Meet and Greet!

Today we had our first official get together with our Columbia cohort, their families, and our chaperone Ms. L. Sadly one member of our cohort, Anmol, could not make it so we all look forward to meeting her at the next event! We had a potluck lunch in Arlington Park on a beautiful sunny day. 

Beautiful sunny day for a potluck!

Even though I already knew two of the other members of my cohort (because I go to school with them and know them from my high school’s debate team), it was nice to get to know everyone together. They are all so nice and friendly. I am excited to spend a month in New York with each one of them. 

After eating some of the tasty food that everyone brought, Ms. L explained to us all a little bit about how the program would unfold. She explained the schedule for our program, and talked to us about a few of her own personal rules. Being in the vast Manhattan Island, Ms. L is very strict about knowing where we are and when we are going somewhere. It is comforting knowing that the person who is taking us to Columbia really cares about us too.

We also discussed life on campus, both in and out of the dorms in Columbia. Ms. L told us that last year many of the dorm rooms had views looking out onto the beautiful main quad of the University. I crossed my fingers in the hope that I will get one of those rooms! We also learned that almost 30% of all the students who will be attending the summer program will be from other countries. It will be an incredible opportunity to study alongside teenagers from across America and from around the world! Ms. L told us that we would be spending a lot of time in the many school libraries conducting research and completing our course assignments. Even though this sounds like lots of work I feel up to the challenge. Education in my high school is not very research-oriented, so I think this course will prepare me well for the research style of education found in most universities today.

Listening to Ms. L talk, I felt a new excitement for the summer. She explained that our first assignment (coming to the blog in the next few weeks) is to write our list of top ten places we want to go to or activities we wish to participate in while in New York. I am so glad that she is taking our own thoughts into consideration as she plans some of our weekend activities.  I think it will be hard to narrow the list to just ten things as there are so many things to see and do in New York!

As we discussed some of the activities that past Columbians have participated in, I realized that I am actually going to New York over the summer! Suddenly all those museums, Times Square, and great food that I saw in the photographs from past Ivy League Connection Columbia blogs, seemed closer and more real than ever. I am counting the days until school ends and I can pack my bag to leave for this incredible opportunity, not only to learn about a subject matter I am deeply interested in, but also  to explore one of the greatest cities in America.