Every day, students interacts with countless adults: professors, advisors, coaches, directors, etc. Brown, which prides itself on its student-faculty interactions, is a great place to find and build a relationship with a mentor. There are certain adults, though, that often go overlooked. Have you ever wondered what the story was behind the lady swiping you into the Ratty or the man mowing the Main Green?

Bear Pairs is a group designed specifically to “bridge the disconnect between students and staff.” Members get paired up with a staff member, and those two become “buddies.” This could mean anything from having dates in Downtown Providence to grabbing Starbucks on a Sunday afternoon. Along with the individual meet-ups, the club has several events scheduled throughout the years that the staff and students can attend to get to know each other better. The group allows students to not only get to know a staff member, but also a normal Providence resident that they can have meaningful interactions with.

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Meet the very first pole dancing team in the Ivy League! Since arriving to the clubbin’ scene in 2006, the Poler Bears have grown into a team of over 20 students with four corporate sponsors. This fall, 100 students (!) tried out for the team. Quickly gaining momentum, the Poler Bears have made great strides on campus, trying to eliminate the stigma, address the preconceived notions, and create a discussion around pole dancing, all while promoting self-expression among students. Ten things you should know about the Poler Bears and pole dancing after the jump. [Read more →]

Campus Champions of Change Challenge, a program initiated in the fall of 2011, is a White House- (and mtvU-) sponsored competition to spotlight student-led community projects on campuses across the country. And guess who’s in the race this year? Brown’s very own Market Shares Program!

Here’s how the challenge works: thousands of students and student groups across the nation are welcome to submit their programs to the White House Office of Public Engagement, which then chooses 15 finalists that best embody positive change in the campus community and move toward “helping America win the future.” Isn’t that vague nice? The vote to determine the top five finalists is open to the public — that means you have a say!

Of the 15 projects, the five finalists with the most votes are invited to the White House and will be featured on mtvU. Let’s show America what we’ve got: vote to help send Brown Market Shares to DC! Don’t know what Brown Market Shares is all about? Read on!

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FemSex, Brown’s Female Sexuality Workshop, is holding info sessions this week for its spring semester workshop. The workshop requires that students attend an info session and fill out an application to be eligible, so make sure to attend if you are interested.  Info sessions are Wednesday (Feb 1) at 6:30 and Thursday (Feb 2) at 6:30 in Wilson 302. In order to learn a little bit more about our most intimate non-academic seminar, we spoke to Darcy Pinkerton, a FemSex facilitator.

What is FemSex?

I’ll respond with our mission statement:‪ The Female Sexuality Workshop is a 12-week not-for-credit workshop that aims to destigmatize and demystify female sexuality by providing comprehensive sex education in an inclusive, non-judgmental environment. We believe that sexuality can serve as a foundation for discussing power and privilege as they relate to the intersection of race, class, and gender. As part of our larger commitment to dismantling oppression, FemSex strives to deconstruct the powerful assumptions present in everyday language and to find non-violent alternatives… In an intentional space founded on reciprocal commitment and consent, participants can challenge their ideas, validate their experiences, and take ownership of their bodies, desires, and self-expression.

FemSex meets for two hours twice a week, either on Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs. A FemSex section is composed of about 15 participants and 2 peer facilitators who have already taken the workshop. FemSex runs for 12 weeks throughout the semester, for a total of 23 classes, ranging from Privilege, Language & Identity to Body Image to Masturbation to Sex Toys to Communication & Consent.‪

Can guys do it?

FemSex is open to people of all genders and sexualities, and we believe that having a diverse array of experiences and opinions represented in section is crucial to forming a learning space where we can hear from experiences that are not our own. I think anyone interested in FemSex should apply!  If sex ed in a safe, egalitarian space sounds good to you, we’d love to have you apply. [Read more →]

Before the era of Steve Jobs, people actually got their music from …(pause)… the radio (shocking, I know).  Though students no longer have landline phones in their dorm rooms nor boom boxes, the pre-digital age still lives on.

WBRU, begun in 1936, is the first student-owned-and-operated campus station in the U.S.  Based out of 88 Benevolent St, it receives no funding from the University but is run by Brown students.  They are currently in the process of an expansive recruitment campaign and, well, they want you.

Brown Taekwondo recently won 31 medals and two first place trophies at the National Collegiate Taekwondo Association Championship earlier this month. Having placed in the top three over the past ten years, this is the first time in history that the team ranked first overall, earning it the title of National Champion for the first time. Held at UC Davis, the competition featured over 400 competitors from 30 of the country’s top colleges and universities. The 25 Brown athletes and their four coaches took part in performing choreographed techniques as well as full knock-out sparring.

Led by Master Sung Sun Park ‘96, the recipient of the Coach of the Year Award in 2010, since 2006, Brown Taekwondo currently has over 120 members, most of whom only began learning the sport at Brown. The team is also coached by black belt heavy weight sparring champion and Johnson & Wales student Danielle Harrison, as well as Brown students Bhuvic Patel ’11 and Randall Trang ’11.

In order to find out more about Brown Taekwondo, BlogDailyHerald caught up with Stephanie Lee ’12, a national medal-winning Brown Taekwondo member, to talk about her experience with the martial art. [Read more →]