Ever since Tanya got into
High School, she has been talking about Ivy League Connection (ILC)
program. Fortunately, her good
friends were prior ILC participants, who turned out to be great ambassadors for
ILC. They instilled the aspiration in Tanya to participate in the ILC program.
She had prepared herself
very well for the rigorous selection process. We remember the day of interview in March; we were nervously
waiting outside El Cerrito High School and as every student was coming out, we thought
that Tanya’s probability of acceptance increased. At one point, we could not bear the suspense anymore, so we
approached a parent who had just walked out of the school and asked if they saw
Tanya. She mentioned that the only
people inside were the finalists which meant that Tanya made the cut and we
could not hold our excitement.
Tanya walked out with
three other students, her cohort for the “Grand Strategies” program in
Yale. Our joy knew no bounds; we
shared this news immediately with all of our friends and family.
The events that took place
after the selection process were all coordinated impeccably due to the
energetic and thorough ILC coordinators Mr. Gosney, Mr. Ramsey and Ms. Kronenberg.
They had an action plan for every
step of the program from selection through the actual travel and the summer
course. Don Gosney conducted the
initial tutorial session giving us, the parents and the students a walkthrough
of the program and a list of things that they would need to survive the travel
and the stay in the dorms. On May
17, we enjoyed an exceptional dinner in RN74, an elegant restaurant in downtown
San Francisco amongst the Yale alumni and the ILC sponsors. Both Tanya and I had great conversations
with our tablemates during the dinner and learned a lot about the curriculum
and the student life in Yale. Tanya walked out even more excited about going to
New Haven, CT and started counting down the days. I, as the parent, was convinced that this would be the best
summer of her life.
Before we knew, the travel
date to Yale arrived on July 22, 2012.
We woke up at 1:30 AM to drop Tanya off at El Cerrito High School. Here was another opportunity to witness
Don’s exemplary organizational skills.
He had the talking points ready to prep not only the cohort traveling
but also the parents who were left behind. He handed us the contact information of all the travelers
and the itinerary to keep us informed at all times of the travelers’
whereabouts.
During the next week, we
received a call every evening from Tanya, giving us the report of her day
filled with excitement from visiting the campuses to the exclusive dinners with
the administrators and/or alumni.
She also shared her experience through the blogs, which provided the
visual treats to the reader. They
(the cohort) had travelled to numerous campuses including Georgetown,
University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, and Wesleyan to name a few. The calls diminished as they went to
Yale explaining the rigorous schedule of the course. During one of the few calls that she made, Tanya mentioned
about the Marshall Brief and the measures that they took to prepare for it as a
group. It sounded both exciting
and exhausting based on the number of hours that they put in for the
preparation and presentation. We
heard many good things about the exposure that the kids got through this
process.
We could not wait to see
Tanya on August 12. However, we
were disappointed to hear that her flight was cancelled and that she could not
get back to San Francisco until the next afternoon. When they finally arrived at SFO, the cohorts were visibly
fatigued but glad to be back at home.
Tanya came back with a
positive outlook about the “outside world”, away from her comfort zone (both
home and school). She managed to
handle everything independently and bravely. She is confident about her public speaking skills, which was
the biggest achievement from the course.
She learned a lot about the Yale culture, administration, campus and the
life in New Haven. She met some
amazing people from around the globe and bonded with few of them.
At the end of the day,
this was all possible only because of the Ivy League Connection and we need to
thank the organization profusely for giving Tanya this once in a lifetime
opportunity to preview the college atmosphere prior to her actual admission to
college. She is now well equipped
to be a proud ambassador of the ILC and is looking forward to recruit future
candidates for the program.
At home front, she seems
to be more matured and determined to get an admission in one of the Ivy League
Colleges, which previously seemed out of reach to us.
Bharathi Iver and Kris
Ramamurti
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