Blog Articles

Hey Batter, Batter …

October 19, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

Professor Amanda Hollis-Brusky at bat.

Where do the paths of the campus nurse, the chair of the Politics Department and an assistant vice president cross? This past summer, it was on the softball field as faculty and staff participated in the Pomona College Summer Softball League.

Bob Robinson, assistant vice president of facilities, started the league in 2022, with the goal of building community. He wanted to get “faculty and staff interacting in a very different way than they’re used to,” he says.

Meeting new people was what motivated Amanda Hollis-Brusky, professor and chair of politics, to join the league the last two summers. This past summer, her team consisted of members of the Office of Facilities, Asian Studies Program, Finance Office and various other offices across campus. “These are people I never would have met or gotten to know very well had they not been on my team,” Hollis-Brusky says.

Sagecast: Tackling the Difficult

October 19, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

Fentanyl. Ukraine. Race. The sixth season of Sagecast, the Pomona College podcast, launched in October. Hosted by Marilyn Thomsen and Travis Khachatoorian, this season features interviews with faculty and alumni who tackle difficult problems. Among this season’s guests:

Sagecast Pomona College: Tackling the Difficult

Dr. Michael Sequeira ’73, who became the public health officer for California’s vast San Bernardino County in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, and continues to battle the deadly fentanyl crisis there.

Mietek Boduszyński, a politics professor at Pomona and former U.S. diplomat who spent the 2022-23 academic year working at the U.S. Department of Defense on atrocity prevention and Ukraine, among other issues.

Leah Donnella ’13, an editor for NPR’s popular Code Switch podcast, blog and newsletter, which take on what NPR calls “fearless conversations about race.”

Listen at pomona.edu/sagecast or look us up on the podcast sites of Apple, Google or Spotify.

Home Page: Claremont Citrus Industry

October 19, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

The Claremont Colleges Library Special Collections’ citrus industry archives include the Oglesby Citrus Label Collection donated by the late Emeritus Professor of Biology Larry C. Oglesby and his wife, Alice. Special Collections also houses the David Boulé California Orange Collection, the Matt Garcia Papers on citrus and farm laborers, and the California Citrus Industry Collection, collected and gifted by Claremont Heritage.

The heyday of Claremont’s citrus industry in the first half of the 20th century is long past, but vibrant examples of crate labels featuring local scenes endure. The 1908 Carnegie Building, depicted below, served as the library of both Pomona College and the city of Claremont until 1914. Today, it houses classrooms and offices for politics, international relations, public policy analysis and economics.

The 1908 Carnegie Building, depicted here, served as the library of both Pomona College and the city of Claremont until 1914.

Mason Hall, (presented below), was completed in 1923 as a state-of-the-art chemistry facility, is 100 years old this year, as is Crookshank Hall, originally a zoology building.

Mason Hall, completed in 1923 as a state-of-the-art chemistry facility, is 100 years old this year, as is Crookshank Hall, originally a zoology building.

Today, Mason is home to classrooms and offices for history and languages, and Crookshank houses the English Department and media studies. In this view from what is now Stanley Academic Quad, Mason is at center and the building at left is Harwood Hall for Botany, built in 1915 and demolished in 1968. The displayed labels are from the Oglesby Citrus Label Collection. The late Professor of Biology Larry C. Oglesby, also known as “Doc O” to some, taught at Pomona for 30 years and was a mentor to several of the alumni featured in this issue, including Doug Bush’94, Cathy Corison ’75 and Kim Selkoe ’97.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, celebrating its centennial this year, hosted its first varsity college football game on October 6, 1923, with the USC Trojans playing none other than the Sagehens of Pomona College. (See story) The citrus label commemorates the 1932 Olympic Games, with the Coliseum’s famous peristyle incorporated below.

As commercial art, labels weren’t signed by the artists and lacked descriptions, though some might not have represented actual scenes. The image below at first suggests Bridges Auditorium, built in 1931, but Bridges has five double-height arches on each side, among other differences.

This image at first suggests Bridges Auditorium, built in 1931, but Bridges has five double-height arches on each side, among other differences.

The idealized vision of the citrus industry and life in a college town depicted on crate labels was not the experience of everyone in Claremont and surrounding areas. The Matt Garcia Papers in The Claremont Colleges Library Special Collections include research materials such as photos, oral histories and newspaper clippings related to Garcia’s book A World of Its Own: Race, Labor, and Citrus in the Making of Greater Los Angeles, 1900-1970. This image of citrus pickers in San Dimas around 1930 from the Pomona Public Library collection is included in Garcia’s book and used as its cover image.

The idealized vision of the citrus industry and life in a college town depicted on crate labels was not the experience of everyone in Claremont and surrounding areas.

Notice Board

October 19, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

Greetings from the President of the Alumni Association Board

Hello Sagehens!

Alfredo Romero ’91

I hope the fall is off to a good start for you. The 2023-24 Alumni Association Board kicked things off with our first online meeting in August to welcome new members, establish this year’s board committees and discuss key initiatives. Our first in-person meeting during the PCAAB Retreat Weekend on campus in October offered a meaningful opportunity to work together closely, gather with the Class of 2024 for a panel presentation and mixer, and connect with members of the Board of Trustees, who also met that weekend.

This year, the board is excited to work to expand our regional chapters, find opportunities to engage with alumni near and far, help plan and support Alumni Weekend 2024, build our online Sagehen Connect community and, of course, connect with students to learn how we can be helpful to them.

There will be many opportunities for us to meet up this year through regional chapter and on-campus events. Stay up to date with information and announcements through the Alumni Chirps newsletter and event invitation emails. If you’re in the Claremont area on Saturday, October 28, I’m hoping I’ll see you at Pomona’s 2023 Payton Distinguished Lecture with Anita Hill, the noted lawyer, educator and advocate for equality and civil rights. I’ll keep an eye out for you.

Until next time … Chirp!

Alfredo Romero ’91
Alumni Association Board President

See the current Alumni Association Board roster and learn more about serving on the board.

Update Contact Info

Moved or changed your email recently? Stay connected with Pomona by updating your contact information.

Pomona College Welcomes Sagehen Families at Family Weekend

Pomona welcomes hundreds of Sagehen families for Family Weekend each October. With a variety of special programs curated just for the weekend and plenty of time to spend with their students, families can enjoy visiting, learning and exploring. Planned highlights for October 27-29, 2023, include tours of our beautiful new Center for Athletics, Recreation and Wellness (CARW), a special welcome event with President Starr, a food truck dinner on Friday evening, exhibits at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College and much more. Members of the Family Leadership Council are always on hand to assist with the weekend and answer questions.

Family Weekend information and schedule available on our website.

Call for Distinguished Alumni Award Nominations

For over 30 years, the Pomona College Alumni Association has paid tribute to alumni who represent the values, spirit and excellence that are at the core of Pomona College by presenting Distinguished Alumni Awards. Nominations are now being accepted for:

Blaisdell Distinguished Alumni Award
Alumni Distinguished Service Award
Inspirational Young Alumni Award

Honorees are selected by a panel of past presidents and/or current members of the Alumni Association Board, and awards will be presented during Alumni Weekend in April 2024. The deadline to submit nominations is November 30, 2023.

Submit your nomination and learn more about past recipients.

Save the Date

Mark your calendars to save the date for Alumni Weekend and Reunion Celebrations next spring, April 25-28, 2024. All classes are invited back to campus to enjoy a festive weekend of reconnection, curated programs and events—plus hugs from Cecil. Classes ending in 4 or 9 will celebrate milestone reunions with class gatherings and Reunion Class Dinners on campus. Registration opens in early February, and now is a great time to take advantage of special room rates at local hotels for Alumni Weekend.

Visit for more information on making your reservations.

Welcome Chirps to Christina Tong ’17 and Jack Storrs ’19, National Chair and Chair-Elect of Annual Giving

A big warm welcome to Pomona’s National Chair of Annual Giving Christina Tong ’17, who began her 2023-24 term this past July. Tong is excited to serve in this vital philanthropic role to connect with the alumni community and partner in creating support for current students and faculty. Hitting the ground running, she began collaborating with the Office of Annual Giving last summer on several initiatives for this year and to establish a student philanthropy program with the aim of increasing students’ understanding of donor impact, the Pomona College endowment and the importance of alumni paying it forward and giving back. National Chair-Elect Jack Storrs ’19 will work alongside Tong to help support giving campaigns and other philanthropic endeavors to prepare for his transition to the lead role next year.

Pass the Torch to current and future Sagehens.

Get Involved With Regional Chapters!

Reach out to your local Pomona College Regional Alumni Chapter to help plan or attend events, casual gatherings and share all things Sagehen. Current chapters:

Bay Area
Chicago
Los Angeles
New York City
Orange County, CA
Puget Sound, WA
Washington, DC

Get in touch and learn more about starting a regional chapter.

Join the Sagehen Connect Online Alumni Community

Create Sagehen affinity groups
Access the official Pomona College Alumni Directory
Read Pomona College Magazine Class Notes
Provide student and alumni mentorship as a Sage Coach
Share announcements, photos and videos
Find and message classmates
Plus more!

To learn more, visit Sagehen Connect.

How To Find Class Notes

October 19, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

The Pomona College class notes and obituaries are password-protected online for privacy.

To access them online, alumni can visit Sagehen Connect and sign in or join now to register.

Once signed in, look for Class Notes & Resources in the list on the left side, just above Info and Support.

The Full Stack: 2003-2023

October 18, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

Each year since 2003, entering students have read a book—or books—together.

With the 20th anniversary of Pomona College’s annual orientation book in the rearview mirror, the full list makes for quite a stack.

Each year since 2003, entering students have read a book—or books—together. One thing has changed: Instead of receiving the book in the mail, most students now opt for electronic access.

How many have you read? Have a pick for the entering Class of 2028 next year? Books of poetry, short stories, essays or a volume that pairs well with a work of art such as a painting or film are being considered. Send your ideas to pcm@pomona.edu.

Each year since 2003, entering students have read a book—or books—together.

At Last, the Glee Club Goes Abroad Again

October 18, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

The Glee Club at Durham Cathedral in England, conducted by Donna M. Di Grazia, David J. Baldwin Professor of Music. Photo by John Attle

Going on tour has long been one of the high notes for the Glee Club. But the Gleeps, as they like to call themselves—think Glee People—had been grounded since 2020 before a giddy two-week tour to England and Scotland in May.

Photos via Instagram @gleeclub4747

A planned trip to Europe in 2020 was canceled by the COVID-19 shutdown, and the next two years were limited to small outdoor performances in Claremont and a Southern California tour. When the Glee Club took flight again in May, even some alumni from the past few years joined in after missing their chance.

“For those of us in the Class of 2020, a trip to Spain was supposed to be the perfect ending to our already incredible experience in the ensemble,” says Matthew Cook ’20, a former Glee Club co-president and a second-generation Gleep: His mother, Melissa Cook ’90, also sang in the ensemble. “We didn’t even get the chance to sing a full concert in our last semester, let alone go on tour,” says Cook, who earned a master’s in vocal arts from USC in May. “To be able to sing with the 2023 Glee Club and go on an international tour that I lost out on as a student, I feel like I got some closure in that part of my life that was disrupted by the pandemic.”

Photos via Instagram @gleeclub4747

After arriving in London, the Glee Club opened with a concert in St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, one of four benefit concerts for local charities. The choir also sang for a Eucharist service in Cambridge’s Trinity College Chapel, traveled to York for a concert in St. Michael le Belfrey and held another in Durham Cathedral (in Durham, of course). In Scotland, they performed in St. Andrews in a joint concert with the St. Andrews University Madrigal Group and closed their tour in Edinburgh with a concert at St. Giles’ Cathedral.

In more normal times, the Glee Club travels each year, with about one international trip for every three domestic tours to give each class an opportunity to go overseas. Other trips abroad have included Italy (2016), Poland (2012)and Germany (2006).

Besides alumni performers, there was an extra alumni assist on this one: Catherine John ’05, a violinist who works as a concert tour manager, helped plan the trip with Donna M. Di Grazia, the David J. Baldwin Professor of Music and conductor of the Glee Club and College Choir, and Elizabeth Champion, the Music Department’s concert production manager and tour manager. “The Glee Club sent me a very kind thank-you note, which I will cherish always,” John says.

Bookmarks Fall 2023

October 18, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

Arletis, Abuelo, and the Message in a Bottle by Lea Aschkenas ’95

Arletis, Abuelo, and the Message in a Bottle

Set in rural Cuba, Arletis, Abuelo, and the Message in a Bottle by Lea Aschkenas ’95 tells the story of a little girl and an old man who forge a lasting friendship that expands both their worlds.

A Stone Is a Story

A Stone Is a Story by Leslie Barnard Booth ’04 follows a stone’s journey through time as it forms and transforms, providing a window into Earth’s past along the way.

Don’t Look Away: Art, Nonviolence, and Preventive Publics in Contemporary Europe

In Don’t Look Away: Art, Nonviolence, and Preventive Publics in Contemporary Europe, Brianne Cohen ’04 advocates for the role of art to foster a public commitment to end structural violence in Europe.

Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother

In Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother, Peggy O’Donnell Heffington ’09 draws on diligent research to show that history is full of women without children.

American Burial Ground: A New History of the Overland Trail

Sarah Keyes ’04 offers a reinterpretation of the Overland Trail in American Burial Ground: A New History of the Overland Trail, focusing on how the graves of migrants who died along the way were leveraged to claim the land of Indigenous peoples.

The Seeing Garden

Set in 1910 on an estate in Northern California, The Seeing Garden by Ginny Kubitz Moyer ’95 is a coming-of-age story inspired in part by the great San Francisco Peninsula estates of the past.

Capacity beyond Coercion: Regulatory Pragmatism and Compliance along the India-Nepal Border

Susan L. Ostermann ’02 demonstrates how coercively weak states can increase compliance by behaving pragmatically in Capacity beyond Coercion: Regulatory Pragmatism and Compliance along the India-Nepal Border.

Becoming a Social Science Researcher: Quest and Context

Becoming a Social Science Researcher: Quest and Context by Bruce Parrott ’66 aims to help aspiring social scientists understand the research process, focusing on the philosophical, sociological and psychological dimensions.

Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy

Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy features exchanges between professors John K. Roth ’62 and Leonard Grob that underscore the most urgent threats to democracy in the U.S. and suggest how to resist them.

Just in Time: Temporality, Aesthetic Experience, and Cognitive Neuroscience

In Just in Time: Temporality, Aesthetic Experience, and Cognitive Neuroscience, Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr, also a professor of English and neuroscience, explores how beauty exists in time, integrating neuroscientific findings with humanistic interpretation.

Angie Zhou ’25 Claims National Singles Tennis Title

October 18, 2023 by Staff Comments Off

Angie Zhou ’25 Claims National Singles Tennis Title

A year after reaching the title match as a first-year player, Pomona-Pitzer’s Angie Zhou ’25 claimed the 2023 NCAA Division III singles championship in women’s tennis with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Olivia Soffer of Babson College on May 22 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.

Zhou became the fourth Sagehen to be crowned singles champion since the NCAA began holding a women’s competition in 1982, joining Shelley Keeler ’92 (1992), Claire Turchi ’97 (1994) and Siobhan Finicane ’10 (2008).

Zhou, a two-time Intercollegiate Tennis Association first-team All-American and the 2023 SCIAC Athlete of the Year in women’s tennis, also was selected the 2023 D-III Honda Athlete of the Year for Tennis, one of 11 finalists for Honda’s D-III Athlete of the Year.

A computer science major from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Zhou arrived at Pomona as a National Merit Scholarship recipient and National AP Scholar.

Pomona College Academy for Youth Success

October 18, 2023 by Marilyn Thomsen Comments Off

Cesar Meza ‘16 is completing doctoral studies in mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis.

As a freshman at Fontana High School, Cesar Meza ’16 was suspicious of the offer to join the Pomona College Academy for Youth Success (PAYS), a college access program that aims to increase the pool of area students prepared to enter highly selective colleges and universities.

Go to a town called “Claremont”—an unfamiliar place even though it was less than 20 miles from home—move into a Pomona College residence hall for four weeks every summer, take rigorous classes to become more competitive for college, eat in the dining hall every day—and not pay a dime? “Too good to be true,” thought Meza, who planned to bolt the first time he was asked for money.

Three years later—not having paid a single penny for his three summers in the PAYS program—Meza moved into a college dorm again. This time it was as an enrolled first-year student at Pomona.

This past summer, Meza—now a doctoral student in mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis—returned to Pomona to again teach math in the PAYS program during its 21st summer. Aiming for a career as a professor, Meza says his goal is to make math come alive in the classroom, just as PAYS professors did for him a decade ago.

“Some students start out saying, ‘I’m not a math person,’” he says. “Or they say, ‘I didn’t think I’d be able to do these types of problems when the course started but by the end, I feel comfortable enough to try harder things next time.’ That’s one of the things that brings me joy.

“I have an opportunity to teach at PAYS and to give back to the program and help other students realize what an opportunity it is,” Meza says. And he knows from personal experience: “This is a life-changing thing.”

The PAYS program, founded in 2003, is highly selective. This year, there were 214 applicants for 30 available spots in the incoming cohort. Participants come from low-income or underrepresented groups in a five-county area of Southern California. The goal is to help them prepare for enrollment and success in college. Selected students commit to a three-year program that begins after their first year in high school and includes an annual four-week residential summer program, plus connections with Pomona College faculty and staff during each school year.

The summer program is challenging—nearly three hours of intensive math or critical inquiry reading in the morning, with elective classes and study sessions in the afternoon. Rising seniors conduct hands-on research with faculty—a group of 2022 PAYS students undertook a project using the revolutionary CRISPR gene-editing technology, a method co-discovered by 2020 Nobel Prize laureate Jennifer Doudna ’85.

At the annual closing ceremony on the Pomona campus, PAYS alumni who have just graduated from high school return to announce where they will be attending college. Six hundred students have completed the program since its inception, and every one of them has been accepted to a four-year college or university. Some have chosen Pomona or other members of The Claremont Colleges, while others selected UCs, CSUs or Stanford. Others have gone to Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Princeton or Yale.

Being part of a cohort for three years helps the students form a sense of community. As one PAYS scholar says, there is “academic rigor, but we are together.”

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