(upbeat instrumental music)
- This is two days of ideas.
It's bringing together the best
that we can think, the best that we can say,
our best ideas from students and faculty
and staff and alumni and parents
and being able to hear one another and listen
and really engage about what Pomona can give
to the world and what we can share.
- [Robert] This event's really phenomenal for us.
It brings together whole parts
of our Pomona College community.
We have trustees.
We have recent graduates.
We've got a lot of alums here.
We even have a few students and some parents.
It really is part of our extended family.
We're here to really share ideas.
- I'm a big NPR fan so my favorite presenter
thus far has been Ari Shapiro.
It's really nice to hear even the intellectual side
about how journalists think about handling the news.
And what was really conveyed today was the gravity
and that they take their profession very seriously.
- One of the things that I love
about my job is that I get to learn
about new things every day.
And so this is clearly a group of people
who share that same philosophy.
It's so nice to be in a room full of people
that care so much about learning and education
as something that doesn't just stop,
but something that continues throughout your life.
- The Hen talks were pretty amazing
because you see people working on their feet and thinking,
trying to put forward some of their best ideas.
One extraordinary alumnus was talking
about how it is that Pomona
and other institutions of education can intervene
in the evolving crisis in incarceration.
We had a talk about mental health
that was really thinking about where our students are now.
There was a very funny talk about gaming
and the gamification of our economy
and what that means for how we produce goods and services.
Just eyeopening possibilities that are born at Pomona.
- One of the most engaging sessions so far was listening
to Laszlo Bock talk about not only the work
that he's doing at Humu, but how he thinks
about the future of work and that we don't all need
to be computer scientists and engineers
to be successful in the future,
but need to really understand and relate
to other people as human beings
because ultimately that's not only really important
for work, but that's really important for all of our lives.
- Really found the post/truth panel fascinating,
just very timely.
It reminds me of why I love Pomona so much,
why I love the people so much.
- It was very gratifying to see everybody
who enjoyed the sessions.
Everybody in the room was engaged.
The sessions were about things
that they were already thinking about.
And it connected them again to Pomona.
The energy around that was just marvelous.
- The real magic
of the Pomona education is the relationships
that we get to have in this setting
with really high wattage brainpower of our students.
So I'm excited.
Some of the best faculty in the country
and tremendous resources that we can bring to bear
in addressing a lot of the pressing questions of today.
- One of the things
that makes Pomona really special are the relationships
that we build while we're on campus.
That kind of learning and those relationships shouldn't stop
once we leave the gates of the college.
- It really allows you to understand the strength
of the community, really share your experiences
with other people.
There's that feeling of family.
There's that feeling of community.
- The networking that happens here is different.
These are people who immediately have a common bond.
I can go up to somebody I've never met
and we share a common set of values.
We are empathetic.
We are humanistic to the conversation we had.
We want to see good things happen in the world.
And so this is a kind of networking
that's energizing, but it helps you feel
like there's, you have kindred spirits
and like there's good to be done in the world.
- It's really like good to hear like
what our alums are doing.
And it was fascinating to hear
about what some of our trustees are doing
and kind of understanding their engagement
and trajectory through the college
and also what they've done since then.
And it's really nice to reengage
in intellectual conversations for those
who are now representing Pomona out there to the world.
- This event is amazing
because it brings together alumni
from Pomona, faculty, and staff.
And it's so nice to interact with the alumni.
They're learning together
and pushing themselves beyond their own boundaries
or what they thought they could do
or what they thought they were interested in
when they got there and sort
of building this really rich intellectual community.
- I think liberal arts help us understand
that we're not alone in the world,
that there is a universal human experience.
The great works of literature and theater
and history tell us that we share a commonality
across all humanity.
- Liberal arts education,
as many of our speakers have hinted at today,
is really about critical thinking
and flexible thinking and interdisciplinary thinking
in order to visualize problems for the future.
- Liberal arts education to me is
about getting a full view of the world.
Everything is interdisciplinary.
Work cross functionally and bring
in people from all kinds of backgrounds,
all different areas of expertise.
And I think Pomona really emphasizes that,
just this willingness to meet you where you are,
just be your true self,
and then you actually form really deep connections
around that.
- We often say that a liberal arts education teaches people
to think.
I think it's also more than that.
It teaches people to be empathetic,
to communicate well, to analyze issues critically,
to find and develop a passion,
and then pursue that passion throughout their lives.
- The ability to think through problems
to connect the disciplines.
It's about relationships.
It's about problem solving.
It's about finding the tools and the skills
to be able to do that through a whole life.
- I think liberal arts is really special
because being well-rounded is underrated.
- I feel invigorated; I feel excited.
For me, it's really like recommitted me
to the importance of empathy and how we talk
to other people and how we interact with them
and how we take that idea of what the liberal arts can
and should be to expand our viewpoint beyond ourselves.
- There's just an energy and an excitement
and an intellectual curiosity
that I think really characterizes Pomona people.
And it's so much fun to get to spend time with them.
- Only good things happen
when you bring great people together.
I've found it really invigorating.
- Seeing the Pomona education kind of come to life,
seeing how it's changing the world.
- I feel incredible just to be able
to be here and it is a great big blue room full
of Sagehen pride.
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