During her senior year of high school, Shauna Brown '99 was awarded the prestigious Presidential Scholar Award. In ceremony and pomp, she traveled to the White House and was honored by President Clinton.
But few of the 1,800 other students at Downingtown Pennsylvania High School knew about it. A school where only 2 percent of the population is African-American, she was never officially recognized by her school for the honor she received.
"It wasn't announced at Senior Awards or at graduation. There was no explanation for it," Brown said. "I can only guess that it had to do with race. That was the first time that a race issue became really personal for me."
At Dartmouth, Brown is viewed by many as a vivacious campus activist, often one of the first people to turn to for comment when problems concerning race or prejudice arise at the College.
Students can easily identify Brown as one of the first who criticized the controversial "ghetto party" incident that sparked much debate last term.
"I think that many people got stuck on the 'ghetto party' itself and not the issues it brought up," Brown said, explaining that the real importance behind the incident got lost in the media frenzy that followed it.
"I think it is much bigger than that. The focus of our discussions were on community. It's more important to let voices be heard individually than to group people together and give them an opinion," Brown said.
Brown said such incidents were reflective of a larger national problem.
"I never expected everything to be resolved because the problem is bigger than us, bigger than Dartmouth. This is a problem all over the nation," she said. "If we resolve it at Dartmouth, then we really are a smart bunch."
However, Brown said she is not easily discouraged by the problems she sees on campus.
"I love the people. We come from all over the place. While it's often one of the most frustrating things, I like to see how we negotiate things and work together to come to form a community," she said.
Brown first became active in race relations at Dartmouth during her freshman year when someone wrote the racial slur "chink" on the doors of Asian-American students.
"We had a rally for that in less than 48 hours. The 'ghetto party' rally was not the first movement I've been a part of," she said.
She has helped organize numerous functions including last year's "The Dream at Dartmouth," a celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
"It was good to actually be doing something on MLK day instead of just sitting in a packed auditorium, listening to a lecture and then going home," Brown said.
As a leader in the African-American community at Dartmouth, she has had the chance to meet several notable African-Americans, such as filmmaker Spike Lee and law professor Lani Guinier.
"[Lani Guinier] is the first black woman to be a tenured professor of law at Harvard," Brown said. "When I met her, she was still at the University of Pennsylvania. About a month after she visited Dartmouth, she got the job at Harvard. It was pretty cool."
Reaching out and working with people is Brown's real love in life.
Brown recounted an incident that happened during the summer following her freshman year while she was teaching at an enrichment program in Connecticut.
"I asked one kid what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, 'I want to go to jail.' I was very shocked so I asked him why. He said, 'Because I have family there,'" Brown said.
"It shook me out of thinking that not everyone comes from a background like my own. It really made me want to teach more and reach out to more people," she said.
Brown, a history major and education minor, will be teaching at the Summerbridge Germantown enrichment program for middle school children in Philadelphia shortly after graduation this year.
Brown's love of teaching stems from her love of people, she said.
"I like people-watching," she said. "I enjoy watching people at their best -- I go to a lot of sports events, drama productions and other things like that. I like seeing people express their intelligences in the many ways -- we're all intelligent."
Brown is currently the president of the African-American Society and a member of Paleopitus, a senior honor society that advises College President James Wright.
Although her palette of activities keep her busy, she still finds time to enjoy herself. She said the music of Oleta Adams, Lauryn Hill, the jazz group Fourplay, and gospel singer John P. Key are some of her favorites.
"I like to read, too. One of my favorite books is 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' by Lorraine Hansberry," Brown said. "My other favorite is probably my Bible. I write in my journal all the time, too."
But of all the things Brown has experienced at Dartmouth her friendships are most important to her.
"I've made some really great friends and had some very meaningful relationships. If I take those with me when I graduate, I will be a happy girl," Brown said.
