Dad, Get Out of My Luggage

I triumphantly threw my last pair of pants into my luggage yesterday. I was finished packing. There are a few things that I need to put into my carry-on bag, like my laptop, but tonight I will pack away the things I usually use every day. I’d like to express major thanks to my mom who drove me around to shop for everything that I needed. Also I’d like to thank my dad who kept me company with the soundtrack of “Billy Elliott” on repeat while I triple-checked my luggage.

I spent my last days in Pinole with past and current Ivy League Connection students. Lucina Parada (Cornell 2008) and I drove around Pinole while she reassured me to study hard and have a lot of fun. Alex Elms (Cornell 2010 and UPenn 2011) and I went down to Pinole Park to throw the Frisbee around while we talked about packing and making reservations for dinners on the east coast. Although I will miss all the good people in Pinole, I intend to meet and make new friends at Brown.

After the Tony’s were over, I cleaned my room that I would be leaving for a month. It is a strange feeling to get ready for a big trip. I’ll be sleeping in a different bed and living in different places. I don’t mind much. It’s all a big adventure and I am more than ready for it.

Today, Ms. Larson gave all of Cohort #1 an early phone call at 9:30 AM. She checked in on the status of my packing and the weight of my luggage (which is 40 lbs.) while I updated her on contacting alumni. We parted on a good note, ready to meet up at 3:30 AM tomorrow morning.

Thank goodness I am in the first group that gets to leave for the ILC. I would get really antsy if another group went before me and I got to read about all their experiences on their blogs. I’ve waited patiently to get on this plane to the east coast, and the time has finally come.

I have Bossypants by Tina Fey and an SAT workbook for the 3,000 mile plane ride to Providence. See you on the other side!

Packing Is So Much Fun

If you couldn’t tell, I was being sarcastic in the title. I am frantically packing right now for our departure tomorrow. I thought I could get everything in order quickly, but apparently I was wrong. I should’ve been like Erin, who told me this morning that she had already finished packing her suitcase. I’ll try to finish as soon as possible so I can hopefully get some sleep. Regardless of how early I go to bed, though, I will be extremely tired waking up at 2:30 AM tomorrow. We’re meeting bright and early at 3:30 AM for our shuttle to the airport at 4 AM. I hope I’ll even be able to sleep; I’m too excited!

Word of advice to the second group: start packing early and see you at Brown!

Experience Meets Youth

Last Thursday evening several of our local Brown alums graciously gave of their time and met with four of this year's Brownies.  The Brown alums have offered to help take our Brown cohorts under their wings and mentor them as they prepare for that crucial time when they seek out the right fit of a college to attend.

Of course, our Brown alums would love to see each of these fine young women matriculate to Brown but at the very least they want to help them understand the subtleties of the college selection process.  Reading the material sent from the schools and researching them online are all valuable resources but they pale in comparison to speaking with someone who can give a first hand accounting of what it's like to apply, be accepted and attend a top flight university.

We thank our friends from the local Brown alumni association for their ongoing support for the Ivy League Connection and the students from the WCCUSD.

T-Minus One Month

At 7:30 this evening, I will look outside my front window and try to spot the airplane that will be taking my sister, Mariko Whitenack, and several others from El Cerrito High School to Japan for a study and culture trip, where they will stay for two weeks. This is the first time my sister will be away from home for so long, and I feel slightly strange not having her in the house. At the same time, the fact that she will be leaving makes me think about how I will be leaving for Brown University in less than a month. Brown Session 1 cohorts will be leaving next Tuesday, and I can already tell how ecstatic they are about going to Brown for about a month.

A crowded city in Japan

By next week, this blog will be flooding with posts from Brown Session I about the colleges they are visiting, their classes, what they like/dislike about the campus, and the people that they have met. At the same time, it makes me truly wonder what my experience will be like. I've taken classes at UC Berkeley for the past three summers, and for the first time since fourth grade, this will be the first summer that I am not doing ATDP (Academic Talent Development Program). That also feels strange; not doing the program. I am so used to writing an essay about myself and getting all my stuff together to send to UC Berkeley, but now, I am not. This time, I wrote an essay for Ivy League Connection and signed many forms to send to Brown University.

Brown University 

Today was the last day of school for El Cerrito High School, so the fact that it is summer vacation has not truly sunk in yet. I still feel like I have to scramble to finish math homework or remember Spanish drills, but I know in the next few days I will realize that sophomore year is truly over for me. I think that going to Brown will definitely help me prepare more for junior year; the most important year in high school.

Something else that struck me was the form of leadership. I was reading the ILC Yale blog last night and read Matt [Lee's] blog post about the ILC orientation, in which he mentioned when he got home that he and his family had a discussion about leadership. The course I will be taking focuses on the development of women leaders. I feel like no one is perfect and that everyone has something to work on. No one is a "natural-born leader" - it takes time, development, and growth to truly become a leader. Not just a leader to a community or nation, but a leader within ones self.

Burgers and Brown Mentors

Although I never expected to, I find that I am getting used to traveling by BART into San Francisco all dressed up. I am usually a casual dresser, choosing comfort over style, but of course one must always look one’s best at an Ivy League Connection function! This evening, my dad and I met Mr. Ramsey, Mr. Gosney, and my fellow Brownies Erinn, Kathleen, Adrianne, and their parents at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station. We were supposed to arrive by 5:30, but everyone was about ten minutes early. Perhaps we are starting a new trend for ILC participants! Everyone can only hope that it continues.

Tonight’s occasion–the Brown mentorship introductory dinner–was more relaxed than most ILC events. The dinner, as you might infer from the descriptive title, was intended to introduce interested ILC participants to prospective Brown alumni mentors. After traveling to San Francisco, we quickly made our way to the Hyatt Regency Hotel. We managed to find our dining room without too much trouble and made ourselves comfortable. Everyone circulated around the room while enjoying French fries and sliders. I met some amazing people and enjoyed myself immensely.

Lauren and Corynn Brodsky

I liked everyone that I spoke with, but I was especially inspired by a pair of sisters (Lauren '00 and Corynn '04 Brodsky) who were El Cerrito High school graduates as well as Brown alumni. Despite knowing that students from El Cerrito (Kiana, Cynthia, Irene) have been admitted to Brown, I think tonight I really realized that there are people from El Cerrito who have attended Ivy League schools. What’s even more amazing is that I actually got to meet those people. One of those people might even someday be my Brown mentor!

I am simply astounded at my good fortune.

Meeting the Mentors

On top of a wonderful Brown dinner, it was my birthday. I think it was a great way to spend my birthday, otherwise I would have been on my computer wasting my time. Instead I got to meet people that changed my entire opinion of Brown; I am even considering Brown as one of the colleges I will attend as an undergraduate. 

Unfortunately, more students would not commit enough to come to the dinner and all I can say is that they missed out on a wonderful evening full of stories of Brown and explanations of the deep connections of alums that runs through San Francisco.

Before coming to the dinner my opinion of Brown was a structureless school that is unchallenging and offers students excess freedom in classes. Although I had these skepticisms running through my mind when I talked to some of the alums, my opinion changed like some of the alums’ experiences coming to the Brown campus changed, they were slowly won over, but won over nonetheless.

I also realized that what I was told as a freshman, and was repeated this evening, was true: undergraduate school is were you explore, you do not have to have a structured plan and it won’t kill you to stray from your high school dream. I must have forgotten it along the way.

I also realized that the free core is not a bad decision. For example, I have to take classes where there are people I cannot relate to partly because some students do not have the same interests as I do. In Brown, I can bypass the awkward stage and dive head first into the studies I love and make friends faster in the environment I can thrive in. In this same environment, I can discover my true passion intentionally or unintentionally with each class I take. I can finally see what my friend Beilul Naizghi saw in this school; it is truly amazing.

Yet there is always the counterargument. I am still skeptic of the unstructured core, and I am still interested in technical school, but I am somewhat resolved to have a technical school as my graduate school and leave my time as an undergraduate at the school I like the best. The weather also detracts, but I can always overcome the Indian summers and the Frosty the Snowman winters.

After hearing the testimonies of the alums, I cannot wait to have stories of my own to tell my friends when I get back. I really cannot wait for Tuesday, but I have to admit I am not in any sense ready. I have to organize what I am to bring and coordinate with my cohorts, all in six days.

And as I mentioned, it is my birthday today so I will tell you about my cake. I can’t really compare it with the food we had at the Hyatt, but despite how my cake might look, it was sweet and moist, and I think I prefer it over the cupcakes. However the chocolate cupcake put my upside down pineapple coconut cake to shame. We also had some slider sandwiches that were delicious, but I accidentally put a lot of Dijon mustard on my sandwiches, which I can describe as putting too much wasabi on some sushi. 

I thank all of the Brown alums who came tonight that offered themselves as sources for my cohorts and I to use. I also thank Simon Hong who organized this dinner and for creating the chance for four fortunate students to talk personally to alums. I can't wait for the other activities we organize, and I wish more people took this opportunity.

Mentor Reception

Tonight we had our second Brown dinner in San Francisco, but this one was different from the first. This reception was for the Brown mentorship program, in which we each have the privilege of being paired up with a Brown mentor. There were only four of us ILCers as opposed to twelve at the last dinner, and the meeting was relatively informal, aside from our formal dress. The main purpose of our meeting was for the students to get to know some Brown alumni.

I was very happy to see Erinn, Adrianne, and Mariko again. We took the El Cerrito Plaza Bart to the City, where we dined at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. There were three large, round tables in our meeting room with many more chairs than we needed. Originally, everyone was scattered around different tables, but after a while, we left an entire table empty and crowded around the mentors to introduce ourselves and stir up interesting conversations. The food, styled in a grab-whatever-you-want fashion, was delicious. Burgers, and French fries, and cupcakes! Oh my!

We were able to mingle with Brown alumni, ask them our burning questions, and listen to the telling of their experiences in Providence. All of the mentors were eager to help us with the college process for any school, not just Brown. Some mentors graduated recently and some a while back, but they were all equally passionate about Brown. I learned many interesting things, from the variety of students we'll meet there to the option of receiving grades versus pass/fail for a course to the extreme weather in Rhode Island. A recurring theme throughout the night was that Brown was “the happiest place on Earth”; sorry Disneyland. And from the smiles on the alumni’s faces and their continuous praises of the school, I can see that Brown is a happy, happy place indeed. Hearing their stories makes me even more eager to leave for the East Coast!

The night ended with, as usual, a group picture by none other than ILC’s personal photographer, Mr. Don Gosney. As the mentors stuck around for their own meeting, our group decided to visit the atrium on the next level of the hotel. And let me tell you, it was beautiful. We took some more pictures and finally left the grand hotel to go home.

Today was a great opportunity to talk with Brown alumni about their personal experiences. Thank you Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Hong for organizing this event.

I’m extremely excited to be assigned a Brown mentor, and I’m even more excited that Brown Session #1 departs in six days! And did I mention it was Erinn’s birthday today? Happy birthday Erinn!