classes – Voices

Memories of Mentorship

Posted on February 19, 2021February 15, 2021 by Oluyemisi Bolonduro

By Oluyemisi Bolonduro ‘23 People are oftentimes surprised when I say I don’t like working in teams, it’s strange coming from someone who frequently does group activities. This is because I grew up in competitive environments. My high school ranked the students with the top 25 GPAs, and many students in my class invested time into tracking who applied and got accepted into w...

4+7 Things I Realized About Pomona as a Sophomore

Posted on February 9, 2021February 8, 2021 by Chris Meng

By Chris Meng ’23 It’s hard to believe that I am starting my second semester of my sophomore year. At the end of May, I will be halfway done with college, and I will have somehow reached the age of 21. Over my nearly two-month winter break, I spent a lot of time with family and friends (mostly virtually), having conversations with them and myself that gave me a chance to ref...

First-Year Course Registration, Or The Subtle Art of Not Knowing What You Are Doing

Posted on February 5, 2021 by Nelia Perry

By Nelia Perry ‘24 About a week before fall registration, I decided to make a table outlining all of the classes I intended to take for the next four years. That’s eight semesters, four classes each, for a total of 32 classes. At first, that seems like a lot. It’s plenty of room to explore different subjects and take classes outside of your major. But, in the process of plan...

Not an Ordinary Breakfast

Posted on January 22, 2021January 20, 2021 by Sophia Augustine

by Sophia Augustine ‘23 “Professor Abrams, would you like to grab a meal sometime?” First-semester first years, my friend and classmate Emily and I sent this email to our remarkable Intro to Cognitive Science professor, Lise Abrams. Although class sizes are very small, and a massive part of Pomona’s appeal is the supposedly tight-knit relationships between students and p...

Post-Finals Feels

Posted on January 19, 2021January 19, 2021 by Oluyemisi Bolonduro

Screenshot of CCF’s Christmas party on Zoom with everyone holding paper snowflakes

By Oluyemisi Bolonduro ‘23 Well, I did it… I finished my first full semester of virtual Pomona (hopefully just one more to go). To sum up the semester in one sentence: I think I experienced things that I never expected to live during my college years… mainly bad. This was most evident around finals season. This past semester, I had three papers and one final exam to submi...

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...

Reflections on a Virtual Semester

Posted on December 31, 2020December 21, 2020 by Bryce Kelly

illustraton of person walking, looking for WiFi signal

By Bryce Kelly ‘23 Illustrations by Teodelina Martelli '23 As the semester draws to a close, and the upcoming months-long vacation ominously approaches, I have decided to reflect on my life as a Virtual Student Remote schooling is new for nearly all of us, and it is at this moment in time that course evaluations and surveys are being sent out to determine What It’s Like T...

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,...

Nonstop

Posted on December 10, 2020December 7, 2020 by Bryce Kelly

drawing of student at desk surrounded by stacks of papers

Bryce Kelly ‘23 “How far are you into your semester?” My aunt is halfway through her margarita. I’m having dinner with her and my uncle at a Mexican restaurant, the only meal I’ve had outside my rented home in a month. I take a sip of my water so I can have time to think. “Week ten, I think. I just finished my midterms.” “Midterms! Wow! How is that going online?” ...

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...