Florin Najera-Uresti '21 (ICer)

This week, we interviewed Florin Najera-Uresti '21 (she/her/hers) for the Independent Concentration Student Spotlight! Florin is concentrating in Migration, Borders, and Identity Studies. She is currently participating in The Swearer Center at Brown University's Brown in Washington Program. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Can you explain your IC?

It explores the causes and effects of migration, the ways in which identity is shaped by the migrant experience, the notion of borders, and the discourse about migrants in the media.

Why propose an IC as opposed to an existing concentration?

Almost four years ago, I read an article about a girl who had graduated with a concentration in happiness. I read about Brown’s IC options and had been exploring this in my head for quite a few years. I dabbled in a lot of other concentrations. I was a Development Studies major before, and also pre-med before. Finally, I just decided to study something that was basically my passion put into academics. What was the IC process like?

I declared my concentration during the fall of my junior year, which is the last semester you can declare an IC. I had been working on it for a long time before but I couldn’t quite verbalize what it was I wanted to do. Had I gone to the CRC for resources, I could have done it because there are a lot of people that are willing to help.

I declared it and it got mostly approved on the first try, so that was really exciting. Then I made some revisions that the committee saw were needed and it got approved. The IC declaration process has a reputation for being very challenging - why did you decide to push through it? Was it as challenging as you expected?

It definitely does have a reputation. It inhibited me from doing it earlier. Any advice I would give is starting as early as possible because then you can start taking the classes you want earlier on. You get to take even more classes that go into your concentration.

I decided to do it because I had been taking a lot of those classes anyway. In my previous concentration, I thought about doing a capstone or taking courses like the ones in my IC.

The challenging part was putting into words what I wanted to do. I knew what I was doing in my head. I knew the classes that I needed to get there, but I think the first thing was putting my IC concept into words and into the proposal itself. Also, I chose to take courses I knew would challenge me and weren't in my comfort zone, but I wanted my IC to be well-rounded. Advice for someone who wants to pursue an IC?

Start early on. For first-years, I would say take as many first year seminars as you can because it’s the only year you can. That’s how I found my passion. It grounded my passions into academic ideas. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Everybody tells you this, but you never do it, or at least I didn’t.