The "A" Team

Last night, my nonprofit finance professor had invited me along with 4 of my classmates to a fancy event at the Mandarin Oriental. I remembered this hotel from all of the press it got last year when President Obama stayed there. The 5 of us had been the "stars of the class" according to Professor Green and coincidentally, all 5 of us were Laguardia Scholarship Recipients....so it made perfect sense to him to invite us to the largest fund raising event of the year for The New School!! What an honor!

We were escorted to the 36th floor of the Mandarin to a reception area where we were greeted by a PR representative and a photographer who snapped many many pictures of us students (toasting with professors, smiling with the President of the School, talking candidly to each other).... we felt like movie stars. We had wine and stuck close together - we were the only students there!

After an hour of wine and chit-chat, we were escorted to our table for dinner in the Mandarin Ballroom. Our table consisted of our professors (one of the academic deans and the CFO), the dean for student affairs, and the program director of our college. We enjoyed some fine dining, a promotional video about The New School, and a speech given by the CEO of General Electric (this year's recipient of the Laguardia Award).

After the event, "The A Team" (we assumed this group name after our photo shoot) headed to the lounge one floor down to take in the view and discuss our VIP status.




For the first time in a long time, I felt like I had made it.