Saturday: The Final Day

Despite being very tired, we all were ready to enjoy our last day in Philly. The day started off at the Pennsylvania conference center, where everyone was broken up into affinity groups by gender. Conversations about different topics between students and teachers occurred. After affinity groups, everyone was split up by state or region. Students from the schools prepared topics to be discussed with the teachers so they could get a sense of how we felt about going to an independent school in America. Questions ranged in topics including socio-economic status and race. Once this activity was over, everyone gathered in the grand ballroom for the closing ceremony.  The closing ceremony including the POCC choir performing, and students from the area performing African songs and dances. We ended the ceremony with a speech from one of President Obama's close friends who attended an independent school.

 Once the conference was over, we got the chance to finally eat a Philly cheesesteak. After lunch we saw a former Nobles faculty, Marlon Henry, and said goodbye to him. At 1:30 we headed to the college fair where we were able to learn about seventeen different colleges near Philly and other places not to far from there.  After a tiring day, we were all very happy to head to the train station and head home.

This whole experience has taught me to be more open-minded.  I thought a lot about things I would do on a daily basis without even thinking and many people may be offended. I will definitely think a lot more about the things I do and correct people when they use terms incorrectly because I learned the difference between many words people use in their vocabulary daily. I found it interesting how some teachers reacted to questions during regional groups. Some questions took a longer time for a teacher to come forward and answer and it may have had to do with the content in the question that had to be answered. Another thing I found interesting was how when certain terms are used, teachers had similar stereotypes in their heads as the students did.

~ Jaida J., Class II