We've waited over a year to say these words,
but welcome to the opening of the First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center.
[applause]
I am super-excited.
I guess for us first-gen, low-income students, it's finally having a place on campus
where we can call our own home.
I think this is a really important moment in Brown's history.
There's a bi-directional dynamic going on where we can both evolve as an institution and as a group of people
and I think that's really inspirational and really hopeful in many ways.
There's this mantra that we say in the first-gen community: "First but not alone."
This phrase emphasizes that while we may be the first in our families to navigate the university experience,
we don't have to go through it all by ourselves.
The goal is, with this space, to show students that there is a place for them to turn for whatever they might need.
If you are low-income, if you have parents who didn't go to school in this country, for whatever reason
you feel like your personal story aligns with the first-gen narrative then you're welcome here.
This kind of center sends a signal out saying, "We're open to everybody."
Right? And we want incredibly talented students no matter what their backgrounds.
We're going to accept students that are from diverse backgrounds but we're also going to help them through Brown.
And I think that makes an incredibly bold statement from the university, to have the sort of space that gives
students from all different backgrounds a place to come and create a community.
And it just tells us, really, that they care. Especially about first-gens and low-income students.
It tells us that they care about us and that they want us to succeed.
And we need to do this. I mean, that's how we're going to be a great university, is that if we're able to tap into
the collective intelligence of everyone in this community, that's how Brown is going to really stand out.
To be first-gen or low-income looks different in each and every single one of us.
We are undergraduates, transfers, RUE-students. We are masters, doctoral, medical, undocumented, international.
We are professors, parents, alumni, staff, and much, much more.
So when you ask yourself, "What does Brown look like?"
Brown looks like us.
Thank you.
[applause]
