After Thanksgiving break, Professor Hentyle Yapp asked my Gender & Women's Studies class how our breaks had been. People raised their hands, describing adorable family traditions or delicious family recipes. Several people had seen the new Hunger Games movie with their families over the break. After a couple minutes, Hentyle gently ended the discussion, noting that while it...
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Author: Madeleine Colvin
A Semester of Classes I Loved
Classes ended on December 9, and I can now say with certainty that this was the best semester I've ever had in terms of classes. As a senior who has already completed all of my general education and International Relations major requirements, I had a ton of freedom in choosing my classes this semester. I ended up with four amazing classes, which I will summarize here for you:
...
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Jobs on Campus
As a college senior, I have been thinking a lot about jobs. Real jobs. Work. Employment. A career. However you put it, it's anxiety-inducing and terrifying and something I get asked about way more often than I'd like. Post-graduation job plans are a topic I want to avoid talking about 99% of the time. Including now. So instead of talking about so-called real, nine-to-five, I'm-...
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Talking about Race at the Claremont Colleges
This past week has been an emotionally exhausting one for the Claremont Colleges community. While Black students and other students of color have been campaigning for institutional support for many months, this week saw culturally appropriative Halloween costumes and an email from a Claremont McKenna College (CMC) dean implying that certain students did not "fit the CMC mold", ...
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The Weekly Writing Workshop
I spend my Monday afternoons in Carnegie 107, a classroom which normally feels cavernous and academic. The seats are neatly arranged in rows, stretching eight or nine rows back. There is a podium in the front of the classroom, from which a professor would deliver a lecture about U.S. foreign policy or econometrics.
But at 4:30 PM each Monday, fourth and fifth grade students ...
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On Leaving China
Last Monday, I woke up at 4 AM and proceeded to spend the next 24 hours traveling via bus, plane, and car, finally arriving in my hometown of Seattle, Washington.
I was not ready to leave to leave China. It felt wrong to suddenly rip myself from the life I'd built for myself in Kunming. I was getting used to life in my apartment, building friendships I cared about, feeli...
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Fieldwork in China, or a Huge, Frustrating, Dynamic, Messy Learning Process
My past couple posts have focused on my experiences traveling in China, but haven't really touched on my academic research, which is the whole reason I'm here!
With absolutely zero fieldwork experience and minimal preparation (see my post on Preparing to Do Research Abroad, which describes my research topic and preparation process), I hopped on a plane to China. I figure...
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5 Discoveries About Traveling Alone
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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Slip-ups, Solitude & Self Care
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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Preparing to Do Research Abroad
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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