Orientation: The Beginning of an End

The students and parents of the ILC gathered at the El Cerrito High School library Thursday evening for an orientation. The parents were to finally be given the opportunity to be informed of what their children are really getting into this summer and the great experiences that lie ahead of them.

Everyone was prompt and on time to our relief, and soon, the orientation commenced with a few words of introduction from Mr. Ramsey and Ms. Kronenberg.

Mr. Don Ellis was also present at the meeting and spoke to us about a new concept of his—a program in which high school students like ourselves could submit literary works to have the opportunity to get them published and distributed in book stores as well as the Internet.

I think the idea is fantastic—it will allow students’ literary creations, ranging from poems to short stories, the chance to be published and received by people far beyond the boundaries of their own school.

Soon after, we broke into groups and dispersed to separate classrooms to discuss our travel plans for the summer.

We received our itineraries and went over the guidelines of our stay at the University. Since we will not be allowed to leave the campus during the duration of the program, we had to cancel some of our side-trips to a few colleges in Georgia, including Spellman and Morehouse. However, we will have time to visit the great Emory College of Arts and Science, as well as the Georgia Institute of Technology. I am extremely excited to visit both, especially the Emory School of Medicine.

After we concluded going over our schedule of our time down South, we congregated once again in the library with some finishing words from Ms. Kronenberg and Mr. Ramsey. They reminded us that we all have an obligation to not only ourselves, but to everyone—our school, our District, our peers, the ILC itself—and we must all be thankful for this opportunity and each do our part.