Let's Get Gardening!

My Action Plan:

In America, unhealthy eating habits have lead to an obesity epidemic. More than one third of people in the United States are obese and numbers continue to rise. Many Americans underestimate the significance of obesity and believe that with diet and exercise the problem will be solved. This mentality, however, has lead Americans to put off dealing with their health until it is too late. The initial discomforts of obesity may seem unpleasant, but the long-term health problems can be very serious. People who are obese are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and joint disorders. These conditions are irreversible and plague sufferers for the rest of their lives.

To effectively address the issue of obesity and promote social change, it is essential to focus on the root of the problem. This is the youth of America. Each year, more young people develop health problems directly related to poor nutrition. A federal survey had found that the proportion of young people ages 12 to 19 with diabetes or pre-diabetes increased from 9 percent in 1999 to 23 percent in 2008. Furthermore, studies show that obese adolescents have an 80 percent chance of being obese as an adult.  If young people become more aware of the benefits of healthy eating, they will be able to turn their eating habits around before it is too late. Although Americans are slowly becoming more aware of this massive problem, steps taken to address the issue are negligible compared to the tremendous impact obesity has on American society.

The goal of my Action Plan is to educate students about the importance of healthy eating by starting and maintaining a community garden at my school and donating the harvest to a local homeless shelter. Recently, I have become more aware that students at my school, El Cerrito High, don’t know where their food is coming from, or what it’s made out of. They eat whatever meal is both the biggest and cheapest. This is almost always unhealthy, processed food. Eating processed food not only contributes to obesity, but also to a lack of energy and motivation. If students become more aware of the negative impact of junk food and choose to change their diet, they will not only become physically healthier, but also become more mentally engaged in the classroom.

In order to successfully implement and maintain a community garden at El Cerrito High I will need to start a club. In order to start a club, I will need a teacher sponsor as well as support from the Principal to borrow land. I recently emailed my principal who pledged his support and provided me with the name of a teacher who may be interested in sponsoring me. 

In the middle of November, there is a club fair at my school. This fair is designed to give students the opportunity to learn about and sign up for clubs. At this fair, I will set up a booth and provide students with information relating to the problem of obesity in America and the necessity of a healthy diet. Hopefully students will become more aware of the topic and want to make a difference.  

After the initiation of the club, I will need to fundraise. Due to limited recourses in my school district, it is unrealistic for me to expect any monetary support directly from my school. There is a parent run organization, however, called The Student Activity Fund that provides funding to worthy organizations within my school’s community. Hopefully, this fund will provide me with the money I need to start building the garden. It is often quite hard to get money from The Student Activity Fund, especially if the money does not go directly to academic related areas, so I cannot expect more than basic support. After the initial funding, hopefully I will gain enough momentum to start fundraising in other ways. One strategy is to create a cookbook with healthy recipes and sell them to the outer community. I will also encourage students and members of the community to donate supplies by creating a drop-box. Ideally, this box will be located in the classroom of my teacher sponsor. After building the garden and acquiring necessary supplies, the garden will cost little to maintain and people power will become the main focus.

In order to maintain the garden, I will need a lot of dedicated students. Several of my friends have already pledged their support and I know I can count on them to consistently help out.  In order to graduate from El Cerrito High, students must complete at least 20 hours of community service work.  Students who volunteer in the garden will be able to fulfill their service hours while also gaining an understanding of the importance of healthy eating.

Starting the garden will take a lot of time, so I am also planning to create work days on weekends where students can fulfill several of their community service hours at once. Community members and parents will also be invited to participate. To spread the word of these events, I will create both a Facebook group and contact people through the El Cerrito High News email.

Once the garden is established, members of the club will need to focus on taking care of the plants. In order to do this effectively, students will need to carry out specific tasks such as watering and weeding. I will create a spreadsheet on Google Docs that specifies what needs to be done and for how long. Here, members of the club can sign up for a specific task. This spreadsheet system will also enable me to accurately monitor the community service hours completed by specific students. In order to ensure members of the club actually complete the task they sign up for, each student will need to get a key from the teacher sponsor before entering the garden and return the key after completing their task. With this system in place, I am confident that the garden will thrive.

In order to create a successful garden, it is essential that I create a timeline for planting. I live in a relatively mild climate, so it probably won’t be too hard to find plants to grow year-round, but I still need to make sure that I plant the right plants at the right time. By early December, the club itself will be established. For the next month we will focus on fundraising and setting dates for building the garden. By March the garden will be complete and students can focus on planting. It is unrealistic for me to expect students to come during the summer to maintain the garden, so I am hoping to finish harvesting the majority of plants by the middle of June.

I will consider my Action Plan a success if I am able to gain enough members to successfully maintain a garden before I graduate from high school. This gives me two years to fulfill my goal. During this time, I hope to empress upon members of the club, as well as others in my school, the importance of healthy eating and the significance of the obesity epidemic in America. 

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Sunday morning greeted me with unusual excitement. It's not every Sunday that I look forward to a country club brunch and excellent company. I stepped out of the car and into the bright sunlit El Cerrito Plaza, in a flash aware how different this morning was from my usual Sunday routine of sweatpants, sleeping in, and homework.

It was a pleasant reunion as we waited, and I enjoyed catching up with my Brown cohort and Ms. Kaplan. Plus the car ride over, that was all the time we had for chit chat, for upon arrival at the Olympic Club, I was in silent awe at the spectacular venue featuring sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay hills and the course that hosted the U.S. Open below. As Mr. Izzy Ramsey graciously treated us to a tour, I was reminded of the time we visited the Bellevue Mansions in Newport. The ILC has terrific taste!

As always, the best part wasn't even the Olympic Club or the delicious food, but the conversations we had with admirably helpful alums. I'm continually surprised by how willing these special people are to reach out to and share with us high school students. Because I had such an amazing experience this summer at Brown, I chose a seat between sisters Lauren and Corynn Brodsky, both alums of Brown and El Cerrito High.

On the off chance, Lauren had applied to Brown and it turned out to be a wonderful fit for her. It was like we shared a common language as we gushed about Thayer Street eateries, Providence offerings, frisbee, the empowering teaching style of the science department, the welcoming air of collaboration, and the eerie cult-like music of Waterfire. Corynn had had the benefit of her sister's experience and guidance when learning about and applying to Brown. Still, they both professed how they wished such profound opportunities to get acquainted with schools and mentors as offered by the ILC, had been available during their tenure in high school.

In Lauren's year, she was the only one departing for an East Coast school; little information about prestigious schools like Brown was accessible. Since the ILC, a revolution of awareness has ignited. This past year my own Hercules High had three acceptances to Brown, and many more talented students of our district, the likes of ILC alums Guadalupe Morales and Andrew Gonzalez, are attending their dream school.

Getting to know Lauren and Corynn and the other alums was more than the beginning to a splendid mentor relationship that I had hoped it to be; it reinforced once again the value of all the ILC does for us and our community. I have the Ivy League Connection to personally thank for igniting my interests and continuing to shape my guidance. This means my heart goes out to Mr. Ramsey, Mrs. Kronenburg, Don, everyone who supports futures with this program, and of course, Mr. Izzy Ramsey for making the mentor brunch possible.

Helping Hands

After an incredibly busy first week of school, there was no reprieve on the weekend--at least, that's what I thought. After work and a debate team meeting on Saturday, I honestly didn't feel ready for another event. Thankfully, the ten o' clock meeting time meant I got to sleep in, at least a little bit. I didn't know what to expect out of this 'mentor-program'. All I knew was that I'd asked for Simon Hong to be my mentor, as he now holds a job in a field that I am particularly interested in.

After a cozy car ride with Kelly, her father, my mother, and Nick, we arrived at the Olympic Club, and I was immediately impressed. I still wasn't sure what we were going to be doing, but now I was reasonably positive it was going to be classy. 

After Izzy Ramsey, who was very generous to let us use the building, gave us a tour of the Olympic Club, which hosted the 2012 US Open (how cool is that?), I talked to two El Cerrito grads who went to Brown.  They introduced me to their friend Rob, who they met when they did graduate work at Oxford. I've always known I've wanted to get out of California for college, but never really considered farther away. I'm really grateful for the time he took to give me some insight on foreign schools. 

I also sat next to Tyler, who went to CPS. I mentioned that I've been there before for a debate tournament, and he told me that we had that activity in common! It's always fun to talk to other debaters, especially when you get to see how far it took them (Yale). He was also really helpful in answering some of my questions about the atmosphere at Yale, and he gave me some really honest opinions. 

After hearing Mr. Ramsey explain what the mentor-program actually is, now I'm really excited to start meeting with Simon. I'm starting the application process, and I'll always need more support.

On that note, I feel a lot better about the application ordeal after meeting with Ms. Kim yesterday. A college counselor with 20 years of experience, I knew I was in good hands when we started talking. 

As I'm starting the first drafts of my personal statements, I am more and more thankful for everything the ILC has provided to me, and continues to provide for me as I'm taking this step towards adulthood.

Connections Continued

Ever since school has started, I’ve been catapulted into the busy life of a junior. Now that the summer and my trip East are behind me, the ILC continues to be an important part of my life, not only from what I learned from the experience and what it did for me, but also how it continues to create valuable opportunities for us and keep us in the loop. This Sunday I had the privilege of attending the ILC mentorship brunch held at the Olympic Club, which officially kicked off the Mentorship program for this year. In the mentorship program, each of us is paired up with an alumnus to connect with, who becomes a college counselor to us through their experience. While the program started with just Brown mentors, this year it has expanded to include Yale as well. Throughout the school year, the ILC sets up several social events for us to meet with our mentors. At this brunch we would get to meet the mentors and decide ourselves who we wanted to partner with.

The Olympic Club

It was a beautiful day—the kind of weather you don’t see often in the Bay Area—as my mother and I headed to the EC BART station to meet up with everyone else. It was nice to see everyone again. All but one of Brown I had signed up for the program. After everyone showed up on time, we quickly divided into carpool groups to Olympic Club. My mom and I were invited to ride in Mr. Ramsey’s car along with Ms. Kaplan. Thanks to Mr. Ramsey, we arrived the earliest, and had the chance to look around the prestigious club with its beautiful surroundings. My first impression of the club was stunning. The balcony offered a breathtaking view of the surrounding golf courses and San Francisco City itself. The club’s famous golf courses were the site of this year’s US Open. Izzy Ramsey (brother of Mr. Ramsey) kindly provided a quick tour of the Olympic Club, a two story building with many dining rooms, a lounge, a bar, and a beautiful entrance. 

A beautiful golf course view from the balcony

The brunch started around noon in a private room. Unfortunately, we could only choose one of the schools (Brown and Yale) for our mentors. I decided to go with Brown, since it had affected me more. I shared a table with Brown alumni Peggy, Donna, Alice, Elizabeth, as well as Guadalupe Morales, a current student (and a 2010 ILCer in the Women and Leadership course). Donna and Elizabeth, who both just graduated from Brown this year, were also from El Cerrito High School. In fact, out of the Brown mentors, four of them had attended ECHS. 

Great food, good company, what more could I ask for?

The buffet style brunch included a variety of fresh fruits, pastries, scramble eggs, bacon, sausage, and baked potato.  The zest of our conversations continued while we enjoyed our meal, and the overall atmosphere was festive cheerful. The whole event was sort of reminiscent of all the dinners we had on the East Coast. Mr. Ramsey spoke enthusiastically about the mentorship program, followed by representatives of the Yale and Brown mentors. And then, of course, we topped off the brunch with a trademark group photo of both groups by Don. It was only at this time that I found out I was the only male in the Brown group, lucky me! Afterwards everyone continued to chat and exchange contact information. I was reluctant to leave when being reminded that our time was up.

The Brown group

The ILC continues to create valuable opportunities for us even after our trips to the East Coast. I’m very excited and grateful to be part of this exciting prospect. Overall, the Olympic Club brunch was an excellent beginning for this year’s mentorship program! Thanks to Mr. Ramsey and Don for organizing this wonderful event Izzy Ramsey, who graciously vouched for us to use the beautiful Olympic Club. It will be a tough decision to choose only one mentor out of all these great people. I look forward to the next mentorship event, as well as working with my mentor.

From the Mother of Abigail Serrano

Hello, I'm Hilda Serrano, Abigail's mother and through this blog I want to thank God for the staff that makes up the ILC, and for giving her the opportunity to participate in one of the most effective programs for the women in mental, physical and spiritual.

Women and Leadership has been a great support to me as a mother because my daughter overcame in many wrong beliefs and also learned to appreciate and see life from another point of view. The importance of preparation for anyone who yearns for a better future is based on their own confidence, faith in one’s self and hard work to reach goals. I believe with all my heart that the one who has the privilege to be part of this program, also will have the power to build his future successfully.

There are no words to express our gratitude that the ILC left to us as parents. Moreover I also take the opportunity to thank all those who contributed with money, time, effort, knowledge, patience and love for each of these young people whom are involved with ILC because without them wouldn't be possible the change that is now reflected in our teens.

Nevertheless, my daughter has in mind the great commitment that means giving or be a part of a social movement, with the responsibility and privilege of transmitting and work hard for others giving testimony of what she learned in this program. As a mother, I have the compromise of cultivate in my daughter the heritage in knowledge, the moral and love that she will leave to the new generations.

Thanks again,

Miguel & Hilda Serrano

The Unbounded Journey of Knowledge

Just when I thought my ILC journey was over, I was proven wrong. I woke up bright and early and headed over for the El Cerrito Plaza Bart station. There, I caught up with my Brown cohorts (Nick, Kelly, Emily, and Ying-An) before heading to the Olympic Club that Mr. Izzy Ramsey volunteered to let us use for our Brown/Yale Mentorship Brunch. 

When Mr. Ramsey sent us an email, telling us about this wonderful opportunity, I was pretty shocked to know that there was even more. It's like, dessert as a main course, and then even more dessert in the end. Ever since I came back from the three week Macroeconomics course at Brown, I've never been the same. I've seen the world differently, changed my perspective of education options, and most important, I realized that opportunities are out there passing by without me even knowing it. If I learned anything from the ILC, it would've been to pursue your opportunities because you never know where it would lead you. And so, with that in mind, I jumped to the chance to pick out my very own Brown/Yale mentor. 

As my first year in the Ivy League Connection, I've tended to see things in a more general sense. Throughout a lot of the college tours, I didn't really lean towards any particular college because as a junior, I felt like it was better for me to explore my options more before deciding something that would change my life forever. With that in mind, I actually decided to take on a Yale mentor. Now don't get me wrong. I absolutely loved my summer life at Brown. I loved the amazing classes that they had to offer, and I definitely loved that amazing campus that I frolicked in for three weeks. But to get a better sense of college life, I've decided to go start off a new point of view with a new school and a new perspective. 

Once we got to the Olympic Club, we took our time to get comfortable and talk to the alumni around. I did, and it was really interesting talking to the alumni again. Mr. Izzy Ramsey was kind enough to tour us around the Olympic Club to help us kill some time. Once brunch was ready, we took our seats, got some food, and chatted. I talked with Tyler Shen, a Yale graduate. Tyler took economics while he was at Yale and he is currently doing one of the most interesting jobs that I've heard about. He told me he started about three weeks ago. He basically gets to choose the next big idea to invest in for the company. We also had a lot of random chats about Facebook stocks which was one of the best parts of our conversation. Other than that, Tyler gave me an amazing perspective of Yale and it gets me pretty excited that I'm taking on a Yale mentor this year. Other than Tyler, I also got to talk to the other Yale mentors, but not as much. Nevertheless, I am so excited for this second part to my journey and I can't wait to take this next big step in my journey. 

Once again, I would just like to thank the Ivy League Connection for this amazing opportunity, and also to Mr. Izzy Ramsey who was such a kind cost to our event. I'm looking forward to this new experience and the many things that I will learn from it. Today was the start of something big and it will definitely show promising results down the road. 

Episode IV: A New Haven

Today I took yet another step in the massive, now 4-part journey that is my experience with the ILC. I found it fitting that this fourth step (and final step in high school, but not even close to my final step with the ILC for the rest of my life) was with Yale, as that is where it originally began. I was fascinated with Yale my sophomore year, and was ecstatic when I was selected for the Grand Strategy course. Unfortunately, I was too young to enroll in the program and ended up going to Cornell instead, and had a wonderful experience there. This summer (as you can probably tell from me posting this on the Brown blog) I had the privilege of attending a course at Brown, again thanks to the ILC. By the end of the course, I started to regret that I wouldn't get to be a part of this amazing program again. So naturally, when Mr. Ramsey and Don sent out an e-mail inviting some ILCers to a brunch at the Olympic Club as part of the Brown and now Yale Mentor program, I jumped at the opportunity. I decided I wanted to be a part of the Yale program, as I believed it was a much better fit for me, and I really just wanted to learn more about the school.

When I woke up this morning, I realized two pretty important things: One, it was my sister's birthday and I had completely forgotten to write in her birthday card even though she'd be opening presents in about two minutes. And two, today I was heading into the first ILC event that I knew next to nothing about. I always had some idea of what to expect at past ILC functions, from dinners with alums to the school board meetings and so on, but I really didn't no what to expect here. Would this become a 3 and a half hour info session on the college application process? Would it just be dozens of alums attempting to convince me to apply to a school I'm already set on applying to? A third possibility never even crossed my mind, as I usually tend to expect the worst of things I know nothing about. Luckily for me, the event ended up being a perfect blend of the two, with a lot of just getting to know people mixed in. 

All the Yale alums I got a chance to speak with were kind, informative, and just as ridiculously intelligent as you'd expect them to be. This made for great conversations throughout the event, but I unfortunately realized at the end of the event that these brilliant people are who Yale expects to find in their sea of applicants, which ended up making Yale even more intimidating of a school than it already was. Aside from this one somewhat sad realization, the brunch was incredible! All these alums were young enough to understand just how competitive the college application process is now, and I was oddly reassured by the fact that, according to Andrew (Yale Class of '11), it's all pretty random. As a student who was accepted at Yale and MIT yet rejected by UC Berkeley, it completely made sense that he would feel that way, and that made me feel much better about the fact that I will get rejected by schools, and that's perfectly fine, I just have to hope my dream schools aren't the ones that reject me. I can't wait to start working closely with all the great people I met, and the I'm already counting down the days until the A's game September 30th where we'll meet up yet again.