An ILC Union

For the first time, all 42 members of the ILC came together at the school board meeting held at Lovonya Dejean Middle School. Despite the huge heat wave, we all arrived in pantsuits and fancy dresses and gathered in the multi-purpose room. Each of us sat with our cohorts after awkwardly intermingling with our friends and teachers. 

Each cohort went up to the podium one at a time and for us, our chaperone Mr. Chan-Law spoke as well as Sue. While they spoke, I was very nervous just to be standing in front of the school board and my hands were extremely sweaty, so I could only imagine how the speakers felt. Both speakers from every cohort did wonderfully and it was nice to see the diversity in the ILC and all the amazing places we all get to visit. While our cohort gets to go to Chicago, St. Louis and Ithaca, some other cohorts are going to places such as Washington D.C., New York City and Philadelphia. 

Katelyn, Sue and me with our certificates.

After all cohorts spoke about their programs and members, everybody gathered to take a group picture. Although it took a lot of effort, Don managed to squeeze all of us into the picture, including our parents, chaperones and Mr. Ramsey. My mom tripped a little during the process but she managed to make it out alive and looked better in the picture than I did! Following our group picture, we all ran off of the risers to receive our beautiful gold and silver certificates.

The whole night was absolutely terrific but I think one of my favorite parts was when an elderly man came to talk to my friends and I. I'm not exactly sure who he was, but he congratulated us for our acceptance into the ILC and told us that even though this is our first college experience, he hopes it is not our last and that this experience will be something we will remember up until we get to his age. He also told us he almost got recruited to the Cornell football team, which is very impressive.

Overall, I had a lot of fun meeting with the other members of the ILC and hearing others speak about all of our accomplishments. Events like these are just a reminder of how grateful we should be to have been given this opportunity and that we should cherish every moment of it.

2014 Ivy League Connection! Good-looking group of people,
even though my mouth is half opened.