Pinole City Council Meeting

The Council Chamber, before the meeting started.

Tonight the Pinole City Council recognized the ILCers that live and/or got to school in Pinole. The open session portion of the meeting started at about 7:20 PM. Recognizing the ILC was first on the agenda. (Notice how we always seem to be first or near first on the agendas of meetings?)

First, Don spoke about what the program is, why it is important, and what role the community plays in the success of this program. (Without the community’s support, this program would not be effective.)

Next, Don called up each of the cohorts. He started with Vanderbilt, and then went on to Penn, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, and Yale. The Vanderbilt cohort had four people (since it is a Pinole only course), Penn had three, Cornell had two, and the rest had one each.

This time Loan got to speak on behalf of the Vanderbilt cohort, after we each went up to the microphone and said our name, school, and the course we will be taking this summer. Each designated cohort representative speaker brought up some unique ideas, but they all revolved around the same point: Thanking the Council and the City of Pinole for their continued support of this program.

After all the cohorts had gone up, the Councilmembers commented on what a great opportunity this program is. Many said they wished they had this program in high school. A couple of them mentioned how impressed they were by our public speaking abilities, even going as far as to say they had never seen a better ILC presentation. Since many of the speakers were from Pinole Valley High, we have Ms. Lamons our Forensics, Speech and Debate, coach to thank for that.

After the Council commented, Don took a group picture of all the ILCers and the Council Members. Both the Council and the ILCers promised not to blink or look away during the pictures, so we got away with only 10 shots this time instead of 25. Hopefully Don won't have to do too much Photoshoping for this picture.

With each milestone event, we get closer to going to Vanderbilt, and I get more excited. Our next milestone event is the Vanderbilt dinner on May 29. After that, all that’s left is Orientation on June 4, and getting on the plane to the East Coast!!

The Pinole City Council in Session.