Banner Photo Take Three ft. Hair Everywhere

Yesterday night was the District School Board meeting held at Lovonya DeJean Middle School. As with the dinner, my mother accompanied me to this event. It was the first time all of the ILCers gathered together since the tutorial, which was a while ago, so it was wonderful seeing everyone again. I got to DeJean fairly early, so I had a bit of time to talk and catch up with people. 

I chatted with Bianche for a bit during that time. As we waited outside for the last few people to show up, I also met the chaperones for the Brown cohort and the Cornell cohort. They are super nice and friendly people, and I found out that Deven, the chaperone for Cornell, is the music director at Helms. Helms had only recently started their music program, but the program is already thriving and greatly benefiting their students, which is super awesome for them. 

Zunarah speaking for the Brown cohort

Unfortunately, the meeting did not start even once we went inside to claim our seats. We had to sit for almost another half hour, which, truthfully, was quite boring. Thankfully, the chaperone for my cohort, Ms. Sciacca, sat to my left, so at least I got to know her a little better during that half hour while we waited. I found out that finals week was almost as stressful for teachers as for us students, especially since Ms. Sciacca teaches juniors and seniors, and she has to give out F notices. 

Eventually, the board meeting began, but it was to a very slow start. One interesting thing was that Zunarah, part of the Brown cohort, is actually the student representative on the School Board, as part of the leadership program at her school! How cool is that? 

However, before it was our turn to stand in front of the board, we had to wait for the 34 public comments. A vast majority of the comments were about Serra Adult School, and there were many heartfelt, emotional pleas to the School Board, especially those from the students who came to speak. It was kind of uncomfortable for me to listen because so many of these comments were so emotionally powerful, and I didn't know how to feel when the board members cut off the mic when the speakers went overtime. I understand how it could be necessary as they had to try to keep the schedule, but it just didn't feel right to me, treating people like that. 

Then, finally, it was our turn. We lined up in front of the stage, facing the School Board and leaving our backs to the crowd, which I thought was kind of weird. The flags we held faced the School Board as well, and I wished we could've faced the crowd at least for a little bit, if only to spread recognition for our program, since I couldn't really tell if the crowd even cared or knew what we were up there for. 

ILCers, assembled!

Don introduced us and talked about the ILC's mission and this year's success with 25 of its seniors, who received $3.4 million in financial aid combined and are going to prestigious universities like Stanford and UChicago, to name a few. Don then gave the stage to the chaperones and speakers for each cohort. The chaperones introduced the members of the cohort, and basically all of the speakers talked about their experience or expectation for ILC and thanked everyone who made the program possible. Lindsay, the last speaker, did a fabulous job with her speech. Go, Lindsay! 

Afterwards, we went outside and took many pictures. It was extremely windy yesterday night and I was worried that my hair was in my face for all of the shots. Aside from our ILC group photo, Don took pictures of us with our families or fellow ILCers, and it was nice. The Chicago cohort decided to take some more photos with various poses for our banner photo, which we are still not satisfied with yet. Since it got pretty late, it was getting dark, and I don't know how well our shots turned out, especially with my hair flying everywhere in the wind. Hopefully, we'll have something we'll be able to work with. 

This one looks pretty nice

At around eight, I left because the event was over, and I was getting pretty cold and hungry. The night was worth it, however, because I got to see everyone again, especially the other cohorts, since I imagine we won't have many more chances for everyone to gather like this again. I think I got to know some people better during this event, and I look forward to seeing my cohort, the other ILCers ,and the chaperones again soon!