Blog Articles

How to Become the Creativity Guru of the 5Cs

October 25, 2016 by Mark Wood Comments Off

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Fred Leichter likes to tell the story of the 2000 election ballot from Dade County, Florida. “It was so poorly designed,” he says, “that an inordinate number of votes that were meant for Gore went to a third-party candidate instead. And that swung the whole election and the presidency to Bush.”

For years, he kept a copy of that ballot on his wall with a note saying “Design matters.”

Today, as the founding director of the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity, Leichter is bringing that message to the students of The Claremont Colleges.

Known as “the Hive,” the center was conceived as a place where students could form creative teams, be intellectually daring and work collaboratively to address complex challenges.

Bringing dynamic experience in fields ranging from higher education to technology, Leichter built his career as a design innovator and executive for Fidelity Investments. As senior vice president for design thinking and innovation at the Boston-based firm, he led teams focusing on user needs and experimenting with ways to speed up innovation.

Along with his Fidelity role, Leichter has served as a lecturer at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (commonly known as the d.school), teaching such classes as Designing with Data, Visual Thinking Strategies and Project Joy: Designing Delight into the Workplace. His founding director role at the Hive also includes a faculty appointment as clinical professor of engineering at Harvey Mudd College.

President David Oxtoby said Leichter was chosen for his leadership skills, team-building experience and track record of design innovation. “We are looking to Fred to help spark an environment where students push into new areas, look at problems in fresh ways and seek out surprising solutions.”

The following is a how-to manual in seven parts, tracing Leichter’s path from childhood to the Hive.

Grow up a faculty brat at Columbia University. Go to a Waldorf school that emphasizes creativity. Attend Swarthmore, spending a “study abroad” semester at Pomona College. Wish there were such a thing as a computer science major, but since there isn’t, major in math.

After graduating, receive two job offers—teaching high school math or becoming a programmer on Wall Street. Choose Wall Street because it cuts “against the grain” of your previous life. Take graduate courses in computer science and spend lots of nights debugging COBOL programs.

Meet your future wife, Jennifer, a financial analyst, and when she takes a new job in Boston, abandon Wall Street to join her. Work at a software company until it goes bankrupt, and take away an important lesson: Failure isn’t permanent, and you can learn from it.

Get a job at Fidelity Investments and design their first website, with a user interface that is largely unchanged decades later. Learn about human-centered design and begin to think of yourself as a designer at a time when most people think designers are people who sketch clothes.

Meet George Kembel and David Kelley, who are launching the d.school at Stanford. When Fidelity sponsors a class at the school, spend time there and bring new ideas back to your firm. Build a state-of-the-art design-thinking lab at Fidelity to focus on innovation from the perspective of unmet human need.

Return to the d.school for a full year as a fellow, taking and teaching classes and working on projects for Fidelity. Tell your wife your new dream is to build a creativity program at a small liberal arts college like the one you attended, though the chances of that seem slim.

Two years later, learn about the director’s position at the Hive. Though you still love your job at Fidelity, decide that this is the perfect place to pursue your dream. Consult your kids and family and negotiate with the colleges over a great space for the Hive, but ultimately say yes.

New Knowledge

October 25, 2016 by Carla Guerrero ‘06 Comments Off

PHYSICS: Professor of Physics David Tanenbaum

Organic Solar

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What was once a rare sight is now becoming more common: solar panels on the roofs of homes across the country. While solar technology has improved and is seeing exponential growth as an industry, Pomona College Professor of Physics David Tanenbaum notes that there are still a few factors limiting production at a mass scale globally. Tanenbaum and his student researchers are working to improve this by focusing on one important factor: the cost of the materials used in producing solar cell panels.

Tanenbaum explains that today’s solar panels, like microchips, are made with silicon, which requires a fairly expensive production process because of factors such as the need for high-temperature processing of high-purity materials. In building solar panels, he says, the difference in cost between silicon and less expensive organic materials is like the cost difference between manufacturing a flat-screen TV and printing ink on paper. Imagine, he says, trying to cover the globe with expensive flat-screen televisions; that’s where solar cell technology is today. Now imagine covering the globe with printed paper and how much cheaper and easier that would be. That’s where he wants to see solar technology go.

To this end, Tanenbaum and his students are making organic solar cells using chemicals like poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT for short, or [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester, known as PCBM. They are experimenting with differing materials and processing techniques to make the cells.

“The main thing we want to get out of solar technology is a way to produce electricity. Everyone would benefit from electricity that is carbon neutral, and solar cells require no fuel stock: no gasoline, diesel or nuclear pellets. The sun is out there whether we take advantage of it or not,” he says.

When it comes to solar cell technology, there are three main attributes: efficiency (how good the device is at converting sunlight into energy), production cost (how much it costs to produce cells and panels), and lifetime (how long the device will last).

Current solar technology has good efficiency and a long lifetime, but the challenge still lies in the cost, he says.

“The idea is to bring the cost way down, even if it means the efficiency and lifetime is not so good,” he says. “The efficiency of the solar cell is maybe not perfect, but the reality is there’s not a lot of waste. When you burn diesel fuel or natural gas to make electricity, you produce a lot of waste heat. You’re not wasting anything from the sun, just using a little bit for your advantage. The low cost allows us to displace natural gas, coal, all those things that have issues.

“In the grand scheme of things, we’d like to produce electricity at a low cost and put electricity in isolated places relatively easily. In the U.S. everyone is connected to the electricity grid, but not everyone in the world is. You can’t build a nuclear power plant for a small amount of people, but solar energy can grow with the population.”

Tanenbaum has been working on this particular type of solar cell technology research for about eight years and has had students in the laboratory helping since the beginning.

Sabrina Li ’17, a physics major, and Meily Wu Fung ’18, an environmental analysis major, were summer lab researchers through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP).

Li has been working with Tanenbaum since her first year at Pomona and is planning a senior project that encapsulates what she’s learned in the lab thus far. “I’m looking at organic solar cells. They’re organic instead of silicon, and I’m looking at trying to optimize efficiency and lifetime.” Li experiments with different materials and processing techniques to make the cells.

This was Wu Fung’s first summer doing research at Pomona. She’s working on testing the aging of cells over time, using cells created over the past three years in the lab that are still working today. “At the end of the day, when we’re done making the cells, it’s really gratifying to measure them and see what’s come of it.”

Tanenbaum is on sabbatical for the 2016–17 academic year, continuing his research on solar cell technology at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

PSYCHOLOGY: Assistant Professor of Psychology Adam Pearson

Not Your Average Online Quiz

pcm-fall2016text39_page_12_image_0003 It’s not your typical online poll—the type you find on BuzzFeed to determine which Hogwarts house you’d be sorted into, or what your Game of Thrones name would be. Assistant Professor of Psychology Adam Pearson, along with Princeton social psychologist Sander van der Linden, have developed a series of online surveys for Time magazine to see what Americans think about issues like climate change, gun safety and genetically modified food and how in touch they are with others’ beliefs on these issues.

The first survey was on how different groups feel about gun ownership. It was to be followed by surveys on issues like climate change, evolution, GMO food consumption, vaccination and gun safety.

At the end of each survey, the reader has a chance to see if he or she has accurately assessed how other people feel about the same subjects. The results, says Pearson, can be very surprising.

“Many seemingly intractable social problems come down to a deceptively simple, but quite powerful truth: Social perceptions matter. As adults, we may like to think that peer pressure is something that only kids are susceptible to—that we come to hold the views that we do through logic and reason—but decades of research in social psychology suggest otherwise,” he says.

“We thought this would be a terrific opportunity to test and expand on a well-known set of social psychological effects with a large and diverse sample of Americans,” says Pearson of the partnership with Time. “We know that one of the best predictors of how you’ll feel about an issue is what you think others think about the issue,” he says. For example, people are more inclined to believe in human-caused climate change when they perceive that there is scientific consensus on the subject, regardless of which political party they align with.

“These meta-perceptions or meta-beliefs—what we think others think—matter,” he adds.

One way this shows itself is what is known as the false consensus effect. “We tend to (and often falsely) assume others hold the same beliefs that we do,” says Pearson. “Another effect is called pluralistic ignorance—a tendency to perceive that my private beliefs don’t align with those around me. Both types of perceptions can influence how we behave. If we want to build consensus on issues that are important to us, we first need to accurately understand others’ views. This is especially true for building consensus on contentious and politicized issues, from gun safety to the foods we consume.”

The findings will be used by Time and shared widely after the surveys are concluded. Pearson and van der Linden also plan to use their findings in their research to broaden our understanding of factors that shape public opinion on these issues.

—Carla Guerrero ‘06

New Pomona Faculty

October 25, 2016 by Jeff Hing Comments Off

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Every fall, Pomona College welcomes a special group of people to campus: new professors, visiting professors, lecturers and fellows. This year the College has a group of 36, including, from left to right: Back row: O. Maduka Ogba, Robbins postdoctoral fellow in chemistry; Mark Caspary, post-M.F.A. fellow in theatre and dance; Scott Medling, visiting assistant professor of physics and astronomy; Vivek Swaroop Sharma, visiting assistant professor of politics; Peter Andrew Mawhorter, visiting instructor in computer science; second row from back: Robin Melnick, instructor in linguistics and cognitive science; Kimberly Ayers, visiting assistant professor of mathematics; Jill Pace, assistant professor of physical education and women’s basketball coach; Tyler LaPlante, visiting assistant professor of economics; third row from back: Kara Wittman, director of college writing and assistant professor of English; Patricia Blessing, visiting assistant professor of art history; Guadalupe Bacio, assistant professor of psychology and Chicana/o-Latina/o studies; Lei Shao, visiting assistant professor of economics; fourth row from back: Nicole Holliday, Mellon Chau postdoctoral fellow in linguistics and cognitive science; Joanne Nucho, Mellon Chau postdoctoral fellow in anthropology; Carolyn Ratteray , assistant professor of theatre and dance (now tenure-track); Giovanni Ortega, assistant professor of theatre and dance (now tenure-track); and front: Katya Mkrtchyan, visiting instructor in computer science. Not pictured: Nani Agbeli, lecturer in music and director of the West African Music Ensemble; Richard Asante, visiting African scholar in international relations; Martha Bárcenas-Mooradian, lecturer in Romance languages and literatures; Zaylin Cano, lecturer in dance; Brett Hershey, lecturer in theatre and design; Rushaan Kumar, visiting assistant professor of gender and women’s studies; Whitney Mannies, lecturer in politics; Audrey Mayer ’94, lecturer in environmental analysis; Sam Miner ’06, lecturer in mathematics; Claire Nettleton, lecturer in Romance languages and literatures; Alexandria Pivovaroff, lecturer in environmental analysis; Elm Pizarro, lecturer in dance; Meagan Prahl, lecturer in theatre and dance; Andrew Sappey, visiting assistant professor of chemistry; Meghan Sisson, visiting assistant professor of physical education and men’s and women’s swim coach; Corey Sorenson, visiting assistant professor of theatre; Ousmane Traoré, assistant professor of history and Africana studies; and Samira Yamin, lecturer in art.

Aboard the Vallejo

October 25, 2016 by Jodie Hollander ’99 Comments Off

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On the first morning of my writing residency, I looked out the window and was filled with dread. ‘It’s back,’ I thought. For months I’d been battling episodes of vertigo, which seemed to strike after changes in elevation. And since I’d just flown from the mountains of Colorado and landed at sea level, I was sure it was back, and just in time to thwart this dream opportunity. Fortunately, what I thought was an imbalance in my inner ear was actually the gentle swaying of the outside world. After all, I was on a boat, a houseboat in fact—the SS Vallejo—home to the newly created Varda Artist in Residence (VAR) Program.

The Vallejo had a rich history before landing in the hands of the current owners and program directors. Originally a passenger ferry in Oregon, after being decommissioned, the Vallejo was due to be sold for scrap metal. Fortunately, in the magical year of 1947, Jean Varda bought the boat and turned it into an artists’ haven in Sausalito, CA. Varda invited others, such as Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, and Allen Ginsberg to join him. Soon the boat was a flourishing artists’ community, complete with a reputation for wild parties that experimented with alternative ways of thinking. The Vallejo also became home to many of the Beat poet gatherings, as well as the conversations Alan Watt recorded that came to be known as the “Houseboat Sessions.” After Varda’s death in 1971, the boat changed hands several times. In 2015 the Vallejo officially became the home of the VAR program.

Après Le Deluge
After Rimbaud

After the idea of the deluge

ended, a little hare appeared

in the moving flowers, spoke

of rainbows lighting the spaces

of a spider’s web: the colors,

it said, can be seen only

after the years of darkness.

But the stones, the old

unbelievers, remained unmoving

in the streets, and watched

as the same stalls were erected,

the same ships were hauled to sea.

Only the children, looking out

from their big glass houses, saw

the New World like a painting,

like something from a dream.

Among the other artists with me were a rock musician from New York, a sound artist from Portland, Ore., and a visual artist from New Zealand. Not only was I the only writer, I was also the program’s first poet. Before my arrival, I’d just completed my first full-length poetry collection, My Dark Horses, and I was waiting to hear news from publishers. Given that I’d been writing about the rather heavy topic of my childhood, I felt both a sense of accomplishment and relief after finishing the book, and I was looking forward to using the residency to tackle something new. Originally I’d planned to translate the French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations. However, only a few days into the project, and with the boat’s rich inspiration, I found myself creating a sheaf of my own new poems that built off Rimbaud’s poetry.

I was delighted by the simple yet elegant space I’d been given for my work. My room was a freshly painted white, and three of its walls had expansive views of Sausalito Bay. Blooming plants were in every corner, and the large windows allowed the fresh air and the music of the ocean and birds to enter. I faced my desk toward the long view of the water and unpacked my favorite collected poems: by Philip Larkin, Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, and Donald Justice. I placed them next to my computer and was ready to work.

However, no progress was to be made without a strong cup of coffee. I unpacked my stovetop espresso maker and beans and figured I’d be set. After looking around the kitchen, I was surprised to find I’d be grinding my beans by hand and working up a sweat from turning the crank hundreds of times. I eventually grew accustomed to this ritual and even came to enjoy it. But as it turned out, the real coffee challenge was yet to come. One of the unique things about houseboat living is that one must climb a ladder to reach one’s room. Other than the possibility of a drunken stumble or unexpected bout of vertigo, it hadn’t occurred to me that the ladder would be an obstacle—I was forced to devise a system. First, I’d take a few sips to lower the coffee level in my mug and to give myself a small shot of caffeine, should I need to make a quick save during transport. Then, I’d hold the side of the ladder with my left hand moving the coffee up one rung at a time with my right. Meanwhile, my feet followed suit, one rung at a time, until my coffee and I were both safely delivered up the ladder to my desk and my computer.

I’m sure this looked ridiculous, particularly to the others who simply drank their coffee in the kitchen and avoided the drama altogether. But aside from enjoying my coffee in solitude, I’d developed this quirk of needing a mug of coffee beside me while I worked; thus the struggle was worth the effort.

Vagabonds
After Rimbaud

Oh, pitiful brother,

I cannot be your sister

you cannot be my brother,

since you are still a mistress

to our late mother—

Many years have passed,

and these days I wonder,

what’s become of you

and what foreign land

do you these days inhabit?

Russia, Japan, China,

in that mind of yours

you were never right.

But what if now we met?

Could I restore you

to your original state;

or would you drag me,

just as She did,

into your dark room

of old howling sorrows?

Bringing an empty coffee mug, or anything for that matter, down the ladder was much easier than taking it up. When I first arrived, I’d made a dozen or so trips up and down carrying my clothes and books in small, backpack-sized deliveries. But at one point, the rock musician suggested to me: Why not just throw your clothes down? An excellent idea I wished I’d thought of myself! This began the jettisoning of shorts, dresses, and pants to the main level of the boat in a Great Gatsby-esque moment of liberation. I’m sure, at the very least, the Beat poets would have approved.

The program allowed as much or as little contact with the outside world as we liked. Some of the artists spent their days exploring the offerings of San Francisco, while others stayed on the boat. I was of the latter, less hip group. Among other reasons for this was the chance to observe a tragic pair of resident seagulls. This couple squawked outside my room early each morning; then walked on the roof with such deliberation that I wondered if two very serious lawyers were debating above me. One day I noticed that the gulls had built their nest precariously atop one of the pier’s wooden piles. Upon some investigation, I learned that each year their nest fell terribly into the ocean—the eggs lost to the deep blue. The parents cried out in painful squawks of loss, buried their beaks dejectedly in each other’s feathers, and seemed to mope around the boat until their grief passed. And yet each spring they’d rebuild their nest in the same place, and the same disaster ensued. I wondered what kinds of bird-brained behavior my fellow artists were witnessing on the streets of San Francisco.

From time to time the Vallejo hosted its share of social gatherings. These were nothing like the famed wild parties of the Beat Generation, but rather intimate events that allowed each artist to display his or her work. On our last evening, we ate salmon from the local fishmonger, broiled with fresh cherries. We made a colorful salad, cut thick slices of bread and drank plenty of California wine. Each of us gave a short presentation describing how the boat had inspired or changed our work during our stay. Later that night, we piled into a rowboat and quietly reflected on our time spent on the Vallejo. For my part, I chose to row—pushing the old wooden oars quietly through the dark waters.

NOTE: The Vallejo’s owners have requested that we note that the boat is not open to the public.

Oxtoby Memories, Part 2

October 25, 2016 by Staff Comments Off

He really brings science and the arts together. He feels that art is not just a tack-on, but it’s an essential part of going out in the world, something that strengthens innovation and empathy, which are the qualities that are really needed.

—Louise Bryson
Trustee

I got to know President Oxtoby pretty well when I was ASPC president. I was pretty frustrated at the time because I really wanted the faculty to require a Dynamics of Difference and Power course as a graduation requirement, and I spent my presidency organizing around that issue. One of the problems was that critics kept saying that not enough students wanted the change. I invited President Oxtoby to come speak at a Senate meeting, and I remember him telling us that our job was to do what was right, not what was popular. That was a pivotal moment for me that affirmed that I was being a good leader for following my heart. That message has stuck with me to this day.

—Lori Kido Lopez ’06

The times I’ve seen him most happy—when I’ve seen looks of what I would describe as pure happiness on his face—have been after his talks with students.

—Teresa Shaw
Special Assistant to the President

I think David has been an important spokesman for the liberal arts. As I look back over the past few years, his message has really resonated in countries like China, where traditionally people would opt for a large research university. To me, it’s inspiring to see that more people actually know what Pomona College is and what the liberal arts entail and that more Chinese students are pursuing this experience. I really applaud David for his continuous effort to be at the forefront in conveying the importance of a liberal arts education, in both domestic and international regions.

—Xiaoye “MD” Ma ’11
Trustee

When I think about David and Claire, I can’t help but think of the times they’ve been around music, and in particular, when they’ve been around the Glee Club. There’s always so much joy on their faces. It’s very clear that David enjoys not only the music itself, but the fact that he’s hearing students sing. It’s meaningful to him. We’ve had several times on tour when he and Claire were in our midst, and we’ve sung for them in particular. That’s the picture that comes into my head—the joy on their faces when we’ve stood in a circle around them and sung to them.

—Donna Di Grazia
Professor of Music

Oxtoby Memories, Part 3

October 25, 2016 by Staff Comments Off

It is hard to imagine Pomona without President Oxtoby. For more than a decade, David served the Pomona community well. He encouraged students to grow intellectually, challenged graduates to tackle big issues, and motivated all of us to take real, meaningful action to make the world a better place. I’ve come to know David quite well, and I’ve always been inspired by his deep commitment to fighting climate change. I have spent my adult life working to solve climate change, so it’s an issue that is personal to me. It won’t be solved by one person or one country. We can only solve this by coming together to learn, educate others and work towards a solution. That’s why President Oxtoby’s work to educate and engage with students on climate change has been critical to our fight, and it’s why I’m more optimistic than ever about finally solving our generation’s greatest challenge.

—Sen. Brian Schatz ’94
U.S. Senator from Hawaii

He’s always done what he thought was right for the institution, even when it was hard. Sometimes, when you’re serving others, you have to put your own feelings on hold. He was always able to do that and to listen to people on both sides of the issues.

—Rick Hazlett
Professor Emeritus of Geology

I read his CV, and I noticed his passion for environmental chemistry. So I said, ‘Oh, this is an opportunity.’ So I sent him an email and said, ‘What if the two of us were to team-teach a course, you know, a serious course in environmental chemistry?’ And he thought it was a wonderful idea. And it was a great team effort. David handled everything with the atmosphere, gas-phase, and then I dealt with the oceans and the land—the solid-phase. And he was always prepared, gave clear presentations and was simply on top of the material.

—Wayne Steinmetz
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry

I majored in chemistry, so David factored into my life pretty early on because of his background as a chemist. I was always really impressed by him. I mean, he literally wrote our chemistry textbook for freshman year. I got to know him a little bit when I took the Environmental Chemistry course, but we really didn’t get to know each other very well until the end of my time at Pomona, when he helped me with my application to Cambridge. I think he is just such a calming influence. He really takes the time to sit down and listen to what you’re saying before he starts trying to give advice.

—Mike Gormally ’11

I think President Oxtoby is probably one of the most outspoken leaders on college campuses when it comes to sustainability. For instance, we went to the Climate Round Table at the White House together last year. That was a small group of about 20 presidents who went to D.C. to speak with leaders at the White House. So I’ve seen his leadership in that setting, and then you see the emphasis on sustainability here on campus—the energy efficiency of the new buildings, for example—and you see him talking about carbon pricing, which is not something a lot of college presidents feel comfortable doing. But he has such a complete understanding of what’s going on, and he’s active in the community. He’s a real leader.

—Tom Erb ’18

Oxtoby Memories, Part 4

October 25, 2016 by Staff Comments Off

I have always admired the clarity of purpose President Oxtoby has demonstrated in terms of diversity and inclusion. He understands, at a very fundamental level, that living and learning in a diverse and inclusive environment is the best preparation for students at Pomona College. I’ve enjoyed working with him on these very important issues facing the College and I believe our students will reap the benefits of his leadership for decades to come.

—Ric Townes
Associate Dean of Students

I took a selfie with him and Mrs. Oxtoby at the freshman picnic, and it just felt wonderful to get to know them on the first week of school as a freshman. I think my friends and my teachers from my international school were all pretty surprised that I got to know President Oxtoby the first week of school, and were commenting on Facebook, like: ‘Wow, you got know president already.’

—April Xu ’18

What struck me about David when I first met him was his deep personal humility. In all of our conversations about priorities and financial decisions, his thinking is guided by a strong ethical core and a commitment to what is best for students in particular and the Pomona community as a whole.

—Karen Sisson ’79
Vice President and Treasurer

David is, in addition to everything else, a decent and caring person who detests injustice. It has been David’s commitment to justice that has led Pomona to the forefront in terms of recruiting, admitting and supporting a student body that is diverse in every possible respect.

—Richard Fass
Vice President for Planning, Retired

David Oxtoby’s commitment to diversity and to making the Pomona education accessible to all has been consistent, wide ranging and effective. Because of his leadership, Pomona has partnered with QuestBridge and the Posse Foundation, made the Draper Center and its signature PAYS program an important part of the campus, opened Pomona’s doors to Dreamers, and increased the number and diversity of its international students. Each one of these initiatives is significant, but, taken together, they have transformed the College. Talking to students, walking around campus, sitting in classes, you can easily see, hear and sense the effect of the changed student body on the intellectual life of the campus. Those of us who have worked with David on these issues have come to realize that we can depend on his commitment to equity, and diversity. His is not a fleeting here-today-gone-tomorrow commitment; rather it comes from an inner moral compass. Pomona is a changed and better place because of it.

—Shahriar Shahriari
Professor of Mathematics

Bulletin Board

October 25, 2016 by Staff Comments Off

Welcome New Alumni Association Board Members

47 hearty chirps to Jordan Pedraza ’09 as she steps into her new role as president of the Pomona College Alumni Association. On October 2, to kick off the first meeting of the 2016–17 Alumni Association Board at the Seaver House, Pedraza welcomed four new at-large members to the Board: Mercedes Fitchett ’91, Nina Jacinto ’08, Ginny Kruger ’53 and Don Swan ’15. Pedraza also shared her goal for the board this year—to foster “the three Cs”:

Communication—to raise the visibility of the Alumni Board so alumni have an additional channel to be heard, and also to share more updates and opportunities between the board and the community

Connection—to enhance alumni connections across a range of affinity groups, regions, identities and generations, as well as increase connections between alumni and students

Collaboration—to strengthen the productivity of the board as we work to create opportunities and events through special projects and our working committees

Congratulations, Jordan, and welcome new board members!

The Alumni Board is a group of dedicated volunteers who lead alumni engagement efforts and serve as conduits between the on-campus and off-campus Pomona communities. To see the roster of current board members and learn how to get involved, visit www.pomona.edu/alumni/alumni-association-board.

Calling All Lifelong Learners

Join

ideas@pomona

Ever wish you could go back to class?

The new Ideas@Pomona program curates the best academic content from around campus and the Pomona community to ignite discussion, share ideas and highlight daring research. To take part, join the Ideas@Pomona Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/ideasatpomona. Not a Facebook user? Check the Pomona College YouTube channel for videos and watch your email and this bulletin board for updates on development of a web-based home for Ideas@Pomona content.

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Settle Into Fall with New Pomona Book Club Selections

Fall semester is well under way and it’s time to head back to the library with Pomona! With a national election on the minds of many Sagehens, we’ve asked faculty across campus to recommend books that approach crucial political and cultural topics in insightful ways. Fall and early winter selections include:

October

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer

Recommended by Associate Professor of Politics Susan McWilliams

November

Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis

Recommended by Warren Finney Day Professor of History Helena Wall

December/January

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

Recommended by Associate Professor of Sociology Colin Beck

To join the Book Club and access exclusive discussion questions, faculty notes and video content, visit www.pomona.edu/bookclub.

Career Connections at Pomona College

Matt Thompson ’96, Wayne Goldstein ’96, Bill Sewell ’95, Jeremiah Knight ’94, Paulette Barros ’11

Pomona College Career Connections kicked off its year of programming at Claremont Graduate University’s downtown LA campus on September 27 with a panel of Sagehens discussing careers in advertising, digital media and virtual reality. Panelists included Paulette Barros ’11, Wayne Goldstein ’96, Jeremiah Knight ’94, Bill Sewell ’95 and Matt Thompson ’96. The Pomona College Career Connections program fosters meaningful relationships for Sagehens in their professional lives and provides opportunities for volunteers to help current students as they discover different career paths. To learn more about the Career Connections program and events, visit www.pomona.edu/alumni/careerconnections.

Avery Bedows ’19 demos technology from his virtual reality startup Altar Technologies, Inc.

Give your gift and tell us why you are committed to Pomona at www.pomona.edu/give.

The Other Oxtoby

October 25, 2016 by Sneha Abraham Comments Off

There’s another Oxtoby who has had a Pomona presence for the last 13-plus years. Claire Oxtoby has a view of the College and a college president’s role unique to that of a life partner. But she has been a participant at Pomona, not just an observer.

Eschewing the somewhat archaic title of first lady—too ceremonial, she says—Claire prefers to think of herself as a doer. She is a familiar face in the community, whether meeting with students, talking to staff, attending College events like concerts in Little Bridges or a lunchtime talk in Oldenborg, traveling with the president on Pomona-related trips or auditing a history of photography class.

Claire has felt like part of the fabric of the College, with all the challenges and triumphs woven through what she calls an exciting and dynamic place. Literally living and breathing Pomona 24/7 has meant the occasional awkward moment. Like the student who rang the Oxtobys’ doorbell, shower bucket in hand and towel slung over his shoulder, asking if he could shower at their place, because Wig Hall was flooded, and there was no hot water. Claire invited him in to talk, wielded the power of a president’s wife, and put in a call to facilities.

Sometime back, Claire read an Inside Higher Ed article that talked about how not to be a toxic asset as a college president’s spouse. Laughing, she says she didn’t find the don’ts all that useful, but the dos were. Simple things, she says, like being friendly, approachable and helpful. She has played the role of a bridge builder, she says.

“David has a contract with various expectations, and how the College does as a whole is the metric that he is measured by. But for my job there are no metrics, so it’s really about just fitting in and trying to be helpful or make connections in different places,” Claire says.

Stories she’s heard from students have sometimes led to her connecting them with alumni or a job. She says those personal connections, whether with students, faculty, staff or alumni are among the things she’ll miss most about Pomona.

An early education teacher in Chicago before they came to Claremont, Claire still shares David’s passion for education. It’s something that is positive and forward-looking, she says. Looking back and looking ahead, based on what she’s seen at Pomona, she believes the future is bright.

“It makes you feel good about the world each year when we’re graduating students. They’ve had this experience here, they’ve brought their experiences, they’ve had more, and now they’re going out, and it makes you feel hopeful.”

There Ought to Be a Law

October 25, 2016 by Carla Guerrero ’06 Comments Off

AP Photos by Rich Pedroncelli

Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia ’99 watches as votes are posted for and against her bill, AB1561, to repeal the sales tax on tampons and other feminine hygiene products. The bill passed but was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown. —AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

When Cristina Garcia ’99, then a high school math teacher living in Pasadena, was nominated by her siblings to move back to Southeast Los Angeles to care for their ailing parents, she didn’t think twice about taking on her new role as caregiver. Moving back home when her family needed her was an easy decision. Garcia says she’d do it again in a heartbeat.

But resettling less than a mile away from her parents’ home, she suddenly found herself back in the heart of Bell Gardens, the city she thought she had left for good.

When she was growing up, her idea of success had followed the same age-old formula familiar to many: Leave your poor hometown, make something of yourself and never look back. And she had done exactly that. After excelling in high school in the mid-1990s, she had left her hometown, known for its high teen pregnancy rates and polluted air, for the tree-laden and book-filled campus of Pomona College. With a double major in mathematics and politics in hand, Garcia thought she was set for life.

“I taught math for 13 years, and I had a pretty amazing life. I got to teach at the high school level and the college level,” she says.

Now she was right back where she had started.

Today, sitting in her district office that bears her current title, California Assemblymember, she recalls the sense of failure that soon enveloped her upon her return home just a handful of years before.

“We had been taught that success was leaving and never coming back to these communities,” she says. “And so I felt like a failure, in a way, coming back and giving up my comfy life that I had.”

It took a heart-to-heart intervention by her younger sister to help her snap out of it. “She said, ‘You have leadership skills and you have a responsibility,’’’ recalls Garcia. “I was like, you know what, I’m going to start going to council meetings and start asking questions, and eventually that led me to ask more questions.”

Garcia started by attending Bell Gardens’ city council meetings, trying to get information about the city budget and expenses. She hit a lot of roadblocks and found disturbing practices. Next door, in the City of Bell, residents were asking similar questions, trying to figure out why their taxes were so high. They, too, were hitting a brick wall, with no answers and no accountability from their elected officials.

Then in 2010, the Los Angeles Times broke one of the biggest corruption scandals to rock the state in recent memory. At the heart of it was rampant graft and theft of city coffers by a cohort of City of Bell officials. Outraged, Garcia joined with other local activists to form BASTA (Bell Association to Stop the Abuse).

“I saw it as an opportunity for change for the whole Southeast [Los Angeles], since the problems that plague these cities are all very similar. A lot of the dysfunction I saw in Bell Gardens was present in Bell and other surrounding areas,” says Garcia.

Largely thanks to the work of BASTA, six Bell officials were recalled. Eventually, they were brought to trial on corruption charges and are currently serving prison sentences. Through this yearlong process, Garcia’s resolve for change never wavered.

Assemblymember Cristina Garcia ’99 in conversation with Assemblyman Ian Calderon of Whittier just before the Assembly unanimously approved her bill, AB1673, which bans lobbyists from hosting fundraisers at their homes and offices. —AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

“Failure was never an option, because failure was not an option for my community. I had a sense of responsibility to take our communities back. I thought I’d be there for three weeks, but it was over a year,” she recalls. “Then I was done. I was tired. I thought: I’ve done my part, and my parents are doing better. I can go back to my old comfortable life.”

But by then, that “old comfortable life” was just a mirage.

In 2012 her leadership abilities were called upon again when she was asked to run for State Assembly in the upcoming election. Although she hesitated at first, it was her sense of social responsibility that helped her make the choice.

“We’ve had absent representation for my whole life. I realized I had to sacrifice my comfortable life and become a public figure. I’d been private all my life. I’d been independent all my life. I’d been doing math all my life, so you don’t get to talk to people all the time—and that all changed all of a sudden when I decided I was going to do this. That sense of responsibility has continued to be my guiding principle.”

Social Responsibility

Garcia’s sense of social responsibility was shaped during her time at Pomona College. She came to campus at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment ran strong in California politics. She protested and organized against Proposition 187, which made undocumented immigrants ineligible for public benefits, and Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in public universities.

“I was very aware of the opportunities and privileges that I had and how different I was from most of my peers back home who didn’t get to go to college or who did get to go to college but didn’t get to have the same opportunities I had at Pomona—personal attention, study abroad, or when I didn’t have money for books, being able to receive a grant for books,” says Garcia.

“It came with a sense of social responsibility. There were a lot of social justice discussions on campus when I was there. I was there as Prop. 187 had passed and Prop. 209 was going on, and Pomona College allowed those discussions to happen.”

That sense of social responsibility continued to guide Garcia well into her career as a teacher, and in her decision to run for the state Assembly.

In 2012, defeating a longtime incumbent, Garcia was elected to represent the 58th Assembly District, which includes the cities of Artesia, Bellflower, Bell Gardens, Cerritos, Commerce, Downey, Montebello, Norwalk and Pico Rivera. She was reelected in 2014 and is up for reelection again this November.

Garcia came into office with the stated goal of making politics more transparent and rebuilding the public’s trust in government, and in 2014, she introduced a wide-ranging package of ethics and transparency measures. Five of these passed and Gov. Jerry Brown signed them into law.

Garcia is proud of that accomplishment, but she’s not sitting back and relaxing. She likes to keep busy.

In her four years in office, Garcia has focused on three areas dear to her heart: good government and reform, environmental justice, and elevating and expanding the role of women in society and government. She chairs the Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review, and she is the vice chair of the Legislative Women’s Caucus.

“I decided that to be legislator, I was going to legislate to empower other women and change that. There’s a lot of work and not enough women, so I want to share the wealth with other women,” she says.

Among her most recent and lauded efforts is the so-called “Tampon Tax,” a bill that would repeal the sales tax on pads, tampons and other menstrual items. Although Gov. Jerry Brown recently vetoed the bill, Garcia is not giving up.

“I am known as ‘Ms. Maxi.’ I am the ‘Tampon Lady’ everywhere I go. ‘Ms. Flo.’ And it’s fine; I take on the jokes because I get to expand on women’s health care. It’s not something to be ashamed of or to see as something that is dirty,” says Garcia with a smile. “It’s exciting to talk to young women. It’s exciting to see it become a national discussion. It’s exciting to see women’s health in a different way, and it’s exciting because it affects our day-to-day life.”

Recently, Garcia also introduced legislation to revise an outdated definition of rape—an issue brought to light after a judge sentenced former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to six months after he was convicted on three felony counts of sexual assault. Garcia was moved to action after reading the open letter penned by the unnamed survivor in the case.

“Part of getting rid of our rape culture is talking about it, but it’s also about how we define it. … If we’re going to end rape culture, we have to call rape what it is—it’s rape.”

Investing in Government

Although she’s faced a lot of setbacks, Garcia remains undaunted. Picking up lessons from her past, it seems like failure is no longer part of her equation.

When asked what advice she would give a younger Cristina or college students of today, she says simply, “Don’t do it all.”

Another tough lesson learned.

Garcia says she did indeed try to “do it all” as a Pomona student, a habit that she carried over in her first years in the legislature.

“For a while I tried 20 different clubs [in college], but it’s better to find one or two that you’re passionate about and be really good at it,” she says. “This year I’ve pared it down to the basics, things I really care about. So I only have seven bills that I’m working on. They’re a lot of work, but really hands-on and I’m really passionate about them, and I’m much happier about the work that I’m doing.”

Her advice to students: “Find something you’re passionate about and get engaged in it and figure out how you’re going to be engaged. Take on leadership roles like president or secretary.”

And Garcia is helping her constituents of all ages become agents of change. Her annual “There Ought to Be a Law” contest gives residents a chance to submit proposals to improve their community.

Last year, a local fifth grade class invited Garcia to their classroom for a special presentation on the nearly 1.5 million people of Mexican descent who were deported by executive order in the 1930s. “The students felt that history was repeating itself, so they did presentations; they wrote poems and books. They became activists and lobbyists,” she says.

Garcia encouraged the students to enter her contest and they won. Last October, they saw their proposal signed into law by Gov. Brown.

This year, all new public school history textbooks will include information about the Mexican Repatriation Act of the 1930s.

“I’m an idealist at heart,” she says. “I’m an idealist in the belief of the social contract, that in order to have a government that works for us, we have to invest in it.”

That’s a tall order, but Garcia is game. Sitting in her district office, Garcia says, “There are times when I joke: Can I retire now?”

Not for a while, it seems.

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