Good Strings

This past Wednesday, the WCCUSD School Board and Superintendent voted to approve the continuation of the ILC program into the summer of 2010, thus finalizing the last step in securing our departure to Ithaca! I cannot be more grateful to School Board members Mr. Ramsey, Mrs. Kronenberg, Mr. Medrano, Ms. Miles, Mr. Thurmond and our Superintendent Dr. Harter. I assure everyone that I will do my best to represent WCCUSD well and am looking forward to an amazing summer thanks to everyone’s support.

As the school year begins comes to an end and our departure date comes closer everyday, I am taken back to our first official meeting with Mr. Ramsey, Mrs. Kronenberg, and Don as well as former Hotel students Stacy Chan, Lousia Man, and Yueming Wang at the Hunan Villa during President’s Week. During this session Jacky, Chris and I heard first hand accounts of what we should expect when we land in Ithaca. I learned that the Hotel Operations and Management course is a 20 minute walk away from the dormitories we will be staying in and that the class was extremely detail oriented. They emphasized the group aspect of the course as well as the mandatory office hours. The former Hotel students also noted, much to my surprise, that the weather in Ithaca was hot, humid and the air was sometimes very sticky!

Throughout that night, one thing I remember very vividly are the encouraging words from Mrs. Kronenberg. She told us that the Ivy League Connection is a scholarship program with strings attached, but good strings! Through my interpretation, the “good strings” are the training sessions, college tours, our chaperone, Ms. Kaplan, the Cornell alumni dinner, and many more. These “goods strings” are evidence that the ILC is a truly enriching experience, both culturally and collegiately. Through the tours of three college campuses (University of Rochester, Syracuse, and Colgate), as well as visits to the Susan B. Anthony Museum and the Fredrick Douglas Center, among other events exclusive to ILC participants, it is obvious that the ILC is a well rounded program.

All in all, the ILC is a one of a kind program that I am blessed to be a part of and I am, once again, very grateful for the School Board’s and Superintendent’s support of the ILC.