YISP at Prospect

This evening our ILC YISP students gathered to join with a few Yale alums from the San Francisco chapter of the Yale Alum Society at Prospect ~ a trendy new restaurant South of Market in San Francisco.

Of course the company was great and meeting the parents of Matt, Dyana and Tom were special but first  I need to discuss the spectacular meal we were served.

I saw some of our guests with the ling cod and they said some great things about it and a few had the steak and said equally good things about it.  I can speak with first hand experience, though, that the duck was the entree to choose tonight.  By itself it would have been heavenly but I was served some truly delicious scallops to whet my appetite and had my palette cleansed afterwards with a chocolate truffle.

Okay--it's time to write a bit about how special the event itself was.

Up to now we've spent a lot of time with interviews, tutorials and the never ending stream of emails from the ILC administrators to our ILC cohorts.  Tonight, though, we got to sit down and meet in a social setting.  We got to talk to each other as fellow human beings without really bringing up any of the administrative rules or suggestions on how to take advantage of this experience.  Tonight we were all just human beings having a good time.

Even though I've gotten to know each of our students pretty well, this evening I got to meet and know their parents and that was something special all unto itself.

Our dinners wouldn't be what they are, though, without a few speeches thrown in.  Our featured speaker this evening was Dyana So from Pinole Valley High.  Every time I'm around Dyana I'm even more impressed.  She has a wonderful ability to speak to us all and make us feel good.  It's hard for me to remember that she's still just a junior in high school.

Our gatherings wouldn't be what they are, though, without our alums.  Tonight we met with our old friend Dave Olson ('86) and our new friend Bill Lindsey ('78).  Making things even more special, though, was meeting Ken Yamaguchi ('92). Alexis Fleckenstien ('07) and Christine Geiser ('07) ~ local Yale alums.  While Bill and Dave could regale us with stories of Yale from the "distant" past, and Ken could tell us what Yale was like  a short while ago, Alexis and Christine had fresh memories about Yale and could tell our cohorts what they can expect when they arrive in a few months.

Topping off the evening was Austin Long (Pinole Valley HS) who will become a Yale Bulldog this Fall.  Congratulations, Austin.

Tune in later and more photos will be posted.  I'm fond of telling our ILCers that words are nice but words with pictures are even nicer.  I need to practice what I preach so I'll be adding photos soon.