The ILC’s Maiden Voyage to Vanderbilt: The View from the Top

It is a true blessing to wake up every morning because every moment isn’t promised. But to wake up to a city as beautiful as Atlanta in the morning is an awesome pleasure. Today, after beginning with a slow start, we went to the Prime Meridian restaurant, a local place within our hotel, to eat breakfast. After filling up on steel cut oats, brown sugar, and raisins we set off for our first college visit at Morehouse, a school for men in Atlanta and a school I wanted to see.

At the admissions session I was happy to hear about the tradition that Morehouse College holds. Their school environment consists of a huge brotherhood including students and teachers, a lot of whom are alumni, forming one body. Within this body students push and support each other toward the common goal of changing the world. Their main goal is create a renaissance man with a social conscience, pushing students to become well read, well spoken, well traveled, well dressed, and well balanced. Even though Morehouse is an all men’s school, they’ve formed a strong bond with Spelman College—an all girl’s school as another part of this brotherhood creating a family. Each Morehouse student is assigned a Spelman sister whom they support and receive support from. I was extremely happy to find that Morehouse College does offer both merit and need based aid toward their hefty price tag.

We also visited Clark Atlanta University which is in the same vicinity as Morehouse College which is called the Atlanta University Center. Clark was an interesting place to be especially because I knew some Pinole Valley High School Graduates who would be attending classes there in the fall. Before the start of our admissions session we were able to look through yearbooks portraying the school’s history. I found the school to be a very nurturing place. Our Admissions Presenter, while at the same time talking about his school, gave advice to the students in the room about applying for college, going through college life, and even life after college. Clark Atlanta University also offers scholarships for students with a 3.0 and 1100 SAT (Critical Reading and Math). I made sure before we left that I grabbed an application because even if I don’t end up there next year it’s still good practice.

The thing I really enjoyed was being able to see some of Atlanta’s attractions. We ventured to the World of Coca Cola and learned about the history of Coke. I took a personal lesson from the trip about how to get people to pay to do your marketing. I also tried every flavor of soda that Coca Cola produces worldwide. I found the best flavors of soda reside in China called Smart Apple and Smart Watermelon. We also ventured to the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere to dine at a revolving table at the top of the building. The Sun Dial restaurant is found at the top of the Westin-Downtown Atlanta 73 stories up in the sky. We enjoyed an extensive view of Atlanta and the surrounding areas, even seeing the Stone Mountain of Stone Mountain, Georgia. I learned that no matter how busy I may be, I must slow down and enjoy the environment around me, the natural beauty of this world. And only when we do this can we open up a bottle of happiness.

We then proceeded to have arguably the best dinner in Ivy League Connection history. We had dinner at the amazing restaurant Bacchanalia. We enjoyed a deluxe four course dinner and great conversation with our guests representing Emory, an alumnus and active Physician’s Assistant at Emory University Hospital, her precocious son, and Tyler Sant, an admissions officer at Emory University. We learned a lot about Emory and Atlanta from our three sources including Atlanta’s weather patterns, the new Emory Medical School, and in depth what Emory expects from its students and how Emory’s private status allows it to customize its stipulations for incoming freshmen. Along with the combination of various and conversation topics and great food, we enjoyed about 6 specialty dishes given as gifts from the chef.

And finally I received the chance of a lifetime and met Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, former running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers and business mogul. He gave me an autograph and allowed me to take a picture with him while I introduced him to my Ivy League Connection cohorts—all thanks to my Ivy League cohorts, Aiyana and Julia, who pushed me to seize the opportunity.