Cynthia Fong

Again, congratulations on the Golden Bell Award, I'm glad to see that the Ivy League Connection is flourishing.

My third semester has been amazing. Freshmen year, I was still adjusting and getting use to the environment, the teachers, the way that they expected us to learn, etc. But this semester, I felt like I had the opportunity to really experience and explore the environment.

The extracurricular activity that I learned the most from was my position in Health Leads, an organization that puts volunteers in hospitals to connect clients to resources. It taught me many lessons about our health care system, the flaws, people skills, and the social determinants of health. It also taught me about time management. Some weeks, we spent as much as 10 hours on this job working with clients, which is tough to juggle with school work and other extracurriculars.

At the same time, I feel like I've accepted that A's on my transcript will not be the most important part of my college experience. I have not decided what my major will be (though I'm leaning towards the Human Biology or Community Health direction) but there are so many other things to enjoy and experience at Brown. I'm still trying my best to get good grades but I've learned about opportunity costs.

If any students have any questions about Brown, feel free to send them my way!

Happy holidays,

Cynthia Fong