Today everyone that is part of the Ivy League Connection congregated at Pinole Middle School for an orientation that is primarily meant for the parents. By 5:45 almost everyone was there and Madeline Kronenberg shared a couple words with us about how proud the School Board is of the ILC and reminded us how important our blogs are. If any admissions officers are reading this, I'm a great kid please accept me into your school.
We got started and Don gave us the usual rundown of things. All of the chaperones introduced themselves and basically explained to our parents why they should entrust them with us. We then broke up into our respective cohorts to go over the very rough draft of our itinerary with our chaperone and parents. Don's instructions were quick and soon enough my cohort was finding out that we will be flying with Southwest Airlines. We were very excited because that's the very lucky airline that allows for 2 check-in bags, what a dream.
Ms. Hansen talked about a few key things with us, such as when we'd be checked into Vanderbilt and when our site visits for Vanderbilt and Penn would be. At first, we were a little alarmed because the schedule said to meet at ECHS at 3:30 AM but departure time wasn't until 8:30 AM. Don came over and quickly cleared up the roughness of the itinerary.
Edward, who attended VSA last year, came over and spoke to us about his experience at VSA last year and several things to keep in mind. The biggest thing Edward said to keep in mind is that there will be a culture shock, and I figure it will differ from what I experienced at Cornell. Since Vanderbilt is in the South, there are people with very different political views there. He also told us that VSA is very strict but mostly it is to keep the students safe. It was a relief to hear though that there was a group that went for runs in the morning and to the gym during the 2-hour free time. Additionally, it was sweet to hear how it felt for his class to give the modified toys to kids with special needs at the very end.
After Edward answered several of our questions he had to go, but then we got into more detail about places we definitely want to visit while in Nashville and Philadelphia. We found out we'll have a car in Nashville, which opens up the opportunities to go sightseeing. There are some places walking distance from the hotel, so those are ones we'll definitely go to. For Philadelphia, we'll probably have to cram more into our schedule, but the historic sites seem like almost a definite as well.
Although we only came to a semi-consensus, we were ready to regroup with everyone else at the orientation. That's when Don started talking about more things such as loaner items. Again, this is one of the hugest benefits of being part of the ILC. Don does everything possible to make sure everyone is in good shape to travel. He has luggage to lend among many other things such as laptops, cameras, portable fans, USBs, and anything else we might need. The list of things to take back East or South is always long but it's better to be prepared than not.
There were very few questions after Don was done, and by then we all had an idea of how we're supposed to act while we're away at these prestigious schools. Like always, I'm very excited to be leaving in about a month but a little worried too.
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