Tuesday, July 1, 2008

First Few Days in Oh-such-great-weather Hanover

July 1, 2008

What a great title huh?

Well, I believe it's been about three days since we've arrived in Hanover, NH for our third summer at the SEAD program. It feels like we've been here for so long - everything is familiar. Unfortunately, we were delayed by a couple of hours when we arrived, but no matter: reuniting with our old SEAD friends and staff and meeting the new staff members was amazing. However, from then on, we got jumped straight into the program. The second morning was spent on a team-building challenge on a ropes course. I have to say it was pretty scary at first but I got the hang of it. Then from there, we jumped straight into an introduction of our 4 classes: SAT Prep, College App course, Public Speaking, and Essay Writing. So clearly, there will be a LOT of work to do this year at SEAD. Of course, there's fun and interesting activities too - yesterday we visited the Hood Museum, where there was a Black Womanhood exhibit, and today we got to go to Tip Top Pottery and decorate ceramics. We also got to meet our new SEAD mentors and academic coaches, and we've spent time with them as well.

Our schedule is literally PACKED with activities and classes at every hour, but I will post here as regularly as possible.
It is 11:51 PM here, and I still have work to do (essay: "How SEAD Has Impacted My Life" - shouldn't be too difficult; list of 10 colleges you want to apply to), so I will talk to all later!

3 comments:

Madeline Kronenberg said...

Jennifer,

Yes, it is a great title. I think you really described this experience when you said "reuniting" -- and the team-building ropes course is a wonderful way to do it.

Sounds like they will keep you very, very busy and I really appreciate your getting this blog up and running (I've posted it to the main site as you can see).

Please keep checking in and sharing what's going on -- especially about how they are discussing college preparation.

Take care.

Charles Ramsey said...

Jennifer we knew we could count on you to get the blog up and running. An excellent post about the first few days in Hanover. I also am glad that all of you have had a chance to reunite with your friends.

Time has gone so quickly and now you are all in your final summer with SEAD. Now is the final piece of the pie and that is to assist with the College Application process. I want you and others to embrace this opportunity and maximize your efforts. Not a lot of students get this chance to have so many people work with them to have them get into the college of their choice. Jay Davis is to be commended for coming up with this great program.

As you and our other five students transition out of High School to College, I hope you will continue to blog. We all want a thorough and complete documentation of the experience that each of you have at Dartmouth College. Our sponsors definitely want to learn more about the environment and the challenges that confront you and the others.

Please remind Brandon and Yijun that they need to share their thoughts on the blog. We want to have their insight about the program and its impact on their lives.

Continue to keep up the good work and I hope that Dartmouth is one of your top choices for college. You would make an excellent addition to their campus.

Best Wishes.

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

Don Gosney said...

Great to hear from you.

I'm familiar with those team building techniques but sometimes it's tough to undo a lifetime's worth if distrust. I guess I wouldn't fit into those programs very well-at least not at first.

I hope that when you wrote that essay about how SEAD has impacted your life you mentioned how it taught you the value of posting on a blog.