Alumni

Buckley completes term as Chair of Pomona College Board

August 3, 2015 by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off

Outgoing Board Chair Jeanne Buckley ’65 with President David Oxtoby

OUTGOING CHAIR OF the Pomona College Board of Trustees Jeanne Martin Buckley ’65 received the Pomona College’s Alumni Distinguished Service Award at an Alumni Weekend program in Little Bridges on May 2, in honor of her many years of service to the College. Buckley, who completed her three-year term as board chair in June, has been a member of the board since 1999 and is the first woman and the first person of color to lead the board since the College’s founding in 1887.

“I have really appreciated the opportunity to work closely with Jeanne Buckley during her term as board chair over the last three years,” President David Oxtoby said. “She has provided steady and thoughtful leadership during a period of considerable change for Pomona College. I have been able to turn to her for helpful advice on many occasions.”

As an undergrad at Pomona in the early 1960s, Buckley took a range of leadership roles, participating in student government, choir and glee club, and helping to put on a jazz festival. For much of the time, she was the only Black woman attending Pomona, but she had been in the same situation in high school in Pelham, N.Y. “It was not a shock in a cultural sense,” she said in an interview a few years ago. “I could navigate it.”
After Pomona, she found her way into social work and was involved in the early days of Head Start. She also trained as an actress, landing a seven-episode stint on the popular primetime soap opera Peyton Place. In the end, a decade after graduating from Pomona, she decided to continue her education in law school, earning her J.D. from Empire College School of Law in 1979.

During a distinguished legal career, Buckley has specialized mainly in juvenile and family law and then served as a Sonoma County Superior Court Commissioner for more than a decade. In 1995, she was honored as Juvenile Court Judge of the Year by the California Judges Association and Woman of the Year by the Sonoma County Bar Association’s Women in Law group. Since 2003, she has been a professional panel member for Resolution Remedies, a firm specializing in mediation, arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. In 2004, she was recognized with the Bar Association’s Career of Distinction Award.
Prior to assuming the role of board chair, Buckley chaired both the Student Affairs Committee and the Academic Affairs Committee for four years and served on a number of other committees including the Executive Committee, Facilities and Environment Committee, Strategic Planning and Trusteeship.

Prince of LEGOs

August 3, 2015 by Mark Wood Comments Off

ON THE MORNING of July 10, Colin Walle ’91 needed only 1,997 more votes to see his dream come true—or at least, to take a very big step in that direction.

No, he wasn’t running for office. This was something more personal. His prize creation—based on a happy confluence of a children’s toy that he had never given up and a favorite book about never losing your inner child—was hanging in the balance.

Based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince, Walle’s proposed Little Prince LEGO project had accumulated 8,003 votes on the LEGO Ideas website. He now had 78 days left to hit 10,000. Reaching that threshold by the Sept. 27 deadline would mean that his pet project would move from a LEGO-lover’s fantasy to actual consideration for development and marketing as an official LEGO set.

Walle says he doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t play with LEGOs. “We had LEGO sets when I was a kid that predated my birth,” he recalls. But unlike most adults, Walle never put away his favorite toy. As a self-described “LEGO enthusiast,” he visits lots of aficionado websites, and one day he happened across one called LEGO CUUSOO, based on a Japanese word for “fantasy.” The site would later morph into LEGO Ideas.

“Basically, they have these different projects that anybody can submit,” he explains, “and then if they get enough votes, the LEGO Corporation will put them into a review stage and then consider making a real set based on your proposal.”

At the time, Walle happened to be reading The Little Prince to his son for the second time. He had first read the book in high school, but it was at Pomona that he really fell in love with Saint-Exupéry’s gentle fable. He even quoted some of the book’s most famous lines in his senior yearbook. (“‘Goodbye,’ said the fox. ‘And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’”)

So maybe it was inevitable that two of Walle’s fascinations would come together in a brainstorm. “The book was sitting on the banister upstairs, and I had this little LEGO Death Star sitting in close proximity to that,” he explains, “and it was sort of a eureka moment. ‘Wait a minute—this is a project I need to do.’ I had been such a big fan of the book for so many years, and the book prizes a child’s imagination and the emphasis on adults not forgetting what it’s like to be a child. And so I thought, ‘Well, wait a minute—here I am, 46 years old and into LEGOs.’ And it’s the perfect story to be made out of LEGOs.”

Before he could start building his prototype, however, he had to decide what to include. “My thought was, in the books you spend so much time on the asteroid, so I had to have the asteroid in the prototype. Originally, I came up with more of a two dimensional asteroid. And then talking to a friend of mine, he was telling me about how to make a three-dimensional, six-sided box that looks like a ball made of LEGOs. It’s a technique they call S.N.O.T, which sounds gross but it stands for ‘Studs Not on Top.’”

Walle also spent a lot of time building the airplane that crash lands in the desert, where the book’s narrator meets its title character. Other parts include a baobab tree, the main characters and the Little Prince’s rose under her glass dome.

Of course, even if Walle gets his 10,000 votes, there’s no guarantee that an actual Little Prince LEGO set willever hit the market. Winning prototypes for sets based on the TV comedy “The Big Bang Theory” and the movie “Wall-E” are now in production, he says, but others winning projects didn’t make the cut. Three projects based on the video game “The Legend of Zelda” hit the 10,000 mark, but no set has emerged, possibly because of licensing difficulties.

If the LEGO Corporation were to decide that the idea was marketable, they would engineer their own set, which might or might not resemble Walle’s admittedly rough prototype. “Frankly, they would build something better than what I did,” he says with a laugh. “Let’s be blunt about it. I’m just doing my best efforts, but they’re the professional designers.”

If it came to that, the Saint-Exupéry Estate would also have to sign off on the deal. That isn’t a sure thing either, but Walle has spoken with them and was thrilled to find that they were “nuts about the project. I can’t say that they will approve the license, but they definitely want this set made.”

Maybe that’s because the very idea of a man on a quest to create a toy based on a book that idealizes the wisdom and innocence of childhood is the kind of thing Saint-Exupéry himself would have appreciated. “Even when I was in college, I knew I wanted to have a family someday,” Walle says, “and now that I’m thinking about it maybe that’s part of what draws me to the book—in the sense that the story is also about protecting and valuing innocence: the way that the aviator tries to look out for the Little Prince, and the way that the prince cares for his rose.”

At the end of the day on July 10, the vote total had risen by three more votes—8,006 down, only 1,994 to go.

If you’d like to support Walle’s dream before the Sept. 27 deadline, you can cast your vote at ideas.lego.com/projects/50323

Celebrate!

August 3, 2015 by Gretchen Rognlien Comments Off

SAGEHENS ARE COMING together in record numbers—both in person and online—to learn, mingle and make a difference.

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Alumni Weekend 2015

This year’s Alumni Weekend brought together more than 1,600 alumni and guests for a weekend of for a weekend of fun, celebration and hundreds of campus activities, including performances, open houses and lectures. Highlights included the Daring Minds Speakers Series, featuring Blaisdell Award winners James Turrell ’65, Bill Keller ’70 and Mary Schmich ’75, the first-ever 47th Reunion, held by the Class of 1968 (see story on page 47), and a Claremont in Entertainment and Media panel featuring Richard Chamberlain ’56. At the gathering in Little Bridges preceding the Parade of Classes, Alumni Distinguished Service Award winners Jeanne Buckley ’65 P’92 and Stan Hales ’64 were recognized, class volunteers were celebrated and over $3 million in reunion class gifts were announced. (For more photos, see Last Word, page 64.)

Winter Break Parties

In January, Sagehens around the world flocked together in growing numbers to take part in a favorite community tradition. Winter Break Parties brought nearly 1,000 Pomona alumni, parents, students and friends together in 15 cities from Kansas City to Shanghai for laughter and libations, stories and Sagehen spirit. Interested in hosting a Winter Break Party in your city this season? Contact Kara Everin in the Office of Alumni & Parent Engagement at kara.everin@pomona.edu for more information.

Daring Minds Events

Pomona’s yearlong celebration to wrap up Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds kicked off last spring with a series of events designed to help Sagehens learn, mingle and make a difference. Highlights this spring included:

Daring Minds Lectures: On campus (including nationally noted poet Professor Claudia Rankine in April) and across the nation (including the East Coast lecture series in March, featuring Professors Amanda Hollis-Brusky and Char Miller).

4/7: A Celebration of Sagehen Impact: This social media-driven effort celebrated the good work and good will of a community full of “everyday Daring Minds.” More than 150 civic-minded Sagehens and friends posted about their good deeds, and the good deeds of Pomona friends, while hundreds more chirped their encouragement through “likes” and comments. Community members also pledged and performed service as part of the celebration, including 16 Seattle Sagehens who came together on a rainy Saturday to plant 447 trees at a local nature preserve. It’s not too early to start planning: What will you do to make a difference by next 4/7?

Senior Send-Off: For 47 hours leading up to Class Day and Commencement, hundreds of alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students and friends rallied for the College’s first Senior Send-Off, a mini-campaign to honor the graduating Class of 2015 and support Pomona education for all current students. Nearly 500 donors gave more than $80,000, and dozens more alumni, students, faculty and friends took to social media and the campaign web site to offer their “sage advice” to graduates as they make their life-changing transition.

Daring Minds Videos: Watch for your invitation to tune in for a series of Daring Minds videos to be made available starting in September. On the playlist are Professor Claudia Rankine and alumni James Turrell ’65, Bill Keller ’70 and Mary Schmich ’75.

Career Networking Events

Alumni volunteers across the country organized and hosted a series of career networking events this spring and summer. From Los Angeles to Chicago and New York, more than 100 members of the Pomona community came together to connect with fellow Sagehens and share industry-specific and general career stories and advice, and the program continues to grow! Interested in hosting a career networking event in your region? Contact the Alumni and Parent Engagement team at alumni@pomona.edu.

To make sure you hear about exciting events and opportunities yet to come, update your contact information by emailing alumni@pomona.edu or calling 1-888-SAGEHEN.

Travel/Study

Hawaiian Seascapes

(Big Island to Molokai)

With Professor Emeritus Rick Hazlett

Dec. 5–12, 2015

From Angles to Angels:

The Christianization of Barbarian England

With History Professor Ken Wolf

May 18–29, 2016

The eighth in a series of alumni walking trips with a medieval theme, this is the first involving the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to appreciate the fascinating history (captured by the Venerable Bede) of the conversion of the barbarian conquerors of England, starring the Irish and Roman missionaries. In Scotland, you will visit Kilmartin, Dumbarton and Loch Lomond; in England, Lindisfarne, Hadrian’s Wall and Durham Cathedral.

Inner Reaches of Alaska

June 4–11, 2016

Join Pitzer Professor of Environmental Analysis Paul Faulstich on an “un-cruise” through the stunning Inner Reaches Coves of Alaska. Aboard a small vessel serving 74 passengers, adventurers will travel from Juneau to Ketchikan, encountering stunning glacial landscapes, old-growth forests and incredible wildlife.

For more information, contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement at

1-888-SAGEHEN or alumni@pomona.edu.

Raw Truth and Optimism: Chris Burden ’69 (1946-2015)

August 3, 2015 by Nate Stazewski Comments Off

A yellow and black sculpture in Pomona’s Lyon Garden stands as a silent testimony that artist Chris Burden ’69, who died of cancer at his home in May, started his artistic life as he finished it—as an amazing sculptor. Originally a part of Burden’s senior show, the work was recreated for the 2011-12 exhibition, “It Happened at Pomona: Art at the Edge of Los Angeles 1969-1973.” Burden once said this piece “held the kernel for much of his subsequent work,” says Pomona College Museum of Art Director Kathleen Howe.

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In the decade after his graduation from Pomona, Burden was most famous (or maybe infamous) for a series of controversial—and often dangerous—performance art pieces that tested the limits of his courage and endurance. For “Shoot” (1971), an assistant shot Burden in the arm with a rifle while a Super-8 camera recorded the event on grainy film; and in “Trans-fixed” (1974), Burden was nailed face-up to a Volkswagen Beetle in a crucifixion pose. For his master’s thesis at the University of California, Irvine, he locked himself for five days inside an ordinary school locker. Other performance pieces found him shooting at a jet passing overhead, crawling through glass and lying down in heavy traffic on a crowded street.

As Kristine McKenna noted in a Los Angeles Times memorial, “Burden operated like a guerrilla artist, staging his pieces with little advance word. Many of the early performances took place in his studio, documented only by his friends. As artworks, they were experienced largely as rumor—and Burden did manipulate rumor as a creative material. When you heard about a Chris Burden performance, an image would streak through your mind like a blazing comet. That was part of the point.”

In 1979, “The Big Wheel”—in which an eight-foot flywheel made from three tons of cast iron was powered up by a revving motorcycle, then allowed to spin in silence for several hours—marked a dramatic shift in Burden’s artistic approach, combining performance with the kind of witty, inventive and monumental sculptural creation for which he would later become best known. Today, “The Big Wheel” remains in the collection of Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).

“The Big Wheel” was followed by other monumental works, almost always involving some jaw-dropping surprise, such as “The Flying Steamroller” (1996), in which a counterbalanced steamroller did exactly what the title suggests, and “What My Dad Gave Me” (2008), a 65-foot skyscraper made entirely of parts from Erector sets.

Perhaps his most iconic work is the ongoing “Urban Light,” an array of restored, antique cast-iron street lamps at the entrance of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The Los Angeles Times notes that it “rapidly became something of an L.A. symbol.” LACMA director Michael Govan told the Times that Burden “wanted to put the miracle back in the Miracle Mile” and said his work “combines the raw truth of our reality and an optimism of what humans can make and do.”

PCM-summer2015-web3_Page_27_Image_0001 Back at Pomona, where it all started, that yellow and black sculpture now looks fairly tame. And yet, Howe notes, “In this early work you can see the interplay of his engagement with sculpture and aspects of performance. It is a remarkably assured piece from a young artist who was working through the issues that would engage him for the rest of his career.”

Pomona College Museum of Art senior curator Rebecca McGrew worked closely with Burden on the “It Happened at Pomona” exhibition, spending many hours with him in his studio. “Meeting Chris Burden and getting to know him is one of the biggest honors of my career,” McGrew says. “In addition to being brilliant, warm and amazingly easy to work with, Chris is one of the most important artists of the 20th and 21st centuries because his visionary and internationally renowned artwork challenges viewers’ beliefs about art and the contemporary world. I am so sorry to not be able to work with him again.”

The Tetrasept Reunion

August 3, 2015 by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off

Photo of members of the Class of 1968 marching in the Alumni Weekend parade

THE CLASS OF 1968, which launched the College’s ongoing fascination with the number 47 years ago, has now given birth to a new tradition—the 47-year reunion. During Alumni Weekend, members of the class flocked back to Pomona for the first such gathering, and in honor of the occasion, they even created a new genre of poetry, which they dubbed the “tetrasept.”

At the center of it all was Bruce Elgin ’68, who—as a student in class with Professor Donald Bentley back in 1964—was one of originators of Pomona’s ongoing 47 search (along with Laurie Mets ’68). Elgin defines a tetrasept as a poetic form with “either four lines of seven syllables or seven lines of four syllables,” adding: “There are no rhyme or meter restrictions.”

During the build-up to the reunion, members of the class submitted tetrasepts about the reunion itself, the Class of ’68 or the cult of 47, for publication in a 32-page booklet. The submissions ranged from nostalgic to acerbic to esoteric, but they had one thing (in addition to their unique form) in common—they’re characteristic of the extraordinary inventiveness of one of Pomona’s most innovative classes.

Below are a few examples lifted from the booklet titled “Tetrasepts.”

From “Tetrasepts”

We call four score and seven

Oratory from heaven.

But other way ’round … not close:

Seven score and four—just gross!

—Bruce Elgin ’68

Greetings dear friends,

the deadline nears.

Words elude me.

What did I learn

at Pomona?

Procrastinate,

and words will come.

—Karen Porter MacQueen ’68

Why wait ‘til number fifty?

Let’s meet now, and let’s meet then.

Twice the fun! (Like letters here

Are two times forty-seven).

—Ruth Massaro (Henry) ’68

Forty-seven

Since sixty-four

Has proved to be

Unlikely lore;

So now ’hens fete

What shall endure

Forever more.

—Mary Jane Gibson ’68

Forty-seven

Have come and gone

My liberal

Education

Still a solid

Deep foundation

For a good life.

—Jill Kelly ¸’68

Where art thou forty-seven

Our class seeks you everywhere

In proofs, in ads, or even

A silly verse—on a dare.

—Diane Erwin ’68

They only are loyal to

this college who, departing,

bear their added riches in

trust for mankind. James Blaisdell

—Kathleen Wilson Selvidge ’68

Bentley proved all

Numbers equal

Forty-seven;

Hence Pomona

Class reunions

Always are the

Forty-seventh.

—Brian Holmes ’68

Making Waves: Youth-Led Change

February 23, 2015 by Daniel Gould Comments Off

DURING VISITS TO her hometown of Baltimore while she was a student at Pomona, Celia Neustadt ’12 started to notice some interesting shifts in the makeup of the city’s public spaces. The Inner Harbor waterfront, long seen by locals as a tourist-only enclave, had started attracting black teens from around the city looking for a place to shop and meet friends, a big change from when Neustadt herself was a Baltimore City high school student.

The influx of a new crowd, however, had also sparked new tensions. Complaints and concerns from business owners over loitering, theft and “rowdy” behavior were leading to curfews that prevented groups of teens from enjoying thedowntown district at night and after school, and bans that kept them out of popular clothing stores. Negative iteractions with police and security staff added to the resentment felt by Baltimore youth. The friction was palpable, Neustadt recalls, as she walked around the Harbor one night after an Orioles baseball game.

“Not only were there more teenagers than I remembered, but it felt kind of tense. There was a feeling in the air, like if someone lit a match, it would spread like wildfire.”

Intrigued and concerned, Neustadt came back to Pomona for her senior year and began making connections between her own observations and concepts she was studying as a sociology major.

“I had become really interested in these ideas about the power of public spaces,” she says. “I wanted to see if teens were intentionally staking a claim to this space, and figure out how they were using it.”

Neustadt channeled her curiosity into a proposal for a youth-led research team that would help amplify the voices of young people of color who felt excluded from the area. After winning a Napier Grant designed to promote leadership in social change, she went back to Baltimore the summer after her graduation and kicked off a new community organization, the Inner Harbor Project (IHP).

Since its launch in 2012, the IHP has brought together a cohort of high school students from neighborhoods around Baltimore to try to uncover the sources of conflict in the city’s downtown. Building on a tradition in social justice work known as participatory action research, the IHP’s student staffers have combed the city to hold focus groups with other teens, while also interviewing stakeholders such as land developers, security companies and business owners.

The conversations have shed some much-needed light on the issue. Community leaders now have a better understanding of why the Harbor is so valuable to young people looking for a vibrant and inclusive space to call their own.

“Teenagers don’t have that many places to go to in Baltimore, and so they really flock to the Inner Harbor,” Neustadt explains. “They feel like they’ve lucked into this larger world.”

Still, the project has also put a focus on problems like encounters between teens and police, which often cause mistrust and lead to more serious confrontations down the road. To create a takeaway for policymakers and officials, the group used its findings to draw up a list of proposals to reduce tensions and improve safety, catching the attention of local media and politicians. Some of their recommendations were even incorporated into the city’s most recent master plan for the waterfront district.

Neustadt, who says the response from City Hall and local businesses has been “overwhelmingly positive,” credits the Inner Harbor Project’s success to the teens themselves and their ability to draw upon their own lived experiences.

“This organization is about recognizing the extreme potential that these young people have to effect change in their city,” she insists. “They and only they have the answers to this issue that has people at the city level scratching their heads.”

While Neustadt is modest about her own contributions, others stress how her clear values and vision laid the foundation for the program and the positive results that have followed.

“I think Celia’s commitment to community and change has been instrumental in this work,” says Professor of Sociology and Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies Gilda Ochoa, a trusted mentor from Pomona who encouraged Neustadt to involve youth in the project and work from their perspective.

Looking ahead, Neustadt is hopeful that the organization might serve as a model for other cities that struggle with conflict between police and youth of color at their tourist attractions, mentioning locations like the French Quarter in New Orleans and Millennium Park in Chicago.

“This is my attempt to create a little ounce of change, to create a structure for having a discussion about inequality and the way spaces are used. I don’t see myself doing anything else for a long time.”

Alumni News

February 23, 2015 by Staff Comments Off

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Sagehens Flock to Fall Networking Events

Last fall, as students convened on campus for another year of discovery, collaboration and fun, hundreds of alumni and friends also came together to learn and laugh in a series of networking events hosted by Pomona.

In November, more than 120 Sagehens braved the rain in Washington, D.C., to attend the College’s third annual “Pomona in the City.” Held at the stunning Carnegie Institution for Science, the event was hosted by Susanne Garvey ’74. Alumni, parents and friends mingled and enjoyed lectures from Pomona faculty Pierre Englebert, David Menefee-Libey, Cameron Munter, Mary Paster, John Seery and Lenny Seligman, and from President David Oxtoby.

Sagehens on the right coast also flocked to the College’s first East Coast Career Networking Series, with events in New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C. The NYC event, hosted by John Popp ’78, was headlined by The New York Times education reporter Richard Pérez-Peña ’84. In Boston, award-winning architect Chris Chu ’76 shared highlights of her career journey (including a feature on HGTV’s “This Old House Boston”), and the series concluded in the Beltway with remarks by Mikey Dickerson ’01, Chief Administrator of the U.S. Digital Service (and subject of fall’s PCM cover story).

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Sagehen volunteers spearheaded a San Francisco Tech Happy Hour, and dozens of alumni and current Pomona students gathered at the City Club for the perennial Los Angeles Finance Networking Event, overseen this year by Meg Lodise ’85.

In December, the Los Angeles Entrepreneurship and Investing Alumni Panel, hosted by Marcia Goodstein ’86 at her Idealab offices in Pasadena, closed out an exciting events season for Pomona alumni and friends.

Thank you to the many Sagehen hosts, speakers and attendees who participated in the success of these spirited events. To be sure you hear about upcoming networking events in your area, bookmark the College events calendar at pomona.edu/alumni/events, join the Pomona Alumni Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/ sagehens and make sure your contact information is up to date by emailing alumni@pomona.edu.

BULLETIN BOARD

Worldwide Happy Hour on March 11

Mark your calendar. The next Claremont Colleges Worldwide Happy Hour is scheduled for March 11, 2015. Held every year in September and March, the Happy Hour brings together hundreds of alumni from all seven Claremont Colleges at dozens of bars and restaurants around the world. Want to make sure there’s a Happy Hour near you? Consider hosting and adding your own city to the list! For more information, contact Lauren Bergeron ’05 at lauren.bergeron@pomona.edu.

Connecting Sagehens

Looking for a useful tool to locate and connect with Pomona alums in your area or during travels? Sagehen Connect has been helping Pomona alums get in touch since fall 2013. This free app is available through the iTunes App Store and Google Play and offers easy mobile access to fun and helpful features such as:

searchable alumni directory
mapped results of nearby alumni
alumni information via LinkedIn
the Alumni Events Calendar
Pomona-Pitzer sports
news, schedules, broadcasts

To get connected, just grab your iPhone or Android and visit pomona.edu/sagehenconnect. Chirp!

Chirp Along With Sagehens on Pomona’s Social Media

Meet up with fellow alumni online for discussions of all varieties, new and “throwback” Pomona pictures, alumni news and events, Sagehen sports and more. Join facebook.com/ groups/sagehens and follow @SagehenAlumni on Twitter to get in on the fun and to share your own Pomoniana (include #47sightings and #pomonacollege in your posts and tweets!).

TRAVEL-STUDY

Hawaiian Seascapes (Big Island to Molokai)

With Geology Professor Rick Hazlett

Dec. 5–12, 2015

Board the Safari Explorer for a seven-day cruise from the Big Island of Hawaii to Molokai, with stops on West Maui and the “private island” of Lanai. Enjoy dramatic volcanic backdrops, marine life sightings, and opportunities for snorkeling, kayaking and paddleboarding. Join Geology Professor Rick Hazlett for this seagoing tour, with a look into the islands’ volcanic origins, history and diversity of sea life. Highlights include a night snorkel with giant Pacific manta rays, a marine life search in the Humpback National Marine Sanctuary and an evening pa’ina (feast) and Hawaiian jam session on Molokai.

From Angles to Angels: The Christianization of Barbarian England

With History Professor Ken Wolf TBA (2015 or 2016)

For more information about these or any of our other trips, please contact the Pomona College Alumni Office at (909) 621-8110 or alumni@pomona.edu.

First Year: Vintage Made Simple

February 23, 2015 by Daniel Gould Comments Off

Bored of your wardrobe? Jonathan Starzyk ’14 might be able to help. For the past year, he’s been busy filling a gap in the world of men’s wear with his o johnathan-starzyck wn online store that sells unique vintage clothes. First created while he was a student at Pomona, Jonathan’s brand, STARZYK, is now based out of his hometown of Chicago. There, he’s working to make the business take root in the city and continue its growth, using creative efforts to connect with local buyers while still reaching style-minded guys across the country.

A CHANCE WORTH TAKING

Jonathan got his first exposure to the fashion world through summer internships with retailers and brands in Chicago, including a stint at international label French Connection. He loved the field’s link between artistic projects and business know-how, but sought more independence than he saw in some of the positions in the industry.

“I wanted to do something that I knew I’d be really invested in,” he says. “I felt like I understood what worked for a lot of these brands and what didn’t, and I wanted my voice to be heard.”

Interestingly, he was also realizing how difficult it was to find cool, distinctive outfits on his own. Thrift store shopping often meant hunting through racks of cluttered items for hours on end, only to go home empty-handed. Meanwhile, looks from better-known shops were quickly snatched up by others with similar tastes, making it hard to stand out from the crowd.

It wasn’t long before Jonathan sensed a way to tap an unmet need while having free rein to pursue his passion. Why not “gamble on myself,” he thought, and start his own venture?

FROM INCONVENIENCE TO OPPORTUNITY

With the help of a fellowship from student entrepreneurship group Pomona Ventures, Jonathan launched his website ShopStarzyk.com in the fall of his senior year. Selling everything from retro jackets and polos to swim shorts and tees, the site simplifies the tedious task of ‘thrifting’ by collecting quality apparel in one convenient source.

Jonathan finds his inventory by carefully combing through estate sales, thrift stores and other vintage hotspots in search of standout items. The selection process is based on a simple but effective rule: only offer clothes that Jonathan and his colleagues would seek out for themselves.

“We take the time to find pieces that we know we’d enjoy, and we think our customer would enjoy,” he says. “The brand is very much an extension of me and the things I like.”

Knowing he someday wanted to run a startup, Jonathan used the flexibility of his media studies major to pick up valuable skills for the fashion field. At Pomona he took courses in digital photography and graphic design, supplemented by a semester in Australia where he studied marketing. The preparation has paid off, allowing him to handle projects like shooting photos for lookbooks and designing his own logo.

“It’s nice to see how much I’ve grown from my learning experiences and how I’ve been able to apply them to a legitimate business,” he reflects.

LET THE CLOTHES DO THE TALKING

Since relocating to Chicago after graduation, Jonathan has been figuring out new ways to meet the challenges of running an online shop, the biggest of which is getting people to check out the product. The company lends itself well to social media platforms like Tumblr and Instagram, which Jonathan uses to target likely shoppers and define the brand’s look. Still, he says these tactics are just one piece of the puzzle.

“I’ve learned that people want to be able to interact with businesses in any way they can, and that’s hard to do with our online and social presence alone.”

One way to reach out to buyers is through pop-up shops, temporary stands where Jonathan sells his wares in strategic locations like fashion festivals and street fairs. “The idea is to be present, allow for interaction, and let the clothes do the talking,” he explains.

Wherever Jonathan’s current project leads him, friends and collaborators say they’ve come to expect his unique, self-confident style of career building. “Jonathan always has a vision of what he wants, and will go through a very interesting path to get there,” says Hannah Doruelo ’16, a friend from Chicago who interned at STARZYK for a semester to help get the company off the ground. “I really see him as a trailblazer.”

Andrew Hong ’13

September 4, 2014 by Daniel Gould Comments Off

Andrew Hong ’13 wants you to start tinkering. As Public Programs Coordinator for the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass., Hong works to shine a light on the university’s high-tech research break throughs while bringing science education to local communities. Along the way, he’s found an outlet for his passion for getting people to engage with new technology and making the field of science less intimidating and more accessible for everyone.

INNOVATION MEETS EDUCATION

At MIT, Hong organizes programs designed to demystify research and create a “public face” for the institution. To draw in children and families, the museum offers interactive discussions with MIT scientists who share their latest experiments and discoveries, from projects like creating new prosthetic body parts to designing better solar-powered lighting. Other events are geared more to an older crowd, like a program called “Drinkable Science” that explains the physics and chemistry behind the trendy art of mixology. The idea is to “sneak science into fun, everyday topics,” Hong explains.

A key mission of the museum is encouraging people to reconsider their assumptions that a certain technology or concept might be too complicated to understand. Hong tries to make visitors feel more confident about their abilities by giving them a taste of the trial-and-error process that engineers and scientists wrestle with every day. “We structure our activities with failure built in,” he says.

“There’s an expectation that you’re not going to get it right the first time.”

DELVING INTO DESIGN

One of Hong’s favorite projects has been creating a new design and engineering space called the Idea Hub, where museum-goers can experiment with unfamiliar tools and learn skills like computer programming. Visitors do hands-on activities like assembling electronic circuits and creating art with 3D printers. “Our goal is to teach people—to give people this hands-on experience—so that they feel empowered to engage with technology in the future.”

Hong has been building up his own expertise by taking advantage of the resources he’s found in Cambridge. The job gives him access to courses at MIT, where his assignments include tasks like programming 3D printers to generate artistic designs and models. “Since getting here, it’s just been a constant crash course in how to build things and how to tinker,” he says.

By expanding his knowledge, Hong says he’s been inspired to get others excited about tinkering. “It feeds back into my desire to show people that you can do this stuff. I’m a walking example of someone who didn’t have a background in this field, and now is competent enough to teach people creative problem-solving and the design process.”

FINDING HIS FIT

A neuroscience major at Pomona, Hong was always fascinated with the sciences, but didn’t picture himself as a teacher or researcher. After sophomore year he began to chart his own path, starting with a SURP project at Professor of Art Mark Allen’s L.A. nonprofit, Machine Project, where he was exposed to the idea of learning about technology through the use of art and creativity. The next summer he landed an internship funded by the Career Development Office at the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, known for its participatory exhibits.

His experience in Cambridge has given Hong a clearer vision for the future. His ultimate goal is to design educational technologies for the museum field, like the kind he uses every day in his work. Wherever he ends up, Hong says he will keep following his personal career philosophy, inspired by the advice of Pomona neuroscience professor Rachel Levin.

“Her advice to me was, ‘Get really good at something you love, and convince someone that they need you.’”

Jerry Maguire Moments

September 4, 2014 by Jeremy Kniffin Comments Off

The walls of the Athletes First offices are filled with autographed jerseys, photos and other memorabilia from their National Football League clients, including such household names as Aaron Rodgers, Ray Lewis, Drew Bledsoe and Clay Matthews. Among the jerseys and photos in Andrew Kessler’s office is a framed copy of Newsday from 2011 showing a photo of New York Jets quarterback and Athletes First client Mark Sanchez celebrating a 28–21 playoff win over the New England Patriots with an exuberant scream and a handshake over the front railing of the stands.

Kessler ’03, who is a certified contract advisor and player agent with Athletes First in Laguna Hills, and who helped negotiate the (yes) 47-page rookie contract for Sanchez, is on the receiving end of the handshake. “My Jerry Maguire moment,” he laughs. “That was an AP photo, so it ended up everywhere.”

After graduating from Pomona with a degree in English, and playing for four years on the Sagehens football team, Kessler jumped right into his current field working at IMG Sports with Tom Condon, ranked by Sports Illustrated as the most influential sports agent in the country last year. Kessler, whose father has been a long-time legal representative for the NFL Players Association, had already served an internship with NBA agent Marc Fleisher while attending Pomona, traveling with 18-year old client Tony Parker to various NBA workouts (Parker has since gone on to win four NBA titles with the San Antonio Spurs and former Sagehen coach Gregg Popovich).

In his first two years at IMG, Kessler assisted Condon in putting together landmark contracts for Peyton Manning (seven years, $90 million) and Eli Manning (six years, $54 million), while also attending law school at the University of Texas. In his decade in the field at IMG and Athletes First, where he has worked primarily with David Dunn (No. 11 on the Sports Illustrated list of most influential agents), Kessler has been a part of negotiating contracts that total well over a billion dollars.

Most recently, Kessler helped put together a four-year, $40 million dollar deal for Super Bowl champion safety Earl Thomas of the Seattle Seahawks, making him the highest-paid player ever at his position. Kessler returned to his original home in New York City in February to see Thomas win Super Bowl XLIII at the Meadowlands, before helping to negotiate his landmark deal. Of course, Athletes First was guaranteed to be on the winning side of that Super Bowl regardless, as the firm also represents several members of the Denver Broncos, including wide receiver Wes Welker and linebacker Von Miller.

Kessler, who resides in Laguna Beach with his wife, Alison, and son, Jordan (2), has found success in a highly-competitive, big-money industry at an age when he has been younger than some of his clients. He draws some personal parallels to his playing days for Pomona-Pitzer football, when his teams went a combined 17–15 over four years despite fielding small rosters that were often significantly outweighed by their opponents.

“One lesson I learned from playing at Pomona is that you can’t judge a book by its cover,” he said. “Just about every game we played, we would lose the eyesight test. Sometimes if you just looked at the two teams in warm-ups, you’d think we’d lose by three or four touchdowns, but then the game would start and we’d win by playing harder, smarter or more fundamental football. You see the same things on the job, whether it be negotiating a contract or signing a player or issues with a client. The odds might look against you from the outside looking in, but you can accomplish your goals by digging deeper than the other guys and not being intimidated.”

He is also quick to point out that his academic experience at Pomona has been a big influence on his career. “Most of what I have learned in this business has come from on-the-job training or from my dad,” he said. “But the critical thinking and analytical skills that I use in my profession have come just as much from what I learned at Pomona, as an English major studying Henry James novels, as they have from taking law school courses in contract law.”

Although Kessler willingly made a reference to Jerry Maguire, the fictional sports agent played by Tom Cruise in the 1996 movie (best remembered for the phrase, “show me the money”), he does laugh at the way the movie portrays his line of work. “I imagine it’s the same way that real spies view James Bond movies,” he says. “People may see the eight-figure deals in the headlines, but there’s a real grind and blue-collar element to the job, which I enjoy. It takes months of negotiations and legwork to reach those deals. You can’t just walk in and say ‘give me this, I want it.’ You have to justify your rationale to the team.”

The life of a sports agent can also involve much more than negotiating the fine print of a 47-page contract, and Kessler feels that makes it even more rewarding. “One of my favorite things about this business is that you get to be involved in a lot of different charitable endeavors and other outside interests for your clients,” he says. “I’ve helped our clients raise money for sick kids, families of veterans, youth football organizations and all sorts of things. Some clients just want you involved in one specific part of their lives, and with other clients, you find yourself wearing a lot of different hats—relationship counselor, wedding planner, financial advisor, and you get to talk to them all the time.”

Kessler may also have a career-building opportunity as the primary agent representing Marqise Lee, a second-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2014 NFL Draft. Lee has a Hollywood-type story of overcoming a rough childhood that saw him bounce around several foster homes before becoming the Fred Biletnikoff Award winner at USC as the nation’s top wide receiver.

While his professional experience has been largely centered on the NFL, Kessler has also used his success at Athletes First to begin his own side project called K3 Tennis, which is representing Ernesto Escobedo, a 17-year-old rising star from West Covina. “I’m excited about it,” said Kessler. “It’s still in its early stages and if nothing else, it’s really fun. Some might call it a risky move to invest in something on my own, but that’s always been my personality. I traveled 3,000 miles from New York City to attend Pomona, which was a little bit risky, and I really liked my time at Pomona. When a risk like that pays off, you’re more willing to take other risks.”

His career as an athlete and as an agent has also given Kessler some philosophical perspective. Athletics is, by its nature, hyper-competitive, with a player’s or team’s value often defined by just a simple list of wins and losses. That attitude spills over into other sports-related industries as well. An agent’s success can be defined by wins and losses in contract negotiations, clients signed and dollars generated. Failures happen, and he sometimes sees colleagues who take each defeat as hard as the players on the field do.

“You have to appreciate successes,” he said. “You hear people say that they hate losing more than they like winning, and I understand that philosophy, but you have to have balance or you won’t be happy. My bad days aren’t really all that bad. On my good days, I’ve been there to see Earl Thomas win a Super Bowl. I’ve been there with Marqise Lee and his family when he was drafted, after he overcame so much adversity.”

Of course, he was also there to celebrate a big playoff win with Mark Sanchez and end up with his picture in newspapers all over the country.

“If you can’t enjoy a moment like that,” he says. “Something’s wrong.”

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