The Dinner to End All Dinners

The Penn dinner took place tonight at Kuleto's in San Francisco. Prior to the dinner, I was utterly nervous and anxious as to what the night would entail. On the car ride over to the El Cerrito Plaza, I was thinking of different questions I could ask and various conversation starters. It seemed as if my brain could only think of all the worst case scenarios that could happen during the dinner. However, all my anxieties seemed to just melt away as the night continued.

The BART ride over to the restaurant helped quell some of my anxiety. It was nice to stare out of the train window and enjoy the passing scenery as well as engage in compelling conversation with Joanne’s mother.

At the restaurant, I had the pleasure of sitting with Markus Beissinger who graduated in 2013/2014 and Charley Ma who graduated in 2012. Both had so many amazing things to tell me about UPenn. What inspired me most about them was their sense of pride in their school. I loved listening to their perspectives on what Penn was like and I was more than happy to listen to everything they had to say. The more they told me about UPenn, the more I was able to picture myself there. I was delighted to learn more about the Greek life in Penn as well as the different professors that I would encounter. 

Charley talked about his experience with switching majors and working at J.P Morgan; he stressed to me the importance of office hours and taking advantage of the opportunity to talk to my professors. While Markus was able to share his experiences with his fraternity as well as the school of Wharton. He spoke briefly about him and his fraternity fundraising for cancer, which I found very impressive. I greatly appreciated their honesty in sharing what they loved about their school and being able to tell me what they didn't like so much about UPenn. I valued their ability to answer my countless questions about housing, sports, traditions, food, etc. Moreover, I was surprised to learn that Penn has a really good rowing team as well as a fencing team. Learning about these quirky little facts made Penn feel so much more real and made me realize how fast the summer is approaching.

I also sat with Fred Powell who is a proud sponsor of the Ivy League Connection. I thought it was fantastic of him to come out to our dinner and see exactly what the ILC has to offer. Fred is an architect and he gladly shared his familiarities with the schools built in my district. He also talked about his experience with traveling abroad to different parts of Africa, this I found really interesting because I would love to travel abroad at some point during my college career.

All in all, sitting at the table in Kuleto’s surrounded by people who were rooting for me to excel in my education was an inexplicable feeling. Being able to establish connections with the alumni reminded me of the true meaning of the ILC; to welcome in opportunity.

Leges sine moribus vanae~~Laws without morals are useless

all the proud moms