My colleague Maggie Spear and I interviewed and photographed some of the recently arrived BRown first-year students about a treasured object they brought with them from home to college. Find Maggie’s story on news.brown.edu
Ailyn Mendoza - Preschool Portrait
“As I’m transitioning into college and discovering who I am and who I want to become, I want to remind myself that she’s always with me. That little girl is still a part of me, and same for all of my other phases. Looking at this photograph is a nice reminder of that, and it helps ground me, especially when things are bit overwhelming.”
Jacob Garcia - Flag of Hawaii
“It’s kind of like bringing my home to Brown. This flag, especially to the locals and native Hawaiians, means a lot. From an outside perspective, it might just seem like a state flag, but this is actually the flag of the sovereign native Hawaiian kingdom way back from before the overthrow. It affirms where I come from and what kind of people I’m from. Every time I look at the flag, it brings me back home, so I’m not too homesick.”
Jeanus-Luc Canlapan - Mom’s Polaroid
“My mom loves to take pictures, and I guess it’s something I inherited. She let me take the Polaroid basically everywhere I went over the summer, and I captured a lot of fun, silly and heartwarming memories with my friends and family. In my dorm, I have several of those Polaroids hung up on display, and they make me appreciate and never forget the experiences that I’ve had back home. In a sense, they’re always with me — I can just look into a picture and immerse myself in that memory.”
Thomas Politano - Prized Violin
“I’ve always had a very special love for classical music since I was very young, and I played the viola for a long time. When I started to play violin, I realized there was such a greater repertoire of music available for me to play. And I realized at that point that I played these instruments — not for the competition, for the resume — but just because I just love the music. … This violin is actually my music teacher’s. It’s such a gift to bring it to school, especially with this connection that it was made over a hundred years ago in the town that I grew up in. It’s very special to me.”
Tijesuni Ademuwagun - “Positive Potato”
“My teacher crocheted these little ‘positive potatoes’ and handed them out to everyone in class on the day of our AP calculus exam, which was the most stressful thing of my life. But whenever I felt like stuff was building up and I couldn’t handle it, I just squeezed him, and it felt like everything was going to be OK. When I got here and realized I didn’t have the OG crocheted potato, I was like ‘I need one, quick!’ and ordered this one … technically, it’s an octopus. But he looks like my potato.”