A Celebration and a Presentation

Wednesday night, I arrived at Lavonya Dejean Middle School at about six to be presented to the school board. When I walked into the building I first saw my chaperone and one of the girls in my cohort, Oyin, so I went over to chat with them. At this point, the majority of the students were there, so it was definitely interesting to see who else would be participating in the program. I saw some students who looked familiar because they went to my school, and others who looked familiar because I had seen them previously at different interviews. 

Once all the members of my cohort arrived, we decided to take some pictures of all of us together. Then Alie, our chaperone, told us that she had recently found out what colleges we would be visiting before returning to Chicago for our classes. The universities we will be visiting include Georgetown, Northwestern, and UPENN. Soon, we all sat down with our respective cohorts and the school board meeting began. The members took roll, and then Charles Ramsey gave us an overview of the meeting, most of which would be the introduction of the ILC program and who would be participating in it, as well as the introduction of those that generously contributed to the program. 

Oyin presenting the Chicago cohort to the School Board Members

One by one, each cohort presented itself to the school board members, first with an introduction by the chaperone, and then an introduction and an expression of gratitude to all those who made the program possible by one of the students. After all of the cohorts had been presented, the students and parents were ushered into a corner of the building where we had our picture taken. This took a great deal of organization and I ended standing next to an invisible person who would be photoshopped in later. After about ten minutes and twenty or so photographs, we were done and each student got a congratulatory certificate. 

We ended earlier than expected, making it short and sweet. Soon after I headed home after a successful and exciting event.