Q&A with a Geology Major

Dede in puffer jacket, kissing a stuffed bison, with snowy mountains in background
By Siena Swift ’23 This week I interviewed Bert & Rocky’s-loving Dede Chapline ‘23, who is one half of the iconic snake mom, OKC superstars duo with last week’s interviewee Lilly Haave (see “Q&A with a Transfer Student” for further explanation). This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.  Q: Can you please introduce yourself? A: My name i...
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Not Knowing What To Do

By Lucy Pan '24 When I first applied to Pomona in the fall of 2019, I was a nervous seventeen-year-old who didn’t have a clue about what I was going to major in or have concrete future goals. College application season was stressful; I remember hearing my friends and classmates discuss their own long-term plans—some wanted to go to medical school, others had plans for gradua...
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A Breadth of Fresh Air

Leslie's small dog cuddling a copy of Hesiod
By Leslie Paz ’24 Enrolling at Pomona comes with a breath of fresh air. The lenient general education requirements and the vast array of courses mean that students are free to explore to their heart's content. As an undecided first year this past fall, I want to share how these two factors helped guide me to my current interests. It was 2:27 p.m. on August 12th, 2020, and...
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Four Hurrahs for Finals

sunset with trees in foreground and crane in background
By Oluyemisi Bolonduro ’23 Salutations, I am finishing my sophomore year at Pomona! I still have four more semesters to go, but I’m marking this Spring 2021 semester as the best finals season so far (and maybe overall). My four core classes in photography, philosophy, French and research methods are the reason why. Without further ado, I shall describe each final… hurrah, hu...
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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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It’s Really Not About the Major

TSL staff second year
By Siena Swift ’22 These days, most high school students are pressured to decide on a major, if not an academic field, before applying to college. Many colleges or universities require you to apply into a major or school within the university, and transferring into a different major can often be difficult. I personally didn’t think about these issues when applying to college...
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What’s in a Major?

student ringing desk bell
By Chris Meng ‘23 What are you studying in college? What do you want to be when you grow up? Those types of questions came flooding in during my senior year of high school, and I quickly learned it was easier to give a scripted answer than to reveal the honest truth that I simply didn’t know. To all my classmates who knew they wanted to be doctors or physical therapists or v...
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Inky Fingers

Studio Art Building
By Jenny Park ‘22 “Mark, I need some help.” My 2D Design professor, Mark Allen, is a character—his funny and quirky demeanor puts anyone at ease. I had wanted to create some prints for a personal project, so naturally he was the first person I went to. We went down to the screen-printing lab and got to work. Screen-printing is a process where you squeegee ink onto a su...
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Combining Queer Theory and Pipetting Bacterial Cultures

My summer internship with Planned Parenthood Great Plains, working in the reproductive justice sector
By Calder Hollond ‘21 When I came to Pomona, I thought I was going to be an English major. That’s what I had told all my family and friends before I left home, what I told all my new friends at Pomona during the initial “What are you planning on majoring in?” small talk, and what I made sure to enroll in during course registration. What I hadn’t planned on was that after the...
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