Summer Experience – Page 5

Welcome to New York

Posted on June 12, 2015September 21, 2022 by Feather Flores

As of approximately 6:45 pm EST today, I will have survived being in New York for a full week. Honestly, I have no idea (1) how everything that's happened / that I've done in the past seven days has encompassed only seven days, or (2) how I ended up here in general. No, really. I have no idea how any of it actually happened, and at this point I've pretty much given up tryin...

Figuring Out Where I Am

Posted on June 10, 2015September 21, 2022 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 ...

Preparing to Do Research Abroad

Posted on June 5, 2015September 21, 2022 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...

What Are College Summers Like?

Posted on March 13, 2015September 21, 2022 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...

Anecdotes from the Discomfort Zone

Posted on December 22, 2014September 21, 2022 by Eron Smith

One of the ways I like to evaluate the discomfort zone is to complete the following sentences: “Oh, I’m just not really a ____ person.” “I just don’t do ____.” “Nah, there’s no way I could ever ____.” Growing up, I tried ballet, gymnastics, piano lessons, aikido, youth group, Girl Scouts, clarinet, oboe, the spelling bee, French, and various summer camps. I was thro...

Nowhere Near Completion: The End of Summer

Posted on September 3, 2014September 21, 2022 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...

Good Vibes

Posted on August 8, 2014September 21, 2022 by Maia Welbel

Today marks seven weeks of my marathon of dance intensives this summer; I spent three weeks at the American Ballet Theatre in New York and next week I will finish my fifth week at Foster Dance Studio in Chicago. ABT’s curriculum was heavily focused on ballet technique; we rarely ventured out of the bun-head realm. But at Foster, our classes include jazz, modern, and contemp...

Scared on the Front Desk

Posted on July 21, 2014September 21, 2022 by Matthew O'Connor

Ah, the front desk. I have an interesting relationship with the front desk at the admissions office. Juanita, the receptionist at the front desk, truly makes it look easy. She is so calm transferring calls, greeting people and filing paperwork. Going into the summer, I knew I’d have to work the front desk a couple times when Juanita is on vacation. It seemed simple enough. At l...