There are some moments at Pomona that have been truly essential to my experience - moments that cannot be conveyed adequately on any pamphlet or website - and it's those moments that I missed sorely when I was gone. Although I, as many others, arrived to Pomona after an exhausting chain of travels (bus! train! airplane! then MetroLink!), hearing the squeals of excitement as...
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5 Classist Statements Overheard While Studying Abroad
It is no surprise that socioeconomic diversity diminishes while being abroad. Study abroad programs usually lack the financial aid that many institutions, like Pomona College, use to bring more students from different socioeconomic backgrounds on campus.
A low-income student myself, I was not expecting to see as many low-income students while being abroad because I understan...
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Let’s Talk About Dorms!
There are some things that you’re allowed to say in college that sound totally creepy out in the real world. In this case, the one I’m thinking of is the casual question to someone you just met:
“Where do you live?”
It’s probably the #1 question first-years get asked. You can ask about the person’s major, but they don’t know. You can ask where they’re from, but you’re...
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The Ups and Downs of Re-entry
re-en·try /ˌrēˈentrē/ noun
1. reverse culture shock or the process of an individual re-assimilating to their home country after studying abroad
It's been one week since I got back from one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and I have decided that I can never travel again because that was way too many hours of traveling...just kidding. Although I am still ...
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Education on a Farm: What You Can’t Learn at a Liberal Arts College
Extending my post-study abroad travels through winter break means I don't get to spend the holidays at home. Luckily, I get to spend them on a 10-acre organic farm in the tropical hills of northern Thailand -- not a bad alternative.
I am spending 17 days WWOOFing at Mae Mut Garden, doing volunteer work in exchange for room and board.
In the past 2 weeks, I have learned so...
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Semester 1 at Pomona: First-Year Impressions
From my time at Pomona College as a first semester first-year student, I have had so many memorable moments and have learned so much, not only from my classes (Macroeconomics, Calculus, First Year Seminar, and Intermediate Spanish), but from many occasions beyond the classroom.
As one of America’s foremost liberal arts institutions, Pomona College provides its students an ab...
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Internships, Interviews, and Interludes – Oh My!
It seems like in order to get ahead in the real world, every college student is expected to have several jobs, some incredibly valuable internship experience, leadership positions in at least 5 different clubs or activities, a Nobel Prize in two of the six categories, over a million followers on Twitter/over a million subscribers on YouTube, and bonus points for a letter of rec...
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Travels and Thailand
In the last couple of weeks, my semester in Kunming ended, I spent a week traveling in China, and then made my way to Thailand. It has been quite a whirlwind, but I’m finally settled down on a farm in the mountains of northern Thailand for the next two weeks.
My semester ended with a week of finals and a paper presentation. During the last few weeks of the semester, each...
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Countdown to the New Year = Countdown to the Deadlines
For those of you who have finished college applications, congratulations! I hope that throughout the process of describing/promoting yourself to schools, you’ve realized how far you have come and how much there is to be proud of. Remember those nights of panic before a huge exam, audition, competition, game, meet, tournament, etc.? Yes, YOU got through all of that.
For ...
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What It Means to be a Gladiator
Fresh from my trip to Italy, I would have to say Rome and Florence are shortly behind Barcelona on the list of my favorite cities visited during study abroad. Florence was just jaw-dropping. It was that type of antique beauty that you imagine when you think about Italy. From the Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio, it seemed like there was something beautiful on every corner. Not to...
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