Articles Written By: emae2021@pomona.edu

Bookmarks Summer 2023

Asian American Histories of the United States, Catherine Ceniza Choy ’91Asian American Histories of the United States

In Asian American Histories of the United States, Catherine Ceniza Choy ’91 presents 200 years of Asian migration, labor and community formation, all the while reckoning with the recent surge in anti-Asian hate and violence.


Chloe and the Kaishao Boys, Mae Coyiuto ’17Chloe and the Kaishao Boys

Chloe and the Kaishao Boys, a young adult rom-com by Mae Coyiuto ’17, follows a Chinese-Filipina girl in Manila as she gets off the waitlist for USC and decides if following her dreams is worth leaving everything behind.


The Last Cold Place, Naira de Gracia ’14The Last Cold Place

Naira de Gracia ’14 writes a memoir about her experience studying penguins in Antarctica, weaving in the history of Antarctic exploration, climate science and personal reflection in The Last Cold Place.


Tales of Whimsy, Verses of Woe, Tim DeRoche ’92Tales of Whimsy, Verses of Woe

Tales of Whimsy, Verses of Woe by Tim DeRoche ’92 is a collection of lighthearted poetry filled with wordplay reminiscent of Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss.


I Have Her Memories Now ,Carrie Grinstead ’06I Have Her Memories Now

The short stories in I Have Her Memories Now by Carrie Grinstead ’06 touch on health, medicine and death and explore themes of vulnerability and fallibility.


Nocturne, Jodie Hollander ’99Nocturne

The poetry of Jodie Hollander ’99 in Nocturne charts the emotional journey of the daughter of a professional classical pianist, exploring family dysfunction and musical obsession.


Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity, Kenneth Liberman ’70Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity

In Tasting Coffee: An Inquiry into Objectivity, Kenneth Liberman ’70 sheds light on the methods used to convert subjective experience into objective knowledge with coffee as its focal point.


Representation Theory and Geometry of the Flag Variety, William “Monty” McGovern ’82Representation Theory and Geometry of the Flag Variety

Representation Theory and Geometry of the Flag Variety by William “Monty” McGovern ’82 is a reference for researchers and graduate students in representation theory, combinatorics and algebraic geometry.


Blue Jeans, Carolyn Purnell ’06 Blue Jeans

In Blue Jeans, Carolyn Purnell ’06 presents extensive research on the history of jeans as well as the global and economic forces that shape the industry. The book is part of a series called Object Lessons about “the hidden lives of ordinary things.”


Quinoa: Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands, Linda Seligmann ’75Quinoa: Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands

Linda Seligmann ’75 tells the story of Indigenous farmers and the global demand for a superfood in Quinoa: Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands.


The Way to Be: A Memoir, Barbara T. Smith ’53The Way to Be: A Memoir

The Way to Be: A Memoir, a firsthand account of the life and work of artist Barbara T. Smith ’53, accompanies an exhibition on view at the Getty Research Institute through July 16, 2023.


Beyond That, the Sea, Laura Spence-Ash ’81Beyond That, the Sea

The novel Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash ’81 follows Beatrix, an 11-year-old British girl sent to live with a New England family during World War II, as she navigates two worlds.


After Anne: A Novel of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Life, Logan Steiner ’06After Anne: A Novel of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Life

After Anne: A Novel of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Life by Logan Steiner ’06 tells the story behind the story of the author of Anne of Green Gables, offering a nuanced portrayal of her life.


Democracy in Latin America: A History Since Independence, Thomas Wright ’63Democracy in Latin America: A History Since Independence

In Democracy in Latin America: A History Since Independence, Thomas Wright ’63 chronicles Latin America’s struggle for democracy as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

Alex Zylstra ’09 Plays Key Role in Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

The shot that took just a few billionths of a second was 60 years in the making, and Alex Zylstra ’09 played a key role in its success. Just after 1 a.m. on December 5, 2022, Zylstra and fellow scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) at last achieved fusion ignition. The energy produced by a controlled fusion reaction exceeded the amount required to fuel the process: 2.05 megajoules in, 3.15 megajoules out. For a tiny fraction of a second, they produced the brightest thing on Earth.

Fusion, as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) describes it, occurs when “two light nuclei combine to form a single heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy.” The NIF scientists achieved a breakthrough that could someday lead to limitless clean energy to power the world, using the same reaction as the sun and stars.

Alex Zylstra ’09 Plays Key Role in Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

Zylstra was on the panel of experts at the DOE news conference in Washington to describe the successful experiment, which involved shooting 192 huge lasers at a target the size of a pea. The resulting temperature reached more than 100 million degrees. The pressure was more than double that at the center of the sun. The level of precision the experiment required was mind-boggling.

“We had a debate over a laser setting equivalent to five trillionths of a meter,” Zylstra said at the news conference. “We had a discussion with the laser science team over timing discrepancies of 25 trillionths of a second.”

In an email, Zylstra writes that he had been “eager to work on validating the results before we went public.” Outside experts also provided peer review before the successful experiment was announced. Still, “When I saw the early data start coming in after 1 a.m. on December 5th, I was incredibly excited,” he writes.

Alex Zylstra ’09 Plays Key Role in Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Target ChamberAs principal experimentalist, Zylstra describes his role as twofold: “First, to be the primary scientist associated with executing a particular ‘shot,’ or experiment, and second, to guide a set of experiments to develop improvements or test hypotheses.” He describes the NIF as “a highly interdisciplinary endeavor,” and works closely with the other teams—computational, design, measurement, laser and target fabrication, and operations.

Dwight Whitaker, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Pomona, was not surprised at Zylstra’s role in the groundbreaking experiment. Zylstra was in his junior year when Whitaker joined the Pomona College faculty and began setting up his lab. “I was trying to set up some difficult experiments and I was ecstatic when he joined the lab, because he was extraordinary,” Whitaker recalls. “Alex and I worked a lot of hours together. I used to turn knobs with him in the lab, and now he’s running one of the most complicated experiments ever created.”

Zylstra has focused on fusion since starting a doctoral program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the fall after graduating from Pomona. As an undergraduate, he’d had the opportunity to see the NIF center being built and says that “it felt like a chance to work on something straight out of science fiction.”

Whitaker says fusion could “solve one of the biggest problems facing humanity right now—the climate crisis.” But fusion research, like most other areas of science, is a long and arduous process. Whitaker says that “probably the personality trait you need to have as a physicist is the ability to grind through very unrewarding times, because experimental physics is usually a lesson in failure. Ninety percent of the things we do don’t work,” he says. “But each time you fail, you learn. I think that’s what fusion has been—lots of incremental steps and failures.” And then, success.

A Sustainable Garden Beside Marston Quad

Graphic Credit: Ben McCoy/Department of Space

Graphic Credit: Ben McCoy/Department of Space

Alongside the parade of young oaks planted beside Stover Walk to replace some of the trees lost in the 2022 windstorm, a new sustainable garden is taking root in the beds next to Marston Quad’s grassy expanse.

Once it is established in two to three years, the Marston Quad Sustainable Garden will require minimal to no irrigation. It includes plants such as California sagebrush1, white sage2 and chamise3 that have many uses among the Tongva people, the traditional caretakers of the land Pomona College now occupies. Other plantings with importance to Indigenous peoples include chaparral yucca4, mulefat5, toyon6, manzanita7  and single-leaf pinyon pines8.

While many of the established plants such as camellias and azaleas whose blooms have signaled the arrival of spring for generations remain, the new plantings include 30 species native to California, among them desert mallow9, hummingbird sage10 and California fuchsia11. Designed by Claremont landscape architect Ben McCoy, the garden will have signs that identify the plant species in the Tongva language as well as by their English and Latin names, thanks to input from Tina Calderon, a culture bearer of Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme descent, and Char Miller, W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History.

The decision to create a more drought-tolerant landscape featuring native plants was guided in part by the research of environmental analysis students Lucy Whitman Sandmeyer ’21, Madi Brothers ’22, Owen Hoffsten ’22 and Maya Edstrom SC ’22, who completed their 2022 senior capstone project report, “Roots & Resilience: Reimagining Marston Quad after the Windstorm,” under the guidance of Professor Guillermo Douglass-Jaimes. The group surveyed alumni, students, staff and faculty, receiving the majority of input from alumni, with more than 300 responses. Alumni also had an opportunity to voice their opinions during the 2022 Alumni Weekend in one of two charrettes held by the student researchers.

The survey indicated that most of the Pomona community sees Marston Quad as the heart of campus, the students reported, and supports a landscape plan that “maintains the same open and green design as before the windstorm, features shade trees—especially native oaks—and [is] prepared to withstand the changing climate.”

‘Easter Egg’ Hunt

The season of searching for colored eggs is past, but Brian Faber, director of project management in the Office of Facilities and Campus Services, invites people to search for eight hidden examples of the number 47 on campus. Seven of them are identical, and two different types can be found at the new Center for Athletics, Recreation and Wellness. All of them can be seen from the exterior and are permanent, Faber says. Happy hunting. We haven’t found any yet.

Award-Winning ‘TSL’

The oldest college newspaper in Southern California is still thriving—and still in print every Friday when class is in session.

The Student Life, founded in 1889, brought home 20 awards at the recent California College Media Association conference in San Francisco, including first-place awards for best newspaper, newspaper website, overall newspaper design, interactive graphic, editorial, social media reporting, feature story, news photograph, social justice coverage and news series in its category of publications on four-year campuses with 15,000 or fewer students.

Popovich at Pomona

Popovich at Pomona

TSL also claimed third nationally for newspaper and fourth nationally for website in its category in the Associated Collegiate Press awards. Recent editors-in-chief of TSL, the newspaper of The Claremont Colleges, include Jasper Davidoff ’23 and Jenna McMurtry ’24. If you’d like to stay in touch with what’s happening on campus and the work of TSL journalists, visit tsl.news or subscribe to the weekly newsletter or print edition at tsl.news/subscribe/.

‘Coach Pop’ to Hall of Fame

There was little suspense over whether Gregg Popovich would be elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. After all, the San Antonio Spurs coach has won five NBA titles and more games than any coach in the history of the league. One bit of suspense remains, though: Will he mention his early coaching days at Pomona-Pitzer in his induction speech? Tune in to the August 12 ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts, to see.

Sagehens Still in the Spotlight

Ryan Long ’21 Strikes Out Mike Trout

Photo by Paul Stodart, British Baseball Federation/GB Baseball

Photo by Paul Stodart, British Baseball Federation/GB Baseball

The situation Ryan Long ’21 found himself in on March 11 was almost unfathomable. The 6-foot-6 former Sagehens pitcher was on the mound for Great Britain against Team USA in the World Baseball Classic in Phoenix when Mike Trout came to the plate. Long, a minor leaguer who was drafted 497th overall by the Baltimore Orioles in 2021, was facing Trout, the three-time American League MVP and 10-time All-Star.

And down went Trout after Long struck him out with a 94-mph fastball.

“It was just a really surreal experience. Something that I’ll definitely hold onto forever,” Long says of playing in the World Baseball Classic.

Long realized he was eligible to play for Great Britain because his mother, Liz, was born in England. He asked Pomona-Pitzer Coach Frank Pericolosi if he had connections to the British Baseball Federation and Pericolosi put him in touch with alumni who did.

Months later, Long was pitching at Chase Field in Great Britain’s opening game against Team USA.

“I think before this the biggest crowd I ever played in front of was about 7,000, maybe 8,000. This was 40,000,” Long says.

His early nerves settled after he went on in relief in the fourth inning.

“Once I got out there and got on the mound, my heartbeat started to slow down a little bit, which was cool,” Long says.

He gave up a home run, “one that I’m not too upset about because it’s a major league All-Star,” he says of the blast by Kyle Schwarber, who led the National League in homers last season.

The next inning, Trout came to the plate.

“First of all, he’s obviously an amazing hitter but their whole lineup was filled with All-Stars and future Hall of Famers,” says Long.

He got Trout to a 3-2 count and decided to stay with his best pitch, his fastball.

“He fouled the first two off,” Long says. “He didn’t seem like he was seeing it as well as he might normally be. I decided to throw it again and it got past him. That was a very, very exhilarating feeling—a lot to take in.”

Long moved up to the Orioles’ High-A team in Aberdeen, Maryland, this season and still has a goal of reaching the majors, but he won’t forget playing for Great Britain.

“I think that will go down as one of the best, if not the best, experiences I’ll ever have in this game.”


Melissa Barlow ’87 Officiates NCAA Tournament Game

Melissa Barlow ’87 Officiates NCAA Tournament GamesIn a banner year for women’s college basketball, Melissa Barlow ’87 was in the middle of an NCAA tournament that garnered record ratings.

Decades after she played point guard on Pomona-Pitzer’s standout teams of the 1980s, Barlow still runs the floor as a top NCAA Division I women’s basketball official. She called three games during the 2023 tournament, including the Sweet 16 game in which Iowa star Caitlin Clark scored 31 points in a win over Colorado.

Barlow has officiated in 10 Final Fours and three NCAA championship games, assignments that are earned through round-by-round reviews by officiating supervisors. She also has been yelled at by some of the best in the business—the late Pat Summitt of Tennessee, Geno Auriemma of Connecticut, Kim Mulkey of Louisiana State—and can laugh it off later.

For years, officiating was a sidelight to a highly successful career in the pharmaceutical industry that enabled Barlow, a biology major at Pomona, to retire at 53 from her job as national sales director for the metabolic division of AbbVie.

She encourages other former women’s players to get into officiating, too.

“I try to tell them: You get the best seat in the house, you get a workout and they pay you to watch these great games.”

Scholars and Fellows

This year’s list of recipients of prestigious awards to study or conduct research at home or abroad includes two young women with striking achievements. Vera Berger ’23 was selected as both a Churchill Scholar and a National Science Foundation Fellow. She also was Pomona’s student body president as a senior. Alexandra Turvey ’24 was selected as both a Beckman Scholar and Goldwater Scholar. In addition, she is a multiple-time All-American swimmer for Pomona-Pitzer and received the NCAA’s Elite 90 Award from women’s swimming. The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 90 championships.

Beckman Scholars

Santiago Serrano ’25
Alexandra Turvey ’24

Churchill Scholar

Vera Berger ’23

Downing Scholars

Mohammed Ahmed ’23
Rya Jetha ’23

Fulbright Scholars

Maggie Allegar ’23
Sophia Chanin ’23
Brittany Chen ’20
Peter Chong ’23
Kelly Ho ’22
Kaitlyn Lee ’23
Kyu Lee ’23
Calla Li ’22
Jacob Ligorria ’23
Delmy Ruiz ’23
Oliver Spivey ’23
Zachary Wakefield ’22
Nathaniel Wire ’23

Goldwater Scholars

Zoë Batterman ’24
Alexandra Turvey ’24

National Science Foundation Fellows

Vera Berger ’23
Zoe Haggard ’21
Joe Hesse-Withbroe ’21
Kirby Lam ’23
Rohan Lopez ’23
Adele Myers ’21
Gabrielle Ohlson ’21
Cody Pham ’21
Marie Tano ’21
Gabe Udell ’21
Clayton Ziemke ’18

Schwarzman Scholars

Solomon Olshin ’23
Qingjie “Bob” Zeng ’18

The Places They Go

Outcomes LogosSpeaking broadly, last year’s Class of 2022 was similar to many other Pomona classes: About 71% secured jobs, internships or entered military service after graduation, and 21% were pursuing further education. Another 3% received fellowships, 2% began service opportunities and 3% had other plans.

The Class of 2022 First Destination Report features data gathered through surveys and data mining for the College’s Career Development Office. Top industries included internet and software companies (14%), management consulting (11%), higher education (9%) and investment banking and management (9%).
For the real nitty-gritty about the specific jobs and graduate degrees Pomona’s Class of 2022 headed for, check out the fascinating interactive dashboard at pomona.edu/outcomes-dashboard. Want to see how many went to work for Amazon and how many went to Accenture? It’s all there, along with how many were destined for graduate school in Cambridge (Massachusetts or England) and elsewhere.
For an early look at destinations for some of the Class of 2023 graduates, see the inside back page of this issue.

Long-Serving Faculty Members Retire

Professors Margaret Waller and Zayn Kassam have retired after decades of teaching and service to Pomona College.

Professor Margaret Waller

Waller, the Dr. Mary Ann Vanderzyl Reynolds ’56 Professor of Humanities and professor of Romance languages and literatures, had been a member of the faculty since 1986. A specialist in 19th-century French literature, she also is an expert on gender and power. Her 1993 book, The Male Malady: Fictions of Impotence in the French Romantic Novel, was one of the first to pioneer masculinity studies in the field of French literature. Waller, known as Peggy, was honored with the Wig Distinguished Professor Award for excellence in teaching in 1991 and 2000.

Professor Zayn Kassam

Kassam, the John Knox McLean Professor of Religious Studies, retired in December 2022 to become director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. A professor at Pomona since 1995, her most recent leadership role was as associate dean of the College for diversity, equity and inclusion. Kassam was a three-time recipient of the Wig Award for excellence in teaching (1998, 2005, 2015) and in 2005 was honored with the American Academy of Religion’s National Teacher of the Year Award.

2023 Commencement Speakers

Pomona’s 2023 Commencement speakers know about persistence, as do the new graduates they addressed in a May 14 ceremony.

Sherrilyn Ifill is a distinguished civil rights lawyer, voting rights advocate and scholar. A senior fellow at the Ford Foundation, she previously spent a decade as president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the nation’s premier civil rights law organization. She was chosen one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2021.

“We need you in this fight. You have to find time to do your part. While you do your part, hold onto your joy. Joy is part of resistance as well.” —Sherrilyn Ifill

“We need you in this fight. You have to find time to do your part. While you do your part, hold onto your joy. Joy is part of resistance as well.”
—Sherrilyn Ifill

Penny Lee Dean ’77 set 13 world records as a marathon swimmer, including a 1978 crossing of the English Channel that shattered the men’s world record by more than an hour. She was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1996. A six-time All-American swimmer at Pomona, she returned to the College and coached and taught for 26 years, winning 17 SCIAC women’s swimming titles and guiding the women’s water polo team to a national championship in 1993.

“From my time as a student, I learned to stand up for what I believed in. Never stop believing in yourself." —Penny Lee Dean ’77

“From my time as a student, I learned to stand up for what I believed in. Never stop believing in yourself.”
—Penny Lee Dean ’77

In addition to conferring honorary degrees on Ifill and Dean, Pomona posthumously honored Trustee Emeritus George E. “Buddy” Moss ’52 with the Trustees’ Medal of Merit. A member of the Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2004, Moss made possible many programs for faculty and students. Among his many contributions, he made gifts to establish the George E. Moss Community Partnerships Fund, the George E. and Nancy O. Moss Professorship in Economics, the Henry G. Lee ’37 Professorship in Poetry, the Peter W. Stanley Chair of Linguistics and Cognitive Science and the Roscoe Moss Professorship in Chemistry.