Down the Road

The sun was still out as I departed to Pinole Middle School for the last ILC milestone event: orientation. We walked towards the multi-purpose room and checked-in at the little "booth" outside of the door. I had half expected myself to be one of the first and most earliest people there since I live practically 5 minutes away by car. Instead, I was shocked to see many familiar faces who got there before me. 

The first things I saw walking in was an enlarged version of our annual ILC picture (that we took at the school board meeting) right next to the podium. The first table to the left was filled with all sorts of equipment that Don gave the privilege of lending to us. These equipment included mini-tripods, bed sheets, laundry bags, ethernet cables, USB card readers, and so much more. The walls were occupied by flags of our own respective Ivy League schools we would be attending this summer. It was really hard to believe that this would be the last event before we board our planes to the east coast. 

(left) Mr. Ramsey and (right) Ms. Kronenberg

After everyone was accounted for, Mr. Ramsey gave us a quick little speech about punctuality and responsibility, followed by Ms. Kronenberg who gave a quick summary of our expectations as ambassadors of WCCUSD. She told us about how we are expected to give back to our community and stressed the importance of blogging everyday while we're down in Providence, Rhode Island. After, the chaperones for every program briefly introduced themselves to us and our parents who came with us. The introductions quickly transitioned to logistics and packing discussions given by Don. 

The most productive part of the orientation was the breakout session between all the Brown Session I chaperones and cohorts. Ms. Kaplan and Mr. Crosby handed out a giant stack of paper to us which outlined the basic details of our trip. We would be touring four schools (Wesleyan, Yale, Dartmouth, and MIT) on our first three days down in the east coast. We also talked about packing methods. Mr. Crosby suggested that we leave more room in our suitcases and Ms. Kaplan recommended bringing food and a pillow on the plane. We finished with Mr. Ramsey's closing speeches and we were officially on our road to the ILC.