Motivation

During the time management workshop

The Leadership Symposium this past weekend was absolutely amazing. In just two full days, l gained skills that will serve me for the rest of my life. Each workshop and panel provided me with new tactics to overcome obstacles related to my action plan. Through the panels, I had the opportunity listen to young people who were successful in achieving their goals regarding social change in their community and the outside world. Learning ways make my action plan a reality and then listing to actual young people who were successful enabled me to gain motivation. Now that I have no doubt that I am capable of starting a garden at El Cerrito High, I want to move forward with my plan as quickly as possible.

A main focus on the last day of the Symposium was time management. After learning tactics to achieve my action plan the day before, I realized that the only thing standing in my way was time, so I was incredibly grateful to attend this workshop. A Brown senior led the time management workshop. During the school year, she works to help struggling first years manage their time more wisely. She talked to us a lot about the differences between high school and college and the best ways to deal with the lack of structure in college life.  We also had the opportunity to fill out a matrix to help prioritize aspects of our schedule. The matrix was split into four categories: urgent and important; important but not urgent; urgent but not important; and not important and not urgent. Writing my obligations in their corresponding section really helped me to visualize what is actually important.

After the time management workshop, it was time to leave. It was hard to say goodbye to all the amazing people I met just a few days before. Even though I met many of these people for the first time and have known them for just a few days, I know we will maintain an effort to stay in touch.

The Women and Leadership group with our tour guide at Amherst 

Thankfully, I didn’t have to say goodbye to everyone all at once. Ynah, Iris, Abigail and I went to lunch with three Korean guys we met over the past few days. It was my first time eating Korean food, and it was actually really good. After lunch, reality set in, and I realized I would have to say goodbye to everyone I met over the weekend. After parting ways, we all met in the lobby of hotel providence and then left for the airport.

Now that I am back home, I have already spread the lessons I learned at the Symposium to my school community. With my newly gained motivation to implement my action plan, I am now excited to work towards my goal of creating a community garden at El Cerrito High.

Fall Colors 

Ivy League Connections has literally changed my life. Not only did Ivy League Connections enable to me spend an amazing three weeks on the East Coast this summer, but the program also gave me the opportunity to attend the Leadership Symposium. Ivy League Connections has enabled me to gain confidence and motivation to advocate positive change in my community and I now plan to take concrete steps to implement that change.