Research

Making Money, Then Spending It on Fruit Juice

Posted on by Eron Smith
Here I am, almost halfway through my summer project already! Time flies here on campus, especially with not as many students around and no homework to do. My research has progressed to its intermediate stages, and summer living is settling into somewhat of a routine. I’m managing to pick up some extra odd jobs here and there on top of my SURP stipend, so my finances are loo...
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5 Discoveries About Traveling Alone

Posted on by Madeleine Colvin
I'm doing independent, pre-thesis research in China, and a byproduct of that is traveling on my own. Before I arrived in China, I was excited about the research and the going-to-China parts, but much less excited at the prospect of being alone for such a long period of time. I'm not one of those people who needs much "me time" and I thrive when I'm around people. On top of that...
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There Are No Black Beans in this Country: Unnecessary Adventures and What We Take for Granted

Posted on by Maddi Cowen
Whether it’s the nature of fieldwork in general or the nature of fieldwork in Australia, things that should be simple end up as an adventure. Let me give you some examples. The task that should have been simple: grocery shopping. Every week, we go on a shopping marathon to buy food for six for a week. We throw grocery bags in the back of the truck (named Matilda), vis...
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Slip-ups, Solitude & Self Care

Posted on by Madeleine Colvin
After a few days of travel in Shanghai and Hangzhou, I found myself in Beijing, finally ready to embark on my summer of independent research. Beijing is the first of my stops in a research tour of China's ethnic minority theme parks (the rest are in Yunnan province). On Wednesday night, I checked into my hostel and on Thursday morning, I took the subway to Beijing's Ethnic ...
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Figuring Out Where I Am

Posted on by Maddi Cowen
Like any good adventure, mine begins and ends with time travel (courtesy of the International Date Line). I left Claremont for Brisbane, a large city in Queensland, Australia, on a Tuesday and arrived on a Thursday after 14 hours of travel. My return flight will reach the United States three hours before it leaves Australia. The time zone switch was especially difficult ...
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Preparing to Do Research Abroad

Posted on by Madeleine Colvin
As my little blurb explains, I will be spending this summer doing independent research in Southwestern China, funded by the Oldenborg International Research and Travel Grant. This grant is awarded to 2-3 rising Pomona seniors each year, allowing them to undertake research for a senior thesis, project, or exhibition during the summer months before senior year. In the past, s...
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Independent Study and Small-College Education

Posted on by Eron Smith
On the Wednesday afternoon of spring break, I sat in the Coop Fountain staring at my laptop screen. My real spring break had started thirty seconds beforehand, when I clicked “send” on an email to my advisor containing the first draft of my independent study paper. The moment felt surprisingly anticlimactic. I shut my laptop, walked outside into the sunny spring weather tha...
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What Are College Summers Like?

Posted on by Madeleine Colvin
It's that time of year -- everyone seems to be anxiously applying to programs/internships/jobs/research positions/funding etc. Over Family Weekend, standing in front of my CDO Summer Experience Funding poster, I fielded tons of questions from eager parents of first-year students. I've been asked the vague questions "Where do you want to be this summer?" and "What are your s...
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Nowhere Near Completion: The End of Summer

Posted on by Pryor Stroud
Of all the words buzzing around my still-embryonic and, thus, still-optimistic thesis research - which, now, can be best characterized as a heap of mistreated books, fingertip-oiled keytops, and looseleaf essays-that-I-should-have-read-electronically-but-printed-so-I-could-scribble-academic-nonsense-on-them - there are a few that linger a bit longer, that resonate in a higher r...
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If You Give a Mouse a Lysolecithin Injection…

Posted on by Muhammad Jalal
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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