Catamount Nation: How a Sense of Belonging Translated to Success in School

Perin Patel Explains How the Mosaic Center Aided his UVM Journey

When he was 13, Perin Patel immigrated from Chalamali, a small village in western India where his family managed a cotton farm. As his parents learned English, Patel interpreted bills and filled out paperwork. In high school in Bennington, he recalls being “one of two brown families” in town and the British English he knew didn’t always translate. “My friends in high school were my teachers.”

After being accepted to the University of Vermont, Patel enrolled in the Summer Enrichment Scholars Program (SESP), a free five-week experience run by UVM’s Mosaic Center for Students of Color, designed to help BIPOC, firstgeneration, and students of lower socioeconomic status connect with each other and persist to graduation. He is the first in his family to attend college and grew up thinking higher education was a stepping stone to a better life.

“Seeing how much we have struggled financially, socially, I just felt education would be a way of finding a sense of direction,” he said.

Patel’s freshman year was the first time he was plugged in socially. But he began struggling academically.

At the Mosaic Center, Patel felt comfortable sharing his problems because he could relate to other students of color who sometimes felt uncomfortable asking questions in predominantly white spaces. Feeling supported allowed him the freedom to transform. Patel became a peer advisor for SESP, treasurer of the Asian Student Union, a teaching assistant in the biochemistry department, and an undergraduate coordinator for the Indian Student Association.

And because he had a support system in place, including Alex Yin, executive director of Institutional Research and Assessment, and Bev Belisle, director of the Mosaic Center, he boosted his GPA by nearly a point and learned how to write a compelling admissions essay for graduate school.

“In my culture … we are not taught to brag,” Patel explains. “It was hard to see all I’ve done here.”

What he has done is tried to make students of color feel like they, too, belong at UVM. His senior year he was awarded the prestigious F.T. Kidder Medal, which is presented to the student who best exemplifies character, leadership, and scholarship traits.

Patel earned his master’s in pharmacology at UVM while serving as the Mosaic Center’s coordinator of leadership development and programs where he mentored students of color and educated UVM officials about the challenges that BIPOC students may face. For instance, sometimes a student’s religious and cultural background conflicts with the academic calendar and activities listed in a class syllabus. Educating faculty members about things to look for and ways to be more accommodating to students with different backgrounds is an important piece of the university’s goal to be more inclusive, he says. “This is what is going to help our student retention.”

These days Patel is no longer afraid to raise his hand, no longer shy about using his voice. He began dental school this fall and says he will practice what he learned about leadership and inclusion at UVM to “create a community where people of all backgrounds feel comfortable coming into my practice.”