Jessica Brown

You might know me as…Jess, JBrown, K Marlea Jessica Lee Brown, or the real senior not to mess with.When I’m at Brown, you can find me at...At this point in my Brown experience I’ve spent enough time on campus, but when I do emerge from Ives St catch me at the Brown Center for Students of Color, Barus & Holley (ew, I know), and Ashamu Dance Studio.My Brown experience in six words.Exist. Resist. Burn it all down!Favorite class/ professor at BrownRace, Gender, and Urban Politics with the brilliant Keisha-Khan Perry.Things I wish I knew when I came to BrownI wish I knew that I was worthy of having an institution like Brown truly support me and that I belonged here. I also wish I knew it was ok to fail. Truly fail. Fail multiple times (looking at you Math 0090). I wish I knew that those moments of failure were not defining moments of my Brown career or my life.My favorite Brown memory is…I don’t think I can boil it down to one moment. Every time I’ve been surrounded by love and laughter has been a favorite memory. I’ll never forget all of the late night YouTube binges, struggle study sessions, deep conditioning parties, days at the beach, and dancing until four am in Phi Psi’s basement.My most embarrassing Brown memory is…I tried out for the Poler Bears my freshman year. I was so bad they didn’t even email letting me know I didn’t get in. The next year at the activities fair members of the team wanted me to sign up for the listserv and I yelled back “You didn’t want me last year!” I’ve learned (slight) impulse control since then.What I will miss most here next year is…I’ll miss my friends who have become family and all the opportunities for free food.My go-to order in the Blue Room is..A ham sandwich on a French roll with hummus, spicy brown mustard, grilled veggies, tomato, onion and spinach. And three bean chili to dip it in!In my time at Brown, I am most proud of…1vyG, the Inter-Ivy First-Generation College Student Network. After feeling unsupported by resources at Brown, myself and seven other first-gens decided to study our experiences through a GISP. That led to conversations and three of us: myself, Stanley Stewart '16, and Manuel Contreras '16 applying for a Social Innovation Initiative fellowship and co-founding 1vyG. At the inaugural conference last year, I remember feeling so exhausted but so energized by all of our peers who were ready to unpack our experiences and make institutional change. The past two years the first-gen communities have made enormous strides and I am so proud to have been a part of this movement.Brown’s best kept secret?Divine Rhythm Step Team. I’ve been a part of Divine since my freshman year and it is wildly underrated as far as dance groups go. However, we have a great group of underclassmen ready to carry the torch and I know the team won’t be a secret for long.My post-graduation plans are to...Yikes. The dreaded question. After graduation, I plan to figure out what I want to do with my life. I want to work for a few years and reflect before applying for grad programs. I feel like I have changed so much at Brown that my path is no longer as clear as I would like it, but I’m excited to see where it takes me.How has your experience at Brown changed you for the better? (AJ's question)This is a tricky question. Brown helped me find my voice. I have grown to be vocal about the things that I care about and injustices that I see around me. However, I believe that change could have been fostered in a much healthier way. I am an activist, an entrepreneur, a community builder because I was backed into a corner and had to find a way out. So it is difficult. I have gained invaluable skills, resources, and relationships, but that has come from experiencing a lot of hardship and pain at this university. I wonder if there are ways students, especially marginalized students, can have the former without so much of the latter.Next up: Donovan DennisJessica's Question for Donovan: By your ten year reunion, what do you hope Brown will have changed or accomplished?