INTRODUCING Volume 47, Number 2 - Pitzer College
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
INTRODUCING Volume 47, Number 2
CONGRATULATIONS PITZER COLLEGE
From the President Commencement 2014
Dear Class of 2014, Visions & Voices | Commencement 2014
We had a beautiful, joyous commencement and once again congratulations to you
all. While every graduation marks a milestone,yours was particularly meaningful
as it marked our half-century birthday. Pitzer College’s 50th Anniversary
Commencement included a procession of alumni from the past 49 years, led by
Katherine Gibbs ’65, one of the three women who made up Pitzer’s entire first
graduating class. Kathleen Kile ’97 created special anniversary stoles for you and her
fellow alumni to wear and Professor Brent Armendinger delivered a poem he wrote
especially for the occasion, a fitting bookend for the first commencement where poet
Commencement 2014 James Dickey spoke. Van Jones, who was so pleased to be selected as your speaker,
Opening Remarks gave a glorious commencement address and certainly honored our values and ethos.
A question that has been repeatedly in the news, particularly since the 2008
recession, concerns whether a college education is “worth it.” Setting aside the
argument about the intellectual benefits, a recent article in The New York Times
unequivocally declares: “Yes, college is worth it, and it’s not even close. For all the 50th Anniversary Commencement Highlights Video Senior Class Memories Slideshow
struggles that many young college graduates face, a four-year degree has probably
never been more valuable." A recent article in Science posited the interesting
perspective: “Over the long run, college is cheaper than free. Not going to college
will cost you about half a million dollars.”
On May 17, 2014, we celebrated our learning journey together and looked
forward to the next 50 years. The alumni who returned to campus that day embody
our belief that your Pitzer education does not end with graduation. A diploma
doesn’t sum up your time at college. What you have learned, the work you have
created, the friends you have made, the places you have gone, the professors you
have inspired—these are the things you take with you and they can’t be calculated or
measured or framed. You made Pitzer College a better place, and I cannot wait to see
what you do for the rest of world.
Provida Futuri, Commencement Speaker Senior Class Speaker 50th Anniversary Poem: Accepting the Charges
Van Jones, environmental advocate, civil rights activist and Brian Robbins ’14 Brent Armendinger, associate professor of English and
host of CNN’s Crossfire World Literature/Creative Writing
Laura Skandera Trombley
Pitzer College President
Special Announcement: Pitzer’s Climate Action Plan Alumni Greeting
Jessica Grady-Benson ’14 and Donald Gould, member, Board of Trustees Tracy McDonald Tindle ’82, president, Alumni Association Board
Charge to the Class of 2014
PITZER COLLEGE CLASS OF 2014
Commencement 2014 Next Chapters
Next Chapters: The Class of 2014
Pitzer College held its 50th
Anniversary Commencement
ceremony on Saturday,
274 Graduates… Alfredo Valencia will master the elements in Harvard’s
chemical biology PhD program and Samantha Morse will turn
the next page as an English doctoral student at UCLA
May 17, 2014. Hundreds of
friends and family members Dahnya Nicole Hernandez-Roach will design youth
turned out to celebrate the represent 28 states, 9 countries programs at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural
Class of 2014. History in Washington DC and Rachel Silbert will work to
and range in age from 20 to 50 create a low-carbon future at The Climate Group in London
Kelsey Frenck will study Arabic at the American University in
Cairo and Shawn Thuris will be all business as he earns his
13% MBA in Shanghai
designed their own majors and Sage Schaftel will create community partnerships at the
Governor of Colorado’s office in Denver and Andrea Mariana
graduated with degrees in: Frias Graterol will co-facilitate youth programs for Spectrum
• Healing as a Form of Resistance LGBT Center in the Bay Area
• The Culture and Labor of Food
Evan Slovak will set the bar as he pursues his JD at
• Technology and Social Change the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Hannah
• Embodied Knowledge Tannenbaum will plunge into a new career teaching scuba
diving in the Caribbean
22% were double majors
Rachel Kipnes will coordinate outreach at the Vietnamese
American Youth Leadership Association in New Orleans while
Leora Paradise choreographs an Israeli dance program for a
30%
Jewish community center in Vancouver
had minors
Braden Holstege will finesse finances as an analyst for
Payden & Rygel in Los Angeles and Somer Drummond will
14% were STEM (science, technology,
cure critters at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine
engineering and math) majors in New Jersey
75% studied abroad
Joanna Hong will pursue an MA in human rights at University
College London and Natasha Silfanus will begin a master’s in
management at City University London
Top 10 Majors
Haley Irving-Ruffing will mix it up as a chemistry teacher for
Exploration School in New Haven and Jaya Williams will serve
as manager/designer for Barbareño restaurant in Santa Barbara
1. Psychology
2. Special/Self-Designed Aiko Uytterhaegen is bound for Brussels to pursue an MA
in art history and Jennifer Burleigh will head to Columbia
3. Environmental Analysis
University for a master of social work degree
4. Economics
5. Sociology Justine Oesterle will explore the ecosystem at JPL in
6. Political Studies Pasadena and Annelise Stabenau will intern for Nordic by
7. Media Studies Nature in Berlin
8. English & World Literature Matthew Hoffer will embark on his MA in economics at USC
9. Human Biology and Emily India Richter will pursue a master of public health
10. Anthropology degree at Johns Hopkins University
Click for more Commencement 2014 photos
CLASS OF 2014 CLASS OF 2014
Athletics Awards
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Kemper Scholarship
Environmental Analysis Fellowships Leonardo Flores ’14
Evelyn Byer ’14
Jessica Grady-Benson ’14 Lingnan University Teaching Fellowships
Sophia Baldwin ’14
Capital Fellows Programs Vanessa Gonzalez ’14
Shiyana Gunasekara ’14
Nicholas Romo ’14 McNair Scholarship
Teaming with Talent
Uriel Rafael ’14
Community Water Solutions Fellowship Alfredo Valencia ’14
Jeremy Brecher-Haimson ’14
Napier Award for Creative Leadership
Coro Fellowships Marcela Jones ’14
Over the past four years, Pitzer’s student-athletes have won seven Shiyana Gunasekara ’14
Aidan Lukomnik ’14 Newman Civic Fellowship
SCIAC championships, including in Men’s Soccer, Women’s Tennis Romarilyn Ralston ’14 Arthur Levine ’14
and Men’s Water Polo. This year, Women’s Water Polo claimed the Nicholas Romo ’14
conference title for the third year in a row and Women’s Lacrosse Fulbright Fellowships
Alaitz Aritza ’14 Samantha Morse ’14
Princeton in Africa Fellowship
qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in Samantha Bromley-Coolidge ’14 Elizabeth Pedersen ’14
Emily India Richter ’14
team history. Evelyn Byer ’14 Autumn Pham ’14 Princeton in Asia Fellowship
Katherine Cabrera ’14 Nicole Pilar ’14 Sophie Howard ’14
Baseball Diving team captain Gabriel Leggott ’14 was Hannah Engles ’14 Alexander Rawding ’14
Jackson Badger ’14 and Coleman Lukas ’14 a SCIAC All-Academic team selection for Shiyana Gunasekara ’14 Claire Thoman Tedford ’14
helped the Sagehens rack up 97 wins over both swimming and track & field.
Robert Day Scholarship
Minji Lee ’14 Cesar Vargas ’14 Braden Holstege ’14
four seasons and qualify for the 2013 NCAA
Benjamin Levine ’14 Mia Yamashiro ’14
Division III Tournament. A Coaches Award Men’s Tennis
winner, Lukas served on the Sagehens Christopher Wiechert ’14, the 2011 ITA Zoey Martin-Lockhart ’14 Teach For America
advisory committee. National Rookie of the Year and West Lillian Barrett-O’Keefe ’14
Region Rookie of the Year, won Pitzer’s Freeman Awards for Study in Asia Danielle Frankel ’14
Men’s Basketball Most Outstanding Student Athlete Award Nicholas Romo ’14 Andrea Gochi ’14
This season, Xavyr Moss ’14 contributed to and was named first-team All-SCIAC all Noemi Larrondo ’14
the team’s highest win total since 2004. Moss four years. He helped the team finish 2nd German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship Benjamin Levine ’14
has been a first-team All-SCIAC and SCIAC in the SCIAC, reach No. 10 nationally and Autumn Pham ’14
All-Academic team selection. advance to the NCAA regional finals.
Elizabeth Pedersen ’14
Madeleine Ranson ’14
Gilman International Scholarship
Women’s Lacrosse Women’s Tennis Nicholas Romo ’14
Co-captains Kaitlin Jones ’14, Rachel Women’s Tennis reached No. 6 in the national Udall Scholarship
Kessler ’14 and Jana London ’14 propelled rankings and advanced to the NCAA Keiko Budech ’14
Lacrosse to finish 2nd in the SCIAC and regional finals. Claire Willey ’14 provided
Harvard National Model United Nations Jessica Grady-Benson ’14
qualify for the NCAA Division III Tournament the clinching singles victory in the SCIAC Braden Holstege ’14
for the first time. With a SCIAC-leading 68 quarterfinals and contributed an 8-1 doubles Benjamin Levine ’14 US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship
goals this season, London was named Pitzer’s win during the NCAA regional finals. Elizabeth Pedersen ’14 Samantha Morse ’14
Most Outstanding Student Athlete, as well as
first-team All-SCIAC and first-team IWLCA Men’s Track and Field Japan Exchange and Teaching Fellowship US Teaching Assistantships at Austrian Secondary Schools
All-West Region. Kessler was first-team All- Gregory Hook ’14, the team’s 2012 MVP, Harisimran Paton ’14
SCIAC and second-team IWLCA All-West was part of a 4×400 relay team that finished
Autumn Pham ’14
Region. Jones won the 2014 Julie and Frank 2nd in SCIAC this year with the second-best Joint Mathematics Meetings Outstanding Presentation
Fenton Award for Athletic Leadership and was time in program history. Brian Cohn ’14, W.M. Keck Foundation Summer Research Fellow
Karly Brint ’14 Peter Rominger ’14
a SCIAC All-Academic team selection. who runs the 400, was selected for the
SCIAC All-Academic team.
Congratulations
Men’s Soccer
Andrew Lind ’14 played midfield and was Women’s Track and Field
a key member of the starting lineup for the Alexandra Oxborough-Yankus ’14 ranks 6th
2012 SCIAC title-winning team. in school history in the hammer throw and
8th in the javelin. She has received All-SCIAC
Women’s Soccer honors and been named to the SCIAC All-
Sara Ach ’14 helped the Sagehens set a new Academic team.
team record with 13 wins this season and
finish a close 2nd in the SCIAC. Men’s Water Polo
Center Jarrod Gaut ’14 overcame injury to
Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving finish 2nd on the team with 48 goals and be
Both Men’s and Women’s Swimming
& Diving finished 2nd in the SCIAC
named first-team All-SCIAC and first-team
All-America. He plans to play professional to Pitzer College's Class of 2014 award winners!
and ranked in the top five nationally in water polo in Spain.
Division III team GPA. Men’s Swimming &
CLASS OF 2014 CLASS OF 2014
Graduate Profile Graduate Profile
Making the Right Moment:
Marcela Jones ’14
A
nother person might have called off the meeting. A few
people had canceled and dark clouds threatened rain. But
Marcela Jones ’14 is not easily deterred. At a picnic table in the
Huerta del Valle Community Garden, she switched seamlessly between
Spanish and English, laughing, cajoling and inspiring as she spoke
with Pitzer students and residents of Ontario, Calif. about launching
a reading program for children. She didn’t mind the nearby noisy
chickens or the roaming dogs she called “free-range Chihuahuas.”
“The saddest thing in life is when people wait for the right
moment,” she said. “Conditions are never going to be perfect, so just
do it and figure it out later.”
For Jones, timing isn’t everything, tenacity is. In 2007, she and
her husband were in the process of franchising a fast food restaurant
Click to hear Nicholas Romo talk about heading to China during his junior year p
in Ventura, Calif. when a car accident left her unable to walk. After
months in rehab, she decided she needed to pursue a college education.
加油 Keep Going: Nicholas Romo ’14
“If you’re in a wheelchair and don’t have a degree, you don’t have a
lot of options,” Jones said. “So I thought, OK. Plan B.”
She began taking classes at a community college, where a
counselor told her about Pitzer. Jones enrolled at the College through
the New Resources Program for non-traditional college-aged students
and was one of 18 New Resources graduates in May. An international
& intercultural studies major, she taught English to day laborers,
W
worked at the Community Engagement Center, spent a semester in the hen Nicholas Romo ’14 applied to college, he wasn’t one
Pitzer in Ontario (PIO) program and, in her spare time, wrote a novel, of those students with a mile-long list of extracurriculars.
feeding her “dorky passion” for everything literary. “I didn’t start my own nonprofit in high school,” Romo said. I came to Pitzer with the
This February, she won a Napier Award for Creative Leadership “I was struggling with some of the things nonprofits are created to help.” attitude that I had to cherish
and is using the award’s $10,000 stipend to start a literacy project for His father passed away when Romo was three and his mother had
the children of families who have plots at Huerta del Valle, an urban to support four sons on a special education teacher’s salary. Growing up everything; I had to take
garden created by PIO and community members. in northeastern Los Angeles, Romo worked in a shoe store after school, advantage of everything.
Jones knows the challenges many children in the neighborhood helped his family any way he could and studied hard, determined to get
face—she grew up less than two miles from the garden and spoke into a good college.
Spanish at home with her parents, who were born in Mexico. When Romo’s mother applied to undergraduate schools in the ’60s,
“I just want to do something that helps people,” she said. The Claremont Colleges seemed as distant and unattainable as Harvard,
And she knows that right now—whatever the conditions—is the especially for Latino/a students, Romo said. Five decades later, Pitzer’s Leadership Council, conducted summer research in Canada and helped
Click to watch Marcela Jones profile video p
perfect time to start. bright orange acceptance envelope arrived in Romo’s mailbox and “it coordinate Pitzer’s Native American program.
was like the dream had made it home.” He represented Pitzer at conferences across the country, from the
“I came to Pitzer with the attitude that I had to cherish everything; I Debating for Democracy Conference in New York City to the Public
had to take advantage of everything,” Romo said. Policy and Leadership Conference at Harvard’s Kennedy School of
He says he started college with an 18-year-old’s hubris and a Government. He won a slew of scholarships and fellowships, including
newcomer’s uncertainty. “I felt like, I’m this kid from this place and I’ll a Gilman Scholarship to study in China and a Newman Civic Fellows
need help.” Award for leadership and community involvement.
So he looked for mentors and found them all over campus: In May, Romo was named a California Senate Fellow by the Capital
professors, students, alumni, staff members, and the dining hall and Fellows Program in Sacramento. He will work in the Los Angeles
facilities workers who treated him like family. Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development this summer
By the time he graduated, Romo seemed to have done everything before joining the legislative staff at the state capitol in the fall.
but start a nonprofit. He had earned honors as a political studies and Today, Romo closes his emails with a Chinese saying he learned
sociology major, been elected chair of the Student Senate, tutored from his roommate in Beijing-加油 (jiā yóu)! He says it translates
low-income children as an Americorps member, served on the Latino roughly as “Add energy, keep going.”
CLASS OF 2014 CLASS OF 2014
Graduate Profile Graduate Essay
“ we learned… the urgency
for change, the endurance of
commitment, and the audacity
of action and social activism.
”
Click to continue the conversation with Meng Xu p
The Art of Communication: What’s So Right about Being Wrong
by Benjamin Levine ’14 (once in a while)
Meng Xu ’14
I
didn’t get to Pitzer College alone—none of us did. the playwright William Saroyan. “Try to learn to breathe deeply, really
M
eng Xu ’14 studied abroad twice during college: for One of the first students Xu met at Pitzer was Yo Wakita ’14, who is My dad and sister helped move me in. I remember the orange-clad to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as
one semester in Tokyo, Japan and for seven semesters in from Japan but lived in Beijing as a child. Now good friends, Xu often upperclassmen clapping and cheering while I dragged my luggage up much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you
Claremont, USA. Originally from Shanghai, China, Xu is one speaks with Wakita in Japanese while Wakita answers in English, with a the stairs of my first-year dorm. My new home was on the second floor laugh, laugh like hell, and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try
of nine international students who graduated from Pitzer College in May. Chinese saying tossed in every once in a while. of Pitzer Hall, nestled in between the residence director’s office and the to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”
Just as many students travel to Nepal or Costa Rica during college, Xu’s interest in how people communicate and break cultural garbage room. Wow, I thought, I’m not going to be able to get away with Saroyan’s quote highlights perhaps my biggest misconception
Xu came to Pitzer to learn a foreign language and experience a culture barriers drew him to media studies at Pitzer. He says he has learned anything. The only other thing I remember from move-in day was the about college, and its most valuable lesson. Like many of my classmates,
different from his own. He viewed his initial discomfort as a desirable both inside and outside the classroom from professors and fellow scorching heat, which was the source of some personal discomfort and my I came here thinking I was going to learn everything in my chosen
inevitability—a kind of prerequisite for a global education. students alike. first disagreement with my new roommate. field, as well as philosophy, sociology, biology, political science, art and
“I wanted to give myself a hard time, to push my limits,” Xu said. “Everyone is such a good example to me—I just copy and paste a He, being from Southern California, suggested turning off the room’s environmental analysis. But, once again, Pitzer proved me wrong. Yes,
Xu lived in Anaheim for two years during high school, but he little bit,” Xu said. air conditioning and opening the window because temperatures dropped I learned economics, and all my classmates learned their disciplines.
spent much of his time there with other Chinese students. During The international student who was afraid to speak English when quickly in the late afternoon, while I, the stubborn New Englander, But what we learned collectively as part of the Pitzer experience was the
Pitzer’s New Student Orientation, Xu was afraid he would embarrass he arrived on campus is now a funny, outgoing college graduate who wanted the AC cranked and all doors, vents and windows closed— urgency for change, the endurance of commitment, and the audacity
himself if he spoke English. “I couldn’t talk for like a week,” he said. enjoys chatting in multiple languages about media theory, fashion, and sustainability be damned. Well, after four years of familiarizing myself of action and social activism. We learned how to live, and what we
Today Xu speaks not only English, but Japanese, in addition to his issues of identity and culture. He plans to work in guest relations with a with the weather here, I am finally ready to admit that temperatures do, in take with us is insight and a passion for improving the lives of others.
native Mandarin. Japanese travel company in Hawaii before pursuing graduate studies in fact, drop quickly at night. If we seize our postgraduate lives with the same noble intent, idealistic
The media studies major has been fascinated by Japan’s popular media, communications and governance in Japan. That was just the start of me learning by being proven wrong at Pitzer. passion and thoughtful pragmatism, we will leave this Earth in better
culture since he was a child and began studying Japanese his first “Pitzer College remade me,” Xu said. “A liberal arts education is shape than we found it.
semester in college. For many in his parents’ generation, relations about more than learning the language and American culture; it is also ■■■ I will be wrong again, but in this, I am sure.
between China and Japan are often strained by historic tensions about human liberty and learning how to be yourself.”
stemming from the World War II era. Xu says his generation sees the In the capstone to my major, the Senior Seminar in Economics,
Benjamin Levine ’14 was awarded a 2014–15 Fulbright Fellowship to teach English in
world differently. Professor Linus Yamane gave a lecture about life after Pitzer. I think he
Indonesia. Last year, he found a nice cave in Joshua Tree National Park and is looking
“For young people, the feeling is less strong,” Xu said. “I am a big could feel the collective anxiety in the room so he ended with a quote by forward to returning to it after his Fulbright year.
fan of Japan.”
You can also read
