Many cultures have a wisdom along the line that people can achieve more than they can imagine once they set their mind on it. For high school students, setting their minds on the right things and having confidence to go for them are critical for any success in their life. The Ivy League Connection program (ILC) at our school district comes in at an important phase in our students' high school years. It encourages students to discover their strength, helps them focus, offers an opportunity to broaden their experience, and ultimately guides them to set their mind higher and achieve more. We are absolutely grateful for the terrific opportunity our daughter, Yueming Wang, had through ILC. Generous financial support from donors demonstrates an impressive commitment they have in our community. Enthusiasm exemplified through numerous email messages, encouraging blog comments from Mr. Ramsey, Mrs. Kronenberg, Mr. Gosney is simply astounding. Dedication and involvement of many people in our school from principal to teachers once again reminds us of what a great school we have in our community. For all of you, we would like to express our sincere appreciation. You show how much you care about our child’s education. Without doubt, this encourages us as parents and community members to try harder to do our part to make our school even better.
Our daughter attended the Cornell Hotel Operations Management program. Among all her great experiences, she ranks gaining more confidence as one of the most cherished experiences. As parents, we can only imagine what this might mean. Our school district is made of working class community members -- where most of us work hard to make a living. As much as we love our children, circumstances and hard reality sometime subconsciously influence our expectation of our children. “Elite college is beyond their reach either financially or academically” sneaks into our thinking in different forms and voices. As old wisdom says "you definitely cannot do it if you think you cannot." This all might just change for good through ILC.
My daughter was there in the same classroom with kids from rich schools or affluent families. Given the same opportunity, she found she is quite capable of taking on challenges, competing with some of the best students in the nation, and excelling in every way that is expected. With this new experience, we have no doubt she will rethink her plan on college.
For us, as parents, this is one of the reasons why the ILC stands out. Once students are inspired, there is no limit how far they can go.
Once again, we would like to thank you and board members for your oustanding leadership in this program.
Sincerely,
Wang Family
