Together Under the Same Roof

For the first time this year, all participating members of the 2015 Ivy League Connection program were together in the same room. This included not only the students, but chaperones, sponsors, parents, and Don. Tonight, everyone was brought together to be recognized and applauded for being able to make it to where they are now. 

It was that day again. As the end of school bell rang, I was the first one to race across the school grounds to meet my mom. The next couple hours consisted of a dental appointment, a quick shower, and small after school lunch. Before I knew it, I was in the back seat of the car on my way to Lovonya DeJean Middle School. 

Justice, was coincidentally the first person I ran into as I was walking towards the cafeteria. Right away both of us caught up with each other, even though we saw each other two days ago, and entered the school board meeting one behind the other. There we ran into Julie, Shanti, Thao, and Helen, who arrived a few minutes later. After greeting each other, our cohort was eager to introduce ourselves to the rest of the ILCers. Immediately we met people going to Columbia, Brown, and a few other prestigious universities. 

As the school board meeting commenced, Todd Groves led everyone through the national anthem and began going down the list of to-dos. At last, the school board reached the topic of congratulating the ILC program. One cohort at a time, the chaperone spoke and introduced each member attending the program, followed by one student speaker. Each speech consisted of endless thank yous to sponsors and volunteers, and brought up ideas of how current ILCers will give back to our community once the program ends. 

Once all the cohorts introduced themselves, everyone fled to the gymnasium for a group photo. With photographer Don on duty, every student, parent, and chaperone was placed in precise locations. Together the entire group smiled through 25 straight and continuous photographs taken. As everyone disbanded and said their good byes, the ILC boys got fancy and requested Don to take a separate photo of just guys. After taking pictures, names and numbers were quickly exchanged between the 7 of us. This led a great ending to a great night.

From left to right, Jae-An, Brandon, Justice, Arnold, Rudy, Stephen, and Mark.