Saturday, June 27, 2009

Our Day Exploring Colleges

We started off very early in the morning, everyone was exhausted already, but it was only the beginning. First thing we did was eat breakfast so that we would have sufficient energy because we'd be walking a lot and I mean a whole lot! We after about an hour drive we arrived at Tufts, where we gave ourselves a self-guided tour. Mr.Ramsey also stopped a few students to get more information about the campus and college. Arisa, a student from Tufts, informed us on numerous facts about the college. We learned that they have 5,000 undergraduate students, and it was a really small and quiet university. I personally prefer big and urban colleges, so Tufts was something different. Other then that, the campus was really beautiful and peaceful.

Next, we were off to MIT where we met up with a former WCCUDS student from Hercules High named Eric. He gave us a wonderful tour of the University and told us about the rigorous classes there. It seems extremely hard, if not impossible to get into MIT. Once again MIT was a really beautiful and scenic campus overlooking the Charles River. There was this really cool building called the Stata Center, it looked like something out of Dr.Seuss' storybooks. Because the tour was so interesting, it went on 30 minutes more then planned.

We eventually made it to Harvard where another former Hercules High student named Peter gave us a tour of the campus. It was really nice to finally be able to see more then just the front gate of Harvard, since the last time we went there it started raining thus ending our tour. I didn't realize that Harvard was so old, even though I knew it was the oldest University in the country. We saw many historical buildings, that have been there long enough to have housed the founding fathers. After the tour we went to the Harvard bookstore to get souvenirs and just explore. Lastly, we took a photo in front of the Harvard Crimson (Harvard's newspaper building) and we were off to Brown. The ride home was long and rainy, everyone was worn out. I think most of us came back and went to sleep so they could be refreshed for the dinner. I'll leave it off there, Till tomorrow!

1 comment:

Charles Tillman Ramsey said...

Where do you fit within the list of schools. We need to read about how you would assess these academic institutions in relation to your interests and what you gleaned from the tours.

We want this to be a productive and useful activity. I did not read anything in your comments that could help me with others who may want to venture East and be part of this program next year.

If you could follow up and expand and provide more than a summary about what we did, but rather integrate what we did with what it means for you as an individual and how you would take your experience back to Richmond High School and encourage students to broaden their horizons and become into the community of ideas.

Hope all else is well and please use your posts to share with us your internal analysis about why this program has helped you and how you can see the Ivy League Connection being a valuable tool next year in the school district.

In addition, which school did you like? You are the only one from the tour that has not shared which school caught your attention. In the end isn't this what the trip was all about?

Take care.

Charles T. Ramsey, Esq.
School Board Member
West Contra Costa
Unified School District