Anticipation and Elation

I just want to say this has been a very long week. My last week of school, finals, and the Ivy League Connection school board presentation. Through it all though this presentation was definitely something I looked forward to. I am the student representative on our WCCUSD School Board and this event was something I've gotten used to going to. Although usually, I am up on stage listening and not in the crowd apart of presentations.

Ivy League Connection Brown Cohort
Komal, Bailey (me), Krystal, Lynda, Camila, and Aimee

I arrived at the board meeting, after finishing my penultimate final exam for the week, at around 5:45 PM. I immediately walked in and saw a huge crowd of protestors. I have been to a majority of the school board meetings this semester and I believe this was the biggest turnout yet. I was then able to spot a few members of my Brown cohort and even saw a few familiar faces that I know outside of the ILC. I also was greeted by our Brown chaperone, Joanne Whitlock. After mingling for a bit my Brown cohort and chaperone went over our positions when presenting, snapped a few pictures, and took seats in the reserved ILC seating area.

The view of the large crowd from the stage.

After a little over half an hour it was time for me to get on stage and for the board meeting to begin. After our first agenda items such as the usual welcome and meeting procedures I was recognized for participating as the student board representative (This was a big meeting for me in multiple ways). Next on the agenda was the ILC presentation. Vince Rhea was the presenter for ILC and introduced each cohort to the board. After two out of the five cohorts presented it was Brown's turn. The cohort walked with the flag to the front of the board and since I was not sitting with them in the crowd I met them halfway when walking from the stage. Mrs. Whitlock started by introducing each member of our cohort and giving a little background on our course and what we expect to gain from it. It was then Camila's turn to speak and she gave a wonderful presentation which I believe summarized majority of our cohort's thoughts and expressed our great gratitude for everyone who continues to support the ILC. The rest of the cohorts continued with their presentations and then we were left with two more presenters.

Arnold Dimas' was a former member of the Ivy League Connection and he gave us a great presentation on his experiences in the program. He reminded us of the many challenging times we will face as well as the many great experiences we will face. It was truly a great speech and made me excited to see how I will come out a changed person through the ILC. Our last presenter was Don who again expressed our gratitude to the supporters of the ILC and to us, the ILC scholarship recipients.

Finally, we went outside with the parents for a group picture, there was a very nice setup and I believe the picture came out wonderfully. After the group shot everybody got to mingle but I had to rush back inside to listen to all the important information and opinions in today's board meeting.

One last thing I forgot to mention, today we got a list of possible schools we might visit on our trip. This was probably the most exciting news of the night as I've been looking forward to this piece of the experience. We may possibly be visiting Emory University, Colombia University, and The University of Pennsylvania. Once again, with every step we make I become more excited for the journey we are about to endure. I got out of the board meeting fairly late and now it's time to get back to finals week and soon, the Ivy League Connection Brown Dinner.