Madi Vorva ’17 (right) on the Baram River in Malaysia

Madi Vorva ’17 has been an environmental activist since the sixth grade, when she and a fellow Girl Scout started a national campaign to pressure the organization to commit to using deforestation-free palm oil in their cookies. However, until this spring, when she joined a clinic trip to Malaysia and Singapore with the 5C initiative EnviroLab Asia, she had never actually visited the region she was working to save.

“This was the first time I’ve been on the ground with these issues, so it was a really meaningful moment for me, and I really appreciated the chance to finally connect my advocacy with my school,” says Vorva.

EnviroLab Asia, begun last fall with a Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment (LIASE) grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, allows participants from The Claremont Colleges to study big environmental issues like water quality, forest health, social justice and deforestation of rainforests to produce palm oil.

“One of the reasons EnviroLab Asia is important is that it has helped us understand the global nature of local environmental issues,” says Professor of Environmental Analysis Char Miller. “It’s a way for us to understand our complicity in these issues and the ramifications.”

Among the 5C students and faculty who accompanied Vorva on the trip were Ki’amber Thompson ’18 and professors Marc Los Huertos (environmental analysis), Zayn Kassam (religious studies), Stephen Marks (economics), Wallace Meyer (biology) and James Taylor (theatre).

As part of April’s Healing Ways Week, students built a stone-lined labyrinth at the Organic Farm to be used in walking meditations. “We wanted to involve our community in making a public art installation that can be used for ongoing contemplaton, practice, and study,” explains Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies Valorie Thomas, one of the orgqanizers of the weeklong event.

Titled “Healing Ways: Decolonizing Our Minds, Our Bodies, Ourselves,” the series of healing-related events also included workshops, lectures, practitioner presentations, art, and performance focused on healing and social justice.“We particularly intended to offer support to students who have been feeling traumatized and stressed by current social events and who are shouldering the work of doing critical thinking and activism,” says Thomas.

In an informal ceremony following the completion of the first stage of labyrinth construction, Thomas (above) stepped to the center of the labyrinth to read a passage from Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, “The Garden of Forking Paths,” which she describes as “a meditation on labyrinths and the benefits of occasionally losing your way.”

At right, Soleil Ball Van Zee ’19, a volunteer mentor for the the Rooftop Garden Mentoring Program, works with local high school students in the container garden atop Pomona’s Sontag Hall. A collaboration between the Pomona College Draper Center and Teen Green, a program organized by the local nonprofit Uncommon Good, the 5-year-old venture aims to increase activism and awareness around environmental justice, sustainability and gardening, as well as build leadership and presentation skills, according to Maya Kaul ’17, one of the program’s student coordinators. “When I see our hard work in the garden succeeding,” Kaul says, “with a lot of our seeds sprouting, it reminds me of the other ways in which our investments in the program have ‘blossomed’ via the growth of community within our mentoring program.”

The 5C a cappella group The After School Specials performed at the White House in April, singing their powerful rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens to You,” a song about sexual violence written for the documentary The Hunting Ground. Their performance was part of a White House Champions of Change event hosted by Vice President Joe Biden and attended by advocates for various causes from across the country.

The singers’ path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was paved by both activism and talent. As participants in the It’s On Us campaign to address the problem of sexual assault on college campuses, the singers won first place at the national Sing for Survivors competition, in which their video performance was judged by such pop music luminaries as Diane Warren, David Foster and LL Cool J.

The 18-member ensemble received the White House invitation just a few days before the event was scheduled, so the students took a red-eye flight into Washington, D.C., for their whirlwind visit. Amelia DeSnoo ’16 says they knew the song inside and out and were prepared to deliver a solid performance for the vice president, other senior administration officials and their fellow advocates.

“The fact that we sang at the White House means that our voices, advocating for such an important cause, are being heard on a national scale,” DeSnoo says.

Tenor Niko Tutland ’17 says he was struck by “the amount of exposure this is going to bring to the message of the song.”

DeSnoo believes the initial goal in this effort to combat sexual violence is to increase awareness of the problem. “The first step and the larger point of this campaign specifically in the short run is to allow college students to lean into the discomfort of knowing that this is an issue that is pervasive on all college campuses, even colleges like the 5Cs, which we consider to be a very safe space. … We also need to recognize that no one can put themselves into the mindset of a survivor of sexual assault.”

To see the group’s winning video performance, go to www.pomona.edu/media_colorbox/26506/default/en.