Not an Ordinary Breakfast

bowl of cereal
by Sophia Augustine ‘23 “Professor Abrams, would you like to grab a meal sometime?” First-semester first years, my friend and classmate Emily and I sent this email to our remarkable Intro to Cognitive Science professor, Lise Abrams.  Although class sizes are very small, and a massive part of Pomona’s appeal is the supposedly tight-knit relationships between students and p...
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PP vs. CMS: A Small but Tough Rivalry

Pomona-Pitzer Sagehen mascot
by Sophia Augustine ‘23 Most of my friends from back home attend large state universities with flourishing and very prominent sports cultures. This means endless tailgates as well as rowdy and boisterous football/basketball/hockey games galore. I never really prioritized that avid sports culture when applying to colleges, and I think it’s fair to say that Pomona and the ...
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Awkward Beginnings

Sophia with 3 friends
By Sophia Augustine ‘23 When people back home ask me questions like “How was your first-year at college?” or “what are some words you would use to describe the college experience at Ponoma… Pamona...oh-oh POMONA, sorry about that…” I never really know what to say exactly because my answer differs every time. I do find myself always repeating the phrase “I absolutely loved it...
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To Cheese, or Not to Cheese?

Sophia and her spiblings
By Sophia Augustine ‘23 One of my fondest memories of my entire freshman year (as trivial and silly as it may sound) was taking my very first bite of creamy, delectable mac ’n cheese at Harvey Mudd’s Hoch-Shanahan dining hall. The “long” walk (all the 5Cs are located within a single square mile of each other…) that my friends and I usually never dared to embark on was co...
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“Alexa, Play Yosemite by Travis Scott”

Sophia and friends swimming in Yosemite Falls
By Sophia Augustine ‘23 "OA, OA, OA. OA, OA, OA!!” The booming chants of the Pomona students traveled all across campus, gaining volume as us first-years filed anxiously into the Greek Theatre on South Campus, eagerly awaiting instructions and information regarding  Orientation Adventure, also known as “OA.” “OA, OA, OA. OA, OA, OA!” The merry yells of the OA leaders seem...
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Coast to Coast: Journey from Uniformity to Diversity

Sophia and friends from Fall POP on quad
By Sophia Augustine ‘23 Realizing the uniformity of my predominantly white, suburban town in the middle of Northern New Jersey (91% white, 5.47% Hispanic or Latinx, and 1.84% Asian) was quite an infuriating and frustrating experience. Living in Mendham New Jersey for my entire life, with the exception of my family’s brief move to Southern California for a year, has provided ...
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The Chronicles of “MUDD2FRIED”

Sophia's sponsor group at beach
By Sophia Augustine ‘23 As I’m sure you all know from doing your extensive Pomona research (and from many of my peers’ blog posts) all the first-years at Pomona are placed into groups called “sponsor groups,” which consist of the people you live in a hallway with your first year. Two sophomores (or, in my special case, three because our sponsor group was super cool like that...
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Farewell Freshman Year

Sophie and friend at sand volleyball area
By Sophia Augustine ‘23 It was that time of the week again: my beloved lunch at Claremont McKenna’s Collins Dining Hall (the third best dining hall in my opinion). Collins Dining Hall is nestled perfectly on the border of Pomona’s and Claremont McKenna’s campuses, providing the ideal place for my friends and I to indulge in a delectable lunch on Friday afternoons after an ex...
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