Uncategorized – Voices

The Art of the Cold DM

Posted on December 28, 2020December 21, 2020 by Sonam Rikha

By Sonam Rikha ‘24 Having your first semester of college be online is no easy feat. Whether it’s juggling time zones, Zoom fatigue, or the slow loss of sanity from being at home, Zoom University is definitely not how I imagined my first semester of college. As a person who was heavily dependent on friends and fellow classmates to get through difficult classes in high school,...

Application Do’s and Don’t’s From the Experts

Posted on December 14, 2020December 14, 2020 by Nelia Perry

image of college application with coffee cup

This is a special group post, with Oluyemisi Bolonduro, '23 Bryce Kelly '23, Chris Meng '23, Nelia Perry '24, and Sonam Rikha '24 conversing about their college application processes, in hopes you can benefit from their wisdom (and their mistakes). Bryce: What’s the strangest piece of advice you got when you were going through the college application process? Sonam: Be f...

A First-Year Survival Guide to Midterms: Zoom Edition

Posted on December 7, 2020December 7, 2020 by Sonam Rikha

By Sonam Rikha ‘24 AHHHHHHHH! Screaming late in the night during the middle of the semester is definitely not ideal. Especially when your family members get out of bed to see why you’re shouting at your laptop and punching the air in frustration. I’d always heard of all-nighters and the grave amount of caffeine that college students consumed to get through midterms, but I...

Online School: A Small College Just Got That Much More Important

Posted on November 18, 2020November 17, 2020 by Nelia Perry

By Nelia Perry ‘24 There have been a lot of posts already about online school but bear with me as I add one more to the list. I’m sure those of you reading this are already interested in attending a small school–you are at least contemplating it. So, let me tell you why attending a small college just got that much more important. Let’s get straight to the point: meeting p...

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...

Will I Sound Like Beyoncé?

Posted on November 5, 2020November 4, 2020 by Sonam Rikha

By Sonam Rikha ’24 Have you ever gone on a walk with your friends, and all of a sudden you hear a loud, high-pitched, angelic voice? Chances are, if you followed that voice, you would stumble across a little Asian girl singing at the top of her lungs as her embarrassed brother follows at a distance. Ever since I was a little kid, I loved singing and was pretty open about it....

Two Years, Five Highlights

Posted on October 5, 2020October 2, 2020 by Siena Swift

By Siena Swift ‘22 Since Pomona College announced we would be online only for the fall semester, I’ve been reflecting a lot about my time at college. I have a big decision ahead of me: should I take online classes or take a leave of absence from college and hope that I’ll be back on campus soon? Thinking about some of my favorite memories from my first two years at Pomona, a...

Using Machine Learning in Patient Diagnoses

Posted on September 21, 2020September 21, 2020 by Ebenezer Mensah

By Ebenezer Mensah ‘23 When I was six years old, I remember walking with my father to the doctor’s office, which was in a clinic two towns from where we lived. When we reached the Afari clinic, the only nurse on duty recorded my vital symptoms, including my temperature, pulse, and blood pressure, and told us to wait for our turn. I was the 30th person in line to meet the...

“Alexa, Play Yosemite by Travis Scott”

Posted on September 11, 2020 by Sophia Augustine

Sophia and friends swimming in Yosemite Falls

By Sophia Augustine ‘23 "OA, OA, OA. OA, OA, OA!!” The booming chants of the Pomona students traveled all across campus, gaining volume as us first-years filed anxiously into the Greek Theatre on South Campus, eagerly awaiting instructions and information regarding Orientation Adventure, also known as “OA.” “OA, OA, OA. OA, OA, OA!” The merry yells of the OA leaders seem...

Coast to Coast: Journey from Uniformity to Diversity

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Sophia Augustine

Sophia and friends from Fall POP on quad

By Sophia Augustine ‘23 Realizing the uniformity of my predominantly white, suburban town in the middle of Northern New Jersey (91% white, 5.47% Hispanic or Latinx, and 1.84% Asian) was quite an infuriating and frustrating experience. Living in Mendham New Jersey for my entire life, with the exception of my family’s brief move to Southern California for a year, has provided ...