Memories of Mentorship

zoom screen with mentees smiling
By Oluyemisi Bolonduro ‘23 People are oftentimes surprised when I say I don’t like working in teams, it’s strange coming from someone who frequently does group activities. This is because I grew up in competitive environments. My high school ranked the students with the top 25 GPAs, and many students in my class invested time into tracking who applied and got accepted into w...
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4+7 Things I Realized About Pomona as a Sophomore

image of psych class on zoom
By Chris Meng ’23 It’s hard to believe that I am starting my second semester of my sophomore year. At the end of May, I will be halfway done with college, and I will have somehow reached the age of 21. Over my nearly two-month winter break, I spent a lot of time with family and friends (mostly virtually), having conversations with them and myself that gave me a chance to ref...
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First-Year Course Registration, Or The Subtle Art of Not Knowing What You Are Doing

Nelia holding up her laptop
By Nelia Perry ‘24 About a week before fall registration, I decided to make a table outlining all of the classes I intended to take for the next four years. That’s eight semesters, four classes each, for a total of 32 classes. At first, that seems like a lot. It’s plenty of room to explore different subjects and take classes outside of your major. But, in the process of plan...
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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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Post-Finals Feels

Screenshot of CCF’s Christmas party on Zoom with everyone holding paper snowflakes
By Oluyemisi Bolonduro ‘23 Well, I did it… I finished my first full semester of virtual Pomona (hopefully just one more to go). To sum up the semester in one sentence: I think I experienced things that I never expected to live during my college years… mainly bad. This was most evident around finals season. This past semester, I had three papers and one final exam to submi...
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A Day in the Life of Zoom University: Freshman Edition

Sonam in Pomona sweatshirt
By Sonam Rikha ’24 When I received the email on a Friday in early March telling students that, after Monday, my school would be taking a temporary break due to concerns of COVID-19, I didn’t think much of it. On Monday, fellow students jokingly said, “See you next year!” I scoffed at the idea that this break would last longer than two weeks. Surely it wouldn't last for the r...
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Reflections on a Virtual Semester

illustraton of person walking, looking for WiFi signal
By Bryce Kelly ‘23 Illustrations by Teodelina Martelli '23 As the semester draws to a close, and the upcoming months-long vacation ominously approaches, I have decided to reflect on my life as a Virtual Student Remote schooling is new for nearly all of us, and it is at this moment in time that course evaluations and surveys are being sent out to determine What It’s Like T...
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Nonstop

drawing of student at desk surrounded by stacks of papers
Bryce Kelly ‘23 “How far are you into your semester?” My aunt is halfway through her margarita. I’m having dinner with her and my uncle at a Mexican restaurant, the only meal I’ve had outside my rented home in a month. I take a sip of my water so I can have time to think. “Week ten, I think. I just finished my midterms.” “Midterms! Wow! How is that going online?” ...
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A First-Year Survival Guide to Midterms: Zoom Edition

Sonam giving two thumbs up
By Sonam Rikha ‘24 AHHHHHHHH! Screaming late in the night during the middle of the semester is definitely not ideal. Especially when your family members get out of bed to see why you’re shouting at your laptop and punching the air in frustration. I’d always heard of all-nighters and the grave amount of caffeine that college students consumed to get through midterms, but I...
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Emergency!! There Are Too Many Interesting Classes

student working on problems with paper and pencil
By Chris Meng ’23 Help! It’s a new semester, which also signals the climax of uncertainty around class schedules. You would think that schedules are mostly set by the time classes start. For some students, that is the case. Major and general education requirements often shape the direction of some students’ semesters. However, in general, Pomona students have an amazing amou...
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