Articles Written By: emae2021@pomona.edu

How to Become a Circus Performer (and a Doctor)

How to Become a Circus Performer (and a Doctor)

Photo by Beihua Guo (Pitzer ’21)

Thanks to a childhood fascination with circus activities, Jack Gomberg ’18 found himself, at the tender age of 18, at a crossroads, having to choose between two radically different paths in life. Should he seize a rare opportunity with Cirque de Soleil or keep his love of the circus arts as an avocation while pursuing a more traditional education at Pomona? Put yourself in his shoes…

Jack Gomberg ’18

Jack Gomberg ’18
Neuroscience Major

1Grow up in a baseball-centric family in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago—near the Chicago Cubs’ famed ballpark, Wrigley Field—and start playing tee-ball at 3. Discover that you’re “a little above average” as a toddler-athlete, meaning that you can run all the way to first base without falling down.

2In kindergarten, attend a hands-on workshop by the nonprofit social-circus group CircEsteem. After failing miserably at juggling scarves, test your sense of balance on a rolling globe—a hard sphere about four feet in diameter—and do so well that the group invites you to join them for practices.

3Partly because the workshop was so cool and partly to escape the soccer practice you despise, join CircEsteem’s new after-school program and discover an awe-inspiring new world—a cavernous circus ring where kids up to high-school age are performing all sorts of acrobatics on the ground and in the air.

4At first, stay in your comfort zone with your rolling globe. Then slowly branch out to other circus arts, such as trampoline and partner acrobatics. Avoid two things like the plague: juggling and aerial acrobatics. Conquer your dread of juggling at the age of 8, and two years later, overcome your fear of heights on the static trapeze.

5See your first Cirque de Soleil—Corteo—at age 12 and realize that the circus can be truly artistic. Then, when world gym wheel champion Wolfgang Bientzle comes to Chicago to create a Team U.S.A. in the sport, catch his eye and fall in love with the gym wheel under his expert tutelage.

6Win your first national championship in gym wheel at 14 after telling your mom she didn’t need to stay because the competition was “no big deal.” Go to your first World Championships in Arnsberg, Germany, and make friends from around the world while reaching the finals in all three 18-and-under events, including one fourth-place finish.

7Two years later, apply to Cirque du Soleil to spend a week at their training facility in Montreal, Canada, and get invited to serve as a temporary gym wheel coach for the Cirque du Soleil acrobats. Then, when the World Championships come to Chicago, defend your home turf by winning two bronze medals.

8While applying for college, also apply to the École de Cirque in Quebec, a feeder school for Cirque du Soleil. Since you know its three-year program is impossibly exclusive, apply for a gap year in its slightly more accessible one-year program. Get accepted to the three-year program instead. Have to choose between a circus life and Pomona. Choose Pomona.

9Even before arriving on campus, make arrangements to form a club at The Claremont Colleges because you want to build a community of people with an interest in the circus arts. Name the club 5Circus and serve as its president for three years before, in the name of continuity, letting someone else take over during your senior year.

10Major in neuroscience and decide to become a doctor. But since you didn’t take a gap year before college, decide to take one before entering medical school. Win a Fulbright Fellowship to spend the year in Israel, melding your passions for medicine and the circus by studying an innovative para­medical practice known as “medical clowning.”

Bulletin Board

Thank You, Sagehen Community!

As we welcome the incoming Class of 2022 and kick off a new academic year, we would like to thank our worldwide family of alumni, families and friends for making 2017-2018 a vibrant year of support and communion for the Pomona community.

Last October, alumni and friends joined the campus community for the Inaugural Ceremony, including a barbecue and a dance party under the stars, to welcome Pomona’s 10th president, G. Gabrielle Starr. Celebratory gatherings continued on campus throughout the year, as thousands of community members returned home for Rivalry Weekend in November— Sagehens beat the Stags to bring home the Sixth Street trophy—and revitalized editions of Family Weekend in February and Alumni Weekend in the spring.

Around the world, Sagehens traded stories and laughs at nine Winter Break Parties and 16 Summer Welcome Parties for incoming students and their families, and current Pomona scholars shared ideas with lifelong learners at Pomona in the City events in Seattle and Los Angeles. Our growing tradition of community goodwill, the 4/7 Celebration of Sagehen Impact on April 7, featured 10 alumni volunteer service events from Claremont to London and Hong Kong in addition to the now-traditional campus and online celebrations of Sagehens bearing their added riches.

A 4/7 giving challenge to benefit Pomona’s Draper Center for Community Partnerships, the Student Emergency Grant Fund, the Alumni Scholarship Fund, and The Claremont Colleges’ Empower Center yielded $172,000 in support for students from more than 750 generous alumni and friends. And donors to the Annual Fund set a new record with a total of $5,514,075 given, including gifts from more than 5,500 alumni whose contributions increased the College’s giving participation for the first time in more than a decade.

47 loud, proud, resounding chirps to every single Sagehen who stepped up to support our community with your generosity and your presence. Thank you! Let’s make 2018-2019 another year worth chirping about.

The Inauguration of President G. Gabrielle Starr

The Inauguration of
President G. Gabrielle Starr

Alumni Weekend

Alumni Weekend

Sagehens with the Sixth Street trophy on Rivalry Weekend

Sagehens with the Sixth Street
trophy on Rivalry Weekend

Summer Welcome Party in Miami, Fla.

Summer Welcome Party in Miami, Fla.

Summer Welcome Party in Denver, Col.

Summer Welcome Party in Denver, Col.

4/7 alumni volunteer event in Seattle, Wash.

4/7 alumni volunteer event in Seattle, Wash.

Thank You, Alumni Board!

At the Alumni Board’s final meeting of the year on June 9, Matt Thompson ’96 completed his term as Alumni Association President and passed the gavel to incoming president, Diane Ung ’85. Jon Siegel ’84 was elected as president-elect. The following members completed their service: Jordan Pedraza ’09 (Past President), LJ Kwak ’05, Kyle Hill ’09, Professor Lorn Foster (Faculty Representative), Slade Burns ’14 (Admissions Representative) and Maria Vides ’18 (ASPC President). The following new members are joining the Alumni Board: Jill Grigsby (Faculty Representative), Alejandro Guerrero ’19 (ASPC President), Cris Monroy ’14 (Admissions Representative), and at-large members Aaron Davis ’09, Terril Jones ’80, Jim McCallum ’70, Jon Moore ’86, Andrea Ravich ’06, Alex Tran ’09 and Anna Twum ’14.

Summer/Fall Book Selection

Exit WestThis fall, join the Class of 2022 as they start their Pomona journeys by reading Exit West, a book The Los Angeles Times called “…a breathtaking novel by one of the world’s most fascinating young writers.” Named a Top 10 Book of 2017 by The New York Times, Mohsin Hamid’s work follows two lovers displaced by civil unrest in their home country.

Book Club Events

In-person Book Club events for the summer/fall selection began in August in Washington D.C., Seattle and Honolulu, with additional gatherings planned this fall in St. Paul, MN (September 21), Bedford Hills, NY (October 16) and Austin, TX (October, date TBD). Join the Book Club to learn more about events near you and to read along with alumni, professors, students, parents and staff around the world.

Mark Your Calendar

Save the dates for these favorite annual events and update your contact information to hear about more opportunities to come together with the Sagehen community.

  • The Claremont Colleges Worldwide Socials— September 2018 and March 2019
  • Rivalry Weekend—November 9 (dinner) and November 10 (game vs. CMS), 2018
  • Winter Break Parties—January 2019
  • Family Weekend—February 15–17, 2019
  • 4/7 Celebration—April 7, 2019
  • Alumni Weekend—May 2–5, 2019

What’s Next for Women in Math?

Prestigious Fields MedalHidden figures no more. That’s the future that Professor of Mathematics Ami Radunskaya hopes to see soon in the world of mathematics: more women—particularly more women of color—in the field.

“There’s been an increase of awareness about equity in mathematics thanks to the Hidden Figures movie, which came out almost two years ago,” says Radunskaya, who has seen the success of programs like Black Girls Code—part of a growing trend to get middle and elementary school-aged girls interested in math.

The first and last time a woman received the prestigious Fields Medal, the highest honor a mathematician can receive, was in 2014, when Maryam Mirzakhani won the coveted medal, often described as the “Nobel Prize for mathematics,” for her work in the field of geometry.

Although the Fields Medal is awarded to only a handful of mathematicians every four years, Radunskaya is hopeful that more women will be named winners in the near future.

Radunskaya, who is also the president of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), adds that while more young women are majoring in math at the undergraduate level, more needs to be done to see women continue studying math at the graduate level and beyond. “It’s like a leaky pipe,” she says.  “As you go up, the numbers of women faculty at large and prestigious research universities gets smaller and smaller. The gender equity needs to trickle up.”

So what’s needed exactly to see more women win the Fields Medal in the future? Radunskaya says, “It’s really about supporting women of color get into positions where they are visible who can then become role models for the future so that when we walk into a room at a math conference we’re not surprised to see all kinds of people: different genders, different races and different backgrounds.”

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What’s Next?

What’s Next?

What's Next?As a thought experiment, we asked alumni, faculty and staff experts in a wide range of fields to go out on a limb and make some bold predictions about the years to come. Here’s what we learned…

Start reading (What’s Next in Revolutions?)

WHAT’S NEXT FOR:

Alt Rock?

Artificial Intelligence?

Ballroom Dance?

Big Data?

Biodiversity?

California Fruit Farming?

California Water?

Climate Action?

Climate Science?

Cyber-Threats?

Digital Storage?

Earthquake Safety?

Etiquette?

Funerals?

Health Care Apps?

Japan?

Manga?

Maternity Care?

Mental Illness?

Mexico?

Movies?

Nanoscience?

Outdoor Recreation?

Revolutions?

Science Museums?

Social Media?

Solar Energy?

Space Exploration?

Syria?

Technology Investing?

The Blind?

The Sagehen?

The United States?

Thrill Seekers?

Women in Mathematics?

Writers?

What’s Next for Alt Rock?

solar trailerA solar-powered Coachella? That’s a future that alternative rocker Skylar Funk ’10 hopes to see one day. Although there isn’t a solar generator that is big enough to power the Coachella main stage yet—things are moving in that direction, says Funk.

As students in the environmental analysis program, Funk and classmate Merritt Graves ’10 became passionate about environmental issues, and since founding Trapdoor Social together, they have combined their love of music with their sustainability activism. After driving around the country to play shows, Funk became frustrated with all the gas they were burning. So, in 2015, the band acquired a solar trailer that provides them with more than enough power for their concerts. “The real treat is that there is no loud generator which disrupts the whole sonic experience of the festival,” says Funk.

In 2016, Trapdoor Social launched the fully solar-powered Sunstock Solar Festival in Los Angeles, a zero-waste event that also raises money for worthy causes. He adds, “We need a place, we need a positive space to cross-pollinate and to grow our movement and to be a community.”

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What’s Next for Manga?

MangaSales of the Japanese graphic novels and comic books known as manga have been falling inside Japan itself since the mid 1990s—a fact that Carl Horn ’91, manga editor for Dark Horse Comics, attributes to the long decline in the nation’s population—especially at the young end of the spectrum. “Even though Japan has the deserved reputation as a country where adults read comics, the top-selling titles are your Dragon Balls, your Narutos, your One Pieces, your Attack on Titans,” Horn says. “In other words, manga that were made for younger readers.”

That means the future of the manga industry is increasingly outside Japan, Horn says. And for American readers, that offers both pluses and minuses.

On the plus side, manga creators are starting to become more accessible to their foreign readers—appearing slightly more often at conventions and responding on social media. On the minus side, however, Horn worries that their stories may lose some of their Japanese flavor.

“The fans don’t necessarily want to see manga becoming ‘more American,’ whatever that means,” he says, adding that for most manga readers, the cultural differences are an important part of the attraction. “However, what they would like to see, I think, are more personal connections with the creators—that is, Japanese creators getting more involved with their English-language readership.”

One thing he doesn’t think will change is the special attraction manga holds for people who feel like outsiders. “Manga is a medium where people who wouldn’t be cast as heroes in traditional American stories, can be,” he says. “You don’t necessarily have to look the part. People considered oddballs, you know, people who dress weird, people with weird hair—in manga they can still be the heroes of an action epic.”

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What’s Next at the Movies?

film stripShe’s smart. She’s funny. She’s a 20-something-year-old Saudi woman growing up on the Moon. That’s Jazz Bashara, the protagonist of Andy Weir’s newest sci-fi book, Artemis, and a soon-to-be-made feature film by producer Aditya Sood ’97.

“She resembles [The Martian’s] Mark Watney in spirit and intellect but is otherwise a completely fresh hero for the 21st century,” explains Sood, president of Genre Films, the production company behind the hit films The Martian, Deadpool and Deadpool 2.

This newest project for Sood is part of the growing change in Hollywood that Sood is excited to be a part of. “The biggest thing happening in entertainment right now is that there’s more and more options for viewers than ever before—the era of one-size-fits-all is going away,” says Sood. “You’re seeing that manifest itself in an increase of representation, in terms of the stories that are being told, the people telling the stories, and the people representing those characters on screen.”

“The superhero world—movies like Wonder Woman and Black Panther and the upcoming Captain Marvel—the success of those movies is no surprise. The smartest filmmakers and studios are getting ahead of this.”

Sood adds that there’s still a long way to go but audiences will continue to enjoy more diverse films because they continue to demand stories that reflect themselves.

He wants Pomona readers to heed his words: “I want people who read this, whether they’re students or alumni, who haven’t thought before that [the entertainment industry] speaks to them because of their backgrounds, that we need more writers, executives and producers who come from diverse backgrounds who can tell these stories authentically.”

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What’s Next for Writers?

post notesIn films, they’re famously known as continuity errors. But these annoying little bloopers also creep into novels. For example, in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, a griffin first seen tied to a tree later finds itself tied to a fence.

While writing his 900-page tome Sacred Games, novelist Vikram Chandra ’84 found the task of avoiding such errors maddening. Keeping accurate track of his huge cast of characters over the novel’s 60-year span was a constant struggle. “It just feels like doing manual bookkeeping with a goose quill and a double ledger,” he says.

Certain that someone must have designed software to help, he did some research and found to his surprise that no such software existed. So, after finishing his novel, Chandra—who is also a programmer and self-described “geek”—decided to create his own.

“I did a couple of attempts myself,” he says, “and then realized that putting everything into a database or spreadsheet didn’t really solve the problem, because there was no connection to the text. You still had to remember every time you made a change in the text to update your data, and the other way around. So then, my question was, ‘Why not attach knowledge to text? Why can’t we keep the text and information about the text in sync, as it were?’ And that turns out to be a much, much harder problem, for various technical reasons.”

Over the following decade, the seemingly insoluble problem continued to prey on his mind. Then one night, while he was lying in bed, the answer suddenly came to him.

And so, in 2016, he joined forces with an expert programmer, Borislav Iordanov, who took his raw insights and converted them into actual code. Together they founded a company named Granthika—a Sanskrit noun for “narrator.” Their software—also called Granthika—is now patent-pending and in beta testing, and they hope to release a version for fiction writers in early 2019. Future versions may be geared to the needs of other types of writers, from journalists to scientists.

Chandra explains: “The idea is that you’ll write, ‘Jack met Mary at a café,’ and the software, if you want it to, will prompt you, saying, ‘Is Jack a person? Is Mary a person? Is café a location? Does this entire sentence represent an event?’ When you say yes to those questions, you’re creating knowledge, facts that are attached to the text at a very intimate level.”

Since writers may not want to be interrupted while writing, they can also turn that function off and go back to it later, but the final result is the same—a collection of metadata, linked directly to the text itself, to help the writer maintain the illusion of reality.

Recently, as Sacred Games was being transformed into a TV series on Netflix, Chandra wished Granthika had been available when he was writing it. To trace all of the story’s complex, interwoven timelines, the series’ creators had to buy dozens of copies of the book, transfer the info to index cards and arrange them on a wall. With Granthika, he says, “what we’re able to do is have a menu choice that says, ‘Export Ontology,’ and when you hit that, it just takes all the knowledge of the work that you created and puts it in a package so that somebody else could then import it.”

But Chandra’s vision doesn’t end there. Granthika also has him thinking about how the interactive nature of this new software might lead, someday, to the creation of new forms of interactive or multimedia books.

“Since we’re making it so easy to attach metadata to text, our dream is that we’ll be able to make it possible for a writer to say, at the time of writing, ‘When the reader reaches this sentence and goes past it, dissolve into this moving image that will last for three seconds,’ and so, you see a bird walking across the beach, right? So in a sense, what you’re doing is programming a book as much as you’re writing it. And a reader is able to interact with the book—let’s say, adjust reading difficulties, or read the same novel from the point of view of different characters, all that good science-fiction-fantasy stuff we’ve been dreaming about for the last two or three decades.”

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What’s Next in Funerals?

FuneralsFrom Pokémon to the Marie Kondo decluttering craze, Japanese culture quickly crosses the Pacific. Costly funerals for furry friends could be next.

In Japan, mourners attend services for dogs, cats, even hamsters or birds, sitting solemnly during ceremonies officiated by Buddhist priests. Cremated remains are buried in vast pet cemeteries or stored in mausoleums that look like huge stacks of school cubbyholes, filled with flowers or small offerings of food for the afterlife. Granite markers abound, along with signs with words such as “amour,” “never forget,” and “love hurts” in various languages.

“This is big money. Somebody’s spending thousands,” says Pomona College Sociology Professor Jill Grigsby, who has conducted research on family life and animals in Japan while teaching in the Associated Kyoto Program, a joint effort of Pomona and a group of other colleges.

In the past, Japanese pets might have been buried in a yard, Grigsby says. “Now, many fewer people live in single-family homes.” Another factor might be the Japanese reverence for ceremonies.

Demographics may play a role as well. “Part of my explanation is that when you have very low fertility—and right now in the United States we’re experiencing extremely low fertility, and Japan has one of the lowest fertility rates of any country; so does Korea. People still want to create families; so they think of other ways of putting families together, which means friends, but also pets.”

Pet cemeteries exist in the U.S., but not so much formal funerals. Yet the family as it sees itself is sometimes depicted in stick figures on the back of an SUV: Mom, Dad, two kids and sometimes a dog and cat. “Animals really are members of the family,” Grigsby says.

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What’s Next in Outdoor Recreation?

Outdoor RecreationMove over Bear Grylls. Make way Ron Swanson. Take a back seat Naked and Afraid.

Change is coming to the world of outdoor recreation, says Martin Crawford, director of Pomona’s Outdoor Education Center (OEC). There will still be plenty of room for the extreme outdoorsmen like Grylls and the mustachioed hunters like (the fictional Parks and Recreation character) Swanson, but there’s also a growing space being made for women, people of color, queer and trans folk and other groups who in the past, have not felt comfortable or welcomed in the outdoors.

Making the outdoors experience inviting for all Pomona students has been a central part of the OEC’s mission for years now—and Chris Weyant, coordinator at the OEC, says the world of outdoors recreation is finally catching on, at least in higher education. The OEC, which coordinates the Orientation Adventure (OA) experience for all incoming new students and other outdoor education opportunities throughout the year, recruits OA leaders that represent the diversity of the new class, offers a variety of adventures at different levels, and brings in guest speakers from organizations like Latino Outdoors and Outdoor Afro. Last fall, they even added tree climbing (that’s right, tree climbing—not rock climbing) to their Outdoor Leadership class in an effort to draw a wider net of students.

Crawford says it’s important to rethink what the outdoors offers in terms of recreation and that means changing our own perception of how recreational outdoor spaces are used: “If you don’t already feel comfortable in the outdoors, you’re going to think ‘Oh, this is not for me’ and you just keep on driving [away from a state park]. But as we start changing what you do there and how we recreate, it’ll slowly start to change.”

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