A student trip to China leaves a lasting legacy. 

Chiu-Mi Lai ’83, pictured here on her 1981 journey to China (Metate, 1983).

When Chiu-Mi Lai ’83 boarded a train in Hong Kong bound for mainland China in 1981, she carried more books than luggage. She also carried a rare opportunity to see a country that had only recently reopened to the world.

More than four decades later, that journey has come full circle in the form of a new gift to Pomona College.

Lai and her husband, David Mohrig ’83, established an endowed fund honoring Emeritus Professor of Politics David Elliott and his wife, Mai Elliott, whose mentorship left a lasting mark on her life.

“This gift is an acknowledgment of the impact a professor can have on students, which is the greatest reward for a teacher,” David Elliott says.

The fund will support Pomona students pursuing experiential learning opportunities in Asia, covering costs including travel, research and service projects.

“About half of Pomona students study away, and we are committed to expanding those opportunities so more students can engage in the transformative learning that has long defined the College,” says Kara Godwin, assistant vice president and chief global officer.

The 1981 trip took place as China was slowly emerging from the devastation of its cultural revolution and was tentatively opening to the outside world. This allowed Nanjing University to accept a group of students from the College as part of an exchange, making Pomona students, as David Elliott says, “pioneers”—part of an unofficial diplomatic opening between the U.S. and China.

Lai recalls lectures unfolding on trains, stacks of books hauled overseas and the close-knit group navigating an unfamiliar world together.

Group photo taken at the gate of Nanjing University. Left to right: front row, third from left, Mai Elliott holding Bryan Elliott; fifth from left Profesor David Elliott. Back row: second from let and continuing, Jeanne Wong, Rudi Jeung, Tillie Fong, Janie Stoddard, Chiu-mi Lai, Teacher Zhang, and Jeannie Lee

“David and Mai had to manage everything—courses, travel, bureaucracy—all with their 5-year-old son in tow,” Lai says. “Looking back, I appreciate even more the sacrifice they made in taking us there.”

For David Elliott, the experience was just as formative.

“Whenever Mai and I reminisce about that trip, we remember the students’ curiosity about a country they had known only through classes,” he says, “and the unfailing warmth and generosity of the Chinese people, who had so little at the time, yet showed such resiliency and hope for the future.”

Lai, who along with Mohrig taught at the University of Texas at Austin before retiring in spring 2026, says she and her husband shared the lessons from their Pomona experience with their students, as well.

“Learning happens in the classroom, but so much of what stays with you for the rest of your life happens outside of it,” she says.

To learn more about supporting study away opportunities for Pomona students, contact Kyle Davis, senior director of development at Kyle.Davis@pomona.edu.

Ali Bennett ’27

Hometown: San Francisco
Major: Mathematics
Pomona sport: Women’s Basketball

Ali Bennett ’27 has been fascinated by sports analytics since she read Michael Lewis’ renowned 2003 book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game her first year at Pomona College.

This summer, she used the Pomona College Internship Program (PCIP) to learn what would be required of her should she pursue a career in such a data-driven field.

Bennett interned with the San Francisco Seagulls Baseball Academy, which offers all-season developmental teams for youth, high school and collegiate ballplayers.

As a data and analytics intern, Bennett worked with game-day technologies that track player movement, keep live score and record gameplay from different angles on the field.

Between first pitches, she drew up scouting reports, cut video upon request and crafted a dashboard for players to see their statistics. She was also expected to be on top of communication and respectful of others’ time—the same habits that help her basketball team function.

“Quick and reliable communication helps build trust and makes everything run smoothly,” she says.

The six-week apprenticeship has convinced Bennett to pursue a career in sports analytics—a path several Pomona alumni have followed in recent years to great success.

She intends to use her experience in San Francisco to guide her senior thesis, and after she concludes her playing career at Pomona this winter, she plans to look for analytics work in basketball, her true love.

“I’m looking forward to coming up with useful connections between the sport and the numbers,” she says. “It’s super cool to now know I can use numbers to make a big impact on the game.”

If you asked me about my Pomona origin story, I’d take you back to the day I received my acceptance letter from Dean Bruce Poch. At the end was a handwritten note detailing my application and experience. No other admission letter had a personal touch. Pomona, a place I couldn’t even afford to visit, showed what it meant to be a small liberal arts college.

That’s one reason the theme of Originals resonates deeply with me. It celebrates what makes Pomona special: creating a place where you’re recognized for who you are and who you are becoming. This is a difficult task, and Pomona delivers.

Like all Sagehens, that was made possible by alumni and donors whose generosity helped me say “Yes!” to Pomona after the College said yes to me. My family couldn’t fully pay for Pomona. I took out loans, earned scholarships and, most important, received generous financial aid, thanks to those who came before me.

Now, I give for those whose origin stories are just being written. Today’s students are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers and leaders, and each of us has a role in ensuring these Originals can say “yes,” too. I hope you’ll join me in supporting them.

Chirp!

Robi Ganguly ’00
President,
Pomona College Alumni Association Board
alumni.board.president@pomona.edu

Caryl McNeilly ’79 (left), Nina Ye ’24 (second to right) and Frank Albinder ’80 (right) roll up their sleeves for the annual 4-7 Day of Service, helping clean up their local community during a neighborhood trash pickup.

After graduation, Nina Ye ’24 was eager to put her politics, philosophy and economics degree to good use when she moved across the country to Washington, D.C., for a role in the federal government. But in less than a year, her career came to a sudden halt when the agency was affected by mass layoffs.

As federal workforce reductions reshaped the region, a career networking event with the Pomona College Washington, D.C. Regional Chapter became more than a professional gathering. For those like Ye navigating an uncertain time, it offered the comfort of a Pomona community 2,600 miles from campus.

“I had only been out of college for a year, so finding a village of Sagehens who genuinely wanted to help each other made D.C. feel like home,” Ye says.

(From left to right) Netta Kaplan ’20
and Marc Rod ’20 meet current student
Jefferson Wright ’28 at last year’s Winter
Break Party, where Sagehens from
different generations came together.

That sense of belonging is at the heart of Pomona’s regional chapters. Part intellectual community, part social network and part touchstone, the chapters create places for Sagehens to carry the College wherever they go.

However, few places demonstrate that quite like Washington, D.C.

Reestablished in 2023, the D.C. chapter has grown into a thriving Sagehen community of more than 1,000 alumni and 100 family members of current students within a 60-mile area of the nation’s capital. It is one of Pomona’s 10 regional chapters, which are open to alumni and families alike and designed to help Sagehens stay connected to the College and one another.

At any Washington event, a Sagehen who arrived weeks ago might find themselves talking with a 40-year resident. Journalists meet lawyers; public servants mentor students; graduates from the 1970s trade stories with those who left campus only months ago.

For chapter chair Teresa Kwong ’91, that is what makes it so distinctive.

“This city is a place of comings and goings, but Pomona gives us a shared foundation—you can quickly walk in a room and feel like you’ve found your people,” she says.

Kwong is part of the chapter’s seven-member leadership committee, along with Caryl McNeilly ’79; Frank Albinder ’80; Amy Van Buren Rhodes ’07; Marc Rod ’20; Daniel Silverman ’19; and Ye. Their lives and careers have taken markedly different paths, but Kwong says they each bring something different to the community they are building together.

That range is reflected in the chapter’s programming, too. Events have explored topics from human trafficking to election analysis to international affairs, as well as service and networking events.

(From left to right) Mercedes Fitchett ’91,
chapter Chair Teresa Kwong ’91 and
Martina Vandenberg ’90 reconnect at
an event where Vandenberg shared
insights from her work combating
human trafficking.

For Rod, a senior congressional reporter, he points to a chapter event featuring Pomona Politics Professor Mietek P. Boduszyński and his work on Ukraine-related issues at the Department of Defense as one example of how the chapter helps extend the College’s intellectual life far beyond the classroom.

McNeilly, who moved to D.C. in 1980, says she has found particular value in the chance to meet Sagehens whose experiences differ from her own, calling these connections “invaluable.”

The chapter’s leadership committee hopes for even more of these encounters in the years ahead. Kwong wants the chapter to grow by bringing new voices into the fold. McNeilly would welcome more visits from Pomona faculty, creating opportunities for lifelong learning. Ye envisions partnerships with other chapters, including New York, that could bring Sagehens together across an even wider geography.

“I’ve seen firsthand how, when life takes an unexpected turn, this community shows up and has a way of helping people rediscover what it means to be a Sagehen,” says Ye.

For a city of arrivals and departures, those connections take on particular meaning: someone is always new, while someone else always knows the way around. And in the span of one gathering, Sagehens whose lives might otherwise never intersect find themselves flocking to a nest entirely their own.

Interested in joining a regional chapter in your area? Visit our website to find one near you.