Brown Goes to Boulevard

Once all the ILCers and their respective parents had arrived at the BART station, we shuffled through the gates and up the escalator to wait for our San Francisco bound train. Parents, chaperones, students and administrators, we took up a whole car! We sat in the loud car, chatting about upcoming finals and our growing excitement for summer, to pass the time. When we finally arrived at our stop, we filed off the train and up the escalator out on to the busy streets of San Francisco.

After a short walk, we arrived at Boulevard- our destination. The restaurant was beautiful with dim lighting and rustic decorations. We were guided by the lovely service to a private room downstairs. I was immediately greeted by the friendly faces of Brown alumni and the generous donors. Emily Cain and I instantly struck up a conversation with a recent graduate of Brown named Raquel Osorno. She was very friendly and easy to talk to. Any nervous energy I had, quickly melted away as we talked about everything from class sizes to traveling to prom. It also happened that she majored in cognitive neuroscience. My ears immediately perked up when she said so because I am very interested in studying neuroscience as well, so meeting a Brown grad who had done just that was so inspiring and a great start the evening. 

Soon, Mr. Ramsey told us to take our seats and I found my place card at a table with a lovely Brown alumni couple and Elizabeth Gonzales who graduated only 3 days before the dinner! In addition, I sat with my mom, Emily Groves and her dad, and Ms. Kronenberg. Emily and I had a wonderful time talking with Elizabeth. She was really honest and open about her college experience so it was easy to ask questions. Not only that, it turned out like Emily and I, she went to El Cerrito High School as well. Go Gauchos! 

After placing our orders and talking a bit more, the presentations began and we heard from everyone who was a part of making Ivy League Connection possible! Two of our own also spoke at the dinner about what they looked forward to this summer and their plans for bringing their new found knowledge back to the community. Abigail gave an inspirational speech and Nick's experience having been with Ivy League Connection before made for a humorous and informative speech too.

Now, I can't finish this blog post without mentioning the food. That's the most important part, right? Everything was delicious! The starter salad was refreshing and the pork I had as an entree was so flavorful. I had to be careful not fill up though, because dessert was just as good- so rich and creamy. 

It was a wonderful night from start to finish, and as always, it left me even more excited to get over to the East Coast and experience the Brown campus and faculty that everyone at the dinner was raving about.