A Fantastic Dinner with the Brown Team

A few weeks ago, I received an email from Don telling us the dinner that would be held at One Market in San Francisco. The first thing I did after reading the email was look up this restaurant. The pictures of dishes in its website amazed me, which made me especially excited from this event because of the food that we would be eating. Dressed in a purple dress, I arrived at the BART station just on time.

On the BART train, I did what Don told us to do: to meet and talk to new people. I talked to two sophomore girls who would be attending the Women and Leadership program this summer. We had conversations on various topics until we arrived at Embarcadero station.

My first impression for the restaurant was WOW! Although we walked through a construction site, the room that we finally arrived at was nice and elegant. Before we got seated, I met and talked to more ladies from the Brown II cohort. We introduced ourselves and had conversations ranging from sports to AP tests. I also met a current sophomore in Brown university, who was also an alumnus of the ILC and Hercules High School, Ms. Beilul Naizghi. I asked her about the learning environment and weather at Brown, and we had a fun conversation on our teachers at Hercules High School, both complementing and deprecating. In between conversation, I also tasted shrimp tacos, mushroom balls, and chicken, which all tasted delicious.

I got to sit with a group of fantastic people during dinner. I sat between two Brown alumni, Mr. Hunter Stern and Ms. Donna Chung, and across another alumnus, Mr. Simon Hong. All three of them have different occupations and majors. Mr. Stern studied in engineering, Ms. Chung studied education, and Mr. Hong studied in economy. Between our conversations, I heard different perspectives on Brown as a learning environment, but they all love the school, except the weather there. I asked Mr. Stern about the tennis team at Brown, since I was very interested in playing tennis, and also the eight-year medical program at Brown, which I was thinking about applying to.

Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs

Before the first dish was out, Ms. Kronenberg gave us an introduction, and each of the ILCers, alumni, guests, benefactors, and chaperons had to stand up and introduce ourselves. After that, Arnold and YeonSoo went on stage and represented both cohorts to express our gratitude and aspirations. They both did a really good job despite their nervousness, and they should get a round of applause. An alumni from Brown, Mr. Jonathan Speed, then talked deep into the program and the importance of partnerships. Mr. Ramsey rounded up the speeches with a very inspirational talk. His talk was full of gestures and passion. He told us not to focus on "I," but what we could do and help as a person to the community, because only by doing that, we could obtain more, just like how the ILC was a program that focus on cooperation and supporting others. Without other people's support and help, we would not able to attend this fancy dinner, ride a plane to the east coast, visit so many prestigious colleges, and learn in a college campus.

While listening to the speeches, I enjoyed my dishes a lot. I ordered the Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs, which was a delicious dish with tender beef, rich sauce, and anson mills polenta. The desert also did not disappoint me. Besides being decorated with refinement, the taste was also wonderful. The sweet ice cream combined with sour strawberries and crispy tart, the Strawberry Rhubarb Tart was luscious.

Strawberry Rhubarb Tart

Now, after the event, I realized that the part of the event that I treasured the most were the experiences of interacting with the whole Brown cohort, Brown alumni, and all the supporters of the ILC program. These interactions not only strengthened my bonds with people I already knew, but also helped me creat new bonds with so many wonderful people. From our conversations, I could always discover a new world that I had never noticed, which was extraordinary. Here, I wanted to thank everyone today for giving me such a memorable and meaningful evening.

A Group Picture After the Dinner