Showing Gratitude To the People That Made It Possible

Although the event was very short today (approximately an hour) it was great and it was a perfect day to show our thanks to all the people and the school board who permitted for us to be able to have such an amazing scholarship. It all started out with us waiting for the school board meeting to start. When I walked in, I was actually quite shocked at the fact that we would be speaking in front of an audience so big. I realized that many people were at the event to protest a decision made by the school board. However, the ILC presentation was the opening event which was extremely nice. I was also really happy to see my school's counselor coming out to support the MCHS ILCers which really meant a lot to me and showed that my school really supported what me and the other Middle College ILCers were trying to accomplish.

Unfortunately, our ILC cohort was the only one that did not have our Cornell flag to represent us however it did not hinder us from being great in anyway. We were the second to last group to go up and Mike gave his fantastic introduction to our cohort and really emphasized on how we were different from the other cohorts. Then Diana went up and did an AMAZING job and represented our cohort in a fantastic way and really displayed what we were looking forward to and what we were nervous about. I can honestly say that our cohort looked the best up there. 

After we finished giving the school board our thanks, we then went out for pictures. I was super surprised that I got the middle seat. As someone that is very tall, I assumed that when Don called me he was going to position me in the back somewhere. But instead, I was placed dead center in front of the camera which I was surprised but at the same time really happy about because it was a new experience for me. It was also a very tight fit seeing as to how we had to squeeze in every ILCer and their parents. Although my parents did not come, my friend came with me to support me which made me feel even more support from my community.

Overall, the experience was extremely great. This is the final group picture which came out amazingly.