Hi, I’m Nick Timms and I’m a second year International Relations major.
And I’m Erica Berry and I’m a senior Economics major.
Welcome to this tour of Pomona College!
We’re starting right here in Marston Quad, the beautiful green space at the heart of
campus, it’s the perfect place to show off our sunny Southern California weather.
On warm sunny days, most days that is, you’ll see a lot of students out here studying under
all of the trees.
Sometimes in fact, you’ll see an entire class out here on the lawn.
And since we’re right at the center of campus, it’s a great place to get oriented.
Just at the edge of the Quad, you’ll find Bridges Auditorium.
That’s where lots of big name speakers and entertainers appear.
Performers like Dave Matthews, Larry Wilmore and Taylor Swift.
And on the other side of the quad we have our Carnegie Building, one of many academic
buildings on this part of campus.
Look north and you’ll find Smith Campus Center, the center of a lot of our social
life.
Beyond that lies north campus, where lots of juniors and seniors live.
And past that lies the rest of the Claremont Undergraduate Colleges.
And look south, and you’ll see one of our truly iconic buildings, Bridges Hall of Music.
Beyond that is South Campus where all the first years live, Nick’s going to take you
there next.
Here on South Campus we have a row of residence halls primarily reserved for first and second-year
students.
Here’s one our three dining halls, Frank Hall.
Side note, they have amazing omelets.
Right next door is Mudd-Blaisdell Hall, where I live.
It’s also where I serve as a sponsor for a group of 18 first years.
Come on inside.
The residential experience for first-years here at Pomona is centered around the sponsor
program, with small groups of students who live with student sponsors who are here to
support them and make sure their transition to college life is easy.
Sponsors like me are here to help them get their bearings and fit in, and be there whenever
they need some friendly guidance.
Here’s my room.
As you can see, it’s a single.
About one third of the freshman class will have singles, with the other two thirds having
doubles, and you’re going to have the occasional triple.
While we’re here on South Campus, let’s check out our international center, Oldenborg,
where you can live in a dorm with students who speak only Spanish.
Or French.
Or Russian, German, Japanese or Chinese.
You can also have lunch here at one of our language tables, where you can practice conversing
in almost 30 different languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese.
As you can tell, living here on campus is great.
But let's go check out some of the places where you'll be taking classes.
This is the Studio Art Hall, which is kind of a work of art itself.
It’s full of amazing spaces for making art, whether you want to major or you just want
to dabble.
Next door is the Seaver Theatre complex, where you can watch some incredible plays, or maybe
even act in and direct one yourself.
You remember Bridges Hall of Music, right?
If you love music, you’ll probably spend a lot of time here, either listening or performing
as a member of one of our many ensembles—from choir to Balinese Gamelan.
Plus, you can take music lessons in just about any instrument you can think of, and the lessons
are all free.
Here we are in Pomona’s science district.
The buildings here are equipped with state-of-the-art lab equipment and since there are no graduate
students, undergrads have the opportunity to do original research with our professors.
This is Millikan Laboratory for Physics and Mathematics, the newest building on campus.
And one of my favorite things to do here is go to the new beautiful, immersive digital
planetarium where you can just kick back and look at the night sky.
Speaking of looking skyward, tucked in between Lincoln and Edmunds Halls is a permanent art
installation called Skyspace, done by world-renowned artist and Pomona alum, James Turrell.
The light show that happens here at sundown is kind of mind-blowing, but it’s also kind
of nice just to sit around this little infinity pool and study.
Now I mentioned the Carnegie Building earlier.
It's one of the most recognizable buildings and houses our Economics, Politics and International
Relations programs.
As an econ major, I spend a lot of time here.
Right next door is the classic Stanley Academic Quad, home to the Humanities disciplines and
also home to the oldest academic building on campus, Pearsons Hall.
By the way, this is one of a number of fountains you’ll find here on campus, and on your
birthday, you may find yourself taking a dip in one!
This is Haldeman Pool, where our water polo and swimming and dive teams compete.
Pomona and neighboring Pitzer College join forces to offer 10 varsity sports for men
and 11 for women, and they all have great facilities on our campus.
Of course, you don’t need to be a member of a team to enjoy our beautiful Olympic-size
pool.
And you don’t need to be a varsity athlete to enjoy sports here at Pomona College.
We also have tons of 5-college club team opportunities and intramural sports.
If you’re an athlete like myself, or a sports fan, you’ll probably find yourself spending
a lot of time on the east side of campus where all of our athletic facilities are.
Here we are in the Rains Center, where you’ll find everything from two basketball courts
to a wide range of workout facilities and classes in Zumba or fencing.
That brings us to North Campus, where I live.
Here we are in Frary Dining Hall, where you can have a slice of pizza or a bowl beneath
a priceless work of art.
This mural of Prometheus bringing fire to humankind was done by famous Mexican muralist
José Clemente Orozco in 1930.
We like to compare Frary to the famous dining hall at Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series.
It does have that kind of magical feel, doesn’t it?
Surrounding Frary are the residence halls where most juniors and seniors live, often
in suites with three or four friends.
This is Dialynas Hall, one of the newest dorms on campus and home to many of our seniors.
Come on upstairs and I’ll show you around.
Here we are in shared living space.
Many seniors live right here in suite arrangements just like this one.
I can say from experience, life in a suite is pretty sweet.
And finally, just north of the Pomona campus are some of the buildings that serve all five
undergraduate colleges here in Claremont.
This is the Honnold-Mudd Library, which has over 2 million volumes, not to mention a really
cool coffee shop.
So here we are back where we started on Marston Quad.
We hope you enjoyed the tour.
And we hope it whets your appetite to learn more about Pomona College.
Come for a real tour, and it will be our pleasure to show you around and answer all your questions.
See you soon!