2013 CFS Leadership Retreat
Day 7: Thursday, August 22nd

Today, we said goodbye to Washington D.C. and made our way straight to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ride itself was about three hours, give or take, and though it was somewhat of a bittersweet moment for me as we left, I was excited to finally venture out and get the chance to explore another place where I’ve always wanted to go. When we got there, we were a bit early so, stopping by the hotel, we got our luggage moved into a room before heading to the conference that we had that day.

Our conference was held at the College of Physicians on the campus and, let me just say that this place is really cool. They had a museum on the first floor where we got to see the different diseases and the history of where each different ailment and disease got their name from. The really cool part was the fact that they did a collaboration of medical research and the Grimm’s Fairy Tales and, since I’m so fascinated with folklore and tales, it was up my alley. The thing that I really liked the most was the explanation about Corsets and the effect that they have on the body. There was also the info about the fact that they have a piece of Albert Einstein’s brain there. Needless to say, I learned so much being there.
With the conference, it was definitely really cool to meet new people. Many people spoke; some of them include Maddy and Chris, Celeste Bodner, who is the executive director of FosterClub; Johanna Greeson, who teaches at the University of Philadelphia, and Jennifer Pokempner, who is a supervising attorney of the Juvenile Law Center. Along with that, there were others who were there and, though they didn’t exactly speak at a panel or anything, I enjoyed sharing with them my college experiences and how the Seita program had changed my life.

After the conference, it was pretty low-key. We went to dinner at Guacamole Mex-Grille, which was pretty small but, sometimes the small places had the best food, and this was such a scenario. I got the taco salad and, it was really yummy. Afterwards, I went back to the hotel and just stayed there for the rest of the night. Today was really fun and I enjoyed getting to know others and be able to help out other colleges that want to help out their foster youth and make sure that they get the same help as we here at Michigan get.

 Written by Amberlynne Finet, WMU Seita Scholar, Sophomore