Patience Rewarded

After a long process of degrading proteins and purifying DNA, I have seen my chromosomes—if small dots surrounded by cytoplasm are considered chromosomes. I was actually surprised that I saw any chromosomes, partly because I had to stay after class and rush to get it finished and half of the slide was covered in glue. Even after this anticipation, I have only “seen” the chromosomes, there was no analysis done to it that can tell me anything about what is coded inside or how those genes are expressed—that is saved for tomorrow.

Probably the hardest technique to master is patience. While viewing my slide, I saw next to nothing; there were a lot of lymphocyte nuclei, but none had ruptured and released their chromosomes. Ms. Hall and her TA have repeated several times to me that when your patience is done that is when to move on. Most students had left the lab before seeing their chromosomes because they didn’t have the patience to find one ruptured nucleus amongst tens of thousands of nuclei. I stayed a while after class and found my chromosomes with the help of Ms. Hall.

In a final test of my skill, I will be expected on Friday to present a subject that I randomly drew today. It will not only test whether I retained my understanding of the analysis of the techniques I learned, but if I can put all of the activities Brown is offering aside until I finished researching my subject and organizing my presentation.

Bonding At Brown

First of all, I would like to apologize for the misleading title. The Brown Session II cohort has not yet entered the dorms. However, we are now in Providence and if all goes well we will begin classes next Monday!

My dad woke me up around 2:30 AM, which is much too early for me. However, I knew that this amazing ILC experience would be worth every second of lost sleep. Brown Session II met at El Cerrito High School a little after 3. After the distribution of loaner items and obligatory picture taking, we all bade our families farewell and headed off to the Oakland Airport.

I attempted to sleep throughout our five hour plane ride--with limited success. When I finally gave up the battle for slumber, I ate the scrumptious blueberry muffins that my mother had packed me as a makeshift breakfast. 

As a side note for the plane ride, I was absolutely awestruck by the view–the Bay Area looked beautiful this morning, shrouded as it was by thick fog banks.

Once we arrived in Providence, Ms. Larson met us at the airport. After a mix-up with the rental vehicle the ten of us headed off to Hotel Providence, where I indulged myself in the luxury of a shower. We met in the lobby and took a short cab ride to the Capital Grille, where we met Mercedes Domenech and Elizabeth Hart, two admissions officers from Brown University, along with Kisa Takesue, our Women and Leadership instructor. I sat across from Adrianne Ramsey and next to Ava Burnell; I was also close to Ms. Takesue, who sat across from Ava. She gave us some excellent insight about Brown in general and the Women and Leadership course in particular. I am eagerly looking forward to moving into dorms on Monday!

After our delicious dinner, we seven W&L girls had a blogging party in the hotel lobby. I had always known that I would enjoy myself on the East Coast and at Brown, but I had failed to anticipate how much I would bond with my new friends from De Anza. I am so happy that this trip has helped me to form connections with girls from other schools in our district! Josie, Cynthia, and Rebecca are the friendliest, sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of traveling to the other side of the country with! I know that after our incredibly successful first day we will all have a blast in Rhode Island!

A last, celebratory comment–we didn’t get stuck in Chicago!

Making Progress

Today’s class covered the important concept of the AD-AS curve, which stands for the aggregate demand-aggregate supply curve. This curve that compares demand and supply in terms of the aggregate price level and real GDP is a vital tool when talking about the macroeconomy. Mr. Coleman discussed the distinction between long-run aggregate supply and short-run aggregate supply and the output gap that can result from the difference between actual aggregate output and potential output. Even though the economy is self-correcting in the long run, the government can enact fiscal policies or monetary policies to speed up recoveries. We also learned about money, a seemingly simple idea but is actually quite complex. The United States now uses fiat money, money that has value because we agree upon it, as opposed to commodity-backed money, which was used in our previous gold standard system.

We covered a ton of material in our class time so Mr. Coleman rewarded us by letting us finish Blood Diamond. I became very emotional at the end of the movie, but I tried to shield my tears from my classmates because from what I could tell, the boys sitting next to me weren’t crying. I really enjoyed the movie, but I’m disturbed by the horrific diamond wars in Africa.

Our group changed our presentation day to Thursday to give us more time to work on our project. We met in the SciLi at 4 PM to discuss our plans. Ellen didn’t show up because she was not feeling well, but Tomas, Johnny, Emily, and I were ready to work. We created a Google Doc PowerPoint presentation so that we can work on it individually. I’m almost finished with my section titled “China’s Economy: why do we care?” I still have to complete the evidence page after everyone gives me their sources. I am quite happy with the progress we’re making. We’ll be ready to present on Thursday.

To Brown Session 2: welcome to Providence!

Family Connections at Brown

Waking up this morning was much anticipated because I was looking forward to attending class, as well as Brown session two’s arrival in providence. In class we discussed aggregate supply and demand and these are just either the amount of finished goods desired by the consumers, or the amount of final goods supplied by the producers. It was fairly interesting, but not as interesting as other days. Tomorrow is our final group project and I am very excited to present our findings. As just a fun fact: if one person were trying to pay off California’s debt individually they would have to pay one dollar every second for over 850 years. This is just to put the debt into more relatable terms.
After class I was able to meet with my mom’s cousin, who is my cousin as well, Rolland Murrary. He is an English professor at Brown University focusing on American literature of the 20th century as well as literature from the Black Power movement. I had never met him previous to today so seeing him and talking to him about our large family and the differences between the family dynamics now and when he was growing up was very interesting. We ate lunch together and then afterwards he toured me around the English department area of Brown. Even though I had never seen him before today, to talk to another family member was a true treat for me.


After this amazing experience I met up with my group one last time before our final presentation tomorrow. We did mock presentations, modified our power points, and lastly made some additions. I am very confident that tomorrow my group mates and I will do an astounding job on our presentations. Our basic plan to reduce the budget deficit is to raise taxes on things such as alcohol, cigarettes, property, services, and other goods. The major income taxes will be placed upon the more wealth California citizens. We figured that if we cut spending’s you would cut too deeply into education, the long term driving force of any civilization. College students would receive less financial aid, and the primary and secondary schools would lose beneficial programs such as the arts or sports.
After completing this, my roommate, some friends and I had a cultural dance gathering in which we all listened and learned dance moves to each other cultural music. It was pretty interesting to see all of the dances that people do across the globe. I believe that you can tell a lot about certain cultures via their dance and song traditions. All in all today was a rather productive and interesting day. As the days get shorter here I am already beginning to miss this whole rollercoaster. Brown is truly amazing.

Finally Arrived in Rhode Island!

I awoke at 2 in the morning, and I automatically smiled - it was time to go to Rhode Island! I added a few more items to my suitcase, said goodbye to my mother and sister, and was taken to El Cerrito High School. I was excited to see everyone, even though we all looked really dreary! After being talked to by Don about loaner items and what we are expected to do on the trip, we all took the obligatory group photo. Just putting our arms around each other and smiling bought us closer.

After taking the shuttle to the airport, it hit me: we are almost here! We're really getting closer! We checked in our luggage, went through security, and got a quick breakfast while waiting to board the plane. Since our plane departed at almost six in the morning, the plane was not very crowded. I sat next to Josephine and we had a really nice conversation for the three hour plane ride to Chicago (plus taking multiple naps to catch up on sleep).

Our one hour layover in Chicago went by very quickly, and soon enough we were on our plane to Providence. The flight was only an hour and forty five minutes, so it went by pretty quickly. I sat with Josephine and my dad, and we had a nice conversation. All three of us held hands as our plane touched down on the runway - we were officially in Providence!

After taking a bathroom break, we quickly went to gather luggage, and then meet Ms. Larson! It was really great to see her again. She looked so happy, and told us a bit about how Brown Session 1 is going - I can't wait to see them!

Ms. Larson, Ms. Williams, Caroline, Rebecca, and I crowded into Ms. Larson's rental car while my dad took Josephine, Ava, Mariko, and Cindy. We had to wait for a while because there was a problem with my dad's car, but the problem was quickly solved and we were off to Hotel Providence.

The minute we stepped in the hotel, I was in awe. The lobby shone with gold and brass, marble floors, and beautiful tapestry. We waited for our luggage to be loaded while we received our roommate situation for the next five days. My roommate is Mariko! I am excited to be rooming with Mariko; ironically, we both have Macbooks! We were then informed by my dad that we would have an hour to dress for a formal dinner with our W&L teacher and Brown admission officers!

Our hotel room is absolutely gorgeous, small, but with all our assets. Mariko and I quickly cleaned and dressed for the dinner. The whole group met downstairs - everyone looked so fancy and nice.

Dinner was at the Capital Grille, and I ordered dry-aged sirloin steak with a side of mashed potatoes. I also got multiple Shirley Temples! I sat next to Kisa Takesue, our Women and Leadership teacher! She was so enthusiastic, energetic, personable, and very sociable. The table was seated a certain way: the sophomores had majority of the opportunity to talk to Kisa, whereas the juniors sat more centered around the two admission officers, Mercedes Domeneck and Elizabeth Hart. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Ava, Caroline, Mariko, Rebecca, and Kisa. Dinner was lovely and desert was delicious. We also sang happy birthday to Josephine, whose birthday is tomorrow.

Currently we are having a blogging party in the lobby! The internet connection is very sketchy in our hotel rooms, and although we have ethernet cables, connecting to the ethernet was hard as well. Fortunately, internet connection is perfect in the lobby. I'm glad I remembered what Brown Session 1 said!

Tomorrow, we will visit Boston University and Dartmouth College. I haven't seen Boston University before, but it will be exciting to see Dartmouth for a third time!

Bye Bye Bay Area, Hello East Coast!

Today the Brown 2 group finally set foot on the East Coast. The plane rides were grueling (from Oakland to Chicago, then from Chicago to Providence) and the luggage was hard to handle. Mr. Ramsey was kind enough to treat us TWICE to food at the airports. Thanks a bunch!

When we finally landed in Providence, I was so amazed by how much charm this city held. There are brick buildings as well as more modern pieces of architecture, and plants of every color are all over the place. It is a beautiful little town that holds a sense of peace and safety.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were given out keys and went to our respective rooms where we unpacked a bit and got ready for the dinner later that night with special guests Elizabeth Hart, Mercedes Domenech, and our Women and Leadership professor, Kisa Takesue. The girls and I asked them a lot of questions pertaining to Brown and the college admissions process (application reading).

The food was to die for— I personally got a vegetarian pasta dish that was delicious. There were complimentary desserts at the end of the meal which consisted of expresso cakes and crème bruele with berries.

Mercedes drove Josephine, Mariko and I back to Hotel Providence after the dinner. During the walk to the car, she pointed out the church where students of Brown held their graduation ceremony, Providence Mall, the area where the water fire shows take place, and the state building. Those are definitely attractions that we have to visit before we leave.

Although it has only been a day, I feel our group of seven has already grown closer and through this trip the bond will only grow stronger.

Someone Has to Walk to Providence

Tuesday July 5^th, 2011

The time: 2:50 AM

The weather: 57 degrees and dark

The mood: enthusiastically anxious

The first to arrive were two young ‘gentlemen’.  Since the group leaving today are headed to Brown University to take the Women & Leadership course (emphasis on the word ‘women’) I was pretty sure these two gentlemen were not there to replace any of the seven fine young ladies selected to represent the ILC.

Not knowing exactly what was going on I quizzed my two new friends to learn whether they were here to see someone off or whether they might be from a rival gang or something making sure they left town.

They were there to see off their De Anza HS friends to make sure they knew they had the support of their community.

In the six years of the ILC this is a first.  Family members, ILC administrators, Superintendent Dr. Harter and the occasional police officer but never just friends and members of the community.  Brava for our De Anza ladies for having such friends. (Did I mention how early it is?)

One by one our eager new Brownies arrived with family members in tow to have their luggage weighed, pick up the loaner items needed to make their stay more enjoyable and, of course, have the customary group photo taken so the world could see how anxious they were to embark on this new adventure.

As expected, all went well and the seven ladies and their chaperone were ready to depart.  Going along with them would by ILC administrators and School Board members Madeline Kronenberg and Charles Ramsey.

But wait—as they’re packing the airport shuttle it becoming clear that when the shuttle service understood that there would be ten people and their luggage to head to SFO they seemed to have trouble with those double digits used in higher mathematics.  There wasn’t room for 10 travelers plus the driver—not even if someone were to sit on someone else’s lap.  Talk about a major error at the shuttle company’s offices.  [Even before this has been written they have been contacted so a repeat of this will never happen again.]

The ILC is adaptive, though, and we would never let something like this slow us down.

Madeline volunteered to take BART to the airport so the others would not have their trip impeded.

After arriving at the BART station, though, it dawned on Madeline that the first BART train wouldn’t be taking passengers that early.  As a matter of fact, the first train at that station wouldn’t arrive until 4:27 AM arriving at the Coliseum Station at 4:55.  She would then have to catch the Air BART shuttle to then takes  about 20 minutes to get to the airport drop off lot.

Considering that she would still have to get from BART, through Homeland Security, down the miles of corridors to her departure gate and onto the plane in just 15 or so minutes, this would set a bad example for our ILCers.  Especially since anyone with a lick of sense would know it just wasn’t going to happen.

Fortunately, Madeline was lucky enough to be around Mariko Whitenack's father--David--who shuttled Madeline all the way to the airport (in record time)

Now all we have to do is wait on the blogs from the Brown-II group to start rolling in—any minute now.