For Pomona students, summer demands adventure. The specificity of this claim - namely, that this addresses not all students, but Pomona-esque students alone - is deliberate. For your pleasure, the deliberation: Despite the earnestness of our wide-eyed, edge-of-our-seats classroom etiquette, we are, above all, autodidacts. We strive to learn, to improve ourselves through learnin...
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Revisiting, Revising, Perhaps Redefining My Own Identity.
During the college application process, we – the hopeful college applicants - get the sense that we have distilled the essence of our being. That the final Common Application essay or the UCAS personal statement embodies all that is good and important or bad and relevant about us up till that point in our lives. We waltz into college with this achingly naïve sense of self-k...
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Still a Pomona Voice?
My name is Claudia Crook, and I am a college graduate.
What a bizarre concept.
(more…)
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On the Emptiness of Campus in Summer
Observations from a research-drained observer: the lawn of Walker beach lacks sunbathers; the residence hall windows, usually framing hard-at-work or hard-at-play students, stare back vacantly; and the streets and sidewalks and hallways all sit in a campus-wide barrenness. This is the effect summer has on Pomona - emptiness; an emptiness that reaches from the corners of Wig to ...
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Summer Transitioning
It’s the first week of summer and I am finding myself with the nagging feeling that I should be doing something productive. Going from the intensity of finals week to the ease of early summer days isn’t as simple as it sounds. But each day I wake up feeling a little more relaxed and increasingly excited about the sunny months ahead. Next week I will be travelling from my home i...
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Exam Survival Guide
The end of the year is always tough. Major papers, studying for exams, trying to pack up stuff and finalize summer plans – it's hectic. After surviving the exam craziness one semester, and in honor of its commencement today, I offer you a guide to getting through the last week of the year.
1. The Coop Fountain
The best place to hang out and study, and to get snacks! D...
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10 Lessons My Mother Taught Me
Happy Mother’s Day and thank you to moms everywhere. In particular, thank you to my wonderful, inspiring mother for years of wisdom and guidance.
1. Stand Up Straight. Shoulders up, back, down. Standing up straight portrays confidence, strengthens back muscles and makes you look long, tall, lean and mean (not really mean). Picture a string, pulling you towards the sky from t...
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Forward Motion
In less than two weeks, my first year at Pomona will be over. A year ago, I was nowhere close to done with the school year: AP tests were approaching (and way too quickly). There were senior award ceremonies and breakfasts and graduation rehearsals to attend, enrollment deposits and housing forms needing completion, scholarships needing securing, yearbooks needing signing, ...
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Words of Wisdom for the Class of 2018
So now that the incoming class of 2018 finally knows who they are, they're probably looking around for some useful information regarding Pomona. Thus, class of 2018, this post on my reflections on my freshman year and some things I learned is dedicated to you.
Taking Classes You Love
When I came to college, I kept hearing (especially here at Pomona) that one thing we real...
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Time Management
Time is a resource. As finals approach, this resource apparently decreases in supply, increasing its value. Effective management of time is of the utmost importance. Thus, a list of tips for how to better manage your time:
1. Prioritize
At the beginning of every week, take 15 minutes to write a list of your goals and duties, prioritizing each item. At the beginning of eve...
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