Welcome to The Ivy League Connection

To all of the newest members of The Ivy League Connection I extend my congratulations for being selected.  You've already been given tons of advice and plenty of suggestions about your responsibilities and although I'd love to tell you that the rest is all downhill from here, that would be a lie.

You're now representing your classmates, the good people of Hercules, the 96,000 people living in the West Contra Costa Unified School District and the many sponsors who have dug into their pockets for the financing and the friends of the program who devote their precious "free" hours to help open those doors for you.  You will be our ambassadors not only when you go east to Cornell but also while you're here in your own home town with people looking at you through a new and different set of eyes.

Thank goodness you all have broad shoulders so you can carry the load.  At least you don't have any other responsibilities in trying to help out with your families, taking those wonderful college entrance exams or trying to finish up the school year and maintain those A+++ GPAs.

As we move ahead with your participation in this program I hope that you and your parents understand that you're not in this alone and there are people out here that are going to work very hard to ensure that you succeed in this program and beyond.  There's no shame in asking for help and a standard rule in life is that if you don't ask, you don't get.

Another standard rule in life that we often forget about is that you need to have some fun along the way. Maintain that balance between work and fun but when it stops being fun, it's time to walk away.

And the Cardinal Rule for you all starting right here and now is to blog.  Get on this blog and tell us what you're thinking about this program.  Tell us about your preparations; tell us about your aspirations; tell us about what's working and what's not; and when you get to Cornell, really turn on the afterburners and tell us about everything that's going on.  You'll be in Ithaca and we're stuck back here so you will be our eyes and ears while you're there.  Everything we'll know about this whole trip will be learned from reading your blogs.

In case you may have missed it, the blogs are important to us so if you're unwilling to help out in this regard, now is the time to step aside and let the alternate take your place.  You know that the alternates will blog to high heaven if they're given the opportunity to make this trip so either step up and blog or step aside for someone who will.

And remember to have some fun along the way.

Don