The beginning of the end

Today marked the beginning of our final lab project in class. Our professor, Mr. Avila, assigned each member of the class to a specific group dedicated on working on a specific lab experiment. This will be our final lab project, as we have to design a poster board presenting the results and purpose of the lab to show to not only our Chemistry class, but as well as Mr. Avila, our mentors, and most importantly, some of Columbia's graduate students. Luckily, I was given the experiment I had as my first choice -- the extraction of caffeine from black tea leaves. Although we haven't done any lab work just yet, this seems like it'll be a lot of fun. In order to prepare for our independent lab, our group worked together distributing certain jobs to one another. I believe our group got a lot of done today and is on the right track to conducting a successful experiment.

After class, Mrs. Lilhanand had a brief talk with us to discuss the importance of being a part of the Ivy League Connection. Although I am having so much fun meeting new people from all over the world, adapting to the New York City lifestyle, and engaging myself in intriguing experiments, I've come here for one large reason -- the future. Mostly my future, but I'm here for the future of others as well, including my classmates back home, my parents, the district, the continuation of the ILC. This is a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons regarding my future, pushing my normal train of thought out of the box. With all this new information in my mind, I shall be able to bring it back to the community, where hopefully I will enlighten the minds of the students in Pinole Valley and also withing the district, persuading them to seek opportunities outside of their normal thinking process as well. The Ivy Leage Connection is so much bigger than conducting these lab experiments, no matter how fun they are, but for hope of increasing the knowledge of both myself and the students around me.