There are Very Few Photographs in Which I Don't Blink

The day had finally arrived, it was time for my first Ivy League Connection dinner. Honestly, I was feeling pretty nervous. Don had told us it was a great event and opportunity, but before it actually happened I wasn’t so convinced.

My mom and I arrived at the arranged rendezvous, El Cerrito Plaza Bart, at around 4:50 dressed in our formal attire. Around ten other dining guest were already there, and you could tell that everyone was eager to get going and eat some of the delicious food Don spoke of. Once just about everyone was there, we got the rundown of what to do, which boiled down to: don’t hand off your clipper card to a stranger, don’t bunch up as you get off the escalator, and of course socialize! Following suit, I formally introduced myself to both Cammie (Cameron) and Maddie (Madison) of the Vanderbilt cohort. We also managed to of course bunch up at the top of the escalator, but you win some you lose some.

 Maddie and I actually attend the same school, and our school is pretty small, but our grades are almost entirely separate and our campus is large, so it’s hard to know everyone. We spoke at the tutorial, but I never really went up and said “Hi, I’m Lindsay!” For this adventure though, we were BART buds on the way there. Our talk was mostly of various superheroes and school assignments we had to get done before finals next week.

Before leaving Don had enticed us with talk of a wondrous boulder in front of which to take group pictures. He mentioned that in years past the boulder has been blocked off for some construction project or another, and as we were approaching the restaurant it was clear that this was still the case. Sorry Don, maybe the boulder will be free next year.

After our journey it was time for a reception in which we could wait for arrivals and mingle with the other guests. At first I didn’t really know who to talk to, Maddie, Raqeeb and I stood off the side for a moment chatting, when Christopher Dewing, a UChicago alumni approached us. We began talking about UChicago, his time there, what the university is like, and Scav. I don’t know what it is about college traditions, but I always find I like schools even more when I hear about wacky traditions, and Scav is especially interesting. Scav is a worldwide scavenger hunt with notoriously strange items on the list. This year’s Scav which just ended just last week even had an item where you had to dump tea into harbors around the world. We discussed the startup company Skillz that he works for, and then it was time to eat.

Left to right: Ryan Cutter, Christopher Dewing, Tori Sciacca, Raqeeb Chang

At the table I was to sit at the seating went as such, Ryan Cutter –former ILCer attending UChicago in the fall, Christopher Dewing –UChicago class of 2014, Tori Sciacca –our amazing chaperone and English teacher at Richmond High’s Engineering Partnership Academy, followed by Raqeeb, his mother Saidah, me, and my mom Wendy.

I truly learned a lot about what I could be looking forward to during my weeks at UChicago through the talk at our table. Christopher describe UChicago as a unique place with unique thinking. The University teaches you to argue, by teaching you question everything. He described times in which he believed his thinking on a topic to be black and white, but peers forced him to look into the gray area and draw lines there. He painted UChicago as a place in which many intellectually curious individuals meet and have conversations on everything from deeply academic to pop culture with thorough questioning and interrogation, even saying that he can tell when someone else also attended UChicago based on that.

Ryan told us about the experience he had in the UChicago summer session and what made him choose UChicago. I’m a person that definitely needs to visit a college to get a ‘feel’ of the vibe I get from the school, so when Ryan described that when he visited other campuses and felt nothing, then visited UChicago and that it felt right, I got what he meant by it. He gave us advice to let classmates know we were working on blogs as it made it more fun, and told us about how much freedom we would get there. Ryan also noted the fact that he thinks what really helped him get in was his personal experience at the school and how much he loved it over the summer was really displayed in his answer to the “Why University of Chicago?” question.

Ryan and Christopher told us factoids about the school and activities, and also told us places to eat, best places to study and what not to do.

With our meals complete and bellies stuffed, we then headed outside to get some photos of ILCers and alums together. At this time while Vanderbilt were taking their photos, I introduced myself to both Alice Johnson –former ILCer and attending UChicago in the fall, and Eduardo Moreno –UChicago class of 2011. We assembled to take photos in front of some bushes, due to the blocked off boulder as a whole group, and then attempted to get some cohort photos in which everyone is looking at the camera and we’re not in a café. I hope I wasn't blinking in every single one.

Pointing towards Chicago...we hope

On the trip back I ended up mainly talking to Alice about colleges, the summer session experience, applications, instruments, and museums that are a must visit. Overall, it was a completely amazing experience, with great people and great food, so all around a great time.