The Start of Something New

I started off my day by waking up around 7:00 a.m. and ate some oatmeal for breakfast. The time came close to 8, so I started warming up my car and headed to De Anza High School. It was a really, beautiful day, with transparent clouds in the perfectly light blue sky and the sun hitting just about everything.

  

The View of the Parking Lot

Right when I turned into the school's parking lot, I instantly saw the extremely large sign that reads, "Ivy League Connection." The thoughts of feeling anxious and nervous from the Vanderbilt interview suddenly returns, and broke once I saw a familiar face next to my car. It was Gwennie, one of the wonderful people in my cohort, reminding me of the happiness and glory that I felt that day when I heard my name called from the list of acceptances. I felt the excitement rush inside of me and walked quickly towards the computer lab. 

After having a few minutes to settle in and select a seat, I already made a new friend, Jae-An, from El Cerrito High School. We talked a little about our favorite movies and books, finding out that our preferences are completely the opposite. Jae-An and I went on about our interests until it was 8:30. 

Don called everyone to attention, and to briefly start off the whole tutorial, we each all gave small introductions and handed out packets. The official Ivy League Connection tutorial had really begun. First things first, Don went over how important it is to really work together and just follow simple instructions instead of making things more complicated to do. Then, from there we shifted the main focus to blogging. When we started going on the web, there were a few internet connection problems, but it did not stop us anyway from moving onto a Plan B (in this case, it was about pictures). 

I definitely learned some new things from this tutorial, such as, how to use MediaFire for uploading pictures. It is definitely a valuable source to use when storing so many pictures in one spot. Don showed us different ways and simple techniques to use when we take pictures, for example, you would want to take a picture that captures the subject, so if it does not show clearly, then take it from a different angle. Here are some examples:

After learning how to properly use MediaFire, Don let everyone go around to gain hands-on experiences to try uploading it later on. It was really fun for me, I personally enjoyed it since I got to take pictures of things up to detail, or try using the new methods that I had just learned. Eventually, everyone got to start taking pictures of and with each other as well. By the time that I had taken at least 10 pictures, it was time to go back inside and apply our knowledge onto the screen. That is where I got ecstatic the most because I felt like I was already at the East Coast, about to blog about my day. The internet connection issue had been solved, but not fully, just enough to get by, so we were able to connect onto a practice blog (working on all of the formatting), and looked at examples from the packet of what blogs should look like and should not look like.

There was about 30-45 more minutes left until the tutorial would be over, so we all uploaded our pictures to the files and then quickly moved onto the next part of the packet, which were the items that we should and should not bring with us when we are traveling. Don put together a whole checklist, and went over each of them as well as pictures of what they may look like (such as a security lock for your laptop, or an ethernet cable). I got to learn how to use both and the information definitely had me considering to buy both for the future. Once the quick demonstration of the laptop lock ended, we went over what was expected again, what to expect at the college dorms, and such.

I left when the session ended, feeling more determined than ever to strive for big and even bigger goals, because that is what the Ivy League Connection is all about, taking on opportunities when it comes.