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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Spiblings for Life

Chris with golden retriever
By Chris Meng ‘23 Every college has its acronyms and funny lingo; Pomona is no exception. From OA and ID1 to AAMP and the QRC, Pomona needs its own dictionary! As a tour guide, we are specifically trained to explain those words that have become colloquial vocabulary to us as Pomona students. However, you still might catch a tour guide slip up as they excitedly talk about the...
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Application Do’s and Don’t’s From the Experts

image of college application with coffee cup
This is a special group post, with Oluyemisi Bolonduro, '23 Bryce Kelly '23, Chris Meng '23, Nelia Perry '24, and Sonam Rikha '24 conversing about their college application processes, in hopes you can benefit from their wisdom (and their mistakes). Bryce: What’s the strangest piece of advice you got when you were going through the college application process? Sonam: Be f...
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Application Advice

palm trees
By Oluyemisi Bolonduro ‘23 The other day I had a chat with a prospective student about Pomona. They leaned forward, lowered their voice, and said, "you need a 1500 SAT to get into Pomona, right?" To which I responded, "no… absolutely not." Then, I proceeded to tell them the application advice for Pomona (and college in general) that I'm about to tell you. Disclaimer: I'm not...
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5 Things I Miss About College

"Urban Light" at LACMA
By Siena Swift ‘22 Since I filed for a leave of absence from Pomona College for the fall semester, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much I will miss my college community and Claremont itself during this time. I think most of us miss “normal” (i.e. pre-COVID) life: going out to restaurants, concerts, hugging people outside of your family, being able to be in a room without ...
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A Runner’s Reflection

By Oluyemisi Bolonduro '23 My senior year of high school, I planned on quitting track. I doubted my capabilities too much to consider being a college athlete, so I was already anticipating the end to my competitive career. When it came to hurdles, my main event, I could never three-step through all ten hurdles (the shortest, most efficient number of steps between each hurdle...
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Life as a Virtual Admissions Summer Fellow

screen grab of zoom with all fellows
By Chris Meng ’23  Dear Christopher,  It is with great pleasure that we invite you to join the Office of Admissions at Pomona College as a Virtual Summer Fellow.  All the way back in May, I accepted an offer to work with admissions this summer. I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able to find a paid position that I was excited about pursuing. I literally didn’t know...
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My Father’s Dreams

drone shot of Pomona campus
By Ebenezer Mensah '23 When I read my admission letter to Pomona, the first person I thought of was my father. Born a few years before Ghana gained independence, he grew up in a society where education was seen as a tool for alienating children from their traditional values. His father refused to send him to school, but his mother enrolled him at a local school. His father a...
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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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Pomona, Progress, and the Pandemic

Oluyemisi With friends she met through Fall POP
By Oluyemisi Bolonduro ‘23 "How do you feel about Pomona and their response to the pandemic?" After leaving campus mid-March, I got hit with this question a lot. In my last post, Icky Introductions, I mentioned how the people of Pomona are always open to change and open to making room for change. This statement is the foundation of my answer (keep in mind that this is my ...
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