Bay Area Weather is the Best Weather

Wednesday night was the long awaited ILC School Board meeting; for me, however, it was just another regular board meeting--the exception being I was looking much more forward to this meeting than the ones in the past. I was not only going to get together with all of my cohort, but all of the other ILCers as well. There aren't many instances where we all get together, so I was ecstatic.

I came home after school and took a much needed two hour nap, knowing it was going to be a long night. I woke up, got dressed, and made my way over to Lovonya Dejean.  I arrived the same time as my leadership adviser at school, who I am incredibly proud to say received an administrative position over at Richmond High for the upcoming school year (congrats Hillyer!). My dad and I made our way into the building and figured the rest of the group was outside. My attempts of being early had once again failed, as Don began speaking right when I arrived.  He went over the basic procedures of the night and allowed us to meet our chaperones.

My cohort and I were then introduced to the lovely Kendra! She was incredibly sweet and nice, I'm sure we'll be getting along together just fine. Through the midst of all the conversation, the cold began biting at my hands, and so we all made our way back inside. I may or may not be over exaggerating, but it most definitely was cold, especially when it was beach weather just a day prior. Everyone became situated inside and I took my seat up on the stage along with the other Board members. 

Seeing how packed the room was that evening, I already knew there was going to be A LOT of public comment that night, and I was right--34 to be exact. The main issue being voiced that night was regarding the Serra Adult School. This has been floating around for quite a few months now, so it wasn't anything new to me; however, my fellow ILCers looked quite surprised as each person expressed their opinions on the issue. About half an hour later, public comment was over, and we moved onto the next item on the agenda. Right when President Block said "Ivy League Connection", I walked off the stage and joined the rest of the group. 

Don started us off introducing the program, its purpose, as well as what it offers. The wonderful chaperones then began to introduce each of their respective cohorts, including the student speakers. Evan, Robson, and Lindsay all spoke extremely well, considering our time constraint. It was then my turn to speak. I had chosen the topic of what we would be doing once we arrive over on the east coast. Being on the Board for the past 6 months has made me very comfortable around all the Board members and staff; however being on the other side is a bit more difficult than it seems. Once the speeches were over, we all headed outside to take our group photos. 

I don't remember a word I said

We all arranged ourselves according to Don's instruction, hoping the wind would die down a bit, it did not. Cold, windy air and group photos? What a wonderful combination. Don took over 40 pictures since every few minutes someone's hand would be in the air readjusting their hair (guilty). After the group pictures, Don took our individual cohort pictures and any other photo requests we had. 

After the group pictures, my dad left as I had to stay the rest of the night for the meeting. We took a few more photographs and most the ILCers and their families had left. Noor and Raqeeb's parents continued speaking with Don, and I decided to stay a little longer and catch up with the two. Despite the cold air, it was really nice talking to the two of them, our conversation was all over the place. Their parents were done talking and were ready to leave, we all said our goodbyes and they headed home while I made my way back up to the stage for the remainder of the meeting. 

I would say that this meeting was an overall success. We might have not received as much recognition from the School Board as we would have liked; however no one left unhappy. I was able to catch up with faces I hadn't seen in a while, as well as a few new ones. Best of all, we managed to get some great photographs out of it. With each milestone event, the time for our trips are approaching and I'm beginning to grow more and more restless.

I love them!

A Powerful Protest and Introspect from ILC

When I first arrived at Lavonya Dejean Middle, I heard loud drumming from protests outside the multipurpose room. I came fairly early, so I sat through the noise eating my pre-made dinner. After a couple of minutes, my mother and I decided it was time to go inside. 

Once I arrived at the courtyard I spent most of my time talking to my cohort members to catch up on everything we missed out. We introduced ourselves to our chaperone, Kendra Amerson, for the first time. We immediately set up a meet-and-greet dinner at a pottery and painting place. I liked the idea of spending time with my cohort members, and adding art to the meet up sounded ten times better.

Zunarah's speech was great at the
School Board meeting! 

When I entered the doors of the multipurpose room, I was surprised since I did not expected it to be so large. We soon found ourselves in the middle of a heated protest -- banners, speeches, angry adults, and all- making their way to fight for Serra. Serra is an adult school which the School Board planned on replacing with a Mandarin immersion school. Hearing all of the people's statements struck a sympathetic chord in my heart, and internally wished the best of luck for them.

After more than 30 speeches from Serra Adult School, it was our turn to present. Don first gave an introduction and summary of ILC's history, then the chaperones presented our names and courses we were taking. During this, we all proudly held up the representative banners for our colleges wide enough for the School Board to see. Lastly, each member of the four cohorts took turns saying their speeches and thanking the School Board for the support they've given over the years. I particularly liked Robson's speech, which emphasized his words by using "very" a plentiful amount of times.

When all the speeches were finished, we returned to the middle school's courtyard to take a couple of pictures. Most of us were shivering as Don took several shots of all the ILCers, their chaperones, and their parents. It took a good twenty minutes until all the pictures were taken, I was certain I blinked in almost all of them. Many of us stayed to take pictures with our friends and family. In the middle of it, I decided using the Brown University flag as a blanket would help keep me warm, and it certainly did. The ILC flags also served as awesome capes Jahnvi and I put to good use.

Jahnvi and I wearing our capes with pride.

As the day ended, I realized how grateful I was to meet the people coming with me in this journey. Amelia, Esmeralda, Kelsey, and Zunarah are all absolutely a blast to work with, and we get along perfectly. Ms. Amerson is cheerful and optimistic, two things we definitely need during this trip across the states. I can't wait to spend tons of time with them at Brown this summer!

Teamwork makes the dream work!

The Pieces are Coming Together

On Wednesday, May 24th, at 6:00 PM I met up with all the ILC cohorts at Lovonya DeJean Middle School for the School Board meeting, and to finally meet our wonderful chaperone. As I was on my way to the middle school I was rereading Don’s email to make sure that I wasn’t forgetting anything, fortunately everything was fine.

Upon arriving at the middle school there was a group of what seemed to look like protesters, standing outside of the multipurpose room. I hurriedly walked through the building and across the room to the courtyard, where I was pleased to see the familiar face of Don and other ILC members. I met up with Esmeralda and we chatted about how our finals were going for a while until Don instructed us to meet with our chaperones.

Our chaperone, Kendra Amerson, was already standing near us and we introduced ourselves. She was super nice, and she seemed like the perfect person to be our chaperone. We then discussed where we would be meeting up to get to know each other more. We all decided that painting pottery sounded really fun since we didn’t want the meetup to be completely centered around food. I have a strong passion for art, and love anything creative, so this felt like a great activity to do.

Discussing where we should go

We walked back into the multipurpose room and sat down in the front row. We held out our Brown University flag in front of us proudly. As the meeting began, I finally learned that the protesters were from Serra Adult School, many individuals from the school came up to speak about how they didn’t want their school to be closed.

When the school was done talking about their concerns, it was our time to get up and stand in front of the School Board, and have our chaperones and cohort speakers come up to the podium. I have to admit, I felt pretty nervous just standing up there. Don went up first and stated some very appalling statistics about the benefits that the ILC does for our members and communities. After Don’s impressive speech, the chaperones from each cohort came up and introduced each member to the board, then followed by the cohort speakers.

After everyone did their great speeches we headed back outside into the cold to take the group photo. It was extremely windy and everyone's hair was flying all over the place. While Don was snapping shots, I began to realize that everything has been happening so quickly. All of the pieces are coming together so quickly. It feels like just yesterday that I was at El Cerrito High School, waiting to go in for my interview. I am so grateful to be able to embark on this experience, and meet all of these wonderful people.

My cohort and the lovely Kendra Amerson.

T'was a Success

I woke up at 5 o'clock this morning incredibly confused; my lights were still on, my laptop was still open, and my headphones were still intact. Forgetting to set my alarm, I told myself I would wake up by 6. I put everything away, turned my light off, and drifted back to sleep. I'm sure that we could all definitely agree that waking up in the morning is not an easy task, especially when you're a deep sleeper like myself. After my dad's multiple attempts to wake me up, I had gotten out of bed at 7, and was out the door by 7:45.

For the sixth day this week, I was headed off to what I would practically call my second home-- De Anza High School. Arriving with 5 minutes to spare, I met with Kelsey who had also just arrived. We made our way to our way to the Information Technology Academy of the school and got settled in our seats. We were all supposed to get to work at 8 o'clock sharp, but as we all know, things do not always according to plan. Initially people were just having trouble logging onto the computers, but once logged on many began to experience connection issues. Don also had trouble connecting his laptop to the projector. Whilst troubleshooting, I realized that I talk A LOT, and not very quietly either, Robson suggested I should learn sign language.  After dealing with all of the technological issues, we got to work at about 9.

Don presented us an incredibly dense 50 page packet of everything and anything ILC related. Briefly going through the process and expectations of blogging, Don had us write a quick practice blog and then we moved onto the more fun stuff-- photography! He explained the importance of having an actual camera versus just using a good old smartphone. We all then made our way outside to practice taking pictures, which gave us a chance to all talk to one another. I, not being the most photogenic individual, took more pictures rather than being in them; however all of us just being outside taking pictures was really nice. After about 15 minutes or so we headed back inside.

Robson was the most photogenic of us all.

Once we came back inside, we uploaded our photos to MediaFire, which is where we will be uploading all of our pictures this summer. Don then discussed the dorms, what and what not to pack, how to keep our items secure, and mainly just what to expect when we head back east. We had a little practice round of securing our laptops with a laptop security cable, which it definitely quite handy, especially while traveling. Once that was over, all that was left to do was clean up the room and then we were done for the day. I helped Raqeeb and Cecilia (who I learned has a love for cutting things), take down the ILC poster out front, bid everyone farewell, and then made my way home.

I would definitely say that today was a success; there may have been some minor set backs, but having the chance to spend the day with such amazing people was such a great experience. Everyone was incredibly kind and friendly, and I am definitely glad that I got to meet every single one of them. I absolutely love meeting new people, I enjoyed today quite a bit. It brought us all much closer.With about two months left before heading to Brown, my patience really is being tested. I have no doubt that I am going to have an absolutely amazing time over on the east coast, I can't wait!

Can't wait to spend my summer with them!

Chips, Cameras, Action!

I came to the tutorial at 7:45 in the morning, which took me a 40 minute drive from Pittsburg. I was greeted by a huge ILC poster and many of my cohorts. I was pleasantly surprised to see many of them come so early, and ended up having a nice chat with them as we helped Don set up for the session. Within a couple of minutes using my strength assisting others carrying tables and food, I realized was not helping much with the tasks because, I am in fact, very weak.

Many of us wondered why this sign was placed at the front of the school. I wanted to know the stories behind the prohibition of Go Carts, Kites, and Laser Tag.

We weren't able to get to work immediately since Don seemed to have trouble with his computer booting up. To make matters even worse, only two rows of school computers had working USB ports and half of them did not function at all. When we started, Don talked about emails, phone calls, blogging, and making blog spot profiles. He also reintroduced us to his several personalities, but we all knew to fear the one and only frightful Guantanamo Don. We were reminded that being in the program is a privilege, not a right, and each of one us has to adhere the rules or we would lose our scholarship.

The next task we had was learning the skills of blogging and be able to differentiate what a bad blog looked like, compared to a good one. During this, we had to use Don's practice blog to give us some time to get used to formatting our blogs. My cohorts and I were able to let loose and create silly blogs, which still followed the format that Don laid out for us. I ended up writing two paragraphs about how Frito's chips and cookies blended their flavors well with one another. I had an enjoyable time writing and reading what everyone had posted, this task was definitely my favorite part of the tutorial.

Don gave us loaner cameras to practice our photography skills. I decided to pair up with Cecilia since there weren't enough cameras for everyone to use. We all took a breath of fresh air outside and used the school's scenery to fuel our creative inspiration, making wonderful and silly photos in the few minutes we had.

Kelsey immediately became everyone's favorite model.

Evan becoming the ultimate camouflage master.

After transferring our photos into Media fire, Don lectured us on several important things about the meetings and the big trip. He also gave us a hands on experience on how to use some of the loaner items that could be provided in the trip. In our small group, we all took turns and passed around an Ethernet cable, computer, and laptop security cable. Each of us had to lock and unlock the security cable, which was an item of necessity to avoid our computers being stolen while traveling. Out of all the cohorts, Brown seemed to have the most required items due to the dorms, weather, and outdoor activities. From everything I've heard from Don, the Brown cohort sounds like a rough boot camp, but I believe boot camps can still be fun with the right people!

Today was an educational and amusing experience, and it was nice to see several faces I knew from other cohorts. I'm excited to share more of my time with all of them, I look forward to the opportunities and experiences I'll have with all five of the my teammates during the big trip.

The Brown cohort is back in business!

Overall a Great Day

The day was supposed to start at eight o’clock sharp but due to technological setbacks we started around nine o’clock. As our day progressed we learned many things like how to stay away from “Evil Don,” tips on how to take pictures, the cable test, and most of all don’t trust technology to do something when you want it to. 

Right off the bat we started by writing a practice blog to work on our formatting. Don gave us the freedom for the content and I took this a little overboard. While everyone else either wrote about nothing in general or a movie review I decided on dedicating four paragraphs to Justin Bieber. I repeated facts that I learned in sixth grade that I surprisingly still remember. Those who know me saw the title of my passage “Bieber Fever” and immediately knew it was me who wrote it. 

After about an hour of “Evil Don” threatening to become “Guantanamo Don” I realized that I would rather not bring out “Evil Don” even if it was directed at the computer lab equipment and the Wi-Fi connection. I can only imagine what it would be like to meet “Guantanamo Don.” Hopefully I will never have to meet either when they are directed at me.

Once we got to the picture taking portion we went outside and started taking pictures with our cohort, of our fellow ILCers, and of the little plant life we had at our disposal. It was a great bonding experience I got to know everyone on a basic level. We spent about 30 minutes taking pictures of anything we could find that has a small amount of color before going to back to work. 

The next task we were given was the cable test and the laptop security cable test. Now sadly the world we live in we can never know what type of people are around us so it is key to always be on alert. Being 5’-2” and a female some may see me as a target so a laptop security cable could be the difference between filling a police report and being able to go about my day problem free. We went around placing the cable back into the small bag it comes in, no one seemed to have a problem with this test. Next we tested our lock opening skills by inserting and removing the lock from the laptop. One can never be too safe.

Aside from the delays and the test it was an overall great day.

Someone Has Technology Karma

Today I woke up at 6 AM and couldn’t resist the urge to close my eyes for a few more minutes. After procrastinating to get up for about 30 minutes, I told myself to stop being lazy and just got up. I got ready and drove down to De Anza High School, where everyone would be meeting up for the tutorial. As I exited my car I saw Zunarah pull up behind me, and we walked towards the ILC banner together. I walked into the computer room and met with all the other wonderful cohorts. I think it’s safe to say that we were all pretty exhausted, especially since this was the first week of school after Spring Break.

After saying good morning, we all found a seat and sat down in front of a computer. The first technical issue raised when a few computers wouldn’t connect to the Internet, then a teacher explained to Don that only the first two rows had working USB ports. Don looked like he saw a ghost, when he heard that. I began to wonder jokingly if someone had technology karma, since our laptops weren't working at the library the last time we met up as well.

Then the technical difficulties started to really begin, it was like all technology in the room didn’t want to cooperate. Don eventually had to even switch laptops because his wasn’t working. He simply grabbed his backup and plugged it in. I was really impressed that Don came prepared like that, I would have never thought of bringing an entire extra laptop. This just showed me how valuable being prepared really is.

  

After some time, Don began to just explain the tutorial without his laptop. We were warned about the types of "Don's" we can encounter if we aren’t careful. We were also reminded how important it is to check emails since things in the ILC are happening rapidly. This tip can not only benefit me in the ILC but for life in general. Getting into the habit of checking your emails every day can really aid you in real life because it shows how punctual, responsible, and reliable you are.

Don also said something that made a lot of sense and I take for granted. We all have cellphones, yet we rarely ever make calls, so what’s the point of even having one? Plus, things get accomplished so much more quickly with a 30 second phone call, then back and forth texting for over 45 minutes. I think that I will take advantage of using my phone to actually make calls more, instead of just leaving a text.

After praying that Don's laptop would connect to the projector, it finally did and he opened up the pdf of the tutorial on the overhead. We went over more important elements and directions until we decided to go outside and practice taking pictures. Me and Esmerelda partnered up and we took pictures of each other, experimenting with what different angles, lighting, and more does to a photo. It was really funny to see everyone acting like models. Especially when we didn’t know what pose to do, or what background we should take advantage of.

Me modeling in front of some nice greenery.

Time really does fly. The pieces are coming together, and soon me and my cohort will be off to Brown together.

From left to right: Esmeralda Topete, Bianche Cordova, Kelsey Hetheringon, Amelia Meacham, Zunarah Ahmad