Daring Minds

Ready for the Real World

June 28, 2013  by Mary Marvin Comments Off on Ready for the Real World

Providing scholarships for deserving international students such as Blessing Havana ’13 is one of the key goals of Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds. The campaign’s international initiative aims to strengthen ties between existing international programs at Pomona while developing new global opportunities for students and faculty.

“As the College’s international reputation and engagement has grown, the world has become more complex and integrated,” says Elizabeth Crighton, interim dean of the college. “Our challenge now is to embrace this 21st century reality. We want to deepen the international experience of Pomona students so that they are equipped for leadership in an interconnected world.”

In March, Bertil Lindblad ’78, a former Swedish diplomat and senior official with the United Nations, was named senior advisor for international initiatives. Lindblad, whose career spans 30 years, will work to:

–Establish relationships with international groups, including non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies and think tanks.

–Expand international options for students interested in research, internships and post-baccalaureate opportunities.

— Facilitate campus visits by international scholars, artists and practitioners. Their interactions with students and faculty will range from presenting a lecture or performance to teaching a semester-long course, as well as offering workshops, labs and master classes in the arts.

Gifts to the campaign have enabled the College to take early steps such as increasing the number of international students enrolled and expanding financial aid; funding 11 new international summer internships; and appointing former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter as its first professor of practice of international relations. Munter taught a course this spring on managing diplomatic crises.

“There is an upsurge of student interest in global issues, as applied to everything from economics to public health and art,” says Lindblad. “I’m excited to build on existing programs and to expand Pomona’s global footprint.”

www.pomona.edu/daring-minds

A Dream Made Real

June 26, 2013  by Mary Marvin Comments Off on A Dream Made Real

The first member of her family to go to college, Blessing Havana has been a sponsor and an R.A., a liaison in the philosophy, politics and economics program and a member of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. She spent a semester abroad at the University of Edinburgh and was an intern at the relief agency World Vision International, as part of the Pomona College Internship Program. Four years after arriving at Pomona, accompanied by her host family, she celebrated her graduation this spring with her mother and one of her brothers. She is waiting to hear from law schools and hopes to work in international law or with international organizations on policies that will help African countries.

 blessingRealizing a dream
I always wanted to study in the U.S. It was kind of a dream, but people used to laugh at me and say that’s not going to happen. Then in my final year of high school, I heard about this program called the United States Student Achievers that is through the U.S. Embassy in Harare. They helped us apply and select schools and study for the SATs, which I’d never heard of. I applied to four schools and got into Pomona.

A family away from home
A huge factor in feeling like I was part of Pomona was my sponsor group in Mudd-Blaisdell Hall. The first person I met was my sponsor, Nellie, an international student from Ghana. I don’t think I could have made it through my first year without her. She helped guide me, academically and socially. The next year I just moved across the hallway and became a sponsor. It was a great experience, getting to share what I had learned in my freshman year. Most of my sponsees were Americans, so they didn’t have the same problems I’d had, but as freshmen, they still needed to adjust. Seven or eight of them went on to become sponsors as well. I guess I did a not so bad job.

My “think tanks”
I made some really good friends when I studied abroad in Edinburgh and got to take a class in international law, which confirmed what I want to do. It also made me see the value of Pomona in a way that some people who don’t go abroad don’t see: my friends, the close-knit community. I also missed my professors—I call them my “think tanks.” I’ve learned so much from such great people, inside and outside the classroom, things like the importance of finding something you’re passionate about, about the value of family and being able to juggle that with a career. It’s helped me realize, hey, I can do anything.

One big thing I learned at Pomona
I’ve really learned to look deeper into issues. In high school I was taught to read and analyze and try to see where the author is coming from, but I wasn’t taught to critique the author, to see the faults or to think that the writer might have been wrong. Learning to do that is a skill that will help me in life. Even when I’m reading the newspaper, I’m thinking: What are your assumptions? What arguments are you making? Are they convincing? What is the other side of the story? It’s one of the problems we have in my culture; that the leader is always right, the parent is always right. We’re not taught to question or look deeper. That’s one thing, one big thing that Pomona has taught me to do.

Help from a stranger
It’s amazing, when I think of myself at a school like Pomona. I am the last child in my family of seven, the first in my family, in my clan, to go to college and the first to go to school outside Zimbabwe. And it’s a really big deal. My dad died when I was 3, so it’s my mom and brothers who have been supporting me. There is no way they could have afforded Pomona, or even the University of Zimbabwe. It’s been a big blessing to have somebody who doesn’t even know me believe in me so much to invest in my education, and not only in my education, but in my family and my country. What would I say to the donors? Oh my gosh, I could not begin to thank them enough.

Summer Success

March 28, 2013  by Mary Marvin Comments Off on Summer Success

 Launched in 2011, Pomona College’s summer internship program has already funded 33 students in full-time domestic and international internships, including stints at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, a post-production studio in Los Angeles and an economic development group in New York.

 Summer internships are rooted in the Pomona College Internship Program (PCIP), which started in 1976 and continues today, with about 80 students working as part-time interns each semester in Claremont, Pomona and the Los Angeles area. With PCIP’s success came a push for intensive, full-time working experiences, where students could spend up to 10 weeks in the summer exploring possible career paths, reaffirming areas of interests or finding new ones.

 For Peter Pellitier ’14, an internship at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont last summer gave him a firsthand look at graduate level research, while Mitsuko Yabe ’14 says her experience as a veterinary assistant at an animal hospital in New York confirmed her passion for veterinary medicine.

 Along with summer research, internships have become an increasingly important part of a college education. ”It used to be a college degree was the mode of access to the employment market,” says Mary Raymond, director of the Career Development Office (CDO).

 Nowadays “a student can have a great transcript, but they have to have developed their resumes too.” Internships, adds Raymond, also can give students an edge when applying to graduate school and for competitive fellowships and scholarships. The CDO works closely with students to prepare them for the workplace, says internship coordinator Marcela Rojas, who helps them navigate the application process and interviews with prospective employers. It’s up to the student, however, to find an internship and to present a budget to the selection committee. “We want them to pursue their interests and understand what research is involved when finding an opportunity, very much like the job market,” says Raymond. “In a way, we see gaining those practical skills as part of the academic experience here.”

 For many Pomona students, work is a necessity, so taking advantage of unpaid or low-paying internships is not always possible.To level the playing field, the College pays hourly wages for PCIP programs and provides stipends of $4,000 to $5,000 to cover living expenses and travel in the summer, funded primarily by gifts from alumni, parents and foundations. In December, the Parents Fund announced a $100,000 challenge, with gifts directed to internships matched one to one by an anonymous donor.

 With more applicants for summer internships than available funding, Raymond hopes the program will continue to grow so that all interested students will have a chance to participate. “We want to encourage intellectual curiosity, and that can be satisfied in a number of ways,” she says. “Students understand the formula for getting into college and doing well academically. But they’re also looking for the formula for happy, successful and personally rewarding lives. Where do you go to find out what the script is for that? It can only come from your own experience.”

Lena Connor ’13: Ethics and the Environment

March 28, 2013  by Mary Marvin Comments Off on Lena Connor ’13: Ethics and the Environment

A recipient of the Udall Scholarship and a Rhodes and Marshall finalist, Lena Connor ’13 is a double major in environmental analysis and politics, with a minor in religious studies. Connor was among the first group of students awarded fellowships for full-time summer internships, funded by gifts to the Daring Minds campaign. She spent last summer working as a theological researcher for the National Council of Churches, where she put together the first comprehensive database of Protestant ecotheologians in the U.S. Connor, who grew up in Florida and Iowa, is commissioner of environmental affairs for Student Senate, a leader of the Pomona Student Union and a member of Uprising Christian Fellowship and the Pomona College Choir

 Shifting focus

When I first came to Pomona, I was interested in the policy side of the environmental movement. But after I started classes, I shifted my focus. Coming from a very conservative part of the U.S., I saw that a lot of political impasses have deeper roots in people’s cultural and religious ways of viewing resources, and in the way we organize societies and make economic decisions. I became more interested in getting to the roots of some of those problems after taking a class from Professor Char Miller and reading authors like Wendell Berry.

 Finding inspiration

The summer after my sophomore year, I got a Mellon grant to study bauxite mining in Brazil. When I got there, I realized that the most important actors in mediating conflict and advocating for the rural farmers were the Franciscan priests. I had been disenchanted with Christianity’s ability to do much about the environment in the U.S., partly because of apathy and because the issue had been so politicized. Being in Brazil refreshed my spirit and inspired me, because I’d seen a group of Christians who could incorporate ecological and Christian ethics and have their parishioners accept and embrace it.

 From the rainforest to Oxford University

I designed a one-on-one tutorial at Oxford with an emphasis on environmental ethics and spent hours and hours in libraries reading through theological texts. It was one of most emotionally and intellectually fulfilling experiences of my college career, and I decided then I wanted to study the intersection of religion and environmentalism for the rest of my life. The people who suffer from environmental degradation are often the poorest, and there is a link in Christian theology between renewal of the earth and caring for the marginalized.

 Transforming practical experience into a senior thesis

My internship with the National Council of Churches gave me a more nuanced and informed look at how academic theology and nonprofits interrelate, and how you get ecotheological theory from the ivory tower to the pulpit and into the political realm of discourse. I also attended a conference in Pennsylvania, where a Lutheran synod created a task force to study the controversial gas extraction method known as “fracking” and passed a resolution for a moratorium against it. I interviewed the congregants and pastors about the church’s appropriate role, which along with my experience in Brazil, became part of my senior thesis.

 What is really valuable

Pomona, more than anything else, has taught me that this track that we’re on is not just a superficial endeavor about wealth or success or worldly glory. In my time here, I’ve been instructed by people who are grounded in what is really valuable in life. When I leave and go to graduate school and enter into what I would like to do, which is becoming ordained and doing academic ecotheology, I want to carry on what Pomona has given me by focusing on something in a deep and meaningful way.

 

Learning by Design

November 13, 2012  by Mary Marvin Comments Off on Learning by Design

Sydney Dyson ’14 considered a math major until a drawing class during freshman year led her in a different direction. Now a studio art major and religious studies minor, Dyson helps run the College’s student art gallery in the Smith Campus Center and works in the theatre costume shop. Last summer she was awarded a Summer Experience in the Arts grant as part of the Mellon Foundation Elemental Arts Initiative.

FROM HOBBY TO COLLEGE MAJOR
“Both my mom and grandmother are artistic and had a big influence on me when I was growing up. In Chicago, I did some drawing and painting as a hobby, but I wasn’t that serious about it and didn’t consider art as a career until I
started taking drawing classes from Mercedes Teixedo in my freshman year. She’s great. I’m also interested in sewing and, at the end of last semester, Mercedes took me to the fashion district, which was really amazing.”

INSPIRATION ACROSS DISCIPLINES
“One class that really influenced my thinking about art was History of Africa. Sidney Lemelle gave a lecture about how for a long time, there weren’t words or concepts of art in many African languages, and it’s still the case today for some. Europeans would take sculptures and relics that had been used in ceremonies in Africa—and had no real purpose after that—and display them in museums as art objects. When I go to study abroad next semester in Cape Town, I want to learn more about how that idea has affected African schooling of fine art, which is essentially a Western construct.”

THRIFTY TRANSFORMATIONS

“My Summer Experience in the Arts project was called ‘Thrifty Transformations.’ I looked into the clothing industry and how clothing moves from point of manufacture to resale to being discarded, as well as issues of labor and sweatshops and the environment. I also inter- viewed owners of small thrift shops and consignment stores to get their perspective from the business and creative side. Finally I took items from four people’s wardrobes and repurposed them into something new and functional.”

IDEAS MADE REAL

“I was able to bring certain ideas to life this summer that have always and have only been ideas, and it felt amazing to see them materialize. Details and patterns are what draw me to art most, and I like to carry that into whatever medium I am using whether it is sewing, drawing, or experimenting with photography, which is where my interest in abstraction comes into play.”

NOT YOUR STEREOTYPICAL “STARVING ARTIST”

“My dad told me ‘you’re going to have to deal with the choices you make, and if you want to be in the arts, just do it.’ I don’t want to be the stereotype of a starving artist, so I’ve worked out a plan for the future. I want to combine my interests in art and business and someday have my own clothing line, café/store, and a gallery that provides space for other artists and musicians. I’d also like to open a youth center to give more young people a chance to experience the arts. I don’t know how all my plans will work out, but I do know that being at a liberal arts college has helped me think about ways to weave all my interests together.”

SIDEBAR:

SUPPORTED BY THE ELEMENTAL ARTS INITIATIVE

This four-year initiative, funded by a $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is a multi-pronged effort to enliven Pomona’s arts programming and foster collaboration across disciplines. The initiative focuses on a different element each year; the first year’s theme was water, this year’s is earth. Programming last year included an environmental analysis symposium on local water issues, original music and theatre productions, and the Summer Arts Experience, which supported six student art projects.

 

Construction Begins on Studio Art Building

November 13, 2012  by Mary Marvin Comments Off on Construction Begins on Studio Art Building

Pomona College will begin construction this fall on a Studio Art Center on the east end of campus. Designed to reflect to a more modern, integrated approach to the arts and provide space for interdisciplinary teaching, the 36,000-square- foot center will replace the venerable 100-year-old Rembrandt Hall, which will be repurposed for another use.

Gifts of $500,000 from the Ahmanson Foundation, $500,000 from Trustee Bernard Chan ’88 and $100,000 from the Hearst Foundations will be used toward construction of the center, which is scheduled to be completed in spring 2014 at an estimated cost of $29 million. The planning and design of the building was made possible by an earlier gift from the estate of Pamela Creighton ’79. The College is seeking a naming gift for the center, as well as funding for additional spaces and other support.

Located north of Seaver Theatre and near the Wash, the new building will more than double the space available for studio arts. Designed by Culver City-based wHY Architecture, it will surround a central courtyard and feature studios for painting, drawing, sculpture, digital arts and photography, as well as classrooms, a gallery and cutting-edge facilities for printing, fabrication and digital output.

Sustainability will be another key feature, with the College setting a goal of building to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold standards. The design incorporates solar photovoltaics and hot water heaters, daylight harvesting and low-volume lighting. Even the location of the building on an existing parking lot reflects the College’s goal of preserving green space.

With its courtyard, performance spaces and student lounge, planners hope the Studio Art Center will draw students from Pomona and the other Claremont Colleges, making the arts a more visible part of campus life.

Bryan Coreas ’11: “From Those To Whom Much is Given”

July 2, 2012  by Mary Marvin Comments Off on Bryan Coreas ’11: “From Those To Whom Much is Given”

Bryan Coreas ’11 has been involved with the Pomona College Academy for Youth Success (PAYS) since he was admitted to the summer program as a high school student in 2004. He worked as a student coordinator while he was attending Pomona, and this year was hired as the post-baccalaureate fellow in charge of educational outreach. When his 16-month appointment ends, he plans to attend graduate school and become a math teacher.

 An Introduction

“I started PAYS when it was still called the Summer Scholars Enrichment Program. Back then, there wasn’t an option to live on campus during your first summer, so I commuted from La Puente. It was amazing being at Pomona and getting to meet people from other schools, learning about other students’ experiences. I knew then I had to go to college. That’s where the program had the biggest impact for me.”

 Getting In

“During the school year, I would meet regularly with Laura Enriquez ’08. She was the only college advisor back then, and I remember her driving to all our houses, reminding us to keep our grades up and take our SATs. Laura, along with Wendy Chu, guided me in applying to a few colleges, including Pomona. When the acceptance letter finally came, I was at a conference for student government, so my mom called me to let me know. She was emotional about it. I was very calm: ‘All right, I got in.’ After I hung up, it sunk in, and a feeling of relief and joy set in.”

 Full Circle

 “I did research with Professor Roberto Garza-López and took a class from Professor Gilda Ochoa during the summer program, and both of them continued to have a big impact on me when I came to Pomona as a college student.They helped me feel I was part of a supportive community and made me think about what kind of impact I wanted to have as a teacher. One of the things I know I want to do is recreate what happened for me here—professors listening, inviting you out to grab a bite, really creating a bond with the students.”

 Becoming a Teacher

“I got involved with the Draper Center during my first year. They needed Latino males to be role models for Pomona Partners’ weekly mentoring program at Fremont Academy and asked if I would help out. It was fun, and very different from what I’d been doing as a college student. It was also the first time I had hands-on experience in the classroom and it made me excited about the possibility of becoming a teacher.The next fall I started doing college advising with PAYS students and helped guide three high school students through the applications process.”

 Shaping the Clay

“It’s been great to be back at the Draper Center and with PAYS. There have been so many changes in the program since I first came here, with the addition of more college advisors and community meetings in the residence halls that help students from all three classes get to know one another. As the post-bac fellow, I’m getting the chance to really dive in, to help shape the clay. After the summer, one of my projects will be working on developing a new Draper Center program for sixth- to 12th-grade students.”

 “…Much is Expected”

“Pomona is a special place. It has given me a lot. Maria Tucker [director of the center] likes to say, ‘From those to whom much is given, much is expected.’ I believe in that ideology. I was given this opportunity and want to use it to the best of my ability.”

First Decade PAYS Off

 When 30 high school students cross the stage in Big Bridges in July, the ceremony will not only recognize their success in completing the Pomona College Academy for Youth Success (PAYS). The event also will cap the first decade of the popular program geared toward promising teens who come from low-income families and are often the first in their families to attend college. Founded in 2003, the college access program has made it possible for participants from local high schools to attend some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and each of the five undergraduate Claremont Colleges. And it’s free. The high school students get room, board and classes at no charge.

 Each summer, Pomona College welcomes 90 high school students to campus for the four-week academic program. The students—rising 10th-, 11th- and 12thgraders—live in one of the residence halls and attend writing seminars and math classes taught by Pomona professors. In the third year, PAYS students conduct research with professors on topics ranging from Shakespeare to robots. College students, most of them from Pomona, work as teaching and resident assistants and writing and math tutors. Each T.A. also designs and teaches an elective. “The hallmark of our program is that students start as 9th-graders and spend three consecutive summers with us,” says Maria Tucker, director of the Draper Center for Community Partnerships, which oversees PAYS. “Not many college access programs do that.”

 Workshops about leadership and college admissions are offered to all students, while students about to enter their senior year meet one-on-one with members of the Pomona admissions staff to work on essays and hone their interview skills. Meals in the dining hall, pick-up Frisbee games, field trips and opportunities to participate in theatre and other extracurricular activities round out the introduction to college life. “We try to mirror the campus environment, where there are tugs on your time and you have to learn to say ‘no’ if you have work to do,” says Tucker. “We get feedback from parents, who tell us that the person they dropped off at the beginning of the summer is different from the person they picked up. They see an increased level of independence.”

 The PAYS program doesn’t end after four weeks. The staff offers year-long college advising, an SAT prep program and bilingual financial aid workshops, and works with local schools to identify qualified students for the summer session. They also meet with the families of current PAYS students to talk about the steps needed to apply to college. As a result of these efforts, 100 percent of the students who graduate from PAYS go on to college, according to Tucker. In the past seven years, 24 PAYS graduates have enrolled at Pomona, the highest number of any college or university. Six of those students, who will be part of the class of ’16, will return to campus this summer for the PAYS graduation. At the end of the ceremony, they will hear their names and college destinations announced, along with those of their fellow alums. It’s an emotional moment for the students and their families, almost as much as it is for Tucker and her staff.

 “You put your energy and love into it, and these kids are going to amazing colleges that many of them and their families never thought could be possible,” says Tucker. “People’s lives are forever changed.”

 

Acting Globally

March 5, 2012  by emae2021@pomona.edu Comments Off on Acting Globally

As a high school exchange student in Japan, Sam Holden ’12 developed a strong interest in international relations and Asian studies. At Pomona, he has twice conducted summer research in Japan, studied abroad in Germany and lived in Oldenborg’s language halls. He speaks four languages and is a mentor to two international students from Asia. A native of Colorado, Holden plans to pursue graduate study in Japan, with a focus on how that country’s shrinking population and economy inform new approaches to sustainable urbanism.

Digging Beneath the Surface: “The summer after my freshman year, I went to Japan to make a documentary about Brazilian immigrants. I taught myself some rudimentary Portuguese and made contacts with both Brazilian and Japanese organizations. Japan appears to be a homogenous and equal society, so it was a very eyeopening experience to go to a community where the majority of the people are foreigners and don’t speak Japanese, and to see the struggles they were going through.“

A New Frontier:“I’ve become very interested in the idea of post-economic growth society. In a country like Japan, where the population is declining and the economy has been stagnant, the question is: what does a society do when it can no longer count on growth to sustain the social systems we rely on? Post-economic growth theory is about the need to move from competitive to cooperative economies, to think creatively about building robust communities that use fewer resources.”

Community of Learners: “Oldenborg Center has been essential in helping me develop my language skills. I lived in Japanese Hall my sophomore year and in German Hall for a semester, and I still go to the language tables in the dining hall. Any time you’re in a community of learners like that—and this goes for Pomona College as a whole—it helps to reinforce what you’re doing in class.”

Pray for Japan: “I had the opportunity to translate a collection of Twitter messages that were sent after the March earthquake and tsunami. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, a 20-year-old Japanese college student created a website cata loguing some of those messages. The site went viral in the first week, and about 70 of the messages, along with photos of support from around the world, were turned into a book, with parallel pages in Japanese and English. Pray for Japan has sold 100,000 copies, with all the money going to disaster relief.“

Financial Aid: “It’s a gift that I think about every day. I’m grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to discover who it is I want to be and what I want to pursue. And to be able to do that free of financial concerns and the stress associated with student loans is extraordinarily important. I want to make the most of the opportunities I’ve had here, and then use my education to give something back to the community.”

Arango/Aramont Gift Supports Outdoor Education

October 11, 2011  by Laura Tiffany Comments Off on Arango/Aramont Gift Supports Outdoor Education

Pomona College students quickly learn the wilderness is within easy reach and it’s full of experiential learning opportunities. For years, freshmen in Orientation Adventure, students from On the Loose (OTL) and various field-trip-oriented faculty members have been taking advantage of these opportunities to learn and explore in the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree, the Channel Islands and other Southern California spots.

Now, Pomona’s new Outdoor Education Center (OEC) will be the organizing force behind recreation and learning in the College’s environs. The center, which has been in the planning stages for about two years, is a part of an initiative to “build local and global connections” in Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds. It has received a generous $600,000 gift from Lucila Arango ’88 and the Aramont Foundation to help fund the initial startup costs of the center and provide annual support.

“I came to Pomona from a high school with an active outdoor program and, as an undergrad, missed having that as part of my college experience,” says Arango, an avid biker, climber and hiker who has summitted Mt. Whitney and Mt. Kilimanjaro.

On a recent rock-climbing trip to France, Arango and her son had a chance meeting with another American climber who happened to be a recent Pomona graduate and told them about the heavy interest in outdoor activities among today’s Sagehens. “I wanted to help encourage that interest,” says Arango. “After many conversations with President Oxtoby, I was convinced that Pomona could create a first-class Outdoor Education Center.”

With almost 500 students participating in OTL trips each year, and the entire incoming class of first-year students taking part in Orientation Adventure, the cramped rooms in Walker Lounge could no longer support the demand for storage and meeting space. In its location in Pomona Hall, one of the College’s new residence halls, the OEC offers a large storage space for equipment, easy access for loading vehicles and a library of books and maps, as well as serving as an organizational center for OA, the student-led On the Loose outdoors club, and other campus groups and faculty who want to arrange field trips. It also is an educational center with workshops, new credited Physical Education classes and a new three-level Outdoor Leadership Series certification program.

“You progress through levels through your college career,” says Martin Crawford, senior coordinator for the OEC. “By level three, you are helping to arrange trips for the faculty and putting on workshops at the OEC.”

This organized approach to outdoor exploration and learning also will assist faculty with planning field trips and providing trained student guides. Astronomy Professor Bryan Penprase has gone on several trips in the past with professors and classes in other disciplines and is planning another for November, now with the OEC and Crawford involved. In a trip to the Mojave National Preserve, Penprase will bring his Earth’s Cosmic Origins class and lead a “star party” at night. Anthropology Professor Jennifer Perry will discuss prehistoric rock art, Geology Professor Bob Gaines will discuss the geological landscape and Crawford will lead a trip into a lava tube.

“It’s an amazing thing to mix classes of students and subjects, and take people out of the box a little bit and get them out of their usual classroom mode,” says Penprase. “I think both the professors and students find that refreshing, and the outdoor settings around here are so amazing.”

Daring Mind: Outdoors adventurer Adam Buchholz ’12

October 11, 2011  by Mary Marvin Comments Off on Daring Mind: Outdoors adventurer Adam Buchholz ’12

Adam Buchholz ’12, a director of On the Loose (OTL), has led nine OTL trips and participated in seven others since joining the student outdoors club as a freshman. A biology major from Olympia, Wash., Buchholz says that when he was weighing his decision about where to go to college, OTL tipped the scale in favor of Pomona.

 

Favorite first-year trip: Definitely Moab. It’s one of the best places in the world for mountain biking. I’d never done it before, but we were with a very knowledgeable group from OTL, and by the time we reached a classic part of the trail called Porcupine Rim, I felt a lot more secure. That section is about a foot and a half wide; you’re dodging boulders, and about 10 to 15 feet on your right is a 1,000-foot cliff that drops down to this beautiful green river and red rock. It was very scenic, exciting and memorable.

It’s not just the scenery: Part of what I enjoy about OTL is the community because it brings together so many people who are excited about the same thing. It’s easy to feel sort of stuck in the Claremont bubble and OTL trips are a great way to get out and have a completely different experience.

Just outside the bubble: Joshua Tree, which is only two hours away, is a great destination for rock climbing. Another place that’s close by is Mt. Baldy. Our most heavily attended event of the year is the Baldy Speedo Hike, which is an experience every Pomona student should have. We hike to the top wearing Speedos, hiking boots and knee socks and bond over the strange looks we get from people.

Reaching the top: It can take weeks to figure out how to do a climb; you try it over and over and one day you come at it from a different angle, and you finally reach the top. Sometimes you find a climb, like “Necessary Evil” in Apple Valley, that is in a beautiful setting and the line you’re climbing is perfect. It’s just a question of trusting it and making yourself push through the exhaustion and fear. And it’s exhilarating when you reach the top.

The Outdoor Education Center: The great thing about it is it provides a lot of formal opportunities to be educated and gain wilderness skills, and it provides certification. If you’re not experienced, planning an outdoors trip can be a very daunting task, and OEC can provide that kind of expertise professors need to integrate field trips into their curriculum.

Daring Minds: One of the OTL commandments, which comes right after “being safe,” is “going big.” What that encourages you to do is go out and try something like hiking Mt. Baldy, which is about a 10-mile-long trail and 3,950 feet of elevation gain. Most students would say, ‘No way,’ but when you get a group of people together who know what they’re doing and know how to do it safely, you can push your boundaries and accomplish things that you never would have done on your own.