Board Meeting Basics

Tonight was the WCCUSD School Board Meeting, which members from every program from the ILC attended, and were introduced to the benefactors, and the School Board members.

When my group was called up, I was suddenly nervous. In addition to standing before the School Board, there was an entire audience full of people staring up at us, as well as videocameras filming our every move. It was a bit intimidating.

When our chaperone introduced us to the School Board, she mispronounced my last name (which I thought was hilarious), and then kept trying to pronounce it correctly, but eventually gave up and just said, "... Elia."

After the introductions, one of my Brown cohorts, Crystal, gave a beautiful speech on why she wanted to be a part of the ILC, and what she planned to do afterwards. It really inspired me to fulfill my Action Plan, and give back to my community.

After Crystal's speech, our chaperone told us to speak into the microphone and say our names, grades and schools. My heart stopped. I immediately thought, "Oh no! I have to say something!" As I approached the mic, I was incredibly anxious, hoping my voice wouldn't sound weird, and thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong. Once I actually said what I needed to say, which in reality was very simple (I'm Elia Chuaqui, and I'm a junior at El Cerrito High), I completely calmed down, and realized that if I had had to say something more, I actually could have.

After speeches and introductions of all the ILCers, chaperones, benefactors and board members, we went off to take a picture with Don. The picture took a little while to organize because there were so many people, but once everyone got settled in correctly, it went really smoothly (although I have a feeling I was doing a really fake smile in most of the photos).

After attending this School Board Meeting, I feel 10 thousand times more grateful than before, because I actually got to put faces to all of our generous benefactors. I am extremely excited to partake in this program this summer, and am incredibly thankful to have been given this opportunity.