The Start of New Memories or a Walk Down Memory Lane?

Today was the first ILC wide event of the year. Many ILCers met each other during the tutorial, and most of the cohorts have held meet and greets, but this was our chance to meet every single member of the organization. When I first walked in, I met with Bryan Moran, Jesse Kaur, and Lisa Romero from my high school. We stood for a few moments and looked around in awe at all the students, parents, and community members who were present at the School Board meeting. I even ran into my chaperone last year, Mr. Chan-Law. Afterwards, we separated and joined our respective cohorts. Ms. Thrift also joined us and we got to take a sneak peek of the schools we're visiting. We were all so excited to hear that we were touring MIT, Tufts, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and UPenn. I can't even imagine a better group of schools to visit. We also stopped to take a few pictures with Columbia's flag!

After we all took our seats, the speeches and introductions began. Leonard Eisen, a senior from my high school, was one of the first to speak about how the ILC has impacted him. He also attended the Columbia program and he will be going on to UPenn for the next four years! Tamilyn Chen also spoke. I haven't seen her since the last day of our trip to Cornell last year and I was taken by surprise that Lenny and Tami were at the meeting! Tamilyn is going on to Harvard and it never ceases to amaze me that the ILC is able to produce such intelligent and aspiring students. Knowing these two on a personal level, I know that UPenn and Harvard are extremely lucky to have them. Their speeches and experiences reminded me why I applied to Cornell last year and made me think of the other ILC alumni that inspired me. 

Later on, the Brown cohorts started off and Columbia followed immediately after. Kendall did a great job with her speech and I'm amazed that she wasn't nervous! During one of the other cohort's speech, an ILCer said that he couldn't imagine a better cohort. Monica and I immediately turned to each other and expressed a look that said "he only says that because he hasn't met our cohort." We've only met three times, but I genuinely believe that my cohort has gotten very close during these events.

We went through all the cohorts and ended the speeches with a speech from one of the benefactors. It's a great feeling to know how many people support us and put countless amounts of efforts and monetary help to make this opportunity possible. The thank-yous seemed never ending, but I really don't know how many thank-yous would be enough to compensate for all the support. When we headed over to take our group picture, I saw my middle school principal, Ms. Von-Heusen, too! She expressed how proud she was and memories of middle school suddenly ran through my mind. I was shocked that she remembered me too!

Mr. Chan-Law, Tamilyn, and I

Everyone quickly rushed over to take the group picture, but it still took a while to rearrange everyone and make sure that the floor wasn't exposed. I ended the night by quickly chatting with Tami, Ms. Von-Heusen, and Mr. Chan-Law. Tami and I want to have a mini Cornell reunion sometime soon! The cohort hasn't gotten together yet and all of the seniors are going to be going off to college really soon. On top of the get together, I'm also looking forward to next week's dinner and continuing to represent the ILC during this journey.