It was a bright, sunny morning on Saturday, April 30 when about 11 Ivy League Connection students and 3 chaperones convened at the Hercules Public Library for Don’s tutorial. The session covered a wide variety of topics ranging from proper justification of one’s blogposts to tips on public speaking and professional attire.
As he began the tutorial at 10:30 on the dot, Don commended us on our punctuality but admonished our untimely responses to the many ILC emails. Then, wasting no time at all, he dove right into the basic framework that was vital to creating a good blog. This included information on proper formatting and the types of information that are appropriate (and inappropriate) to share on the blog.
Photography was next, as Don provided us with some tips on taking good photographs (including keeping your arms still by leaning on something, which will produce a sharper image). The tutorial concluded with some overview of the responsibilities we have as ILC students preparing for our summer adventures which include blogging every day we spend on the East Coast.
Don made sure we knew that our blogs are not to be travelogues. We are expected to provide our own personal analysis of the events we witness, lectures we attend and activities we participate in – not dwell on unimportant facts. We were given a handout that provided us with examples of two good blogs with great grammar and punctuality, detail and insight. One also had some great pictures. Conversely, we were also given examples of subpar blogposts that featured enough grammatical and punctual errors to make your head spin.
Photos of the group beginning to pack up:
After the meeting had ended, I had a chance to touch bases with Mrs. Lilhanand, the Columbia chaperone, as she met with Masao and I to briefly discuss the trip. The Columbia cohort will also be meeting at El Cerrito High School on Monday to take care of some paperwork.
As the school year begins to come to an end, the tutorial was at the perfect time: right before all the big ILC events and close enough to our departure date for me to begin to get really excited for our upcoming adventures.
