Wildcat Day

Today was the day that we'd all been waiting for... "we" being my family and I. Today was Wildcat Day at Northwestern and it was absolutely amazing.

Our day started at about 9:00am when we started out towards the campus. We discovered that there was a shuttle that would take us from our hotel straight to the student center at Northwestern for free, so that made transportation much more convenient than expected. We arrived at Northwestern at about 9:30am and sat down in Norris Hall for a nice continental breakfast with other accepted NU students who registered for Wildcat day. Of course, we were only in there for about ten minutes before they decided to start moving people into their info sessions for their specific college.

For all of you who don't know, which should be just about everybody reading this, I was accepted to the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. I did not know exactly what I wanted to study when I applied, so I figured the arts and sciences college would be a good place to start. Our Weinberg info session began with a speaker who's only job seemed to be to introduce other more important speakers.

   The Intro Guy

After him, however, came the President of Northwestern, Morton O. Schapiro, and he had some truly inspiring words. He spoke to us as regular human beings and didn't try to use fancy words to make himself and the school sound more sophisticated. He was open and honest with us and told us exactly what he thought put NU above other universities. He openly acknowledged that college is college and that we will all have amazing experiences anywhere we go. He even went so far as to say, "You'll have the same experiences anywhere you go, you'll just have them with different people." However, that was what he used to put NU over the top. He said that because our experiences would be similar anywhere, then it was the people we had to focus on, and he said the students at Northwestern are among the best in the world, not just academically, but socially as well. NU students have more drive in life and are genuinely motivated to do as much as they can within their environments. The president was amazingly straight forward and truly made me want to become a part of this community.

After the info session we walked out into the lobby of the building and spoke with a representative from humanities. I know that I am interested in screenwriting, so I asked her a few questions about the creative writing programs around campus. This woman turned out to teach a creative writing class and soon proved to be the absolute perfect person for me to talk to. She told me all about the options that I had at Northwestern and even made a suggestion to think about changing to the communications college. That is apparently where the screenwriting major is, but it is a very selective program. Because of her I know what my choices are and will be much more prepared to choose my classes if I come to NU. 

Then, after speaking to the woman we headed back over to the student center for an organized lunch with the other registered Wildcat Day students (I know, lunch came pretty soon after breakfast, but they organized it, not me). We sat with another prospective student named Eleanor and a NU senior named Elyse. We sat for about an hour chatting away and bouncing any kinds of questions we had off of the bubbly, outgoing senior.

Eleanor (right), Elyse (middle), and me (that handsome fella on the left)

As fabulous as lunch was however, it didn't quite top the next portion of my day. At about 1:00pm, I met with Stephanie Ny who is an ILC alumni who attended the Yale program with my brother, Matt, back when they were juniors in high school. Stephanie is now a sophomore at Northwestern and agreed to show me around campus with her commentary on everything around. We saw everything from the the gym to the dorms and I even got to sit in on her sociology class with her. The class was fifty minutes long which was much more enjoyable than my ninety minute classes at El Cerrito High School. The class was extremely interesting since we happened to be studying differences in private, public, and boarding high schools. When we looked at the top sixteen high schools in the nation, I couldn't believe that ECHS wasn't on the list. 

Unfortunately, my parents had a financial aid meeting while Stephanie and I were together and my mom was in possession of the camera at that time. I would've loved to post a picture of Stephanie and myself, but if you are reading this Stephanie, I would just like to thank you again for all of your time and help. Your info and company was very very very much appreciated.

After my time with Stephanie, my family and I participated in a Housing Tour where we got a look at all of the different housing options around campus. We walked into Allison Hall, which is mostly made up of freshmen and sophomores. In fact, all of the students who live on campus are mostly freshmen and sophomores. Most of the juniors and seniors either find their own apartments to live in (which are never more than a block or two away from campus) or go to study abroad. This tour gave me a lot of insight on where I might like to live and provided me with information about every dorm on campus.

A fellow student and I following our tour guide

After that, my Wildcat Day was at an end. My family and I called the shuttle again to bring us back to the hotel and went out for dinner at the Chili's restaurant located across the street. Not a very swanky dinner, but we were all extremely tired and the closer the restaurant the better for us. Tomorrow we are planning to tour Chicago a little more and we will definitely go somewhere a little nicer then. As for Wildcat Day, I have to say it was a HUGE success. I loved Northwestern even more than before simply because of all the resources that I know will be available for me and the wonderful people that I know will surround me. If I choose to come to Northwestern I know I will be well taken care of and I am sure that I could be perfectly happy as a Wildcat. 

I will talk to you all tomorrow, but before I go, I would like to leave you with a few more pictures from one of the best campuses in the country. Good night everyone! Enjoy

This is "The Rock". The rule around campus is that if you sleep outside of it for a night then you are allowed to paint it however you'd like (hence the tent). It's current inscription, "I agree with markwell" is in reference to a religious phenom that's going on around campus as of now. I've heard that people have proposed to each other by painting the rock and also that someone painted The Rock like a rock. I think that's the most ironically clever one that I've heard.

This is the Northwestern Arch which greets you as you walk onto campus. This beautiful piece of work is the perfect way for Northwestern to say hello to you and is also surprisingly young. The arch was made in 1993, meaning that it is only a year older than I am. It's a great place for clubs to advertise their events and so you will constantly see posters and chalk on the floor like you do here.

This isn't anything special, but I thought it was a cool picture of me. It was taken in an attempt to snap a shot of our elusive tour guide but this picture only got his leg. It seemed that every time my mom tried to take his picture he would make a turn or walk behind someone. I think he did it on purpose, but who knows. Also, since this is the end of my entry for tonight, I need a creative way to end it, so think of this picture as me walking away from the blog. Fading...fading...fading...gone.

The Return of the King

GUESS WHO'S BACK!!! That's right everybody, for three days only, yours truly will be blogging about his return to Illinois where he will get a second look at Northwestern University and explore the wonders that the historical cities of Chicago and Evanston have to offer.

But let's start small. My journey began at 4:45 this morning. It was supposed to start at 4:00 technically, but I guess I slept through the first alarm. No big deal though. I was ready to roll. My family and I knew that we would be going straight from the O'Hare airport to Wrigley Field, so we packed the night before in only backpacks as opposed to suitcases. That way we could go straight to the field without having to drop our luggage anywhere. I would like it to be known, that my backpack weighed only about ten pounds. I couldn't help but feel that Don Gosney would be proud of me.

But anyways, we got to the airport at about 5:45am. I was about ready to fall asleep while standing but I managed to stay awake long enough to board the plane.

Sleepy me and always peppy Pops at SFO

The plane ride itself was smooth and fairly uneventful. I watched both of the Fantastic Four movies and caught about an hour of sleep. My mom, who had fallen asleep between the two movies, woke up and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, this movie has been on for almost 3 1/2 hours!" That was good for a quick laugh, but that was about as crazy as things got on the plane.

However, when we landed things started to kick off. We touched down at about 12:30pm and immediately raced towards the train station to catch our 2:00pm Cubs game. We had to ask for directions and instructions a few times on how to get to the field and how to take the train, but after all the running, walking, train riding, and bus riding we ended up outside the stadium at about 2:45.

Pop and fully awake me at Wrigley Field

Much to my surprise, when we walked in towards our seats it was already the top of the 5th inning. I thought it might be in the 3rd at the most, but that was ok. The field was amazing and the game was great. Our bleacher seats in right-center field were good...

The Fam inside Wrigley

...but we found it was the seagulls who had the best seats in the house.

You can't see them so well here, but the white dots on the grass are birds who decided they wanted to play for a while. There were about five of them participating at any given time.

Soon, however, the game was over and the Cubs lost: 4-3. It was a real heart-breaker but we knew it was time to move on. The next item on our list: Giordano's Pizza.

I had been raving about this place ever since I got back from Cornell last summer. I told my parents that we had to go and that it would be the best pizza they had ever had. So good, that they wouldn't even be able to take their face away from their food to take a picture.

Sort of like this

Our original Chicago style pizza was so good, I was near tears. They ran out of french fries at the Cubs game so I had been starving since the 8th inning. If I do end up coming to Northwestern, I can honestly say that Giordano's pizza will have been a big part of my decision. You can't get it anywhere except Chicago so if I go somewhere else I might just have to build one in my new city. Plain and simple.

After Giordano's however, our day was pretty much at an end. We found our way back to the train and took it over to the Hilton Garden Inn in Evanston. I had to do a bunch of homework when I got back to the room (since it is technically still a school night) and then began to write this... for lack of a better word, fabulous blog. We are planning to take a shuttle to Wildcat Day tomorrow and find fun activities to do at Northwestern and in Evanston. More on that tomorrow though. For tonight, may I just say that Chicago is amazing and I am so happy to be here. Thank you again for this opportunity ILC. I am forever grateful to you all. Good night! I will talk to you all tomorrow!

ADOCH Part II

On Tuesday I woke up after a long, fun-filled night and had breakfast with Irene before heading to the academic fair, where I talked to Professor Kenny Breuer again and also explored the booths for engineering, environmental science, gender studies, physics, religious studies, and cognitive neuroscience.

I especially enjoyed the environmental science booth, the only one that didn’t have paper fliers. A couple of other pre-frosh and I were given basically a mini-lecture about how it’s important to understand economics when you’re studying environmental science, since sustainable products can’t be put on the market (and can’t make a difference) unless they are financially sustainable, too.

After the fair, I decided to attend The American Presidency, since I missed the biology course I had planned on attending. The course was interesting at first, but I admit that I started to nod off a bit about half way through, which was probably partly due to the fact that I hadn’t slept much the night before.   

I met up with some other pre-frosh then and mingled a bit before being led to Brown’s indoor track by the Brown Band, which was super fun! I absolutely love the Brown Band. (They also performed at the talent show the night before, and were one of the groups that I considered absolutely inspiring.) All the pre-frosh were given lunch and while we were eating, we were treated to a flash mob!

The activities and club fair was also located in the indoor track, so I walked around the track, stopping at booths for clubs ranging from a political club about Burma to a swing dance club to a debate club.

I adored how open all the Brown students I met were, and how friendly and interesting they were. I stayed at the Swing Club booth for quite a while, just talking to the two Brown students who were there, who were happy to tell us how they narrowed their impressive college lists down and decided to come to Brown for its atmosphere and Open Curriculum.

I realized then that my desire to be a part of this friendly, happy, open, intelligent, inspiring and fun community had definitely grown a lot since the day before.

After exploring the “SciLi,” the science library, and the Computer Science building with a girl I had met at the barbeque, I went to the Environmental Law and Policy class I had been eager to sit in on ever since I got the invitation to attend ADOCH.

It was amazing. It was a small class, (much smaller than the American Presidency class), and the professor was interesting and great at engaging her students. She was covering a lot of interesting topics, and I learned a lot about the statistical “worth” of a person and how this relates to the way corporations make decisions about compensating their workers, or executing product recalls, when there are factory accidents. I also learned about the social inequity that really needs to be understood when one is dealing with environmental legislation, and about how scientific data about environmental phenomena needs to be framed in order for it to become acceptable enough to pass as a law. I really liked the way Professor Caroline Karp constantly said “You Econ people will like this” or “You Bio concentrators would love this,” because it showed that the interdisciplinary element that Brown advertises so much is actually there. That was great, and I told her so after class, when I also asked her about research opportunities and if I could contact her if I had more questions.

Some of Professor Karp’s students had stayed after class to ask questions, and they immediately offered to answer questions for the two other pre-frosh in the room with me. We went outside and sat on the grass for a good 25 minutes, talking about our extracurricular interests, ADOCH, and what we planned to study. They gave honest opinions about their college life, and about internships and research opportunities, as well as club experiences and environmental initiatives going on at Brown. Again, I was really grateful for how willing and eager they were to talk to us.

I went to the ADOCH closing remarks event wishing I had more time at Brown, and actually teared up about four times during the event. Biology professor Kenneth Miller made a touching speech and Brown’s oldest acapella group the Jabberwocks performed.

I left Brown utterly inspired and touched, and though I know this decision will be a tough one, I feel very lucky for having the chance to make this choice and for having the chance to make an informed choice.

I want to thank the ILC for its Fly-In Program. Thank you.

ADOCH Part I

*Note: This post is about yesterday's events.

I felt like a child staring into Narnia when I first peered through Soldier’s Arch into Lincoln Field. What I saw was a statue of a man sitting majestically on top of a horse in the middle of a green sloping lawn surrounded by brick buildings and pink blooming trees.

This wasn’t one of those stunning, powerful, hits-you-in-the-face moments. It was much subtler, softer. The combination of long, flowing bloom-filled branches and the little carvings in the stone arch was magical.

Such were my first thoughts upon stepping onto campus.

After venturing in, I met with my host Irene Rajos-Carroll and then went to go grab lunch on Thayer Street with my dad before heading back onto campus for the ADOCH STEM events. (Thayer Street reminded me of a cleaner version of Berkeley, and that kind of ruined the magical vibe for me, just because it seemed too normal and familiar.)

I first went to an informational breakout session for the Engineering Department, where my dad and I toured the general engineering workshop area. I was disappointed by how outdated most of the equipment was and generally found this tour to be rather lackluster, except for the parts where Professor Kenny Breuer, who was super friendly and accessible, talked about the projects he and his students were working on. The project he spent the most time talking about was also the most interesting, and it was one on bat flight. I got to see the containment area where they test the bats’ flight in different environments (underwater, in a wind tunnel, etc.). Unfortunately, the bats weren’t there at the time, so I didn’t get to see them. I also attended a student panel about research as part of the STEM program.

At this point, I was starting to get excited about Brown, but I wasn't nearly as excited as I had expected or had hoped to be. I certainly couldn't see myself at Brown yet.

After walking around campus with my dad for a bit, I said goodbye and went to attend the barbeque ADOCH had planned for the pre-frosh. I sat on the grass with some girls I met in the food line, and we ate and talked and laughed and took pictures with Brown’s mascot Bruno.

We then walked to the opening ceremony, where we were greeted with an enthusiastic “Welcome, Brown Class of 2016!” followed by an enthusiastic roar of applause. I really took a good look around and thought Wow, we all went through the same process. We all made it! This sounds a lot cornier than it felt, and this event ended with a hilarious student-made video about pop culture references to Brown and various reasons why we should attend Brown.

The two questions constantly asked and answered among the pre-frosh during ADOCH were “Are you committed to Brown?” and “Where else are you considering?” I came to ADOCH knowing that I would basically choose between Brown and Harvard. Ever since I decided that these two would be the universities I would choose between, I’ve been having “Brown days” and “Harvard days.” When I arrived at Brown, I had been having “Harvard days,” but after the ADOCH welcoming, I was more or less a jumbled mess again.

The rest of the night was spent bonding with new people I seemed to be meeting every 10 minutes. We went to a talent show, followed by an ice cream social, a comedy/improv show, a Queer Alliance social, and The Block Party. The performances at the talent and comedy/improv shows were funny, entertaining, and inspiring. They really were inspiring. The dancers were so into their dancing, and the emcees of the night were funny and made me want to be like them. The improv group that performed was brilliant, and I started finding myself really wanting to become a part of this environment where everyone seemed to genuinely love doing what they were doing.

I still wasn't sure about where to go, I hadn't gotten "the feeling" that supposedly helps people decide where to go to college, but I was definitely enjoying myself. I went to bed in my comfy sleeping bag both exhausted and excited.

Brown-- A Teaser

Howdy Everybody! It's been about 9 months since I last posted here on 2011 ILC at Cornell, and this time, I'm blogging live from a certain university in Providence, Rhode Island! Unfortunately, most of the 45 minutes I had to blog today was spent trying to get the internet connection to work here from my host's dorm room, so for my first post today, I am leaving a couple of photos as a sort of teaser for my more in-depth posts to come.

Building College-going Culture One Student at a Time

I was never one to keep my thoughts organized, so the best that I can do is to let it flow the way I feel it. The simple fact is that this summer’s experience with the ILC opened for me a door to self-discovery and gave me perspective on the next great step in my life, college. It went so much beyond a preview of university life.

I’m so glad that, because of the ILC, I finally see there’s an enormous world out there, outside of the Bay and California, and that there just might be a place for me outside of the UCs. Growing up, I couldn’t imagine leaving California. How convenient it would be to take my post-secondary education in-state to make the decade of state taxes my parents have been paying worthwhile. However, entering high school, I began noticing private institutions and wondering about different options. The Ivy League Connection has really cemented that for me. Hearing about the experiences of ILC and WCCUSD alums and listening to the inspirational words of Mr. Ramsey & Mrs. Kronenberg on college-going culture was the starting point to the discoveries I would make on my own when visiting Northwestern & U of Chicago and living at Cornell.

Among the greatest highlights of these three and a half weeks were the college visits. When I first heard we were being given the opportunity to visit Northwestern University, I was thrilled, because it was a first-rate school I had heard so many good things about and on the top of my list; but, I had been largely attracted because of their Honors Program in Medical Education. It’s amazing how things changed and how much I learned in just a day on the marvelous campus. It was a validating, reassuring, and incredibly blissful realization, discovering that I love Northwestern for Northwestern, that I could see myself not as a participant in a combined BS/MD program, but as a Wildcat. I could babble on and on about the impact of discovering Northwestern (refer to Words of A Prospective Wildcat & First Impressions of Northwestern), but there’s so much more to cover.

I learned a great deal about myself through these experiences. With trial and error, I finally learned how much I can thrive in independence. I want a place with the small college town feel, all the while with access to the big city. I want to be someplace where I can enjoy the outdoors. I’m looking for a school which will allow me to be flexible and simultaneously equip me with the tools and programs I need to stay on track. I need a college where I won’t get lost in lecture hall after lecture hall of 100+ students. Now I know what I’m looking for in a college, but simultaneously I’ve been opened to a hoard of new possibilities. Because of this program, I am lucky that I will not settle for applying to schools I hope to grow to love, but rather colleges I know I will love spending four years of my life in.

After the ILC experience, I’m so ready to hit the college fairs this fall with the newfound confidence to approach admissions representatives, introduce myself with a handshake and a smile, and fire away the questions. The ILC gave us the opportunity to interact with the admissions at three top universities, and I’ve learned that I have nothing to be afraid of. Admissions officers are there to help student get a better understanding of their universities and help those student discover if they’re a good fit. I now feel like I have the right questions up my sleeve thanks to much practice and observation at ILC-sponsored dinners with admissions officers.

Thanks to the Ivy League Connection, I’ve come a ways from the nervous girl shaking at the table during that first interview. Occasions such as the city council meeting and class presentations have made me more comfortable with public speaking. More importantly, being a part of the ILC has helped me realize how much room there is for improvement. After all our adventures, I have found confidence in reaching out and mingling with strangers, some of whom soon became close friends. Much of this ease in sociability comes with the territory of the Hotel class.

Not many future interventional radiologists get to say that they took a summer course at Cornell’s world-renown Hotel School with people of such diverse places from Brazil to Burma, to Jordan and Long Island. It was an incredible experience indeed. Absorbing new material from a subject I’d known nothing about turned out to be fun, especially because of our engaging Professors McCarthy and helpful TAs.

The class didn’t just leave me hotel-savvy, able to count off the major corporations and their respective brand franchises or manipulate operations expense variables to maximize profits. The most significant thing I had to gain wasn’t just a whole new education in the workings of Excel and Word, but an understanding of my own work personality. From the get-go, each Hotelie was confronted with the characteristics of his/her type of work personality based on the results of a survey, determining our group dynamics. I learned a great deal about my strengths, how to deal with my weaknesses, cooperating with the other different personality types, and applying different leadership tactics with people of different skill and commitment levels. Much of what I explored in the Hotel class revolved around adapting to meet the needs of others.

It’s imperative that every student in our community knows how much there is to be gained from this journey with the Ivy League Connection. While these are just my personal accounts of the rewards that being a part of this life-altering program have brought me, one can’t imagine the extent of the ILC’s impact when factoring in the number of WCCUSD students they’ve sent on similar excursions and how many more lives this amazing program will touch in the future. Witnessing the tremendous support network behind the Ivy League Connection has taught me the power of connecting and forming relationships with people.

I cannot begin to express the immeasurable thanks I owe the Ivy League Connection and the wonderful people behind it, most notably Mr. Charles Ramsey, Mrs. Madeline Kronenberg, and Don Gosney. Shout-outs of appreciation go out to all the people who made Cornell Summer College unforgettable; to the phenomenal Mark & Reneta McCarthy and to our eight amazing teacher assistants; to our chaperone, Ms. Neal; to the seven remarkable people I spent the most thrilling nearly-a-month in my life with; to Aaron Zdawczyk, Callie Brown, Tara Bubble, and Jill Schaffer for making their schools memorable; to the WCCUSD School Board, generous sponsors, and selection committee; and to all the supporters back home.

A Month To Remember

I should not have been in this program. That seems like a negative way to open my final blog looking back on this Cornell experience, but allow me to explain myself. I had been nominated for this program early on in the school year, but didn’t make it to the essay and interview portion of the application. I was disappointed, but I still wasn’t sure what exactly the program was, so I all but forgot about the ILC. My memory was jarred a few months later when I was told that I had been nominated for a different program, the one at Yale. I had to write an essay right off the bat, which surprised me since I hadn’t even made it to the essay-writing segment for the Cornell program, and here I was writing away before I even knew what hit me. I went into the interview later on quite nervous, and was a bit thrown off when I was asked about a Grand Strategy course, even though I had thought I was supposed to be applying for a Global Leaders course. I didn’t think much of it though, and was ecstatic when I found out I had been accepted. I also felt good being the only sophomore accepted, although that turned out to be problematic. I checked back online the next day to learn about the Grand Strategy course, since I knew next to nothing about it. My heart stopped when the first thing I read was that the class would be for rising seniors and older, which I most certainly wasn’t. I talked to Don about it hoping that was just a typo on the website, but he told me that the professor had just changed the age requirements a little while earlier. I was both sad and somewhat frustrated that I had put all this effort into my application all for nothing. That frown was quickly turned upside down when Don said that to make it up to me; I would be able to choose my preference among the appropriate programs. There were so many great programs it was hard to choose, but I had already been slightly leaning towards Cornell in the first place since the Freedom & Justice course sounded pretty interesting to me. This slight leaning towards Cornell was aided by strong hints of disownment coming from my parents (both of whom attended Cornell) if I chose not to give Cornell a chance. That made my decision quite a bit easier, and before I knew it, I was headed out to Ithaca.

I really didn’t know what to expect heading in, much like I assume one feels heading off to college, but after this experience, I think I will know what’s coming in college. (I know, Summer College isn’t actual college, but it’s quite a bit more similar to college than high school is.) I had no clue what sort of people were there, how my professor would be, what my RCAs would be like, what my TA would be like, and countless other worries to deal with. On the first day my worries about my peers were instantly quelled, when I met dozens of interesting nice people, including my Jordanian roommate Sami (have I mentioned he was from Jordan yet?!). As soon as class started, I saw that I didn’t have to worry about Professor Kramnick or my TA Vijay, both of whom were hilarious and gave great insights throughout the course. I know my level of accomplishment in the class is due to Vijay’s guidance (and also because he happens to be giving me the grade, so it really is all thanks to him).

Aside from this great class and how the program as a whole made me mature ten times faster than I would have expected, one of the best parts of this trip was getting to take a tour of the engineering quad with the current student I mentioned in a few of my past blogs, Ashley Harms. I know I am probably repeating what I said earlier about our tour, but getting to talk to her just made me so much more excited and calm about the college experience, and I really feel like I will be able to handle college thanks to her stories about Cornell.

Another great aspect about this trip that really affected me as a person was the social aspect and overall freedom (as well as responsibilities). Heading into this Summer College, I was never all that outgoing (not that I wasn’t friendly, just somewhat shy) and definitely wouldn’t have imagined myself being able to make friends over such a short period. Since I only had three weeks to get to know a lot of these people, I just naturally became more outgoing, and within the first week already had a great group of friends who I’ll remember not only for their awesome personalities, but for teaching me one of the greatest basketball games I’ve ever played, kangaroo. Having all this freedom and responsibility was also an enlightening experience, since I have had to rely on my parents a great deal (especially since I still don’t have my driver’s license). Having to mix work and play was quite the hassle, but I was always able to get things done when I needed, and I actually found that I was able to push myself more without my parents’ watchful eyes (much to my mother’s chagrin). This program made me feel as ready for college as I could have possibly imagined, which is a bit odd for a rising junior who is just barely halfway done with high school to say, but that is truly how I feel. I also feel that the stress and work I had to deal with for this course will make high school much easier, which is nice since I’ll be heading to my most difficult year. I think this in turn will lead to an easier college life, which will also lead to an easier life out in the real world, so it is pretty difficult for me to explain just how important this was for me as of now. The only way for me to truly show this will be my future accomplishments, since I’m betting they will all easily be traced back to this month.
Anyway, because all these future accomplishments I hope to make would be thanks to this program, I think it’s only fitting to give thanks to those who really affected me in this program. Thanks to our School Board trustees who founded this program, Mr. Ramsey and Ms. Kronenberg. Thanks to Don, who helped keep everything running. Thanks Ms. Neal, for your support and flexibility. Thanks to the teachers and counselors at ECHS who introduced me to the program. Thanks to Cornell for creating and developing this Summer College. Last but not least, thanks to my cohorts who always kept me laughing and without whom I don’t think I would’ve survived the course; Joe, Taylor, Genevieve, Terilyn, Jobel, Kevin, and Kelly.
Now I have ended my journey just the way it started, with a 1200 word paper.

Thank you.