Trip to the NHSO and Yale University!

This week the bands and orchestra at New Fairfield Middle School went to see the amazing Daniel Bernard Roumain perform at the historic Woolsey Hall in New Haven with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. It was an amazing performance!

After the performance our students were treated to a wonderful lunch at the Yale Commons Dining Hall.

We were very well taken care of by Yale University's dining services. After an amazing lunch in a beautiful setting we were treated to tours of Yale University courtesy of Yale Visitor's Center. Our tour guides were all current Yale undergraduate students!

You can find pictures of our tour below, but I wanted to take a moment to share with all of you the words of wisdom from one of these Yale tour guides that struck me. One of the students in my tour group asked "isn't this school very hard to get into?"

Our tour guide gave the most amazing and powerful answer:

"Here's my advice. First, apply. Everyone who gets in here feels like they aren't really good enough to be here. Don't sell yourself short. But you need to do three things first. Are you ready? You do these three simple things, you can get into Yale.

Three things:
1) Go to class. Don't miss. Be alert and attentive while there. Just show up. That puts you ahead of 50% of your classmates right there. Sounds harsh, but it's true.

2) Do all the work assigned. All of it. That puts you ahead of 75% of your classmates. You guys know that's true, right? So show up, and do the work.

But if you really want to get in here and be ahead of 90% of your classmates you have to do one more thing. Ready?

3) Ask for help when needed. Advocate for yourself and ask for help when you need it.

That's it.... That's all it takes.

Oh... And be PASSIONATE about something. And then actually do that thing. Don't just be passionate about engineering, build something. Don't just be passionate about music, write some and perform it."

This answer struck me as so profound and important that I wanted to share it in this blog along with the pictures of our tour. It is great advice, not just for school, but for work and life as well.

I need to thank  Mrs. Baldelli for her support and encouragement of us every year and for all the flexibility she shows in allowing us and helping us participate in these enriching activities. Mostly, though I need to thank the parent chaperones who worked very hard on this trip. The Yale University leg of this trip was new, and parent chaperones shouldered a lot of responsibility in helping keep our students safe and having a good time. It is a labor intensive trip and their efforts are very much appreciated!