Receptions Galore in DC

There's so much to do in DC -- for tourists that is. Personally, I think I'm a local by now, having spent 10 weeks in the district last summer, a few weekends throughout the school year, and three weeks this summer so far. With that being said, it should almost be a given that I have been to the White House (both outside and inside), the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Mem...
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Discarding Convention: Embodying the Liberal Arts

We, earnest advocates and defenders of the artes liberales, are destined for a crossroads; whether it is acknowledged or avoided or completely suppressed, it is there before us - a critical intersection, where all undergraduates invariably converge, where the "real world" becomes visible on the L.A. horizon. Some Pomona students - those of optimistic tendencies - imagine thi...
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Scared on the Front Desk

Ah, the front desk. I have an interesting relationship with the front desk at the admissions office. Juanita, the receptionist at the front desk, truly makes it look easy. She is so calm transferring calls, greeting people and filing paperwork. Going into the summer, I knew I’d have to work the front desk a couple times when Juanita is on vacation. It seemed simple enough. At l...
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If You Give a Mouse a Lysolecithin Injection…

She may lead you to a cure for multiple sclerosis (I work with female mice). The world of scientific research captivated me the summer prior to my first year at Pomona College. I found a summer research internship through the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to gain first-hand perspective with a research setting. I worked my mentors to investigate drug combinations for T-cell leu...
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Getting Adjusted

Ok, well, I have a couple of weeks under my belt now, and I think I might be getting the hang of things. Well, I mean, hopefully I’m getting the hang of things. While the first couple of weeks as a Senior Interview have been incredibly informative (think information sessions and tours at all the 5-C’s), I’ve found that I’ve definitely still had my fair share of slip-ups… Wha...
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The 3-Day Weekend

I am AMAZED at the difference a 3-day weekend can make. As a student, and particularly as a humanities student, I always had three-day weekends, and it never seemed like a real “holiday” to just get one extra day off of a work week. Boy, was I wrong! Having Friday off for the 4th of July this week was such a blessing! Really felt like I had an extra week of vacation after a ...
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Unsettled Spectatorship

Over my last few posts, a still-developing preoccupation of mine has, without my go-ahead, disclosed itself: how can one characterize and illustrate the statistically-anonymized Pomona student? Without tripping into generalities and abstractions, is it even possible to depict the real flesh, blood, and bones of a student body instead of mechanically regurgitating the brochure-f...
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From Sea to Shining Lake

In order to survive…you try to recreate, as well as you can, your normality, some sense of things continuing. Whenever I’m reading, if there is a sentence or paragraph that resonates with me in particular, I put the book aside and start reflecting upon it. Such was the experience when I reached the above sentence in Jeanne Wakatsuki’s A Farewell to Manzanar for ID1 reading. I ...
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When Thought Becomes Spectacle

In the practice of creative instruction - a practice, I might add, that glaringly evinces its own oxymoronic futility - there is common injunction: do not write/film/illustrate/compose/create anything about the "creative process" itself. In most cases, this is because such a "creation" would avow, without ambiguity, the frailty or non-existence of your imagination; writing abou...
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