Senior Re-Orientation
Before the break, Blog sat down with Fiora MacPherson and Alexx Temena, the two organizers of Senior Re-Orientation. Senior Re-Orientation was a weekend-long retreat in Alumnae Hall, designed to help seniors reflect on their time at Brown, reaffirm their values and figure out what’s important to them. The retreat was sponsored by the Campus Life Discretionary Fund and had approximately 20 participants, with another 15 attending the open lunch event.Alexx and Fiora explained that they wanted the event to be a narrative. The retreat transitioned between community building exercises, reflections on time spent at Brown, and positioning oneself in post-graduation life. Saturday's events lasted from 9 a.m.-10 p.m. while Sunday started at 9 a.m. and ended with an open lunch at noon. Both days included activities related to identifying values and setting goals. These activities ranged from writing your “non-resume,” a list of things that you failed at or things that you are proud of that you couldn’t put on your resume, to creating a spectrum of transition.
The spectrum of transition activity was a favorite for Alexx and Fiora. Here, the participants came up with a list of spectra, including “apathetic about graduation plans or excited about graduation plans” and “rootless or rooted.” Fun spectra were also included, like “senior spring or senior shackled” and “senior scramble or bae.” Each participant wrote their initials on the spectra to indicate where they were and where they wanted to be.Alexx felt particularly strongly about the spectrum “unemployed or employed.” Alexx said “I’m really neither. Next year, I will be self-employed.” Alexx is a five-year combined degree program student with bachelor degrees in cognitive neuroscience and contemplative psychology. She just launched her own business where she creates experiences to help people live lives of purpose and fulfillment. Check out her website here.
The main event of the retreat was the “what is important to you mind-map,” which lasted for four hours. Fiora explained that in this activity, “we wanted to get down to the core of what’s important to you and why it’s important." Once each participant came up with their core values, they identified their future goals. After making their own mind-map, each participant went around the room and placed post-it notes on other people's maps. These post-it notes contained positive feedback and suggestions for reaching certain goals. For example, Fiora is interested in learning new languages. One of her goals was to continue learning Italian, and she received some great suggestions for potential tutors and various online resources.
Both Alexx and Fiora hoped the retreat was collaborative. Alexx emphasized that she “wanted it to be clear to participants that we’re designing this together." On Saturday night, all of the seniors designed the experience for the next day. They decided they were going to do a project on how to create meaningful relationships and build healthy habits. Alexx and Fiora emphasized that they found the retreat helpful for their own well-being, which is why they wanted to feel less like leaders and more like participants.The final event of the retreat was an open lunch. Here, the senior participants had a chance to reflect on the retreat and show other seniors what they had been working on all weekend.
Overall, the retreat was a great success. The participants became real friends and hung out at the GCB on Sunday night. Looking towards the future, the two leaders hope that Senior Re-orientation will continue next year and for years to come. Alexx also hopes to hold a women of color retreat, for which she is currently choosing a date.