Candlelight Dinner with Brown Alumni

I woke up on this summer–like morning, wondering what tonight’s dinner would have in store for me. After I came home from school, I threw my dress on since I only had 30 minutes to get ready. As I was getting ready, I referred to the clock every two minutes. My main goal was to not be late for this event. I have been warned that I may have to face Evil Don (cue scary music). Luckily, my mom and I were ready to leave around 4:33pm.  We made it on time to the BART station and we waited for everyone to arrive. 

Fortunately, today's weather was fantastic! We took a nice walk in San Francisco to get to the Town Hall restaurant, which happened to have great food and a nice atmosphere. Although I successfully completed my first task, being on time, I faced another challenge. I needed to mingle with the Brown alumni.

As we were waiting to be seated, I was able to talk to a Brown graduate. Jim Sinai, the Brown alumni seated next to me, was very friendly and eager to offer information.  All the shyness that I entered the restaurant with, disappeared.  I wasn’t aware at the time but every ILC student had a Brown alumni seated next to them.   

Everyone at the dinner was so kind and I was relieved that it was so easy to speak to them. I was not intimidated at all!  I enjoyed listening to their educational background and what they are doing currently. Their advice was fantastic and I learned about a great medical program at Brown. 

After the dinner we took BART home, but unfortunately some of us split up. My mom and I followed Don. However, the other group arrived at El Cerrito thirty minutes earlier. Now I am at my computer, at 1 AM, because of Don (just kidding). All in all, tonight’s dinner was not only fun, but it was a great learning experience that added to my excitement for Brown.

Dinner with Alumni

I was rather nervous when I stood outside of the BART Station and waited for us to begin the trip to the Town Hall restaurant in San Francisco. Perhaps the people at the dinner were going to have exceedingly high expectations of us? I did not want to disappoint, and I began to worry. Regardless, I still tried my best to smile, greet people, and sustain conversations. 

The BART ride went by unexpectedly quickly, even if it seemed to be around, what, an hour? Everything breezed through rather quickly, and as we walked through downtown San Francisco, I listened to my father tell me a variety of things about the city, since he works here. (I don't come down here with him very often.) 

When we arrived at the Town Hall restaurant, I was pleased by the appearance and the nice warm color of the building. My anxiety may have reached a rather small peak at this point; nevertheless, we went in and up the stairs to the second floor of the restaurant, where we had our own dining room for our rather large group of about 50 people, I think? 

We stood right outside for a couple minutes while we waited for the room to be prepared. I chatted with a few people, like Terri Ishmael. Inside, there were 5 tables, and everyone had assigned seats to encourage meeting new people. I sat with Don, a couple of alumni from Brown University, my father, another student heading to the Women and Leadership program, and her mother. The alumni had some interesting stories to share, and I listened closely.

Later, Madeline Kronenberg began to speak to all who were at this dinner, and she went over the groups of people here, which included the students going to Brown this summer, the alumni, the staff members of the school district, the sponsors of the program, and the parents. I had to introduce myself (as did other people), and I believe it went by rather smoothly for me. We had two of the students speak about the Ivy League Connection and their courses at Brown, and we had an alum speak about his experiences decades ago when he was a student at Brown. Charles Ramsey followed up and finished with a short speech, too. 

The food was rather good. Our first course was some gumbo, though mine got cold since I was too busy listening to people speak. This was followed by a choice of either chicken or a fillet of steak. I chose the steak, and it was a bit rarer than I anticipated; regardless, I enjoyed it. I do, however, need to practice my ability to cut steak! Many of the pieces were tenderized by my fork and knife by the time I cut them off. Our desert was something rather rich and chocolaty. 

After we finished eating, we went outside to take some pictures. First, we had all the alumni and the students come together, and we had a banner for Brown University in a few of the pictures. After that, we had just the students in the pictures. (I think my smile was a bit of a grimace!) 

It was rather late when we started to head back. We went back to the BART station, and we had to transfer between BART trains. When we stepped out of the first train, it seemed like the group shrunk in size by half! Perhaps some people ended up getting home in a different train. The waits for the trains certainly felt much longer than the rides themselves, too. When we got on the second train, there were a ton of people with Warriors jerseys. I'm guessing there was a game, haha! 

Overall, this night was very enjoyable, and I'm happy to have met such a variety of interesting people. 

Let Them Eat Cake

This was the moment that I had been anxiously awaiting for about two months and I could barely breath. I was going to have to give a speech to a room filled with intimidating individuals and I was dreading it. This day had eventually been nicknamed "Doomsday" and I needed to get  ready to explain what I was looking forward to when I go over to Brown.

I arrived at the BART station at 4:35 and waited for the other cohorts as well as adults to arrive. I saw Don getting the tickets ready and I went to go talk to him. Don was in a great mood and I guess that he decided to be 'Good Don' today. Soon everyone arrived and we made brief introductions. I was shocked at how inviting everyone was to me and I felt a bit silly for being nervous in the first place.

El Cerrito Plaza BART Station



As we got settled in on the train I started to mingle with the woman I was sitting next to me. Even though she was not going to the Town Hall Restaurant she put all of my nerves at ease. When we arrived at Town Hall restaurant we ate a delicious first course meal. 

After we finished eating Mrs. Kronenberg introduced all of the students, staff members, Brown alums, and sponsors. I got the chance to meet the other women in my group who were from El Cerrito High School and could tell that we would get along.

It was my time to shine and I felt like I was ready to successfully convey my message. I discussed what I felt I could get out of participating in the Ivy League Connection and how I could improve my community. As I finished giving my speech I never felt so liberated in my life. I knew that I had told my story and honestly made a connection with most of the people in that room. 

As I sat down Anne White, a Brown alum from the Class of '64 leaned over and said, "You did a great job." I had been asking her questions about her life and what life was like at Brown University back in the 60's. She is truly an amazing woman and someone who I aspire to become one day.

I managed to learn so much in such a sort amount of time. I will remember this moment for the rest of my life and I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many inspirational men and women. I was praised the entire way home for the speech that I had given. I could tell that everyone was united and truly was pulling for us to succeed. I hope that I can add to Brown University's legacy and become a productive member of the ILC.

Brown Dinner

Today I went to Town Hall Restaurant in San Francisco and met people who are associated with this year's ILC Brown programs. Before we started eating, Mr. Ramsey introduced us to the sponsors, alumni, and chaperones. Two of the ILCers, Alicia and Duncan, and the alumni gave us some inspirational speeches and reminded us of the purpose of this program - to help and contribute to our communities.

The food was delicious. I ordered a steak and most people in my table ordered chicken. I had never had steak cooked that way, but I enjoyed the steak very much.

This is the first blog post in my life and I have a lot more to learn about blogging. Hopefully the tutorial session this Saturday will give me some blogging tips and advice and make me a better blogger.

Lastly, I want to thank the contributors of the ILC program. Without them, this wonderful dinner and the great experience we will have this summer would be impossible.

Post-Dinner Rumination

Tonight was the first dinner I attended for the ILC, at Town Hall in SF.  In attendance was the whole Brown cohort, subsequent parents, the ILC dignitaries, and a veritable cornucopia of interesting people.  To my surprise, I was chosen as a speaker at the dinner, along with Alicia.

Speaking.  I stressed over it.  My over-thinking brain loves to get its hands on these kinds of opportunities.  But, I thought about what I wanted to say, collected said thoughts, made some notes, and practiced what I was going to say.  That process really helped me remain calm as I went up to talk.  But, when I got up there, after starting by thanking everyone like I had planned, I promptly abandoned my plan and winged it.  I decided to forgo all that preparation and just go with the flow.  Could've been worse.  That isn't to say I didn't say any of those things I had prepared, I just didn't say them in the way I had prepared.  It feels more natural to just talk than to try to remember a certain pattern or structure, and that seemed to be received well, as I got multiple compliments at dinner and in other peoples' posts.  Thanks guys!

Anyways, enough about my speech!  The dinner was great!  I have pictures of my main course, the chicken, which was absolutely delicious, and the dessert, which was to die for.  Incredibly rich, but irresistible.  I really liked the setting too, Town Hall has a really friendly atmosphere, although the room we were in does tend to get a bit loud, making it hard to hear all of the interesting things the people at my table had to say!  I sat, along with Julia Shebek and Johnny Ko, with two Brown alums, one from the class of 2012 and one from 1984; they were both really interesting.  The '84 grad, Hunter, played on the San Jose Earthquakes, an MLS soccer team, for a few years after college.  That's crazy!  Soccer wasn't as affluent in America at that point and the professional teams weren't really respected in the soccer community at that point, but it is still quite an achievement.  And now he's the head of a labor union!  This led to interesting discussions about lobbying, money in politics, clean and renewable energy, soccer, personal drive, and all sorts of other things.  The '12 grad had just spent half a year in Brazil, as she majored in Brazilian and Portugese studies, and she had great stories about Rio.  She also went to ECHS; it's nice to meet fellow Gauchos.

Also at my table was Nate Enfield, a teacher at De Anza, and my chaperone!  He is chaperoning the first Brown group (that would include me), and he seemed like a really cool guy.  I like him!  We talked about what it's like at De Anza, and seeing as he is the Econ teacher there, I think he could definitely be of some help in my macro class.  He was interested in even helping out in class, which I would be all for, but I'm not sure how the professor would feel about that.  We'll see!  He was really interested in exploring the area around Providence and seeing lots of colleges while there, an interest which I can strongly support.  I really want to get to see as much of that college area as I can, as there are so many good schools there.

All in all, I had fun tonight, it was nice seeing people who go to my school and also meeting new and interesting people, and I hope the latter will be a recurring theme throughout this program!

-Duncan

p.s. - Here are the sweet pics of the food:

The End of the Beginning: Dinner at Town Hall

Today, as you might have guessed by my title, was the Brown dinner.

Before I left home, my brother immediately noticed that I was nervous. Apparently, I was making weird claws and fists with my hands. I made sure not to do that again at the dinner, because it wasn't very pretty.

Town Hall

My mother and I arrived to BART on time, but when we got on the train, I found myself saying little more than "I have no idea," and "El Cerrito." I assured myself that I would say more when we got to the restaurant. When we found Town Hall after zigzagging through San Francisco to find a way there, I spoke with a few of the Brown alumni and was glad to gain some general knowledge of what I would find there.

The meal was delightful (I ordered the beef fillet), but I was most pleased listening to our speakers, and especially enjoyed hearing from Alicia and Duncan, who both spoke eloquently, and was happy to find that I got to know them better through their speeches. Both speeches were very different; Duncan's was more informal and Alicia's was very heartfelt, but they were both very true and full of well-turned phrases. I found similar benefits in hearing from our other speakers who gave enlightening speeches about the program and their experiences with it.

My main struggle, aside from relating to adults and making intelligent contributions to conversation, was maintaining good posture and using proper table manners...because I normally look like a hunchback and eat with my hands. No, I'm kidding. But (as I hope no one noticed) I usually have terrible posture.

My delicious dinner

Although this was a completely new type of event for me to go through, the interview and tutorial felt like the beginning of this wonderful experience, and I can tell that I'm growing accustomed to the ILC environment and leaving that phase.

This was on the wall of Town Hall

Milestone Number 2: Alumni Dinner

Tonight marked the next Ivy League Connection milestone: the annual ILC dinner with Brown alumni. We began the evening by meeting at the El Cerrito Plaza BART Station and took BART to San Francisco, where we walked to the restaurant “Town Hall”.

I do admit to being nervous about making a good first impression on all the sponsors, alumni, and chaperones at the dinner. Fortunately, I quickly became comfortable when I struck up a conversation with a Brown alumni sitting next to me at the table, Lauren Brodsky. It was really helpful to be able to get advice from someone who used to go to El Cerrito High School (my current high school) but has also experienced life at an Ivy League College.

During the meal, various people got up to speak, including Mr. Ramsey, a couple of students, and some of the alumni. I loved hearing my fellow ILC cohorts giving speeches because it made me proud to be in the same program as them. It was also very heartwarming to hear from all the adults who support us and have faith in us.

As for the food, I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing it was. I got so wrapped up in my conversations with people that I almost forgot to enjoy the exquisite Andouille sausage Gumbo and grilled chicken. I was (almost) too full for dessert!

As the evening came to a close, we said our goodbyes (for now) and walked back to BART. It surprised me how easy it was to have conversations with other adults. I have never done anything like this before, so it was a great learning experience, and I really feel that attending this event made me more comfortable with meeting new people and making connections with them. I’m so grateful to all the Ivy League Connection sponsors and supporters, especially Don and Mr. Ramsey, for making this evening possible.

The BROWN Town

I thought the floor might cave from under my feet if I paced the floor of my living room one more time.

Tonight marked our first event as true ILC family members. We (the Brown alumni, sponsors, parents, Brown cohorts, school board members, and myself) met today at the Town Hall Restaurant in San Francisco to create network opportunities within the world of great education. This was a fantastic night of food, fellowship, and fraternizing.

From the Beginning:

As I got ready for the dinner, there was one thing on my mind: being on time. Images of getting to the BART station and having all these scowling faces waiting for me kept flashing through my head. I called my father at least 3 times within 15 minutes to make sure he came home to have enough time to get ready. Perhaps I was a little impatient, pacing the floor like a wild woman, but I did not want to be put on Evil Don's contact list. As we arrived at the BART station, on time (thankfully), a  wave of relief came over me. I spotted all the other Brownies and we got on the train without a hitch.

Then came my first challenge, talking to all the wonderful strangers. At first, I was not sure how to go about talking to all the ILC executives. However, as the evening progressed at the restaurant, the conversations came more natural and fluid. I realized that everyone I was talking with wanted to talk with me! I started receiving tips and advice from each and every person I met. The Town Hall Restaurant had become a town of Brown University. One person that I met in the hallway at the restaurant was not even with our group, yet had a friend who had graduated from Brown!

The underlying spider web of Brown was entrancing, and I had fell victim.

As the night came to a close, I felt fulfilled. And not only from the delicious food. The idea of being a part of a group that works to show students their potential was extremely inspiring. The Ivy League connection was becoming a piece of me. I knew the things to come might have me pacing the floor, but in the end I will be dancing with the world.  

  

Brown Dinner: 411

Hi everyone,

I just got back from the Brown dinner at Town Hall in San Francisco! The restaurant was really beautiful, and had some "stunning 19th century styles" that my dad (an Architect) kept commenting on. 

The food was great, except it was so fancy that I couldn't tell what was on the menu! But what really made my night wasn't the food, (which was incredibly delicious) but the people I met. 

During dinner I talked mostly with Terri Ishmael, the Vice Principal of Hercules High School. We discussed class schedules, which is currently being debated at my school. We agreed that a block schedule in which you take the same classes the whole year, but in different time segments each day, would be ideal.

Throughout dinner, I also talked to Alicia Green, a sophomore who is attending the Women and Leadership program with me. During dinner, she gave a thoughtful, heartwarming speech about our Action Plans. This really inspired me to make sure I really execute my Action Plan when I return from Brown.

Halfway through dinner, there were several speakers, including Brown alumni, benefactors, Charles Ramsey, and Madeline Kronenberg. All of them made me incredibly grateful for being given this amazing opportunity. I can't wait to make them proud at Brown.

How Can We Blog If You Don't Teach Us How?

On Saturday April 13^th the ILC held the first two of four tutorial sessions where our new ILCers gathered to learn how their blog sites work, how to use the tools on Blogger and what we’re looking for in their blogs.

We’ve established some formatting protocols that we want our ILCers to follow so their blogs are pleasing to the eye and there’s some conformity to their blogs.

We also show them examples of “good” blogs and examples of “bad” blogs so they can learn from the examples set by previous ILCers on what makes a successful blog and what will put their readers to sleep.

We had seven ILCers and two chaperones in our morning session and then eight ILCers in our afternoon session.

While everyone was prepared to participate in the hands-on sessions where they could post some practice blogs and get some direct instruction on what they were doing right and what they’re doing wrong, it didn’t work out that way.  In fact, it was a big bust.

Unfortunately, since we were using a District computer lab and needed to access the District’s Internet service, we were flummoxed due to some firewalls put in place to ensure that District staff and students don’t accidently go to inappropriate sites.  How they might see our blog sites as inappropriate is beyond me but there were no District staffers available on this Saturday to provide us with access.

Oh well…

As frustrating as this was, it didn’t stop us from proceeding with the numerous other items to be discussed.

We discussed some of the things the ILC expects from our ILCers, we explained about how to behave, rules they need to follow while back east, what to pack, what kind of loaner items will be available for their use, a few laundry tips, instructions on how to take better photos, what to do with those photos and whether Evil Don should come to the homes of our ILCers.

It would have been very easy to allow these barriers to have shut us down but everyone worked very hard to find ways to proceed.  This is the kind of thinking we like to see.

And for the record, the next two tutorials will be at a venue where we will be able to do what the tutorial is set up to do.

The First Step of a Great Journey to Come

Hello! I'm Jay Fan.  I'm a junior at Hercules High School this year, and I'll be attending the Techniques in DNA Biotechnology program at Brown this summer.

On the Saturday morning of April 13, 2013, I, along with six other fellow Ivy League students, had our first "milestone" event, which was the tutorial tutorial session at Hercules High with Don Gosney, who helps run the Ivy League Connection. We had a bit of a slow start as a few students had trouble finding the classroom hosting the tutorial and had to wait half an hour to solve problems regarding the school's troublesome Internet protocols.  This Blogspot was actually blocked by our school's system! How ridiculous and embarrassing.  But soon, we found a way to circumvent the problem and carried on with the tutorial.

The main things that Don discussed with us during the tutorial were regarding blogging, photography, what to pack, and especially, behavior and being on time (I'm already late writing this blog. I'm sorry, everyone!) Along with these topics followed many of Don's interesting stories about past Ivy League Connection students who were both terrific examples and terrific non-examples.

This about concludes my first blog. It wasn't as difficult as I thought once I just set myself down and got to work. I'm now even more excited to go to the East Coast this summer after all the talk about the trip.

The Beginning of My New Adventure

Hello, my name is Alicia Green and I am a sophomore at De Anza High School. I attended my first blogging session on April 13, 2013.

Welcome to my tutorial session blog! This summer I will be attending the Women and Leadership program at Brown University, but first I have to learn how to blog and find out what I need to do to make this trip a success.

I wish I could say that the tutorial started off on a good note, but unfortunately this is not the case. My father had to drop my mother off to work and then take me to the tutorial. Although this seems like a simple task it was actually quite difficult, because my father and I both did not know our way around Hercules High School or where room 106 was located. Since I was late I immediately walked into the room, signed in, and tried to get Internet access.

The computer lab was very small and it felt as if we were sitting on top of each other. Unfortunately, the school district blocked us from going on certain websites or viewing the entire website. This was incredibly frustrating since we needed Internet access to practice blogging.

If only this was the actual computer lab

As we did the best with what we had Don came around to each individual student and helped them learn the proper format that we will be using this summer. Don was helpful and told us the correct font sizes, margin alignments, and gave us a packet filled with examples of how to make our blogs look presentable. Inside the packet were also items that we would need to purchase and the rules that we should follow when we are at Brown University: 

• Check your emails at least everyday and respond when asked to do so.

• Be on time

• Follow Instructions 


During tutorial I learned how to crop images, add links, and  the correct format when adding a post on my blog. I learned that adding captions and pictures makes our blog more interesting while keeping the reader's attention when they view our blog.

Although I will miss the Bay Area I will have to learn how to adapt to being so far away from home.  I have to learn how to do my own laundry and make sure that I get to class on time. I am very excited and appreciative of the opportunity to go to Brown University.

The Beginning of the Journey

Today marked the first crawl of our soon to be run marathon. Although it was anticipated to be a walking step, due to District limitations, our learning experience was almost brought to a halt. Being as I do understand the necessity for certain restrictions when allowing internet access to teenagers, but I do not see the point in restricting Blogger. I personally don't know of any of my friends that would use Blogger while they are supposed to be using the computer for learning.

But in the interest of efficiency, and with the usage of perseverance, we continued on with our tutorial. Today was our first Ivy League Connection meeting and as with most to all first meetings, we discussed the basics. The basics ranged from luggage to table manners to social hour, which all were clearly expressed as being critical.

In all, today was a great learning experience and great prelude to the amazing summer that I am anticipating to have at Brown University along with my cohort. 

Blogging 101

Hi everybody!

Today I attended a session at Hercules High School where we were taught how to blog and format our blog posts. We also received a list of items to bring with us when we go back east, which will be extremely useful in a couple months.

Before the session, however, I (along with three other students) got a little lost on the way to the room. Even with maps we had trouble locating it! Eventually we found the room, but were a few minutes late.

 Hercules High School

Once we got there, we went onto the practice blog site that Don created where we practiced posting blogs and adding photos into our posts. I was surprised at how much thought you actually have to put into a blog post. In addition to writing the blog posts, we also had to correctly format them so that they fit the screen once published. Adding in pictures was also harder than it looks, because in order for the photos to match up with the text, they have to be a certain size and placed in a specific position.

After we finished learning about blogging, we went through a packet that Don had been kind enough to prepare for us. It informed us what to pack, and why. There were also two chaperones there who gave us helpful suggestions about spending money and luggage.

Although I'm new at it, I'm excited to continue blogging, and I can't wait for this summer!

First Things First

It was a beautiful day today, but I found myself cooped up in a room with several other members of the ILC cohort and Don—and enjoying it.

Today was one of our first scheduled Ivy League Connection events, in which we reviewed everything we could possibly need to know about blogging as well as things like having a laundry bag and using a camera instead of a cell phone.

I expected that a tutorial mostly about blogging would be dull, and that Don would be lecturing us about simple things we already knew from common sense, but I found that sitting in a room listening to Don speak about the ILC was surprisingly interesting. Of course, there were moments in Don’s speech about blog formatting that lagged, and I wouldn’t exactly say that the “What to pack” list was captivating, but I did learn about several important things I needed to do for the blog. Most of these, fortunately, were specific, like “don’t indent” and “always justify your margins”. But I’m glad that Don went into detail about photography, because I didn’t know that holding a camera with your elbows in to your torso instead of holding your arms out made a picture sharper, which I’ll certainly be using on the trip.

Don was also kind enough to provide a packet with much of the same information we discussed during the tutorial, but I’m sure I’ll find myself reading it over and over to ensure that I don’t miss anything important. This meeting, while casual and informative, still made me nervous. Learning more about the responsibilities I will be faced with this summer are both exciting and frightening. I look forward to the freedom I’ll have with my parents on the opposite side of the country, but, then again, my parents won’t be there to help me with my laundry. This meeting made me feel comfortable in some of my skills, but it’s becoming clear to me that I still have a lot to learn. 

The lovely view of Hercules High School from the parking lot.