Annalisa Wilde's '11 application for the Minority Peer Counselor program stood out among the more than 60 others. If accepted, she would become the program's first white counselor, a possibility that sparked heated conversation among current MPCs.
But Wilde found out Tuesday that, for now, she has failed in her bid. Twenty-two students were selected as MPCs, but Wilde was waitlisted.
"It is a huge letdown," she said.
There are nine students on the waitlist, said Jennifer Soroko MA '06, assistant director of the Third World Center. She said she did not know if any white applicants have been placed on the wait list in previous years. She added in an e-mail to The Herald that the selection process is confidential.
Owen Hill '10, another white applicant this year, was also wait-listed. He declined to comment for this article.
Wilde said she plans to continue to be involved with the TWC and will apply to be an MPC Friend, a volunteer who helps run the Third World Transition Program and other TWC programs throughout the year.
"I'll still be a part of the program, just by virtue of how many of my friends who will be MPCs," she said.
The Third World Transition Program, which she attended last fall, "was my introduction to Brown," she said. It was a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience, she said.
"I probably never would have considered being an MPC had I not gone to TWTP," Wilde added. "I really like the idea of forcing people to think and talk about the 'isms' and pushing yourself to try to understand why society is the way it is."
Wilde went to TWTP after spending her senior year of high school in a rural town in southern Ghana.
"In that one year, I was able to think a lot and completely change the way I lived," she said.
Wilde was supposed to attend school there, but there was a teachers' strike during the first three months of her stay. Wilde taught English at an orphanage and helped her host family - a widow and her three young children - with housework.
"Most of my time was occupied in the house with my host siblings - playing with them, helping them with their homework, cooking and washing clothes," she said.
Wilde's experiences in Ghana shaped her thinking about race and class, but another aspect of her identity - her sexual orientation - remained a relatively minor factor in her thinking about the MPC application process.
She said she downplayed her sexual orientation in her application and tried not to send the message: "I'm gay, so therefore I'm a minority, and you should accept me in the program."
"The way I express my gender and sexuality comes out of my class and the privilege that I have," Wilde said. "I know what it's like for people to make judgments on me."
Wilde said she understands that when she applied, many MPCs did not think she should be accepted to the program because of her race.
"Who knows what would happen if the floodgates were opened?" she said. "Historically, the MPC program has been recognized as for students of color."
Wilde said setting the precedent of accepting a white student as an MPC could weaken or strengthen the program.
"It depends on what the goals of the TWC are," she said. "I don't want to say that race doesn't exist and isn't an important element of the MPC program."
She said the TWC is able to create such a powerful sense of community because it chooses to define its community as one based on race.
"That's why the program is so strong - it's that there's a sense of an 'us.' "
But still, "the experiences of all the students who identify as students of color vary very widely, in terms of other factors," such as geographic region and economic class, Wilde added. She said she thought the qualification of race seemed "almost arbitrary" as a result.
Wilde said her interviewers directly addressed how her race would affect her effectiveness as an MPC.
"In the end, they seemed preoccupied that I would not be able to relate to students, to first-years of color, not being of color myself," she said.
"That is a major concern with all white applicants," said Marisa Chock '10, a current MPC and one of Wilde's interviewers.
Adam Kiki-Charles '11, who will be an MPC next year, said that if his MPC had not been a student of color, he might have felt apprehensive at first but would have gotten to know him or her eventually.
"I can't say that all individuals would be that open, that all freshmen of color would be comfortable going to someone who wasn't a minority," he said. "They could empathize, but they still would not be able to connect (with freshmen) on the same level, and I think that's something that's really important."
Chock said that white students have applied to be MPCs in the past, but none were accepted.
"We can't ever predict how it would play out," she said. "It could affect how the MPCs are perceived in the dorms, and that would redefine their positions."
Chock said that if there were white MPCs, it would clarify part of the mission of the MPC program: Are MPCs available to all students, or only to students of color? Currently, MPCs serve freshmen of all races, but Chock said students may not realize that because MPCs "target students of color because of the unique issues they face here at Brown."
Chock said Wilde showed strong promise as a candidate and that she brought a unique story to her application.
"I admire her decision to apply," Chock said.
Bradley Toney '10, a current MPC who wrote one of Wilde's recommendation letters, said, "Everyone should have the opportunity to apply."
"If she were chosen, she'd figure out her own way to reach out to first-years," he added.
Kiki-Charles said that Wilde's placement on the wait list was evidence of her qualifications to be an MPC.
But Chock said current and former MPCs hold different opinions about the possibility of having white MPCs in the future.
"Ultimately, the MPC program is what the MPCs are going to make of it," Toney said. "One of the most frustrating yet wonderful and remarkable things is that we really do get to decide - us current and former MPCs - what we want to make with this community for the future."
