I know what's going on.' But there's a lot that I didn't know that I learned through my classes," he said. "The idea that we're all connected through shared experiences has been so important to me."
Gilbert's hometown of Rockford, Ill., is largely black and Latino but, he said, is "pretty homogeneous in that ... the majority of the Latino community (is) Mexican, and there (is) less ethnic and cultural diversity" than at Brown. Both his classes and his relationships with a diverse group of people in college have shaped and expanded Gilbert's idea of what it means to be black.
"I know who I am and whose I am, and I knew that before I got to Brown - so that hasn't changed. But in terms of how I see myself in relationship to other people within a black community - that has grown, my perspective on that has grown," he said.
Gilbert will spend the next two years with Teach For America, teaching in a high-need school in New Orleans - what he calls "an opportunity to effect social change."
Gilbert's time at Brown introduced him to the "transformative power of education" and his long-term goal is to return to academia as a professor of cultural psychology or Africana studies.
"But that's a long way off," he said.
