Spring 2024 Street Week Diaries: Black, Religious, and Low Income

Source: https://admission.princeton.edu/blogs/spring-2024-street-week-diaries-black-religious-and-low-income Parent: https://admission.princeton.edu/blogs/getting-out-comfort-zones-and-what-lays-beyond-them

February 6, 2024

Aminah Aliu '25

Hi! My name is Aminah, and I’m from Los Angeles, California. Though I applied to Princeton as a Neuroscience major, I’m now a senior in the Computer Science department with certificates in Entrepreneurship as well as Technology and Society. On campus, I am a member of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), the Princeton African Student Association (PASA) and the Scholars Institute Fellows Program (SIFP). I write poetry with Songline Slam, and have ... Read more

Blog

Getting Out: On Comfort Zones–and What Lays Beyond Them.

Blog

A Way to Live, A Way to Learn

Winter has a funny way of feeling like fall right about now.

I think it’s just new-semester weather:

The brisk mornings give way to trees that snap in the wind.

The sun is out, and students study outdoors in brightly-colored lawn chairs.

After a winter break that rid campus of most signs of life, it is once again teeming with activity.

Returning to campus, I made the decision to look into joining an eating club. Here’s a diary snapshot of what my experience has been like:

What is Street Week?

Well, first, what is an eating club?

Eating clubs are honestly a Princeton social construct. Think of a co-ed social group (not unlike a frat or sorority) except it also doubles as a dining hall for many upperclassmen.

Street week is a series of events tailored towards recruiting new members to join an eating club. Some clubs require you to undergo a process called bicker (the equivalent of rushing a sorority/fraternity) and some allow you to sign-in and join based on a lottery system.

Why Am I Participating?

Since returning from study abroad, I’ve felt disconnected from the other juniors on campus. Last semester, I was independent–meaning I cooked my own meals. As a result, I also ate on my own.

As my time starts to feel more limited, I want to spend less time on cooking while having more structured opportunities to reconnect with friends.

The Perils of the Street

In a way, the Street (where all the eating clubs are) is a fraught place.

As someone who wears the hijab and does not drink, I often have to choose which activities to sit out of and how I want to show up on the dance floor.

As a person of color, the Street is a place that confronts me with the predominantly white nature of Princeton. (Who is looking for the pretty Black girls on the Street?)

Throughout my experience of Street week, I continuously need to ask the clubs I’m visiting about their financial aid policies. The crux of my decision is reduced into a math problem: do I want to make friends or do I want to save money?

Hopes

I have found my conversations with club members to be less draining than I thought they would be. I have been trying to be myself, whatever that means.

I don’t know if I’ll get into an eating club, and that’s okay.

I let my identities prevent me from exploring the street for so long, so this is me trying to put myself out there. This is me being open to the experience. \