Speaking to the School Board!

Today all thirty-eight of the 2013 accepted student members of the ILC were presented in front of the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) School Board. Each cohort went up one at a time, carrying the respective flag of the university they would be attending. 

But before we were presented we listened to an interesting case presented in front of the School Board regarding classes for expelled students. The program running the classes was being handed over to the County instead of the District and the program heads were appealing to the District to reject that decision. In the end, due to monetary reasons, the Board did not repeal their original decision. Though this decision seemed sad for the students, I did not know enough about the issue to have a fully-formed opinion.

Giving a speech in front of the School Board!

Sitting and watching the other programs get presented, I started to get extremely nervous. I had been selected by Don to give a speech on behalf of my cohort in front of the School Board. In an email Don sent to us prior to the meeting, he urged us to speak from the heart so I did not prepare a formal written speech. Instead, I resorted to using the public speaking skills that I have learned from being on the El Cerrito High School Speech and Debate Team for the past three years. I gave a brief speech about my appreciation for being a part of this amazing program, how excited I am to become a college student for a month, and how much I am looking forward to visiting numerous Ivy League college campuses. Finally I brought everything back to the inspirational speech Mr. Ramsey gave us at our recent cohort dinner, about the quality of being selfless. I vowed to return home from Columbia ready to help improve my school and my community, especially in broadening the horizons of students at my own school to look beyond their local community for their college educations. I must admit that being in front of the prestigious School Board made me both quite nervous and also very proud!

The Columbia cohort minus Anmol who could not make it in the picture.

Finally, the meeting was adjourned for thirty minutes for the famous ILC group photograph. Don took a total of twenty five images of all 38 ILCers, their parents, and the chaperones. When Don is finished editing the photograph it will appear at the head of the official ILC blog, the link for it being at the side of this page.

Hearing the great things that the School Board members had to say about us was a great feeling. This meeting really showed me how the entire community of the WCCUD is supporting us and that we all, students, parents, teachers, administrators, funders, and the community as a whole, really stick together. In the end, the statement I most remembered from this event was Ms. Kronenberg and Mr. Ramsey urging all of us to “believe in ourselves!”