As hundreds of admitted students finished their visits to campus, some of their potential classmates remained for another day on College Hill. About 130 prospective students registered to spend an extra night at Brown for the Third World Welcome, a two-day program sponsored by the Office of Admission that follows A Day on College Hill.
"TWW is designed to be a program that complements ADOCH," said Angela Romans, associate director of admission and director of minority recruitment.
"We also want to have a slightly smaller and more intimate program (than ADOCH)," she added.
Savannah Greene decided to stay on College Hill to take advantage of the size of TWW. "I wanted to talk to a lot of the other prefrosh in a smaller situation," said the prospective first-year from Pasadena, Calif., who will be visiting Stanford University next week.
Attendance at TWW is slightly down from last year's total of about 140 students, since this year did not include early admits.
TWW gives prospective first years the chance to interact with other admitted students of color, said Marco Martinez '08, one of the three minority recruitment interns with the Office of Admission who coordinated the program. TWW also allows prospective students who self-identify as students of color to see what social and academic opportunities are available to them at Brown, he added. Martinez has been working since the end of winter break with the Bruin Club and his fellow interns, Natasha Go '10 and Danielle Dunlap '10, to organize the program.
Last night's events included dinner with faculty, admissions officers and students, a cultural show and an ice cream social. The cultural show, emceed by Martinez and Graham Browne '08, featured performances from student groups, including Mezcla, Brown Lion Dance, Divine Rhythm and Badmaash.
Events continue today with opportunities for prospective students to attend classes and open office hours with professors and have lunch with students of color at Brown.
Accepted students who self-identified as Asian American, Latino, African American, Native American, biracial or multiracial on their application received an invitation to TWW with their acceptance letters, Romans said. International students have attended in the past, Martinez said.
Greene said she received an invitation to TWW with her acceptance letter to Brown. She said she decided to come so she could meet more people and hear about the experience of attending Brown as a minority student. "The people are amazing," Greene said, adding that she was struck by the students' enthusiasm.
Andriana Salazar agreed. "I felt the instant energy from all the students," said the prospective first-year from Lockhart, Texas.
"I wanted to come check it out and experience all the diversity Brown has to offer," said Lubin Juarez from Laredo, Texas. Juarez, who was accepted to the Program in Liberal Medical Education, has already decided to attend Brown.
