The Black Student Union hosted a Black Alumni Panel via Zoom that gave recent alumni a chance to talk to current undergrads about what life is really like fresh out of Princeton’s ‘orange bubble.’ Edwin Coleman ‘19, Pablo Vasquez ‘18, Alexandria Robinson ‘17 and McKalah Hudlin ‘20 shed light on important issues such as work-life balance and future planning during the panel discussion. Below are a few notes, paraphrases and points I took down during the panel. I unfortunately do not have them accredited to specific people, but all were words of wisdom that the alumni shared with us. This event was sponsored by the Carl A Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding.

Some of the advice they shared for Princeton students: 

1. Know your values.
2. List out things that bring you joy and actively work towards including them in your week.
3. Pour into yourself.
4. Make sure you experience college; take time and look around; use the resources available; take advantage of once-in-a lifetime opportunities.
5. Princeton teaches you how to look tough deadlines in the face, and navigate them with less discomfort.
6.  We are able to navigate places like Princeton after we graduate with a little more ease.  
7. Be resilient and take more care of your mental health.
8. We need to unlearn equating our value with productivity.
9. Find your academic niche.
10. Post college, lean in on the discomfort of being alone.
11. What’s your unique perspective? 
12. For interviews and applications: know your skills, and what void you will fill in the industry.
13. After college, if you seek community, create it.
14. Set clear boundaries and expectations.
15. If time and money weren’t factors, what would your dream job be? Lean into that dream.

From wise alumni, these words are here for prospective students to think through and truly reflect as they enter this space. Remain true to yourself, take advantage of opportunities and be an involved undergraduate. These words have reshaped my views on Princeton life and allowed me to see beyond my homework and assignments as a third year, and I hope prospective students can come to college with these words in mind, using them as a guide.

Independent work is a defining part of the Princeton experience. As a junior, I write a Junior Paper (JP), which, for English concentrators, is a 25-30 page paper of my original research and argument. When it was announced that the semester would be virtual, I was initially nervous about how my JP would work. Would I have access to Firestone library resources? Would I have the virtual support from my JP adviser? Where would I even begin to start thinking about my topic? 

Luckily, the Department of English was more than prepared for virtual independent work. Every junior English concentrator gets assigned to a junior seminar, where we learn to engage with scholars, formulate an argument and close-read texts. The seminar was easily moved online to Zoom. Because there is a very small number of students in the course, we get to have in-depth, interesting conversations each week, and we really get to know each other. To practice for our JP, we submit three papers that each center on a different feature of English scholarly writing, and we also lead the discussion on a text once during the semester. 

English JP advisers are there to talk through your ideas every step of the way. I met with my JP adviser early on in the semester just to share some of the topics I was interested in, and then they pointed me towards various sources that may be helpful for my research. Not only are JP advisers ready to guide you, but other professors in the English department are as well. I’ve reached out to some of my English professors to discuss their research that relates to my topic, as well as just chat during Zoom office hours about my ideas.

Firestone Library also has many resources online for research. I’ve never yet encountered an issue when I needed to access something that wasn’t online, but Princeton librarians are also there to help, should students ever need access to something that they can’t find online. 

For my JP, I’ve decided to write on the role of unnamed female protagonists in literature. I’ll be comparing Zadie Smith’s "Swing Time", which has an unnamed female narrator, to Jane Austen’s "Emma", in which the heroine’s name is both the title of the text and the first word of the opening. As I’m also pursuing a certificate in Gender & Sexuality Studies, I’m interested in the questions: how do we interpret the literary choice to have an unnamed female protagonist: is it merely an implication of a lack of identity (as was previously argued by scholars), or might we center in on the female nameless protagonist, in particular, to understand the gendered implications of this choice? 

Image

Image

I’m looking forward to exploring my topic further and continuing to have the virtual support that Princeton offers for independent work! 

Xander de los Reyes '23

Image

I spent my last six months in the Marine Corps moonlighting as a bartender. I’ll always be grateful for that experience because, at a time when many separating service members experience a culture shock, I was able to make the Marine-to-civilian transition slowly and smoothly. It also taught me how to convert love for camaraderie into love for community, which carried me through the next two-and-a-half years of my civilian life, ultimately placing me into Princeton’s community. Here, I’ve found immense support and infinite resources. The Writing Center has helped me refine my papers, the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning has helped me decode Princeton’s syllabi and the support of my residential college (shoutout, Forbes!) has ensured that I make well-informed academic decisions. Because I’m a veteran and a transfer student, I’m currently enrolled in “Everyone’s an Expert." Unlike the traditional first-year writing seminars, this transfer-focused seminar builds on the unconventional backgrounds—academically or experientially—of veterans and transfer students. We’re taught how to build on writing skills acquired from our previous institutions and encouraged to draw on the experiences that make us unique students. Truthfully, it’s my favorite course because I’ve enjoyed interacting with other non-traditional students. Plus, as a prospective politics concentrator preparing for a writing-intensive career, I’m indebted to our instructor Dr. Keith Shaw, director of transfer, veteran, and non-traditional student programs—who also offers guidance and support for non-traditional students. The guidance and feedback he’s provided will have a lasting impact on my writing and academic mindset. Reflecting on all of these positive experiences makes it funny to look back and think about my initial worries. When I was first accepted, imposter syndrome set in. I felt like my admission was an anomaly and that Princeton would immediately overwhelm me. As the semester approached, those feelings of anxiety grew, but—because of Princeton’s useful resources and supportive community—they were quickly put to rest. All in all, Princeton has been an extraordinary community. Despite my initial fears, I now know I’m right where I belong—surrounded by encouragement and support. I’m a part of this community, and you could be, too.

Matthew Williams '24

As a Marine Corps veteran and transfer student, I am far removed from the realm of a typical first-year student at Princeton. I am 22 years old and from the great city of Fort Worth, Texas. I received my Princeton acceptance letter as I neared the end of my four-year enlistment in Spring 2020. This news was accompanied by varying emotions: excitement, worries, anxiety and anticipation. Perhaps my most daunting concern was the unknown academic challenges that I would soon endure. Fortunately for veteran and transfer students alike, there are two student-run organizations that have been central in ensuring my smooth transition in an otherwise challenging plane. The Princeton Student Veterans (PSV) and Princeton Transfer Association (PTA) held veteran and transfer-specific events, Q&A sessions and provided additional resources to my incoming cohort. These student-run organizations have proven invaluable as I reflect on my Princeton experience.

My first semester at Princeton University has been an equally challenging and exhilarating experience. I intend to concentrate in politics with an emphasis on political economy. Albeit through Zoom, there remains a thrill when you are studying under some of the world’s most prominent professors. The academic challenges I’ve faced pale in comparison to the resources Princeton offers. In addition to office hours, The McGraw Center is a helpful tool for both traditional and non-traditional students when you need additional help in a class. From the multitude of student clubs to simply chatting with other students after class, I have connected with several of the traditional first-year students despite being a part of the transfer program. I am proud to be a part of the growing student veteran population at Princeton University. Go Tigers!

This semester I am taking four live Zoom classes, two classes in my department, one for my certificate, and the last one for my Quantitative and Computational Reasoning graduation requirement. I generally start my classes at 11 a.m. and end at 3 p.m., with about two classes a day. As an African American Studies concentrator, a reading-based humanities concentration, I read A LOT of pages for class. I prefer to read throughout the day, so I’ll chop up my readings accordingly, but whatever I don’t get to, I let it be. I read everywhere around the house, but I like to type and take notes at my desk! Having a work space that I can walk away from helps me handle my college course load. On campus, we would definitely have time to go from class to class or walk to a friend’s room to study or hang out, so I like to carve out those times into my Zoom schedule as well. 

Image

In my classes with about 60-100 students, it's a little harder to participate, so I am usually more present mentally when we review material in small groups during precept. It feels about the same as my on-campus experience with large lectures, but seeing so many faces at once on Zoom can be a little intimidating. My smaller seminars on Zoom have given me a chance to talk more and ask questions during class that I would feel a little more hesitant to ask. I like the way that the virtual setting allows more space for questions with the chat and raise-your-hand features. As a result of these features, I think students are asking more questions during class rather than privately after, which helps me learn more about the material.

The most challenging part of the college experience this semester has been navigating my schedule and internship applications while being a first-generation, low-income and immigrant student. I make time to clean the house and wash dishes! I cook, sometimes during class, because I don’t get to be just a student at home. I must take up that responsibility as a young woman in an immigrant home because I choose to make that load lighter on my mom, but also because that's the expectation of a young woman in my culture. Being on campus alleviates that sometimes, but being home and managing all these parts of me has been pretty draining. 

I have had a lot on my plate, but I am trying my best to be present when I can and say no when I cannot as well. I ask for extensions, take some classes off when I’m very tired, and go to bed early. Saying no is a form of self-care in this college world. Be kind to yourself. Let all of who you are take up space because all of you will be taking up space in whatever institution you choose.

This is now my fourth semester tutoring "MAT 104: Calculus II" at Princeton's McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. Hearing this often comes as a shock to my friends given that I'm an English concetrator, but that's part of the reason I love Princeton: we are encouraged to pursue interests outside of our concentration. I took MAT 104 during my first semester, and I visited McGraw every other week or so for support on problem sets and exam studying. That's why, when I finished the class, I knew right away that I wanted to tutor for the course the following semester. 

McGraw is one of Princeton's many resources for support on campus, offering peer tutoring in math, chemistry, biology, physics and much more. Students can sign up for individual tutoring or just drop in for group sessions. Last semester, I worked individual tutoring shifts, where I had recurring appointments with several students. I always had a passion for math, specifically calculus, as well as teaching, so I looked forward to these sessions each week.

Image

The fall 2020 semester at Princeton is certainly different, to say the least, but I was incredibly impressed by how McGraw worked to shift their tutoring services to a virtual platform. This switch happened at the end of the spring last semester when we moved to virtual classes. Now having learned from their trial run in the late spring, McGraw made many changes so that virtual tutoring could feel as close to in-person tutoring as possible, utilizing Zoom breakout rooms, virtual white boards, virtual trainings for tutors and so much more. McGraw also recognized that schedules are constantly shifting during these unprecedented times, and students may need more support than they did in the past given that we are not on campus, so they now offer a lot more tutoring slots for students.

I am excited to tutor again this semester and work with students to support them through the course. It is the best feeling when a student comes back to me and tells me that they did well on an exam or that they feel more confident in class. I look forward to seeing how tutoring continues to help students virtually thrive at Princeton. 

Learning consultations, offered by the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, are held with trained peer consultants to help you organize and plan your academic agenda. You can schedule and plan a semester, a day, a week, an assignment or even if you are just managing your workload for a class.. These consultations are completely tailored to your situation and what you need to accomplish. I’ve made it a habit to schedule consultations for “Reading Period,” the week before all final papers are due on “Dean’s Date.” Sometimes, I get a little anxious with a ton of reading to do and a little flustered with a lot of unscheduled time, so these consultations help me set up a general outline of what I'd like to achieve.

One semester, I was tasked with writing three dean’s date papers and a final exam.  It was an unfortunate scheduling situation, but I needed a plan to achieve working through all the reading materials necessary for the papers, as well as studying and preparing for my final. So, I scheduled a learning consultation. First, my consultant asked some basic questions to gauge my comfort with each assignment and how much time I needed to dedicate to them. We scheduled rest breaks and even food breaks. We scheduled a timeline for when to read and write for my essays and also an in-depth breakdown of when and how to study for my final simultaneously. Because I was the least comfortable with my final, we scheduled the most time for it!

I felt completely ready to attack my little chunks of daily tasks for my finals rather than the overwhelming idea of studying and preparing for everything all at once. The best part for me was after we scheduled everything, we went back and scheduled backup times! While this in-depth plan was so helpful during reading period, I’ve also had consultations where all I needed was a general direction for the month. I am very involved on campus, so this guidance is useful. One thing my consultant told me that really helped to uplift my spirits was, “This is only a guide. Go at your own pace; it is okay if you don’t achieve everything on your list for the day. You’re doing amazing and doing your best.”

When you arrive at Princeton, one of the first bits of information you will receive is a crazy statistic about the percentage of students who will change their concentration from what they had initially planned to study. I remember feeling relieved to know it was okay if I didn’t have a detailed academic plan all settled the first month of my first semester.

I came into Princeton with a diverse array of academic interests. I liked journalism, entrepreneurship, history, religion, politics and public policy. The only thing I had decided on for certain was that I was not interested in science or engineering. Still, as a first-year student, I felt the pressure to know what I was doing, to take classes in “productive” fields and to fill as many requirements as I could my first semester.

One of the most valuable pieces of advice I received that first semester was to take risks -- to take upper level courses with small class sizes and to sign up for classes in subjects I knew little about in departments I had never considered. I was initially dubious. Why would I want to put myself at a disadvantage versus more experienced juniors and seniors? Wouldn’t it make more sense just to take Econ 101?

Yet, as my first semester began to take shape, I saw that taking risks was the right choice. I loved my small seminars – one with six students, another with three. I loved the chance to connect with professors and engage with new topics. I gained new confidence in my ability to approach difficult material in creative ways. 

If I had not been pushed in this way academically, I would never have discovered my ultimate academic passion or been able to take the diversity of classes I have experienced at Princeton. It is for that reason that I chose to become a “Peer Academic Adviser” (PAA) for my residential college — First College. PAAs are upperclass students who are trained to provide academic advice to their peers. We work with specific “Zee” groups (short for “advisee”) within our assigned residential colleges and also serve as important sounding boards for the residential college community as a whole. 

As a PAA, I have the chance to advise first years and sophomores still in the early stages of their Princeton academic journeys. While their academic backgrounds and ultimate goals may differ from mine, and they almost always have different academic interests (I’m a Near Eastern Studies concentrator.), I still feel as if I can help them make informed choices. My experiences, positive and negative, can be leveraged to help students find their passion and take their own risks when setting out on their path.

I look forward to advising sessions during informal study breaks or in more focused settings. Whether it is advising first-years registering for courses for the first time or working with sophomores making final choices about a concentration, there is something very satisfying about acting as a sounding board and giving the kind of advice that has made my Princeton experience so meaningful.

Image

Sophomore year has been one of personal and intellectual growth. With the help of the Office of Disability Services, I learned that I have generalized anxiety and it became a goal of mine, this year, to truly get to know myself.

Looking back to high school, my only goal was getting good grades, regardless of what mental strife I went through to get there. Through my time at Princeton, I learned that if you come to campus expecting perfection, you will be humbled very quickly. You’ll learn that grades are important but they aren’t the only thing of value here. At a school like Princeton, learning more about yourself and allowing yourself the space to do so is important, not only for your academic growth, but for  your mental health. 

Princeton is a rigorous academic institution, that’s a given, but something that is unique to the college experience is that by getting to know yourself on a personal level it can also contribute to greater academic success. In learning about yourself, you’ll discover your most effective study habits, what ways you best learn, are you a morning or night person, do you prefer to study in silence or with music, can you study in groups or do you need isolation, are you easily tired when reading large texts, etc.? You get to know which professors and students you work best with, which values you hold that are non-negotiable when working with others, how to approach large volumes of work, how to best study for different types of exams, when to rest and take a break, and whether you prefer to work in sections or work to completion.

At Princeton, you’ll also learn the importance of connecting with others and maintaining your own mental health. . It is necessary to go beyond just memorizing information in college; you will learn how to understand, analyze, and apply knowledge to contribute to a scholarly conversation or to progress thought as it relates to you and your unique perspective.  In your junior and senior year, the department you choose to concentrate in, the professors you work with, and the topics you want to research, relate heavily upon what YOU are interested in!

Ultimately, this year, I learned that in seeking academic success, it is important to get to know myself and put myself first. 

Image

An April month not so long ago (okay it was 27 years ago), I was trying to decide what college I would attend.  I was blessed with several options. Ultimately, Princeton felt like home. I found the thought of writing a thesis invigorating and was excited that I would be able to engage with professors from a variety of academic backgrounds. The director of the African-American Studies at the time, Cornel West, even took time out of his busy day to have a conversation with me. Even then, when Princeton still included loans as a part of its financial aid package, my offer was the strongest I received, and I knew my family would not have to worry about affording college.  While many things have changed about Princeton (like no loans) since my decision to attend, I chose to return to the University to work in the Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity to advance Princeton’s broad commitment to expand access and success for first-generation, low-to-moderate income (FLI) students at highly-selective colleges.

When I was a student at Princeton, I participated in a two-week summer program, Freshman Summer Orientation Program (FSOP) directed to students who may have been the first in their family to attend college.  Since returning to campus, I have the opportunity to collaborate with the Programs for Access and Inclusion (PAI). PAI offers several programs connecting FLI students with each other and with resources on campus to thrive.  As I reflect on my own challenges transitioning to college, it is a source of pride knowing that first-year and transfer students are able to benefit from the ongoing community they find through PAI programming. Some students may find community through their participation in the revamped and extended version of my beloved FSOP – Freshman Scholars Institute (FSI) or the four year leadership program, Scholars Institute Fellows Program (SIFP). 

I was drawn back to Princeton because of its commitment to service and providing students opportunities to be engaged in the vital work of demystifying selective college admission. In my role at Princeton, I have the opportunity to partner with a number of amazing programs such as Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) and Matriculate. As a Matriculate Advising Fellow, Princeton undergraduates provide online mentoring and coaching to high achieving FLI high school students to support their consideration of highly selective colleges and universities.  This partnership aligns with Princeton’s informal motto, "Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity."

During this “temporary abnormal,” as Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber '83 refers to this current state of affairs, try to enjoy exploring your college options. You will meet new people and learn about programs, activities and pathways that you may have never considered before. I encourage students to evaluate how a school fits your academic, extracurricular and other interests. I also encourage you to evaluate graduation rates, out-of-pocket expenses; and outcome data for colleges you are considering. Twenty-seven years ago, I chose Princeton as my home. I hope to see you on campus as a fellow Princetonian.

I often joke that I am completing my “senior year” at Princeton as I come upon my four-year anniversary in my role, at this institution, and within the local community. As I reflect on these past nearly four years, I think about how incredibly grateful I am to have partnered with countless students and committed colleagues in advancing diversity efforts at the University. I am equally appreciative of the community that I have built, as well as the community that has embraced me, during my time here.

I relocated to Princeton from my native home of St. Louis, a community where I have spent most of my life. A place that has reared me up, stretched me wide, and brought me both comfort and challenge. Princeton, as a community, continues to do these for me. It is my belief that we are to spread out and sprout up while navigating the winds along life’s journey. I chose Princeton University because I knew that I would be stretched in my perspective and understanding, and in my assignment. I would have the opportunity to connect with an array of individuals from diverse backgrounds, experiences, identities, narratives, etc. who would help expand my knowledge.  I chose Princeton because of its commitment to access, inclusion, equity and service. Because WE, as a community, work diligently to create an environment for students that is welcoming and challenging, intentional and engaging, supportive and empowering.

It is because of these reasons that I call Princeton home. Home transcends space and locale. It is a feeling. A sense. An experience. A being. It is my hope that Princeton is home for you over the next several years. In Campus Life and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion-Campus Life, we work to foster the feeling and experience of home for all students. Some ways that we collectively do this is through mentorship programs, such as the Princeton University Mentoring Program and Q’nnections, peer education initiatives, conversation and dialogue circles, community support groups and supporting individuals’ paths to meaning-making. Our team is available to you and here to help make connections throughout the community along your journey.

Why Princeton? Why not?

Welcome home!