A few weeks ago, I received one of the thousands of emails sent daily from Penn’s spamming superstar that is Peggy Curchack, the matron of career services emails for Penn’s illustrious class of 2007. It invited me to apply for the “Ivy Leadership Summit.” According to their web site, the summit is

“to cultivate the active discussion of one of today’s most recognized issues while promoting the ideals of a social conscience and the responsibility that comes with it. The ILS Steering Committee is focused on attracting eminent professionals from various fields as well as the most driven and motivated students in the Ivy League.”

Ever the cynic ambitious student, I interpreted this as “to blahblahblahblah networking” and thus felt compelled to apply. After some quick personal statements pontificating on the summit’s topic of fossil fuels (”global warming bad! Energy independence good!”), I shot it off.

I received a congratulatory email heralding my acceptance, and on a frigid Friday afternoon, armed with a business casual change of clothe and a Hemo sandwich, I embarked on my journey to the Big Apple, where host school Columbia University and the Ivy Leadership Summit 2007 awaited. As the NJ Transit train rumbled to Manhattan, I began to wonder–What would I find up there in Harlem? What did the summit hold in store for me? What is undergraduate life at Columbia like? Might I get mugged or blown up by terrorists? And where is my cell phone charger?

Stay tuned for travelogue and commentary later this week.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.