After weeks of planning for Don’s blogging tutorial, we finally settled on a date, Saturday May 14th at 9:00 AM. I immediately agreed when Ms. Bulls made the proposal, to prevent further frustration for everyone involved especially Don, yet when I reached home and looked at my schedule, I realized that I had overbooked my football practice which was at the exact time of the tutorial. I knew what I had to do, I thought I would definitely miss some football practice, but after the meeting I would be able to go which would make me skip all the stretching and running that I loathe, and get right into the serious business of actually playing the sport. At this fact, I smiled as I went to bed that Friday evening.
I awoke the next morning in the same high spirits, anxious to see what the blogging tutorial would teach me since I already have a pretty good knowledge base in computers. After putting my sweats on, and getting ready for the day, Ms. Bulls picked me up and I was off to the tutorial. Upon our arrival, we saw that Don and the others ( Milani Lyman and Ms. LaDonna Williams) had already arrived.
We promptly began the tutorial at about 9:30AM due to some technical conflicts between our schools technology and Don, yet with a little luck we were able to begin.
He started the session by distributing a thick compilation of papers titled “Mandatory Tutorial Agenda.” The document contained 37 topics from blogging itself to a section titled “this and that,” and some of the topics had subgroups within its contents. Immediately I thought, this is not just a tutorial, but an information session on all that is the Ivy League Connection, and that I probably would not be attending practice that day.
I didn’t mind though, the information session was extremely informative; we even had a crash course in photo shop worthy of being in any community college curriculum.
We went through issues that may arise on our trips back East too. I was excited to hear all the plans and fail safes that were in place for situations like forgetting your toothpaste or a flash drive, or even needing a fan. It made me feel more comfortable with the program seeing that they would treat me as their own when need arose, not just as an adult in the real world even when I make mistakes.
I also learned about the administrators of the program through Don Gosney. One can think of him as a mean critical person, but watching him speak that morning allowed me to see that he is simply passionate about what he does. He and his associates are passionate about the Ivy League Connection and they want to achieve the goal of sending young men and women to great schools fit for them, not only in California but across the United States and if a person isn’t doing what they are supposed to be doing in the program, then that person is simply obstructing the way to the goal. I would like to apologize for anything I’ve done to obstruct the Ivy League Connections path and I will try not to get in the way of people that are trying to help me.
Anyway, the Ivy League Connection blogging tutorial was an eye opening experience and a stepping stone toward a truly invigorating experience back East that I can’t wait to attend.
