And so it Begins!

Today was the first day of The Ivy League Connection preparation. My day started especially well because I found out that Columbia accepted me into their summer program! It is nice to know that the application phase of The Ivy League Connection is over with, it sure was a nerve racking phase! Today eight of us, all from different cohorts, met in the afternoon at Hercules High School to discuss how the blogging system works and to discuss a few things we would need to bring with us during the program.

Hercules High School on this beautiful afternoon.

We learned everything we needed to know about adding new posts, formatting those posts, adding photographs, adding links, even adding videos. We also spent some time learning how to format pictures correctly. I have never been a part of a blog before, so this was a very new experience for me. I really enjoyed the photo manipulation process with Photoshop because I am an avid photographer. Whenever I go on family vacations I am always the designated photographer. I have never had good photo editing software so now that I have Photoshop I am very excited to start uploading and editing my photographs. 

The second thing we did was discuss a few miscellaneous items that could be important to us during the program. These ranged from small travel irons and pillows to surge protectors and card readers. We received a list of things that we were recommended to bring. It was a huge list with 20+ items. I hope I have enough room to pack all my clothes too! 

I still do not understand what half these buttons do!

Though it was a long afternoon with lots of technical difficulties (half the group could not access the blog due to school district restrictions), I found this session to be incredibly informative and crucial to the The Ivy League Connection process. I was excited to return home and start writing my first blog. The first thing I did when I got home was try and figure out how to use Photoshop. I watched a multitude of online videos and tutorials because there are so many buttons all over the screen in the Photoshop menu! I think for  the most part I understand the basics now, and I hope I correctly formatted my first photo uploads to the blog.

I am so honored and thrilled to be a part of The Ivy League Connection program. I look forward to our next event which is dinner in San Francisco with Columbia alumni and our sponsors, then the school board meeting. I also look forward to sharing my thoughts and experiences with all of you through this blog.