Trip Details at the Orientation

Last night I, along with all the other ILCers and their parents, attended an orientation at Pinole Middle School. My mom went with me and once we arrived we made our way into the cafeteria and sat down, awaiting the beginning of the orientation. Madeline Kronenberg started off the orientation, she said a few kinds words and offered some advice to us all about the adventures that await us. Soon enough she was finished talking and it was Don's turn to say some words.

Don had the chaperones come up and introduce themselves, one by one they explained who they were, what cohort they were part of, and the experiences they have had concerning kids and working in the district. All of them are highly qualified and I was surprised by how many of them had chaperoned trips with students to other states or even other countries before. I definitely feel comfortable being in Ms. Hansen's hands for the summer, and I think we'll have a great time.

Me and Evan durring the presentation, accompanied by our mothers 

Once the chaperones finished presenting, Don said a few more words and then we broke out into smaller groups containing the different cohorts. This was nice because we got our very rough itineraries and we got to discuss what we will be doing during our free time in Philadelphia and Tennessee. I was excited to see that our flight to Tennessee doesn't leave until 8 AM which means we don't have to be at El Cerrito at 3 AM like I had previously thought. Also, we'll be flying Southwest so we'll get to check two bags each! While I know, that doesn't seem like it warrants an exclamation mark, it's 50 more pounds of baggage I can pack (how exciting!).

Edward giving us some tips and tricks about Vanderbilt 

In these smaller groups we had the opportunity to talk to an ILC alum, Edward Hernandez from Richmond High, who attended Vanderbilt last summer, he answered a lot of questions we had about the program itself and the city as a whole. He happened to have taken Adaptive Engineering last year which is the same class I'm enrolled in, so it was nice to hear about how much he enjoyed the projects and the class itself. Hearing about the class makes me so much more excited for this summer, I feel like we'll be leaving any day now. 

After we finished up in our groups Don talked a bit about loaner items. While I knew that he offered a wide variety of items, seeing them in person was a whole new experience. It only solidified how excited I feel about the program, it's such a great opportunity and on top of that Don supplies us with everything we could possibly need. 

The whole orientation was really interesting and helpful, I was given a large amount of more specified information concerning the trip and any questions I had were answered. I'm excited for the summer, I can't wait until we're on our way to Tennessee.