Saturday, May 21, 2011

Preparing for Adventure: The Vanderbilt Dinner "Comeback Kid"

Tonight was the big night—the Vanderbilt dinner—where Julia, Aiyana, and I would be able to sit and mingle with Vanderbilt Alumni and School Board members, while being able to reunite with our panelists who chose us for our position in the Ivy League Connection.

I was ready with my blue suit picked out, my favorite red and blue tie on standby, and the plan to arrive on time to the El Cerrito Plaza BART Station at 6:30 PM. “6:30,”said Ms Bulls, “We are supposed to meet at the BART Station at 5:30.” The race was on, I knew I would not be able to arrive on time, especially seeing that I only had two minutes to be on time and it takes ten minutes to get to the BART station from my home. When I finally arrived I was actually about ten minutes late and two trains had already passed. Ms. Kronenberg and Don took me anyways after I admitted my mistake.

On the BART ride to Perbacco, a restaurant in San Francisco, Don and I had an interesting conversation about the business of heavy industry.

At Perbacco, the food was amazing we had salad with parmesan cheese as the first course, the main course was an amazing duck breast, and finally one of the best desserts I ever had, simply a hot fudge brownie and a melted, burned, marshmallow, which I believe is called meringue.
There wasn’t a massive amount of people at the dinner, but quality beats quantity any day. I was reunited with panelists Mr. Herman Blackmon, Mr. Don Ellis, and the great Judge Henry Ramsey, along with Board member Ms. Elaine Merriweather, yet I spent most of my time chatting with the extraordinary group of Vanderbilt Alumni (Rachelle Soderston class of '04, John Tilsch class of '04, John Labiak class of '08 Tyler Sanchez class of '10) and Don Gosney about various subjects, from the relationship between students and teachers at Vanderbilt, to immigration in this country.
Overall the dinner, in spite of my technical difficulties, was a wonderful experience, I learned the lesson of time management; triple checking arrangements to make sure the information is communicated effectively; I met many influential young adults who are active in our world today; and work motivated by their experiences at Vanderbilt.

Thank you to all including, Mr. Ramsey, Ms. Kronenberg, Don, and our guests from Vanderbilt, who were able to make this event not only possible, but a success.

P.S. glad to hear Don and Mr. Ellis made it back okay.

1 comment:

  1. Kye,

    For the record, Ms. Kronenberg and I would have taken you no matter what your reason for being late. At that point, though, the reason for being late wasn’t important. All that was important at that juncture was to get ourselves to that great plate of duck breast and hot brownie thingy. And to that end we were successful so all is well with the world once more.

    As you well know I had the luxury of sitting close to where you and John Labiak were discussing the finer points of Vanderbilt. I was pleased to see the two of you conversing so well and was equally pleased with the types of questions you were asking. If any of the conversation stuck with you then I expect that it will prove to be valuable information when you head to Nashville.

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