Tuesday, June 5, 2018

O O O Orientation

Yesterday was the Superbowl of ILC informational meetings, in that it was the last one of the season, with the most people, and there was even a break for halftime. (Can you tell I don't know much about sports?) Regardless, the orientation was extremely informative and left me feeling like our time at Vanderbilt is finally within reach. 

My Dad and I 
Getting to the orientation itself proved to be a bit logistically challenging. As it turned out my younger sister also ended up with a similar school trip that required its own orientation meeting with a parent, and it just happened to take place at the exact same date and time as the ILC meeting. Because of this, our household implemented the divide and conquer technique, and while my sister and mother attended her meeting, my father had his first real experience with the ILC at mine. This was nice because try as I might, I know that if I were to recount all the information I would leave 6 things out and get 4 more wrong. There's a lot to go over when you are staying across the country for a month, so I am happy to leave it up to Don, Ms. Sciacca, and the former ILCers to paint a much clearer picture for my dad, a whole lot faster than I could. 

We arrived, about ten minutes early, to Lavonya Dejean Middle School where the meeting would be held, and walked in to find that Don was still talking to the chaperones. This ended up being great because it gave me and the rest of the Vanderbilt program a chance to briefly catch up.

The meeting began shortly thereafter, with Don covering a basic overview for the evening, and the chaperones formally introducing themselves to all of us. We hadn't yet met the U Chicago chaperone, Mr. Hillyer, and some of our parents hadn't met either of them. It turned out that Mr. Hillyer and Ms. Sciacca actually work at the same school, with Mr. Hillyer in an administrative role, and Ms. Sciacca as an English teacher.

Working in small groups
After the introductions and overview, we split into small cohort groups with our chaperones. This began with our parents finishing the last form of the whole program, (YAY!) and then we moved on to the more fun details of going through the itinerary. We solidified the attractions we are going to visit in both Nashville and Philadelphia, but I won’t go into too much detail about those here because I will be uploading a full post on them shortly, along with the rest of the Vanderbilt girls. For me, the most exciting part of this was seeing the flights and hotel arrangements. Having those dates on paper made it that feel much more tangible. Often times for me the trip seems like this far off thing that I can't quite wrap my head around, but I know what it's like to walk to through the airport and get on early morning shuttles, so picturing doing just that with Anna, Ana, Hawi, and Ms. Sciacca is very exciting.

Next, some former ILCers arrived and we were able to hear directly from them about their experiences in Nashville and with the program. Evan Garrison, who went to Vanderbilt with the ILC last year told us all about his unique experience at Vanderbilt, that unfortunately included a brief hospital stay. Evan was able to answer a multitude of questions about the specifics of life at Vanderbilt, covering everything from the weather to the food, which he explained was one of his favorite parts of the whole trip. He especially recommended a place called “Hog Heaven”, for while we are in Nashville, and while the name does not sound very vegetarian-friendly, Evan assures us that the desserts, and not just the BBQ, are great.

We also had the pleasure of hearing from Jahnvi Doshi, who attended the Vanderbilt program two years ago and the UChicago program last year. She provided unique insight having experienced both, and urged all of us to take full advantage of our time in Nashville, going after every opportunity with 100%. It was nice to hear from her about how much she enjoyed her time in Tennessee and hearing from both her and Evan revealed that the many things do vary year to year, meaning that our experience will be different and special in its own way.

Concluding the meeting, Don talked to us about some basic items for the packing list, reminding us that it is only a matter of weeks before the plans take off to carry us across the country. He then covered some loner Items with examples that we could check out up close. And that brought us just about to the end of the evening, but not without a photo opportunity of course!
Group Photo (It was colder than it looks) 
Overall, I had a great time at the orientation, going over the specifics of the trip, and preparing ourselves as much as possible. I can’t believe we’re are only about a month away and I could not be more excited!

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