Moving up

I now realize how quickly we are getting to boarding a plane and going to the other side of the country. It all felt surreal, but Thursday night's ILC Orientation has really got me ever so excited for this summer.

During the opening speeches, Mr. Ramsey was stressing the importance of punctuality and how time is everything, especially when we are traveling. Then Mrs. Kronenburg talked about the importance of being ambassadors of our school district. She made us all think deeper in why we are actually doing this program, not only to benefit ourselves, but to represent the ILC, the school district, and the 25,000 students that couldn't be in this program. This motivated me to strive for the best and to earn the right to say that I am an ILCer.

We then broke into our cohorts to talk about the logistics of the trip; everything from what to bring to dinners with admission officers. The most helpful part during this workshop was when ILC alums Yueming Wang and Terilyn Chen spoke about their experiences during their time at Cornell. They were extremely helpful in addressing our living conditions and possible extra-curricular activities. Unfortunately, they were both in the Hotel Management class, so they couldn't tell me, Alex, and Eric much in terms of what to expect in our Freedon & Justice class. I thought it was very helpful when Yueming told us to carry an umbrella everywhere because it can start raining at anytime, which I found very peculiar considering Bay Area summers are very predictable. One aspect of the program at Cornell that Yueming and Terilyn reiterated was that we are getting college credit for this, so they gave us the tip of "work hard, but have fun and soak up the college experience."

The ILC Orientation was extremely informative and fun. I learned a vast amount of information in the 2 hour time period and it is still sinking in. Thank you ILC for giving me this opportunity and Yueming and Terilyn for sharing your words of wisdom with us. 17 more days and it's off to Ithaca!