Like many of my peers, my transition to grad school was a bit difficult. I found the culture to be foreign and felt I had no community. Rather than attempting to make Brown feel like home, I was obsessed with trying to keep my head down and obtaining my degree as fast as possible. This strategy was unsustainable and I quickly burnt out. 

I started reaching out to different campus resources and after talking to staff members of the Brown Center for Students of Color, I was introduced to several grad students who shared similar cultural identities. Having a community of students to talk to and share fellowship with greatly improved my mood and general feelings toward my graduate program. I was granted a new outlook and quickly adopted a new goal, I decided that no other student should have to go through what I went through. I wanted graduate students like me to feel some sense of community here at Brown, and what better way to accomplish this goal than to revive the Black Graduate Student Association? 

Together with PhD students Felicia Bevel, Felicia Bishop-Denaud, Bianca Brown, Garvin Dodard, Shekinah Fashaw, and alum Eboni Chambers ’18 PhD, I worked to restart the Samuel M. Nabrit Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA). It is an organization committed to the social, professional and academic enrichment of students of the African diaspora at Brown University. Its namesake Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit, a graduate from Morehouse College, was the first African American to be awarded a doctoral degree from Brown University. Through its three branches of service--social, education, advocacy--Nabrit organizes a range of events throughout the academic year to foster community amongst graduate students. I currently serve as the social chair for the BGSA and my responsibilities include planning and organizing events, managing the organizations social media, and so much more. It has been extremely rewarding and I strongly feel this position has added value to my PhD experience. From the Fall semester kick-off party, to the monthly BGSA Fridays, I try to make sure that I am working to achieve my goal of building community within the graduate school to help everyone find their fit here at Brown. 

I’ve taken what I’ve learned from working with the BGSA and now serve as the social chair for the entire Graduate Student Council (GSC). While I will never leave the BGSA, my new position on the GSC will hopefully allow me to reach out to even more Brown graduate students while doing what I can to assist not only the BGSA but also new affinity groups, as more students begin to see the need for these organizations. 

Through the support of the graduate school, the Black Graduate Student Association has given me a home here at Brown. I truly hope that my efforts, together with the many other students keeping the wheels turning, can help other graduate students feel just as comfortable in these spaces as they work towards their degrees.