The ILC Dinner - Good Food and Good People

Last night the Vanderbilt and UChicago cohorts attended a dinner put on by Don. This dinner brought together Alumni of the ILC and the Universities each cohort will be attending, school board members, and donors into one room. There was good food, good people, and a lot of conversation.

Our big group of people (both cohorts, their parents, the chaperones, and more) met at the El Cerrito plaza BART station at 5 PM, where Don talked to us a little more about the dinner we were going to and everyone was introduced to each other. I was especially excited to meet our chaperone, Ms. Hansen, because our cohort didn't know who our chaperone was until now! Ms. Hansen is a teacher at De Anza, and an all around great person. I'm excited to travel to Nashville in the summer with her. During the BART ride and subsequent walk over to the restaurant afterwards, I talked to Ms. Hansen, other cohort members, and the alumni from the UChicago program, Alice and Ryan. I was able to learn a lot, and we hadn't even gotten to the restaurant yet!

At the restaurant, we all talked some more before sitting down at our assigned tables. Don assigned each of us to tables so that for each current ILC student, there were one or two alumni from the school they'd be attending, an ILC alumni or two, a donor, and a school board board member at the table with them. This allowed us all to get to know each other better, and any questions could be answered (there were many). I was at the same table as Tori Wycoff and Eppa Rixey, co-presidents of the Vanderbilt alumni association's Bay Area chapter; Maddie and her dad; Madeline Kronenberg, a trustee from WCCUSD; Kevin Mahoney, a former ILCer who now goes to Cal and interview panelist; and of course, my own dad. 

Eppa Rixey talking to my dad and I at our table

We talked, we ate, and we listened to prepared speeches talking about the ILC and thanking the sponsors  and everyone there for all they do, something I and the rest of the ILCers can't do enough of. Throughout the dinner, Maddie and I were able to learn more about Vanderbilt from Eppa and Tori, who were happy to tell us all about the campus, the people, and Nashville. Thank you guys so much for coming!

After everyone had finished the desert course (which was delicious, like the rest of the dinner) we all went downstairs to take pictures. The Vanderbilt cohort and the Vanderbilt alumni all posed in front of some nice shrubbery, because Don's favorite rock was surrounded by fences and construction equipment. After the photo, the Alumni had to leave because they had work in the morning, and everyone was starting to get tired. By the time we had gotten back to the El Cerrito BART station, it was after 10 and I was ready to go to sleep. I was happy to have gone, however, and this dinner just made me more excited to be going to Vanderbilt in the summer. Thanks again to everyone who came! We all appreciate everything you've done. That includes you, Don :)