Well, it’s been about 3 days since Susan, Cynthia, and I left Pennsylvania. Although I am very happy to be home (you can even ask Susan, I could hardly stop smiling when the plane started to land. haha), I’m truly starting to miss everything about Penn and a part of me really wants to go back. I miss the classes, people, independence, and just the lifestyle.
The class was definitely not what I expected. Truthfully, I was a little scared about the biomedical research program. I was expecting to walk into the class and have to listen to a mean teacher talk all day and be given a ton of homework to turn in the next morning. But I was wrong. Our teacher was friendly and tried to make everyone in the class comfortable. It was nice to be in an environment where all the students wanted to learn. However since some of the material she lectured on was pretty new to me, I wasn’t like some of the kids in my class who raised their hands to answer every question. But I can say that a learned a lot from her class and that’s the most important part of this experience, right? I’m sure I will be able to use all the knowledge I gained from morning lectures, afternoon labs, and journal club meetings in my future classes.
As I said before, I expected to be forced to do a ton of work and I thought I would be up all night frantically trying to finish everything in time. However, this was not how it was. There was hardly any work to finish after class except a few lab questions or a small activity. Oh and there was that final paper I had to finish during that last week of class. But other than those small assignments, there wasn’t that much homework, so I had a lot of free time on my hands.
Besides class, I also enjoyed all the extra activities. With the weekend trips to Washington DC and New York, I was able to take a look at other colleges other than Penn like Georgetown, NYU, and GW. The mandatory movie nights and the trip to Jersey helped everyone relax after a week of class. The daily activities (tie-dye and jewelry) were great ways to socialize and meet new people.
When I first came to Penn, I was a little nervous about meeting new people since the only people I knew were Cynthia and Susan (and I barely knew them!). But it was much easier to talk to everyone than I expected. I was able to meet kids from all over the country and the world. Everyone was different and came from different schools – private school, public school, small school (she had 100+ kids in her grade), big school (one person had 1,000+ students in her grade!). But we all connected in some way. It was extremely difficult to leave all these people and come home. I’m still not used to it. At Penn, all I had to do was walk outside of my dorm room and I would find someone to talk to!
One of the most important things I can take from this experience is being independent. For four weeks, I had to do everything myself. I had to buy food, do laundry, and wake myself up. I didn’t have anyone by my side to help me. My parents weren’t there to fix my mistakes. I had to be even more responsible because I didn’t have a roommate to count on. If I woke up late one morning, no one would pull me out of bed. Each time I left my room, I had to make sure I had my ID and keys because if I left them, I couldn’t call my roommate to bring them to me or open the door.
I’d like to end my last post by saying thanks to everyone who made this experience possible for the three of us. Mr. Ramsey and Mrs. Kronenberg, all of us who participated in the Ivy League Connection program are so grateful for the time and energy you two gave up to give us the chance to have this opportunity. Mrs. Crespo! Thanks for being such a great chaperone. You were like our mom in Pennsylvania always checking up on us, but you also gave us our space. My parents – thank you for giving me my independence during these four weeks. It was weird when all the teenagers I talked to said that their parents would call everyday to check on them, but I didn’t have this problem. I would also like to thank my teacher (and her two assistants), lab instructor (plus his assistant), and journal club leader for all the help they offered everyone in the class. I certainly learned a lot during this month. Finally, I want to show my appreciation to all of the sponsors. None of this could be possible without each of you. This is definitely not the summer I thought I would have and it isn’t a summer I will never forget. Thanks again!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
A very nice summary and a nice thank you. After a long day at work and washing down two Top Dogs(My family is at Family Faith at the church, so no dinner) it is a nice way to end the night.
Ms. Kronenberg and I appreciate the thanks, but it is the sponsors that have made all of this possible. I am glad that you thought of them in your final post. I hope you have a great Junior Year at Hercules High School. This summer experience hopefully will make a difference as you consider your future. And best of all you get another year in the Ivy League Connection, thats if you want it.
So keep up the good work.
Go Titans!
Charles T. Ramsey
Courtney⎯Glad to have you back home.
As bright as you might be, Courtney, I would have been surprised if you wrote that what your instructor was telling you was old news to you. Lest we all forget, you‘re still just a sophomore in high school and unless you do a lot of reading on your own, you’re just not exposed to that kind of information and at that level. Also, if you raised your hand to answer every question it tells us that we were wasting our resources having you go to a class just to brush up on skills that you already had. No, Courtney, it sounds like you were in the right class.
The fact that you got away without a lot of post class work sounds like a pretty good deal to me. I would have been disappointed, though, if you got away without a term paper. To me, that’s what college life is all about⎯a term paper assigned right after roll call on the first day of class.
By my last head count, Courtney, there are just a few shy of 6.5 billion people on this planet. If you restricted yourself to knowing only the small handful in your social circle, wouldn’t that be a big waste of the planet? This summer you got to know a few dozen more. Keep this up at this rate and you’ll go through most of those 6.5 billion before too long. And at the very least you got to know people from your own community a little better. Did you really have to travel 2500 miles away from home, though, to get to know your neighbors better? Maybe you can reach out a little more and get to know everyone at your school once you restart at the end of the month.
Sounds like you kind of like that whole independence thing. Watch out, though. Independence can be addictive. The next thing you know you’re fighting some war to secure the independence of your little group. And along with independence comes responsibility but I’m guessing you’ve tasted some of that already and kind of like how it went down.
Now the fun begins, Courtney.
Post a Comment