From the Parents of Alexander Wing

Our son, Alexander, had the most memorable, exciting summer participating in the ILC program at Cornell University. The ILC gave him numerous opportunities, starting at the very beginning with the essay writing and interviews for the program, the orientations and the chance to meet and interact with the supporters of the ILC, Cornell alumni and present Cornell students at the Bay Area Cornell dinner. The dinner was a wonderful opportunity for Alexander to interact with people he did not know and to engage with them on an adult level. Prospect Restaurant was so elegant and the food was delicious - a perfect venue for the event.

The college visits on the East Coast were very well organized and they were most helpful and eye-opening. Participating in the college tours with fellow high school students, and not with his parents, put Alexander in a position to be independent and to figure out for himself what is important for him in choosing a college. He is definitely interested in pursuing colleges on the East Coast and the ILC program gave him a taste for college life in the east.

Once at Cornell, the support from the ILC and the fantastic guidance from Mr. Chan-Law and the Cornell cohort enabled Alexander to learn and grow. He thrived in the academic and social environment at Cornell and he has called this experience for him “life-changing”. The requirement of a daily blog was an inspired addition. Not only did it enable Alexander to reflect on his day, despite how busy he was with his coursework, but it also allowed us at home to follow his activities and get a sense of how he felt about his experiences. The “Freedom and Justice” class surpassed his expectations by providing him with the knowledge to think, defend and support his opinions and to express his ideas verbally and in writing. He received a solid introduction to Plato, John Locke, Communism, Socialism, among other schools of thought, and an understanding of how they relate to present-day thinking, society, government and law! That is quite an accomplishment in only 3 weeks !

The ILC program is phenomenal and words cannot express the appreciation we have for Mr. Ramsey and Ms. Kronenberg for coming up with this vision, bringing it to fruition and for continuing to make it better. A huge thank you to Don Gosney for his tireless efforts in keeping our kids in line, holding them accountable and for arranging the thousands of small but important details that it takes to run and organize this program every year. We would like to thank Mr. Chan-Law for being an amazing chaperone, for keeping our kids safe and stimulated and for being their friend and mentor. And finally, to all of the very generous supporters of the ILC - none of this could happen without you and we thank you for giving our son this opportunity of a lifetime.

Yakesun Wing and Debbie Hayakawa-Wing