How This Hen Found Her Home

Linda and friend with Cecil mascot
By Linda Phan ‘24 As a first-generation, low-income student, I didn’t find the college admissions process to be centered around finding the ultimate academic institution that would best fit my needs as a student and individual. Instead, I was focused on getting into any college, regardless of location, size, or campus culture. I applied to a total of 37 colleges, terrified o...
Read More

Tackling Imposter Syndrome at Pomona College

screenshot of unmute and start video buttons on zoom
By Hayeon Lee ‘23 Have you ever felt like you don’t belong in an environment where everyone else seems more capable? More at home? When you begin to feel the icky feelings of Imposter Syndrome, know that you are not alone. During the summer of 2020, I had the pleasure of interning for the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships as a Communications Int...
Read More

My Father’s Dreams

drone shot of Pomona campus
By Ebenezer Mensah '23 When I read my admission letter to Pomona, the first person I thought of was my father. Born a few years before Ghana gained independence, he grew up in a society where education was seen as a tool for alienating children from their traditional values. His father refused to send him to school, but his mother enrolled him at a local school. His father a...
Read More

Leaving the South

Darien with book in library
By Darien Corrales '22 Beyond being accepted at Pomona, getting the chance to visit campus remains one of my most personal and cherished experiences. I applied to Pomona through QuestBridge, a program for high-achieving, low-income students to apply to colleges where their full financial need will be met. As part of the QuestBridge application, I had to rank schools from a l...
Read More

Coming Back Home

A trip to Little Tokyo, Los Angeles with my ID1 Class, Mirroring Japan/ese America
Hayeon Lee '23 I am originally from Los Angeles but attended a boarding high school in Connecticut for four years. Although I enjoyed the four years that I spent on the east coast for high school, I had always known that I wanted to come back to Los Angeles for college and that I felt most at home on the West Coast. However, after college decisions came out in March o...
Read More

10 Moments that Highlighted My First Year at Pomona

Selena hiking to Hollywood sign
By Selena Lopez ‘22 I don’t know about you, but, to me, there has always been something about lists that draws me in. “Top ten places to visit,” “best books to read this break,” “47 things to do while at Pomona”— the list goes on. Do I complete these lists? No … not necessarily. I’m also not good at keeping up with the lists that I make. Daily to-do lists? Can’t follow them....
Read More

Need Aware Does Not Mean No Aid

By Ebenezer Mensah ‘23 On 16th February 2019, my English teacher and I huddled up around a computer in my school’s computer laboratory in Kumasi, Ghana around 1 a.m., an hour after Pomona’s admission decisions had been released. The room was dark, and the throbbing of my heart was the only sound that could be heard in the room. The internet was slow, and the portal was takin...
Read More

From Hiding in My Room to Being a Student Leader in the Draper Center

Selena and friends in the classroom
By Selena Lopez ‘22 Back in the year 2018 (seems far away, doesn’t it?), I came across a Facebook post asking for someone to lead a tour for a group of first-generation, low-income students visiting the Draper Center, the center for community service at Pomona. Being a fellow first-gen, low income student, I  thought it would be fun to show them around my school. Did I know ...
Read More

What It Means To Be More Than a Name

Magali in front of sign about being yourself
By Magali Ngouabou ‘22 The American government knows me as Magali Astride Cyrielle Leslie Ngouabou Noubissi. The first four are all my first names, and the last one is supposed to be my middle name, but the guy at the social security office (who was somehow in charge of typing out the name I’d have to live with) messed up. As a result, I now have to squeeze even more of my n...
Read More

Pomona and Entrepreneurship on Campus: My Experience

Toran in Based New Orleans T-shirt
by Toran Langford ‘21 This is a meditation on the roots of my entrepreneurship and what I aim to accomplish by creating a new brand. I’ve always been interested in researching the history of African countries. During a really radical stage in my life, I did extensive research on Ancient Kemet, or Egypt. There are many modern scholars like W. E. B. Du Bois, Chancellor Will...
Read More