Articles Written By: emae2021@pomona.edu

The New Face of Cuba

April 7, 2016 by Roland Leiser ’58 Comments Off

A middle-aged Cuban sat at an outdoor table in an alley across from a Havana restaurant that our group would soon enter. Wearing a red and blue baseball shirt, he smiled faintly, and I thought, “Not another panhandler in this impoverished but on-the-way-up nation.”

As I would soon learn, however, this was no panhandler, but a former athlete, one of a number of Cubans of all ages chosen by tour planners to put a human face on today’s Cuba. Rey Vicente Anglada dined with us that afternoon, and then, through an interpreter, highlighted his career as a player and manager for the Industriales and the Cuban national baseball team.

We were 24 Americans visiting Cuba for 10 days. Although at this writing, individual visits by American tourists remain illegal, the recent thaw in relations with Cuba has opened the door to people-to-people (“P2P”) programs like ours, this one operated by smarTours of New York. For my part, I was here to satisfy my own curiosity about the intertwining histories of our two countries, to find out for myself how this Caribbean communist state worked or didn’t, and to meet the island’s people.

The cultural exchanges turned out to be mostly one-sided, but we talked to countless Cubans in all lines of work—artists, teachers, students, cowboys, musicians, actors, guides, fishermen, restaurant owners and one former baseball player.

The first person we met, and in many ways the most interesting, was our 43-year old national guide, Enedis Tamayo Traba. Accompanying us throughout the tour, she put her own spin on both Cuba’s achievements and its failures. A married mother of two, she modestly declared at the outset: “Welcome to my humble country. It is not perfect.” Another time, she noted: “Under Batista, we were mostly poor. Fidel gave us food, housing and health care, which is why we love him.” And in what might have been a popular joke during the Soviet-influenced era, she offered this explanation for the fact that few Cubans are overweight: “The elevators don’t work.”

The tour put us up in a series of luxury properties in Havana (the Melia Cohiba) and Guardalavaca (Playa Pesquaro) near Holguin and at modest but comfortable hotels in Cienfuegos and Camaguey. However, as we toured, there were frequent reminders of the nation’s poverty. Once, Enedis took us to visit a cheerless government store where a farmer had lined up with his rationing book to claim his meager allowance of rice.

However, we also caught frequent glimpses of burgeoning free enterprise—rooms for rent in private dwellings, roadside fruit stands and elderly vendors hawking tiny roasted peanuts to supplement their incomes. In Camaguey, two budding entrepreneurs set up a makeshift display to sell shoes, and puppeteers put on a professional show in a makeshift theatre where seating consisted of about 20 folding chairs.

And then, there are the paladares—homes converted into surprisingly good restaurants. In a country that rations rice, cooking oil, milk and other staples, tourists dine in these privately owned restaurants on shrimp, lobster, crab and fish. At the retro art-decorated La California in Havana, a family-style dinner included pumpkin soup, rolls, black beans and rice, lobster tails, red snapper with vegetables and ropa vieja, a classic dish of shredded beef and spices.

On our final day in Havana, we entered the Partagas Cigar Factory, divided between experienced workers and trainees in hot, humid rooms. Our factory guide, Augustin, related how tobacco leaves are selected for different cigars. By Cuban standards, rolling cigars is a relatively well-paid job, and one that is eagerly sought. Two Romeo and Juliet cigars packed in metal tubes, a gift for a friend, cost me $6.95 each, about 20 percent of the average Cuban’s monthly wage.

Wherever we went in Cuba, we found the artistic muse alive and well. We visited five galleries of different creative pursuits, including the manic display of ceramic art of Jose Fuster in Havana and the feminist art at the Martha Jimenez Gallery in Camaguey.

Musicians entertained us endlessly at concerts and restaurants. At dinner one night in Camaguey, a young man played a trumpet as a woman danced to Latin music near our tables. The musician used a mute to soften the sound against a background of recorded music on a CD, and his partner made her hip-moves while waitresses dodged around her to serve the meal. After one tune, I asked him if he had just played a John Coltrane piece, “Straight, No Chaser.” He quickly answered, “Night in Tunisia … Dizzy Gillespie.”

And of course, any account of a visit to Cuba would be incomplete without some mention of those amazing vintage American cars, visible on postcards, placemats and paintings as well as in the streets. Without them, Cuba simply wouldn’t be Cuba. At different times, drivers chauffeured members of our group in a 1940 Chevrolet sedan and a 1958 Edsel convertible, both impeccably maintained in spite of the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of the U.S. embargo. A 1954 Studebaker parked at a roadside gasoline station could undoubtedly win top prize in a restored vehicle competition in the States.

This tour didn’t come cheap, but we met Cubans and toured their country in ways that I couldn’t have done on my own—even if it were legal.

For those interested in taking part in a people-to-people visit to Cuba, it’s important to keep in mind that (in the words of a customer service representative at smarTours) “it’s not like going to the Jersey shore for a weekend.”

The required paperwork is extensive, including a registration form and a copy of your passport page for the tour company, a Treasury Department travel affidavit confirming that you’re participating in a people-to-people visit; a reservation form for Cuba Travel Services; a visa application; and a variety of health forms.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind:

Credit cards aren’t accepted and ATMs aren’t available, so be sure to bring extra cash for emergencies.
Cuba charges a 13% fee to exchange American dollars into Cuban convertible pesos (known as CUCs) but no fee to exchange Canadian dollars or Euros into the national currency, so you can save money by converting your travel money into Canadian bills before you leave
Photography is prohibited at Cuban airports and military facilities.
The Treasury Department mandates that P2P tourists keep a daily travel journal and keep it for five years, in order to prove that the trip was legal.

The Natural

April 7, 2016 by Sneha Abraham Comments Off

Joyce Nimocks ’15 has fond memories of her grandmother teaching her to make body butter out of olive oil and using natural, homemade concoctions on her granddaughter’s curly hair.

Nimocks’ grandmother was both creative and resourceful. Store-bought hair products were usually made for women who wore their hair straight. Mainstream cosmetics made Nimocks’ skin break out. And money was tight.

After graduating from Pomona last May with a $12,000 Napier Initiative grant in hand, Nimocks returned to her hometown of Chicago to conduct free summer workshops for low-income women of color to inform them of the ingredients in commercial cosmetics and teach them how to make their own products with natural, non-toxic ingredients.

An environmental analysis major, Nimocks wrote her thesis on the health implications of hair relaxers. Exploring the issue in depth through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program, as well as her study-abroad in Brazil, she found an extensive study showing an association between African American women who frequently used hair relaxers and the presence of uterine fibroids.

She cites research indicating that hair relaxers seep through the epidermis, making it easier for estrogen-mimicking hormones to enter the bloodstream. In addition to inducing fibroids and uterine cysts, they have been implicated in causing premature puberty in girls as young as six months old.

“What I found is that this isn’t just a public health issue; this is also a social justice issue, in my opinion, because these products are only being marketed toward women of color,” says Nimocks.

The injustice continues because all-natural products are prohibitively expensive for low-income women, she says. “You can get a bottle of a non-natural brand of lotion—32 ounces for four dollars at Walmart. You get a small 12-16 ounces of a natural brand, and it costs you seven to eight dollars,” says Nimocks.

In her workshops, she focused on teaching women how to make lipsticks on stovetops with beeswax, shea butter and crayons; body butters using a cake mixer, with aloe vera gel, cocoa butter and, of course, olive oil; and natural perfumes with witch hazel and essential oils. One of Nimocks’ favorite homemade products is her deodorant, a blend of coconut oil and baking soda, infused with lavender, orange and tea tree oils.

Nimocks herself is a powerhouse blend, according to Professor of Environmental Analysis Char Miller. “She has a compelling ability to weave together her academic interests with her activism, her professional and civic engagement,” says Miller.

Nimocks hopes to someday open a center where low-income women can come and make their own cosmetics for free, funded by workshops she’d conduct for a fee in middle-to-high-income communities.

Thanks to a six-week Social Entrepreneurship class taught through the Draper Center for Community Partnerships, Nimocks has written a business proposal to start a nonprofit. She says her summer research and classes like these have given her the confidence required to believe she can bring big ideas to life.

“It’s about beauty,” she explains. “It’s about relaxation. It’s about self-care and self-love. I can really see my organization being a place where women feel comfortable going to and even talking about community issues. I can see it being a really integral part of communities and also partnering with other community organizations, like libraries or YMCAs in Chicago.”

But before she launches into that project, she has more research to do. Funded by a prestigious $30,000 Watson Fellowship, Nimocks is currently on a tour of Ghana, Japan and South Africa to work with artisans, farmers and other groups and learn about the ways they use local ingredients to produce sustainable, handmade cosmetics.

Nimocks recalls conversations with her grandmother while making their beauty products in the kitchen. Years later, recreating relationships around all-natural cosmetics is a tribute to her heritage. “My grandmother would be really happy,” she says.

Jumping the Shark

April 7, 2016 by Adam Conner-Simons ’08 Comments Off

Justin Fenchel with a BeatBox cocktail box

Photo by Michael Larsen ’89 and Tracy Talbert

How do you look a man in the eye and ask him for a million dollars on national television?

“You have to just go for it and not think about it,” Justin Fenchel ’06 says. “As soon as anyone in the room senses weakness, you’re doomed.”

It was June of 2014, and Fenchel was talking shop with Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and one of the judges on the ABC reality show “Shark Tank.” Cuban had just bid $600,000 to buy a third of Fenchel’s company, and eight million TV viewers were waiting for an answer.

Running the numbers in his head, the Pomona economics major was hesitant to say yes. His team had agreed beforehand that they wouldn’t give up more than 20 percent of the business unless they received a particularly hefty bid.

The room was suddenly eerily quiet. The show’s dramatic background music wouldn’t be added for several more months, and the bright studio lights were making Fenchel feel like he was about to black out. (Looking at the transcript afterwards, he says, “I don’t remember half of the comments I appear to have made.”)

One thing he did recall saying, though, was his reply to Cuban: “Would you do a million?”

Cuban paused a beat.

“Sure.”

With those four letters, Fenchel’s life changed in a very big way.

BeatBox Beverages, his line of wine-based cocktails that come in blindingly bright 5-liter boxes, had just been valued at three million dollars, and was about to experience the unique joy that is “the Shark Tank effect.”

After not being stocked in a single store 18 months earlier, BeatBox soon expanded to nearly 900 locations in 13 states, all while grabbing celebrity endorsements and positioning itself to take on the biggest players in the wine world.

Reflecting on BeatBox’s rapid rise, Fenchel shakes his head and grins sheepishly.

“To think,” he says. “It all basically started with a game of ‘slap-the-bag.’”

Boxed-Wine Beginnings

Like Facebook and Napster before it, the origin story for BeatBox quite literally begins in a dorm room.

One of Fenchel’s fondest Pomona memories was living in the North Campus trailers and hosting “boxed-wine Tuesdays,” where his roommates would buy a case of Franzia wine and invite friends over to watch movies. His Pomona years coincided nicely with the rise of “slap-the-bag,” a drinking tradition that involves removing a bag of wine from its box, slapping the side of the bag, and taking a swig right from the nozzle.

Fenchel enjoyed the communal nature of “slap-the-bag,” and found Franzia convenient, affordable—and completely boring.

“The only reason I bought it was because there wasn’t a more appealing option,” he says. “It made me wonder if I could take the idea of a boxed wine, and recreate it so people my age would actually be excited to bring it to a party.”

After college he and his childhood friend Brad Schultz collaborated on a few iPhone apps, while still kicking around drink ideas.

In 2011 they dreamt up “Wine-ergy,” a caffeinated beverage coming in flavors like “Call-A-Cab” and “ZinFUNdel”; they promptly nixed the concept after the caffeine-infused Four Loko courted controversy on college campuses. A few months later they mulled over a vodka-based drink, before learning that regulations on spirits would limit their “party in a box” to a decidedly un-party-like 12 servings.

What finally kick-started BeatBox was, of all things, a glass of OJ. Specifically, Fenchel stumbled across a special wine made of oranges that drinks more like a spirit and pairs deliciously with fruit juice. By 2012 he had built a team of co-founders and developed flavors that were directly inspired by his days making Crystal Light and vodka mixers at Pomona.

On a bootstrap budget, Fenchel’s team crowd-sourced a logo and package design. To focus-group their product, they would plaster BeatBox stickers onto cardboard boxes, put test batches into empty wine-bags (“Thanks, Franzia!”), and walk around local events giving out free samples.

“We’d go to festivals and ask for brutally honest feedback on which flavors tasted best,” Fenchel recalls. “We knew we were onto something when people were literally throwing 20 dollar bills at us and asking where they could buy it.”

BeatBox’s first production run was just in time for the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in March of 2013. Slowly but steadily, the company grew—from 20 cases a month, to 50, to 100, with Fenchel and his three colleagues still packaging and pressing every box.

“By 2014 we had increased our distribution 800 percent, but realized that we were still spending all our time in the warehouse and none of it expanding,” he says. “We needed money.”

Getting in the Tank

Justin Fenchel and his Beatbox partners on the stage on SharkTank

Justin Fenchel ’06 and his Beatbox partners on ABC’s SharkTank

Customers had been constantly telling Fenchel that his company seemed ripe for “Shark Tank.” When producers announced an open casting call at SXSW 2014, he stood in line for two hours to give his 30-second pitch. Three months later, BeatBox was one of 108 teams to be selected for the show, out of 70,000 annual submissions. (“You’d have a better chance getting into Harvard, or even Pomona,” Fenchel says.)

The team feverishly prepared in the ensuing weeks, painstakingly researching the show’s five judges and enlisting business faculty from the University of Texas to serve as “mock sharks.” They learned about the sharks’ every move—what they invested in, what they looked for in companies, and even what they ate for breakfast each morning.

“We acted like it was the biggest job interview of our life,” Fenchel says. “Which it was.”

The work paid off: in the months after BeatBox’s episode aired in October 2014, sales doubled and the team expanded from 150 stores to nearly 900. In 2015 they hit a million dollars in sales and rung up endorsements from the likes of electronic musician Skrillex and rapper Waka Flocka Flame, who enthusiastically describes the Blue Razzberry flavor as his “Turnt Up Juice.”

“Shark Tank” also impacted BeatBox in more intangible ways. “It certainly helps when your email to Walmart’s Texas distribution team includes a CC to the most powerful businessman in the state,” says Fenchel, who connects with Cuban at least once a week via email or text. “People who wouldn’t return our calls before were taking meetings with us now.”

As Fenchel zips around the country hobnobbing with potential distributors and investors, one of the most common questions he gets is a simple one: why boxed wine?

As any casual oenophile knows, boxed wine has what Fenchel generously describes as a “perception problem.” The practice of putting wine in boxes first emerged in Australia in the mid-60s, and the cheapness of the approach made it attractive to low-end jug-wine sellers in America.

While companies targeting upscale customers may view the box as a barrier, BeatBox treats it as a key differentiator and marketing tool for millennials who are more interested in having fun than seeming sophisticated.

The box also helps the bottom line, since boxed wine is cheaper to produce, longer-lasting, more convenient and more environmentally-friendly than traditional methods. BeatBox’s sales last year translated to a savings of 530,000 wine bottles that weren’t being produced or trashed.

Justin Fenchel and his partners meeting at a table with Mark Cuban

Justin Fenchel ’06 and his
partners meet with investor
Mark Cuban.

Moving forward, Fenchel’s five-year plan is simple: “More stores, lower costs.” He’s hoping to get big-chain authorizations from the likes of Publix and Kroger, and hopes to soon stock single-serving sizes so that they can sell it at bars and convenience stores.

He also has built a network of more than 250 “brand ambassadors” who organize promotional events and happy hours around the country. It’s all part of his loftier goal to grow BeatBox into a global company on par with Red Bull, with sponsored concerts and sports competitions.

“If anyone can turn BeatBox into a lifestyle brand, it’s the guy who’s embodying that lifestyle,” says Schultz. “The fun-loving, outgoing, celebratory spirit of BeatBox—that’s more or less a direct reflection of Justin and who he is as a person.”

The Purloined Safe

April 7, 2016 by Staff Comments Off

Safe

It sits like an abandoned tank in a basement hallway of Sumner Hall, just outside the entrance to the College Archives—an antique steel safe on rusty wheels, its surface scarred by decades of scratches and random drips of paint. On the front, below the combination lock and an oddly pastoral painted tableau, are the words “From John H.F. Peck Safe Dealer, Los Angeles.”

The only references to the John H.F. Peck company that turn up in a web search are from the 1890s, so it’s a safe bet (so to speak) that the object is as old as it looks. But how did it come to be here? And what’s inside?

The only known mention of a safe in the early histories of Pomona College is from Frank Brackett’s Granite and Sagebrush, in which the founding faculty member tells the story of a safe kept in the Office of the Dean in old Holmes Hall. One day in the spring of 1911, as he tells it, while most of the campus community was away at a picnic in San Antonio Canyon, the safe “simply vanished without leaving a trace.” No one had a clue what had happened until, a few weeks later, a professor noticed a squeak in the floor. Kneeling to investigate, he found that the linoleum had been cut. Pulling back the loose piece, along with the floorboards, which had also been cut, and scraping back the dirt, he discovered the lost safe, which, like Poe’s purloined letter, had been there all along, buried beneath the floor.

So is this the purloined safe that was once buried by pranksters beneath the floor of Holmes Hall? It certainly seems old enough, and it seems unlikely that the College, in its early, penny-pinching days, would have had more than one of these. It also makes sense that the Dean’s safe would have been moved to Sumner Hall when Sumner was relocated in the early 1920s and began to house the College’s administrative functions.

But we’ll probably never know for sure. And since the combination is lost in time, the safe’s contents, if any, are likely to remain a mystery as well.

ITEM: Antique safe
DATE: Late 1800s or early 1900s
DESCRIPTION: Steel combination safe, 41.25” H x 27.75” W x 28.25” D
ORIGIN: John H.F. Peck Safe Dealer, Los Angeles

If you have an item from Pomona’s history that you would like to see preserved in the Pomona College Archives, please call 909-621-8138.

Letterbox

April 7, 2016 by PCM Readers Comments Off

What If?

I have long admired your evident editorial hand displayed in the Pomona College Magazine, but the Fall 2015 “What If?” issue deserves special salutations. Others may have come up with the “What If?” idea, but you saw the power in it, which led to a marvelous and stimulating and coherent set of articles of intrinsic value, but which also reflect well on Pomona College as an institution of liberating education. Thank you for your continuing skilled efforts.

—Lee Cameron McDonald ’48
Emeritus Professor of Politics
Pomona, Calif.

A Breathing Institution

I received the email for the survey on improving Pomona College Magazine. I wanted to commend you on looking to improve what I believe is an already fine publication. PCM holds a special place in my heart because my exposure to it was the spark that sent me to Pomona.

My senior year of high school, I was doing the usual contacting of universities for their information packet and application. I received Pomona College Magazine in my request for information from Pomona. Rather than another vanilla college brochure intent on marketing to me why I should come to their school (“Small class sizes! Award-winning faculty! Here’s a picture of an ethnically diverse circle of students sitting on a grassy quad!”), PCM was something else altogether. PCM was a beautiful snapshot of a breathing institution, populated by what appeared to be really fascinating, really smart people. Back then my family had a good bunch of magazines coming into our home: Time, Discover, National Geographic, etc. In PCM, I saw a glossy, high-quality magazine that was on the same level as those national publications, both in the writing and in the gorgeous photography. PCM seemed to be making an unspoken promise to me: if I could make it into this college, I could be just as amazing as these people that were being profiled. A campus visit only confirmed what I saw, and I was hooked. At that point, every other college application would just be for safety schools. (Okay, that’s a little lie… If Stanford had accepted me, it would have been hard not to go!)

That issue of PCM that I received was probably Fall 1989. In all the intervening years, PCM has maintained the wonderful writing (I’m still a sucker for the alumni and faculty profiles) and the gorgeous photography. I wanted to thank you for your work at the magazine, in continuing the stewardship of what, for me, was a life-changing publication.

Needless to say, I’ve completed the survey. I hope the survey’s results will help you continue to steer the magazine toward fascinating waters.

—Andy Law ’94
San Diego, Calif.

Freedom of Speech

It was disappointing to read President Oxtoby’s email to the Pomona College community about the recent protests on college campuses around the nation without mention of a commitment to protect freedom of speech at Pomona. There is a dark side to the national protests seen in the ludicrous attempts to police Halloween costumes and more broadly, to silence and punish speech deemed “offensive.” Instead, President Oxtoby’s emphasis on “pain,” “sorrow,” and “institution-alized racism,” romanticizes and fetishizes victimhood. President Oxtoby should not be encouraging young men and women to see themselves as victims of oppression, but instead as adults with agency who have made a choice to attend a terrific, albeit imperfect, liberal arts college where they have consented to listen to competing, different, and sometimes offensive ideas in order to broaden their own minds and grow into tough-minded future leaders of their communities. I hope the students and the greater Pomona College community will continue to flirt with dangerous and offensive notions, to talk, argue, read and listen, in order to develop convictions born of experiences, mistakes and failures, instead of trying to create a protective cocoon from which all pain and sorrow can be avoided.

—Gregory Johnson ’00
Los Angeles, Calif.

In view of what happened at CMC I realize that David Oxtoby must tread warily in this minefield but I am appalled by what is taking place in Anglo-American universities. In England’s Warwick University, sophomore George Lawlor questioned ‘consent workshops’ arguing the vast majority of men ‘don’t have to be taught to not be rapists.’

I would have thought this was stating the obvious but in the atmosphere of politically-correct intolerance poisoning our universities he was denounced by radical feminists. The workshop was part of an attempt to create yet more “safe spaces” but it is clear there are to be no safe spaces for “unbelievers,” and feminists demand he be expelled.

He is in good company as Warwick has already banned human-rights campaigner Maryam Namazie over fears she might criticise Islam’s treatment of women. Universities should be the crucible of free expression and the interplay of ideas instead of the promoters of enforced conformism through the politics of grievance and resentment.

—Rev. Dr. John Cameron ’64
St. Andrews, Scotland

Tu Wit Ta Wu

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Doug Leedy ’59, who was Pomona College’s most prodigious and talented composer and musician. I was a first soprano in the Women’s Glee Club 1957-1961. He left us a lovely madrigal which he taught to the Women’s Glee Club:

“Tu Wit Ta Wu”
Lambs skip and play.
The shepherds pipe all day.
Birds sing this merry tune.
Ta Ee, Tu Oo,
Tu Wit, Ta Wu

—Katherine Holton Jones ’61
Alpine, Calif.

Stray Thoughts: Dinner With the Deathies

April 7, 2016 by Mark Wood Comments Off

Floral-skull pattern When I was in my early 20s, I briefly dated a young woman who, as I soon discovered, had already planned out her entire funeral. She had it all down on paper—from music to flowers to who would speak when—with corrections and notes in the margins. I suppose that funeral fetish might have had something to do with the fact that we only dated briefly. After all, in our society, thinking too much about death is considered morbid and strange.

Forty years have gone by since then. Thinking about death no longer feels strange—more like inevitable. Recently, a friend about my age said it about as well as it can be said: “The scary thing is to realize that I can no longer die an untimely death.”

So when Peggy Arnold ’65 invited me to Colorado to meet her group of end-of-life activists—whom she refers to as “the Deathies”—and to dip my toe into the the end-of-life revolution, I took it not only as a professional opportunity, but also as a personal challenge. The tangible result is the story titled “Before I Die” on page 44 of this issue. The intangible results are still percolating inside my head.

In retrospect, it was probably a good time for me to bring this part of my inner life out into the open and give it the thought it deserves. Five years ago, for an issue titled “Birth and Death,” I wrote a column that pulled together all my most memorable little moments of epiphany concerning those two great mysteries of life. But what used to come in tiny aha moments—some beautiful, some terrifying—now seems a permanent part of my thought process. I’ve become so acutely aware of endings that I almost dread going on vacation because I can already feel the wistfulness that comes with knowing that it’s over.

But sitting around the dinner table with the Deathies, I found their enthusiasm surprisingly contagious—these are people for whom death is truly an integral part of life. Around that table, thinking and talking about death isn’t morbid—in fact, it’s strangely liberating.

Of course, there are practical reasons for thinking about death, and the Deathies are focused mainly on those. There are decisions to be made while there’s still time to make them. There are preparations to be made to prevent loved ones from having to make them in times of extremis. There are situations ahead that we can’t foresee but that we hope to be able to control when the time comes.

But I’ve found that there are also hidden benefits, and one of them is a growing sense of acceptance. Don’t get me wrong—I trust that I still have miles to go before I sleep. But partly thanks to the Deathies, I’ve overcome some of my fear of the subject. My wife and I are making plans. And if tomorrow, a doctor reads my imminent fate in an x-ray or a blood test, I feel a little more confident that I’ll be able to swallow the news and get on with my life.

Man of the World

April 7, 2016 by Anthony Bald '17 Comments Off

Portrait of Adan Amaya

Adan Amaya knows that to travel the world, you don’t necessarily have to go very far. Known for his outgoing personality, Amaya enjoys meeting students, faculty and staff in his daily rounds with Pomona’s mail services team. And when he’s not delivering the mail, he’s at Oldenborg Dining Hall using his passion for language to travel the world himself.

Born in El Salvador, Amaya moved to San Bernardino 35 years ago. His 20-plus years of experience as cook made it easy to find a position with Scripps dining services in 2007, but he was soon ready for a change. He is now in his eighth year at Pomona, where he exercises his love of language every day at Oldenborg.

“Rita Bashaw [Director, Oldenborg Center] approached me one day and invited me. I really was kind of shy because I don’t have experience being around students, but I said ‘I’ll be there.’ I started going, and after that I liked it. I’m always there, every day.”

Amaya speaks four languages—his native Spanish, English, Greek and Italian—with more to come. On Wednesdays, he’s at the beginner Italian table, while on Thursdays, he goes Greek. He spends the rest of his lunches at the Spanish table, helping beginner and intermediate students with their conversation skills.

“I’m committing myself because I love it; it’s my passion to be there with the students because the students really want to learn Spanish, so I can give them a little motivation to practice and have conversations.”

Even before arriving at Pomona, Amaya was exploring his capacity for languages. His first goal upon coming to the United States from El Salvador was to learn English, but then his language learning took a turn. His cooking experience brought him into work with a Greek family as cook, manager, and eventually supervisor in their southern California restaurants. To advance in the business, he says, it became necessary to learn Greek. Between two trips to Greece (once in 1998 and again in 2000) and 10 years of studying, Amaya has mastered the language.

When he left the restaurant business, he didn’t stop there. “I do speak Italian too, but Italian is easier than Greek,” he says. “Italian is very easy because once you master Spanish, you can go ahead and do Italian.” What’s next for Amaya? French, he reveals, and a little farther down the road, Portuguese. “I always have a little space for learning something,” he adds.

When Adan isn’t traveling the world through language, he’s probably, well, traveling. He makes the trip back home to El Salvador twice a year; he has even brought Pomona students along with him, including a Chinese student he met during his Oldenborg lunches.

“He showed up to the Spanish table with his little Spanish,” recalls Amaya. “I said, Bob, do you really want to master Spanish? In order to do that, you have to put some passion into it. I’ve been seeing his improvement over two years, and he took the courage to go with my family back to El Salvador. That’s one of my greatest experiences.”

From his trips to Greece to his travels around Central and South America, Amaya is no stranger to exploration. His next destination: Roatan Island, Honduras. For someone who naturally likes to wander, he was surprised to discover he feels right at home with Pomona’s mail services team.

“I never thought that I would stay for very long. But since I’ve stayed at Pomona and seen how the environment is related to the work, and how you move around with people, I’ve liked it. I’m going to hang out here at Pomona for a long time.”

Celebrating Campaign Pomona

April 7, 2016 by Staff Comments Off

“Five years ago, the Pomona College community set out on a daring quest to make an extraordinary liberal arts education even better—more equitable, more experiential, more sustainable and better suited to the needs of the 21st century,” President David Oxtoby told the crowd of campaign donors, trustees, faculty, staff and students who gathered on Feb. 27 to celebrate the successful conclusion of Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds. “I am proud to report that together, we have done all of that and more.” The campaign closed Dec. 31, 2015, after eclipsing its $250 million goal with a total of $316 million raised.

—Photos by Jeanine Hill

Edmunds Ballroom decorated for the campaign celebration dinner

Welcoming decorations in the Smith Campus Center hallwa

President David Oxtoby offers a toast

Board Chair and master of ceremonies Sam Glick ’04 and Emily Glick ’04

Campaign Chair Stewart Smith ’68, P’00, P’09, addresses the crowd

A special “Daring Mind” cocktail

Dessert with Campaign Pomona chocolate decoration

Campaign Co-chair Libby Gates Armintrout ’86 makes a point

Trustees Allyson Harris ’89 and Jack Long P’13, P’15, chat with student Jaureese Gaines ’16

Student speakers Ashley Land ’16 and Nico Kass ’16

The crowd watches a special video

Members of the Pomona College Glee Club entertain the assemblage

Bulletin Board

April 7, 2016 by Staff Comments Off

Looking for your chance to come face to face with fellow Sagehens?

This Bulletin Board is a great place to learn about alumni community events on campus, in your area and around the globe. For more frequent updates on opportunities to come together with fellow Sagehens, join the Pomona Alumni Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/Sagehens, check listings of upcoming events at pomona.edu/alumnievents and update your email address at pomona.edu/alumniupdate.

Pomona in a City Near You…

Pomona in the City Southern California

The fall 2015 edition of a popular new Sagehen tradition, Pomona in the City Southern California, took place on Sunday, November 8 in Dana Point, California. 135 alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends flocked to the St. Regis Monarch Beach to reconnect with the College community and attend a series of learning sessions, kicked off with a welcome from President David Oxtoby and a keynote address by Professor Char Miller. The afternoon of learning concluded with an outdoor cocktail reception on the Pacific Ballroom Promenade. To date, Pomona in the City—a conference-style program that takes the academic offerings of the College to major cities to share the classroom experience with the Pomona community—has been held in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., and Southern California. Pomona in the City speakers have included David Oxtoby, Pierre Englebert, George Gorse, Lesley Irvine, Susan McWilliams, Char Miller, John Seery, Shahriar Shahriari, Nicole Weekes, Ken Wolf and Sam Yamashita.

Pomona in the City: San Francisco

The most recent Pomona in the City program was scheduled for Saturday, April 9, 2016, at the Hotel Nikko San Francisco. Watch for details of future editions of this popular program in your mailbox and at pomona.edu/alumnievents.

Honor a Daring Mind Wrap-Up
Two Daring Minds honorees Daring Mind honoree Cecil and a Daring Mind participant Note from Professor Andresen

What makes a meaningful finale for a years-long, record-breaking campaign? A celebration of the people at its heart, of course! Members of the Pomona community showed up in droves for the Honor a Daring Mind celebration, which kicked off in November and gained momentum through December as Sagehens around the world caught word. More than 1,100 students, alumni, parents and friends answered the call to honor their favorite Pomona person, recognizing 678 inspirational professors, coaches, classmates, mentors and friends. Gifts given in honor of Daring Minds during the celebration, totaling $447,064, were matched by the Daring Minds Fund, fulfilling a $1 million matching grant to support Pomona education. Thank you, Pomona community, for recognizing the people at the heart of this effort and closing the Campaign with a ringing “Chirp!” To see the full list of honorees, please visit pomona.edu/hdm before June 30.

Quest Student/Alumni Engagement Reception at Alumni Weekend 2016

Happy Anniversary, Quest alumni! This year, Pomona celebrates 10 years of partnership with QuestBridge, a program with a mission to match high-achieving, low-income students with top-tier colleges and to support them from high school through college to their first job. Since 2006, Pomona has enrolled 325 students through the program.

Students, alumni and friends of the Quest program are invited to a special Quest Student/Alumni Engagement Reception on the Pomona campus on Friday, April 29 to celebrate as part of the Alumni Weekend 2016 festivities. 47 chirps to our Quest alums!

To see the growing list of events and receptions planned for Pomona College cohorts, campus organizations, academic departments, visit pomona.edu/alumniweekend. Make your plans soon to come back to Claremont for the biggest Sagehen party of the year!

Winter Break Parties

More than 800 Sagehen alumni, parents, current students (and early decision admittees of the Class of 2020!) gathered in 10 major cities this January for Pomona’s annual Winter Break Parties. Held during the first two weeks of January, Winter Break Parties are one of the best ways for Sagehens of all ages to connect with the Pomona community in their own city. For more information on Winter Break Parties and other events in your area, visit pomona.edu/alumnievents and join us in the Pomona College Alumni Facebook Group.

It’s Lonely at the Top

December 2, 2015 by Staff Comments Off

Number 1

There’s no modest way to say it. According to Forbes magazine, Pomona College is now #1 among all colleges and universities in the country.

Really.

When Forbes released its “America’s Top Colleges 2015” issue earlier this year, to the surprise of many across the country and the delight of Sagehens everywhere, Pomona topped a distinguished list that went on to include #2 Williams, #3 Stanford, #4 Princeton, #5 Yale and a lot of other amazing institutions. (Harvard is in there somewhere.)

Forbes explains that their rankings differ from other college rankings, in part, due to their emphasis on outcomes, including amounts of student debt, graduation rates and measures of student satisfaction and career success.

“While the cost of U.S. higher education escalates, there’s a genuine silver lining in play,” explains Forbes. “A growing number of colleges and universities are now focusing on student-consumer value over marketing prestige, making this a new age of return-on-investment education.”

Of course, we all know ratings are overrated. Then again, what’s wrong with a few hard-earned bragging points?

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