Liberal Arts – Voices

A Day in the Life of Zoom University: Freshman Edition

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Sonam Rikha

By Sonam Rikha ’24 When I received the email on a Friday in early March telling students that, after Monday, my school would be taking a temporary break due to concerns of COVID-19, I didn’t think much of it. On Monday, fellow students jokingly said, “See you next year!” I scoffed at the idea that this break would last longer than two weeks. Surely it wouldn't last for the r...

Emergency!! There Are Too Many Interesting Classes

Posted on November 23, 2020November 19, 2020 by Chris Meng

student working on problems with paper and pencil

By Chris Meng ’23 Help! It’s a new semester, which also signals the climax of uncertainty around class schedules. You would think that schedules are mostly set by the time classes start. For some students, that is the case. Major and general education requirements often shape the direction of some students’ semesters. However, in general, Pomona students have an amazing amou...

Just Another Tuesday

Posted on November 9, 2020November 5, 2020 by Bryce Kelly

illustration of a pig in gladiator helmet

By Bryce Kelly ‘23 Illustrations by Teodelina Martelli '23 My housemate just knocked on my door, walked into my room, proceeded to rant about the meaning of life for five minutes, walked back into the hall, and closed the door behind him. This is the fourth day in a row he’s done something like that. Yesterday the talk was about the ego and the id. The day before that, ps...

A Pitch for the Liberal Arts

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Chris Meng

students having dinner at a professor's house

By Chris Meng ‘23 “Why would you choose Pomona over a more well-known school?” As a tour guide and summer fellow for the admissions office, my peers and I discuss the most common questions we get during tours and other interactions with prospective students, and this is one of them. While my neighbors in Pennsylvania may not know Pomona, graduate schools and employers cer...

Early Decision, the Best Decision I’ve Ever Made

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Deanna Han

Deanna standing in front of Bridges Auditorium

By Deanna Han '23 October 30th, 2018 I took a deep breath and submitted my application. There was nothing else I could do; all that was left was the wait. With one click of a button, I had sealed my future — but I didn’t know that then. In 45 days, my whole world would change. December 14th, 2018 I rub the sleep out of my eyes and yawn. My heart starts pounding a...

What’s in a Major?

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Chris Meng

By Chris Meng ‘23 What are you studying in college? What do you want to be when you grow up? Those types of questions came flooding in during my senior year of high school, and I quickly learned it was easier to give a scripted answer than to reveal the honest truth that I simply didn’t know. To all my classmates who knew they wanted to be doctors or physical therapists or v...

My First CS Class (As an Art Major)

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Alicia Garza

By Alicia Garza ‘22 When I think of lab, the first thing that pops to mind is the darkroom, or the drawing studio, or the digital lab. When I signed up for a computer science class this semester and saw the Lab section of the course, I knew I was in for a whole other kind of experience, a different kind of creativity. "Intro to Computer Science with Topics in AI" is my fi...

The Beautiful Flexibility of a Small(ish) School

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Chris Meng

By Chris Meng ‘23 Pomona College has all the amazing perks of a small school without sacrificing the overwhelming variety of resources of a bigger college. If it weren’t for the flexibility and spirit of exploration built into the values of Pomona, I wouldn’t be here today as a first-year student. Let me tell you about my winding path to Pomona. To begin, I wasn’t accepte...

My First Year at Pomona: Seven Things I’m Grateful For

Posted on July 31, 2019July 31, 2019 by Becky Zhang

By Becky Zhang ‘22 A few days ago, my best friend (who took Intro to Psychology and had many a fun fact to share with me throughout the semester) shared that gratitude was an effective remedy for all sorts of maladies. She dropped some statistics on the scientifically-proven benefits of practicing gratitude: an extra half-hour of sleep, and so on. Whether or not th...

The Value of the Freshman Critical Inquiry Seminar

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Jacinta Chen

By Jacinta Chen ’21 Some of the best memories I have at Pomona come from ID1. What is ID1? Pomona’s Critical Inquiry Seminar, better known on campus as ID1, is a required writing and discussion-based seminar all first-years take during their first semester at the College. The approximately 30 sections are taught by faculty from across the disciplines and engage student...