While pursuing a medical degree, Ho-Shia Thao ’09 took beginner ballet classes at a local dance studio. What began as a hobby quickly became a passion.
“There is a throughline in my trajectory from medical anthropology to medicine to dance, and that lies in the concept of healing as it pertains to the human body and experience,” said Thao, who serves as artistic director of the Hudson Ballet Theatre.
The decision to make the leap from medicine to a professional career in ballet was an easy one.
“I felt prepared for the change because I had already mastered perseverance and resiliency at Brown,” he said. “The mentality that there is no wrong choice in life continues to be a driving force for me some 15 years after graduating and it’s a message that embeds itself in my work as a choreographer as well.”
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📸: Lan Luu
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From art to film to music to dance, #BrownAlumni are reimagining the possibilities of artistic expression and sharing the sources of their creativity.
A new exhibit on view at Stonewall House is shedding light on the history of queer activism on campus through collaborative journals written by #BrownAlumni .
The entries cover topics like self-identity, LGBTQ community and activism during the height of the AIDS epidemic, and they are accompanied by present-day reflections from alumni who contributed to the journals.
At its core, Caitlin O’Neill, director of Brown’s LGBTQ Center, said the exhibit offers current Brown students a unique opportunity for historical and personal contemplation.
“They’re able to reflect on the experiences of past iterations of the LGBTQ community at Brown and how vastly different their experiences on campus have been, while also acknowledging how similar some of their hopes and desires were for their futures,” said O’Neill.
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In an interview with Brown’s research magazine Impact, Lina Fruzzetti, the University’s first tenured woman of color, reflected on her trailblazing career in anthropology and ethnographic filmmaking.
“The skills I gained from anthropology were the skills I lived with and experienced,” explained Fruzzetti, who retired this past May after teaching at Brown for nearly 50 years.
Born to an Eritrean mother and an Italian father, Fruzzetti arrived in the US during the 1960s as a young college student from Northeast Africa’s Nile River Valley in Sudan and the mountainous terrain of Eritrea.
Fruzzetti hopes her contributions and experiences as a displaced person, refugee, and immigrant will foster greater representation in academia.
“That's the legacy I want to leave: more people like me teaching in the different disciplines,” she said.
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A record-breaking 39 #Fulbright scholarships were awarded to recent Brown graduates for the 2024-25 academic year, making the University a top producing institution of @the_fulbright_program .
“This is our largest group of ‘Fulbrighters’ to date, and once more, this group reflects the ambitious paths all students at Brown take as they venture forth and make an impact in the world,” said Joel Simundich, assistant dean of the College for fellowships.
Brown’s newest cohort of Fulbright recipients submitted project proposals to teach and conduct research in 23 countries across North and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Research award recipients will pursue projects in a variety of fields, from microbiology and journalism to computer science and musicology. #BrownAlumni
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Just a few weeks ago, more than 5,000 #BrownAlumni and guests returned to College Hill for #BrownReunion !
Take a look back at some of the Brown traditions, connections, and moments that made it a weekend to remember. ✨
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Though their discoveries have led to the creation of hundreds of the medications we use today, physician-scientists constitute about 1.5 percent of all physicians in the United States. What’s more, the numbers are declining.
It’s one of the many pressing global health issues that Brown aims to address as it blazes a trail in biomedical research. In addition to building an integrated biomedical ecosystem with The Warren Alpert Medical School, School of Public Health, and School of Engineering, the University is expanding opportunities for trainees to seek dual careers as physician-scientists, among other things.
“Medical schools and health systems need to work together because we both share the view that physician-scientists are critical to our efforts to impact human health,” said Mukesh K. Jain, senior vice president for health affairs and dean of medicine and biological sciences. “I do not believe that everybody needs to be a physician-scientist. But we do need a critical mass, and that is being threatened today.”
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Alumni, faculty, leaders, and friends from Brown and Tougaloo College—a historically Black college in Mississippi—marked 60 years of the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership with a daylong celebration at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, June 6.
The 60th-anniversary celebration included a colloquium with panels and Q&As, performances by the Tougaloo College Chorale, and an evening gala that featured a special tribute to Brown-Tougaloo Partnership alumnus and longtime champion Dr. Galen Henderson—the first Black neurointensivist in the U.S. and a 1993 graduate of @alpertmedicalschool , who died in December 2023.
Established in 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement, the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership began as a student and faculty exchange program that aimed to enrich both campuses. Undergraduates from both schools spend time learning on the Brown and Tougaloo campuses, faculty build research collaborations, Tougaloo graduates pursuing medical careers enroll at the Medical School through an early-identification program, and more.
“The time that this partnership was forged was a very difficult time in this country,” said Brown’s Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity Sylvia Carey-Butler, who leads the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, which organized the event. “Yet here we are celebrating 60 years of enduring partnership.” #BrownAlumni
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This past weekend, @BrownU conferred 3,200+ degrees at its 256th Commencement. As #Brown2024 embarks on life after Brown, their fellow #BrownAlumni offered some words of wisdom. ✨
