The Penn Cohort reached the Civic Center Bart station at around 5:50PM. During the whole ride on BART, I was nervous about my speech. I reviewed my speech a numerous of times the day before and while I was on BART. As we got closer and closer to our destination, I felt that I mastered my speech, but was still nervous. Once we arrived to the streets of San Francisco, we still had to walk a bit more to get a taxi. We broke up into groups of four. I was in a group with my mom, Ivette, and Ivette’s father.
When we entered the La Folie, my jaw dropped. On the outside was a cold, windy San Francisco. On the inside, was a warm, luxurious restaurant. There were various paintings on the wall and the staff was welcoming. We walked across the La Folie to private roomful of sponsors of ILC and Alumni of Penn. Everybody was assigned seats by Madeline Kronenberg. I ended up seating next to Mariko and Ivette.
Before the introductions and speeches, one of the waitresses went up and described each meal in enormous detail. After much thought, I decide to start with the crab salad as my appetizer. The main dish required no thought all once I saw that they had steak. Unfortunately, I had only two desserts to choose from, chocolate cake or seasonal sorbet. I decided that there will always be chocolate cake in my life, so I went with the sorbet.
Phil Schlein giving his speech.
The introductions and speeches started. I was surprised to see and meet everyone and get to know who they were. Out of everybody who was were, I was the most surprised with Phil Schlein. He was the CEO of Macy’s in the whole west coast. To see someone of that much success sponsoring the ILC gave me a rush of happiness and joy. It showed my that people do care, which made my confident to go on, to never give up. Then I started to think. This room can’t possibly hold each and every sponsor. It’s is not just my family and the ILC that want my to succeed, but its my whole country that stands behind me. The speeches continued with me going up afterwards. I had prepared a speech a few days ago when Charles Ramsey sent out the email saying that I would have to speak. This is were I believe I messed up. Before the dinner, I merely scratched the door of the ILC. Then after listening to everyone’s introduction, my views were changed completely, as I was shot full of pride knowing that I was one of the few. The few that get the opportunity. The few that are represented. The few, out of a whole nation, that get to be apart of the Ivy League Connection, and there is not a single program like the ILC out there.
The Alumni of Penn.
After all the speeches, we started to get our food. Although we had to wait a some time, time is what I wish I had more of. The food was exquisite. The people were, and still are, splendid. I got a chance to meet everybody’s character. One thing that that quickly popped out to me was that Charles Ramsey was a big sports fan, when he pulled out his phone to check the score of some game. The air was filled with laughter and happiness. Unfortunately, it couldn’t last for every, but luckily memories do. We had to take the same process we did to get back home: taxi to BART, BART to El Cerrito Plaza, and then home. While this was happening, I thought to myself, I can’t wait for PENN!
Crab Salad. Appetizing
"La Boeuf" or the beef, either way mouthwatering.
The Sorbet.....tempting.
2012 UPENN Cohort.
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