Lesson on Preparation

I had had a bad day, the kind everyone experiences every once in a while. As I hurried out the door Wednesday evening, I was not going to let the day's events spoil the momentous evening ahead at the Hercules City Council Meeting. Unfortunately, I nearly did by arriving late, almost a sort of brush-with-death experience as the embarrassment reminded me of what a privilege it was to be an Ivy League Connection participant and what responsibilities came with the role.

As the event began and I finished scribbling a speech, I clumsily got my arm stuck in the crevice of a chair while reaching for my pen, thinking, "Oh dear, this is going on the blog."

Even though I had sat in on a couple of City Council meetings before with fellow Hercules High student Justin Bautista Jones, who by now is famous with the Council, addressing the Hercules City Council was quite a new experience. I’m not proud that I felt almost like a nervous wreck inside. As an ILC student who is only human and not immune to stage fright, I know the importance of recognizing one’s flaws and working to fix them. That night I listened with the utmost admiration for the many fellow ILC students who spoke with confidence, spoke from the heart with no need of notes scrawled on tiny, creased sheets of paper.

Mr. Ramsey and previous ILC participants have expressed what a transforming experience it is to be part of this program, both for individual students and eventually for their community. In light of this, I dream of returning from Cornell and telling everyone how the life-altering ILC experience helped me mature, taught me how to handle myself in a variety of situations and conquer public speaking. A host of experiences await us this summer, and I know they will reinforce in me the strength and confidence to be independent, to compete with other talented students from across the globe, and to take control of my own destiny.

My First City Council Meeting

I am 16 going on 17, and I have always lived in the city of Hercules, Ca. I attended Tiny Tots and Pre-school in Hercules. I attended Hercules Elementary School until it was renamed Lupine Hills Elementary School, and as a fifth grader I was part of the first ever graduating class of Lupines Hills. I went on to attend Hercules Middle School and now, I am a junior at Hercules High School.

That’s why I understand if it seems a little bit unusual that the May 24^th Hercules City Council meeting was the first one I’ve ever attended.

I could feel sad about that, but I’m just happy that I finally went to one.

I was told that as an ILC student, I was expected to say a few words at the meeting. I still don’t know how to prepare a speech, so I didn’t attempt to write a “legit speech”. I ended up just talking about how I felt again and I did get a few laughs, which I hear is a good thing.

The day after the meeting, Beilul Naizghi and I were sitting in our A period journalism class when our teacher Natalie Wojinski (who is a Hercules resident) praised us for doing a good job at the Council meeting. She had watched the entire thing on television. This came as somewhat of a surprise for us, even though both of us obviously knew that many people watch these meetings. For me, it was just the fact that someone we knew, someone we see and talk to everyday, had watched us speak. I guess it was an eye-opener, because at the actual City Council meeting, the Hercules City Council members had also listened both intently and graciously. People actually care about what we have to say.

From Zero to Hero

Last night marked a challenge in public speaking as I am sure many of my cohorts can attest to.

Being recognized by the Hercules City Council was actually a surprise to me. I understand that Hercules is swarming with hot issues and topics that need to be addressed, so it was an honor to be acknowledged by its members.

Unlike many of my fellow students who have lived in Hercules for much of their childhood, I still consider myself a "newcomer" in the neighborhood because I only moved in 6 years ago. While it may seem like more than enough time to become settled with my surroundings, there are so many things in this city that are completely foreign to me. I wouldn't be lying if I said that I felt like I didn't belong up there with my fellow ILC members from Hercules.

After wonderful words presented by Charles Ramsey and Terri Ishmael, I was the first of the students who had to stand up and speak. Presenting myself in public is something I am easily used to as I believe I am a highly outgoing, carefree, and eccentric person. However, my nervousness and intimidation shot up for three reasons.

One of them is the fact that my own family was there. While I am a very perky person, I trivially grow shy and quiet whenever I am in front of my family. One of the more legitimate reasons was that I had to speak to city administrators, which is something I have never experienced before. The last reason is that I am associated with a title as I spoke and that happened to be the Ivy League Connection. I do admit that I embarrass myself in public many times and as long as it makes people laugh and be happy, it is generally something that makes me feel happy as well. Unfortunately, such an odd liberty can no longer be granted when I am a part of an organization. If I make a fool out of myself, it makes a fool out of everyone in the ILC and I most definitely don't want that to happen.

I will admit that I grew quite envious throughout the night when people on the council and in the crowd would chuckle and laugh at the various things they said. I had a sincere anecdote and joke planned that I hoped would have garnered an amusing reception from the audience, but it fizzled out so quickly I think it may have been borderline-offensive.

But all jokes aside, the one thing I realized from this experience is that I am truly a part of this community. The fact the Council would recognize us like this and put off some valuable time to do so shows that our city appreciates us not because we might be outstanding students, but that we are Herculeans.

An Attempt at Public Speaking

As much as I respect the City Council, the meetings were never my thing.  They tended to be long, tedious, and I could barely understand what was being discussed.

That being said, it was rather strange to speak in front of the Hercules City Council on Tuesday night.  Public speaking has never been my forte, but in this case, people wanted to listen to what I had to say.  Or at least, it seemed that way, and that was enough motivation for me.

I do not think I felt any nervousness as I lined up behind the podium.  Nor did I feel anything as I became next in line to speak.  But once I walked up to the microphone, stared at my speech card for ideas, I could not help but feel afraid that I would make a blunder, a careless mistake in relaying how much this opportunity meant to me.

So, I did what any good public speaker does -- speak spontaneously, from what I could feel.  Not that I had many other options, the speech that I had in my head had been thrown out of the window as soon as I walked up to the podium.

I spoke about old aspirations, first impressions, great friends, and life-changing experiences.  Being me, I always had the ending planned out, and thus, I spoke about the future, and how I cannot wait for it.

Of course, all of the ILC members from Hercules spoke in front of the City Council.  And as has been customary the past few weeks, the speaking portion ended with Yueming Wang's thoughts of going to Cornell next school year, as well as Mr. Charles Ramsey's reiteration of the difficult process the candidates went through, as well as the intention to attract colleges to look at "not only Berkeley and Palo Alto," but Hercules as well.

As I listened to Terilyn's conversation about who she was, Beilul's carefully prepared speech that cited her experience, and Kathleen's readiness to represent Hercules, I reflected on the past seven months, since Ms. Ishmael first called in students to meet about the Ivy League Connection.  And to be honest, despite the hard work, the pains, and the bipolar joys of these past few months, I do not think I would trade them for anything.

And I really wouldn't.

The Hercules City Council Hosts the ILC

The evening was a beautiful climax to a typical Spring day here in West County.  The Hercules City Council opened their meeting as they have so many times in the past by welcoming the Hercules residents who are cohorts of the Ivy League Connection.

After the warm welcome from Mayor Joanne Ward, West Contra Costa Unified School Distirct School Board President Charles Ramsey explained to the gathered crowd--and those watching on TV from the comfort of their homes--about the history of the program and how the program positively affects so many of the young people from our community.

Following Mr. Ramsey, Hercules High Assistant Principal Terri Ishmael spoke on the application process and how these cohorts went from the "what's this all about" stage to the "what time does our first class start" stage.  Ms. Ishmael introduced the cohorts and invited each of them to step to the microphone to talk about their own involvement in the ILC.

Concluding the presentation, and before the traditional group photo, former ILC cohort and Hercules resident (and the big sister of current Columbia Constitutional Law cohort Eric Wang) spoke about how her own participation as a two time ILCer affected her.  Yueming Wang was a Hotelie at Cornell two years ago and last summer she attended the Presidential Powers course at Columbia University.

Yueming eloquently spoke of how she was a dyed in the wool Cal Bear fan until she saw what else was available to her.  After attending Cornell and Columbia her views towards Cal were altered-altered to the point where she will be studying engineering at Cornell starting this Fall.

What was clear this evening, as it has been since the beginning, the ILC saw once again that the Hercules community stands firmly behind their young students and if the ILC will help their young members of the community, then the Hercules community stands behind the ILC.

Connections

Last Wednesday evening, I managed to wait as long as possible (I couldn’t bear to leave and miss the Celtics game of course) before heading over to BART to meet up with my ILC cohorts to go to the fabulous restaurant Town Hall in San Francisco. Surprisingly, I was able to arrive at around the same time as everyone else, even beating Mr. Ramsey by a whopping two minutes. I was a bit nervous about the dinner going in, and the sight of Don in a fancy suit did not settle these nerves. For those who have not met Don, he is a more casual man, who even told me the first time I met him that I would “never see him dressed up anymore than his usual button-down shirt and khaki shorts,” so needless to say, seeing him in a nice suit showed that this would be a very serious dinner. Fortunately, the dinner turned out to be fun as well as serious.

Once we got inside our private dining room, I began looking for my place card while the adults drank their wine. I found my seat relatively early and instantly became jealous of fellow students Jobel, Kevin, and Terilyn, who were fortunate enough to sit at the same table. I was a bit nervous about sitting with more strangers than people I actually knew, but that too turned out to be a great experience. Seated at my table were my mom, Joe Arciniega and his mom Melissa, School Board member Mrs. Kronenberg, Hercules assistant principal Ms. Terri Ishmael, Cornell alums and classmates Bill Vederman ('63) and Peter Lee ('63), and the self-proclaimed youngest alumni, Ms Irma Anderson ('55).

The boisterous crowd made it quite difficult to hear across the table however, so I never really had the opportunity to talk to Ms. Ishmael or Ms. Anderson. Lucky for me, I happened to be seated directly next to the most entertaining and insightful guest at the whole dinner, Mr. Peter Lee (class of ’63). Now I know all of my cohorts will blog about how they were at the best table and that they had the best alums to talk to, but I am afraid that simply is not true. I can say with complete confidence that Peter Lee will be by far one of the most interesting people I will ever meet. He happened to be a guest of honor of sorts (of course) and even gave a speech about what opportunities Cornell gave him. My fellow ILCers Taylor and Terilyn also gave nice speeches, and they happened to be lucky enough to speak before Mr. Lee went up and worked his magic.

Peter instantly made me feel comfortable as soon as I met him, and he asked all the questions I would have expected, “what’s your best subject, what is the program about,” and the question alums seemed required to ask, “Are you planning on going to Cornell for college?” Once he began telling me about his experiences at Cornell did I fully realize that the ILC was giving me a once in a lifetime opportunity in attending a class at Cornell. Both my parents had gone to Cornell, so I was clearly going to be considering that as a potential college for me, but Peter told me something about Cornell that got me even more excited about this program, which I did not think was humanly possible. Peter Lee explained to me that Cornell was not only a place where you could receive a fantastic education, but also “a place where you can make connections that will last a lifetime, which is really what college is all about.” I look forward to making these connections at the summer program I will be attending, and am now looking forward to college more than ever, thanks to Mr. Peter Lee.

Putting the Wonderful in Wednesday

The company was sublime, the food was divine, complemented by a venue with panache, and the night was- well, cold…but nonetheless turned out to be electrifying.

Leading up to Wednesday evening’s adventure in the City, I was jittery but excited for the chance to grill alums on the Ivy League experience and to get acquainted with the ILC sponsors whose monumental support I had witnessed a week before, at the School Board Meeting. A floral Neiman’s number reserved for the occasion lent me a boost of confidence as I stepped out, determined to have fun and to forget about the AP test that awaited me in the morning. I was in for an eye-opener.

My father and I had the pleasure of being joined at the table by chaperone Ms. Tiffani Neal, ILC Selection Committee members: Mr. Izzy Ramsey, Mr. Henry Ramsey, and Mr. Herman Blackmon; the latter also was an ILC sponsor along with Mr. Wally Gordon.

Our table was rounded out by Mr. Kuehne, who happened to be the father of my friend and ILC Brown member, Erin Kuehne. Erin hadn’t told me that her dad was an alum of the Cornell School of Engineering, which was well-represented that night.

The inspirational speeches set the mood for the electrifying evening to come. My admiration goes out to Terilyn and Taylor, both of whom genuinely expressed exactly how I (and I’m sure the rest of us Cornellians) was feeling at the moment, their words better than I ever could have put it. As alums, sponsors, selection committee members, parents, school district supporters ‘popped up’ to introduced themselves, I marveled at how many people were gathered here in support of us. It really echoed what Mr. Peter Lee had said about the importance of forming life-long connections and the embodiment of being a Cornellian. I realized that there was a greater network of support behind us out there, much bigger than the eight of us journeying to Ithaca. Joe Arciniega put it impeccably that these were people who wished us success and had already made contributions to our success. I’m ready to make them proud in New York and share what I’ve gained from the experience with fellow students.

Mrs. Lilhanand, Mr. Ramsey, and Mrs. Kronenberg stressed the importance of bringing back to the WCCUSD community what we’ve learned from the ILC experience in the form of service learning projects and encouraging other students to reach for the Ivies. Indeed, ILC alum and future freshman at Cornell University, Yueming Wang certainly brought that quality to the table Wednesday night. Her stirring description of how Cornell and the ILC completely altered her point of view and bolstered her confidence that she and the rest of WSSUSD could compete just as well as anyone else from more privileged areas, fired me up for what will be the most difficult but most exhilarating three week experience of my life.

As the amazing evening carried on, I got to know Ms. Neal much better, as we chatted about what her past experiences chaperoning for Cornell were like. She is really pleasant, friendly, easy to talk to, and eager to help; I’m so glad she’ll be accompanying us to Chicago and Ithaca this summer! I was very impressed by Harvard Law graduate Mr. Izzy Ramsey. I have never been to the East Coast before, so his and Mr. Kuehne’s descriptions of the weather (especially the winter weather) made me all the more grateful for this summer sojourn.

Later on, Genevieve told me about the alums at her table, the sweet story of how Doug Mitarotonda and his wife Rachael Reichenbach met and got married at Cornell. I was also awed by Doug’s triple-major status and marveled at how he managed that while participating in varsity athletics. Genevieve passed onto me Doug’s tips from his cross-country days on the best trails to run during our stay at the beautiful Cornell campus. Genevieve, Joe, and I have already made plans to try them out; I’m so excited!

Amidst our conversations, the Cornell alums and ILC students were ushered outside to take group photos. I will always remember the iconic shots of the eight of us popping a pose on the courtyard boulders. We made it back in time for a sumptuous desert which concluded the evening. My one regret was that I never got to take a picture of the delicious, quickly-devoured food.