Move-In Day Incoming students moved into their rooms the morning of August 20, 2011.
Walking up the stairs of Pitzer Hall.
It has to all fit into that room...
Welcome Day/Meet Your Mentor/Faculty Meet & Greet
Welcome Week Opening Day was a full day of activities including mentor meetings, welcome programs for incoming students and parents, a barbecue on The Mounds, and the Faculty Welcome, a Pitzer tradition.
Santiago Ybarra, Associate Director of Admission and Danny Irving, Assistant Director of Admission give new students their information packets.
Angel B. Pérez, Interim Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid welcomes the Class of 2015.
Resident Assistant Tim Williamson with a big thumbs up!
After moving into their residence halls, new students met with their mentors and RAs and met with their Orientation Adventure trip leaders.
President Laura Skandera Trombley greets a new student while Professor of Political Studies and Chicano/a Studies Adrian Pantoja and Professor of Philosophy Brian Keeley look on.
Every year, faculty and staff give the seniors their last educational lesson at Pitzer College by beating them at the traditional softball game.
This year was no different. The Class of 2011 played a great game! Many of the players on the field included some of our very own Admission Fellows and student workers from the class of 2011.
About a year ago I was playing as a senior against the faculty and staff, but oh my how the tables have turned! This year I had the opportunity to roll up my sleeves, take off the tie, and take a swing at the ball... I almost made it past first base until Admission Fellow, Chris Moore '11, tagged me out! Next time Chris, next time!
Emma Fisher '11
Admission Fellows Alex Smith '11 and Ben Harris '11 put up a good fight, but that didn't last too long. Assistant Director of Admission, Danny Irving, went up to bat on behalf of the staff/faculty and how to show the seniors how it's done!
Cecil the Sagehen would have been proud to see us all playing a good game of softball!.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Don't worry... Early Decision letters are on the way!
Sing it with me... Cecil, the orange-nosed Sagehen had a very shiny nose. And if you ever saw him, you would even say it glows. All of the other Sagehens used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Cecil join in any Sagehen Sports. Then one foggy Pitzer Eve, the Admission Dean came to say: "Cecil with your nose so bright, won't you deliver my mail tonight?" Then all the Sagehen loved him as they shouted out with glee, Cecil the orange-nosed Sagehen, you'll go down in Early Decision history!
Danny Irving, Assistant Director of Admission, lends a helping hand to help guide Cecil and the ED letters to the mail room.
Danny Irving (class of '08, Admission Counselor) and Jackie Legazcue (class of 2010) couldn't be more excited about the beauty that spring brings to campus. I guess it's just a purple kind of day!
Admission Fellows Joahna Ruffin, Suhail Sheikh, and Misa Kabashima join Admission Counselor Danny Irving by the pool in front of our Gold LEED certified First-Year residence halls. Not bad for November, eh? Families arriving on a beautiful Southern California morning! That's me in the purple, just gushing with enthusiasm to some prospective families!
Here are some of our dedicated student-workers laboring away to inflate biodegradable balloons early in the morning. Emma and Chris, Office of Admission student-workers, welcoming prospective families to campus. Cecil, do you feel left out?
Goodbye, September!Hello, October!Goodbye, summer; hello autumn.Goodbye flip-flops, hello flannels (except in Claremont, where we never say goodbye to flip-flops).This week found me moving farther away from Boston.In fact, I visited a school in Bethel, Maine that is about as far away from Pitzer as any of the admission staff will travel this year.I have to say, despite my California blood, that I am completely in love with New England!The leaves are fully in transition out here and the process is awesome.I drove through White Mountains National Park in New Hampshire and a number of times I almost pulled over and wandered up into the enticing hills.It looked like what an ant would see from inside a bowl of Fruity Pebbles.Amazing.Consequently, this week I want to talk about the lives that we live while we’re “on the road.”
First, for perspective, some numbers from this week:
Miles I drove in my 1999 Subaru Outback (affectionately known as Roo, or The Roo): 801.
Approximate number of gallons of regular unleaded fuel The Roo consumed: 40.
Approximate number of fluid ounces of coffee I consumed: 200.
Average number of hours slept each night: 6.
As you can see, I spend a lot of time in my car.I was thinking about why my colleagues and I do this.Why we wake up with the sun and drive for hours to visit students and schools in locations that are seemingly designed to befuddle our precious GPS devices.Why we say goodbye to friends and family in exchange for hotel rooms and toll booths. I decided to ask my colleagues what are their favorite and least favorite parts of travel season, as well as what music they’ve been listening to on the road.
Assistant Director of Admission, Constance Perez’s favorite part of traveling is meeting students, though she knows it’s cheesy, and going to Sadie’s (the restaurant, not the dance) in New Mexico.Her least favorite part is flying.This week Constance’s playlist includes Stevie Wonder, Prince, and the 500 Days of Summer soundtrack.
Admission Counselor Danny Irving’s favorite part of traveling is getting to start his day as late as ten o’clock in the morning sometimes.That happens on the “almost never” side of “sometimes,” but you can’t blame a man for dreaming.His least favorite is visiting five schools in a day and then having to catch a flight.He also hates white Tic-Tacs (he knows that hate is a strong word).Danny forgot his iPod at home this week, so he has been listening to the distant but familiar memory of his mother nagging him as a child to double check that he’s packed everything before he leaves the house.
Associate Director of Admission Justin Voss’ favorite part of traveling is meeting students, finding good food, and experiencing different weather.His least favorite part is being away from his family. Justin’s playlist this week includes Monsters of Folk and 7 Worlds Collide, as well as Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses.
Director of Admission Angel Perez’s favorite part of traveling is seeing students in their own elements and environments.He also loves eating regional food!Angel’s least favorite part is airport delays.This week, Angel has been digging Camisa Negra by Juanes, a Colombian artist.
My least favorite part of traveling is the food.I refuse to eat another Hampton Inn breakfast sandwich.I simply refuse.I did, however, find an excellent cup of coffee at a café called The Met in North Conway, New Hampshire!Songs on heavy rotation in my car this week include “I Lost It,” by Lucinda Williams and “No Rest for the Weary,” by the Blue Scholars.I love finding beautiful places in nature, as well as experiencing new and often bizarre scenes of American life.Ultimately, like my colleagues, my favorite part of traveling is getting to meet students and talk about college.It’s the fundamental reason why we deal with late flights, long days, homesickness and headaches.We really believe that Pitzer is an amazing place and we love hitting the road to find the next class of amazing people who will make it their own!
Last but certainly not least, Cecil the Sagehen loves traveling!The proof will be here every week for the next couple of months.Below are some more candid shots of Cecil on the road.Email me at adam_rosenzweig@pitzer.edu if you think you know where Cecil’s been this week and we’ll send you a prize!Cecil’s favorite part of traveling is escaping from predators (which include just about everything) and collecting travel-size shampoo bottles from hotels.Cecil’s least favorite part of travel is all the flying (go figure).Cecil’s favorite band this week is Ryan Adams and the Cardinals (Cecil has a thing for redheads, but who doesn’t?).
As you probably know, I double majored in Economics and Organizational Studies. Most of you know what Economics is, but I bet is lot of you haven't heard of OS before. OS is a major that combines Economics, Political Studies, Sociology and Psychology. It is a great interdisciplinary major and studies how people interact in groups, whether it is in a fortune 500 company or a non-profit. It is really cool, since you can apply the concepts as soon as you have learned them, since everyone has been part of an organization before. A lot of the courses I took had to do with jobs and career paths and they led me to the conclusion that no matter what job you are doing, it is important that you are always learning something new.
Just to prove how great being an Admission Counselor is, my job taught me two new things on Mon.
1. Rain storms can show up out of nowhere in St. Louis
and 2. Bringing an umbrella and jacket only help if you don't leave them in the hotel :) Isn't it great what you learn on the road. I got a little wet, but it was still warm and I didn't have too far to run to get back to my car.
Now don't get me wrong. I am used to being in rainier environments, but it is a true sign that I am a California native, since I always get confused when water randomly starts falling from the sky. I am proud to say, though, that despite the fact that my home town of San Diego gets next to no rainfall, I at least know how to drive in the rain.
From St. Louis I traveled to Ann Arbor where I ate at Zingerman's Deli, which is rated the best delicatessen outside of NY City. It truly lived up to its reputation. I was even given a coupon for a free loaf of bread and got an amazing Challah loaf. Unfortunately this put my number of carry ons up to three and I had to check my other bag. This should be a good indication of how good the bread was, since I was willing to check a bag to keep my bread and I always try to travel light. Checking this bag made me a little nervous, since I had to fly through Atlanta to get to Minneapolis and I didn’t get in until 10. So the last thing I wanted to do was deal with finding my bag on top of getting my rental car and driving to the hotel. But everything turned out great. I guess I had done something right and had some good karma on my side, since my bag was the 2nd one off the plane.
I do have to quickly say that the DTW airport kinda scared me a bit. They have a really cool fountain and some cool art,
but the underpass to get to the other terminals was a little bit much for me.
I figured I should leave you with a fun picture. Hopefully this isn’t stealing too much from John Stewart, but now for your moment of zen.
If you can't tell, Cecil also enjoyed lunch
A quick reminder the registration is now online for our diversity program, Nov 6-8, and our Preview Pitzer Day, Nov 7 and 14. The diversity information can be found at,http://www.pitzer.edu/admission/diversity/index.asp and the on campus day information at, http://www.pitzer.edu/admission/form/rsvp/index.asp. Take advantage of these great opportunities to visit campus and see what Pitzer is like.
I am sure some of you are curious about how gender neutral dragons are relevant to Pitzer College and to this blog, and rightly so.
This summer one of our tour guides embarked on a crafts project of epic proportions and recycled old file sections into an art project. And thus Rudi the gender neutral dragon was born. Say hi to Rudi. We loved Rudi so much that he has become sort of an unofficial mascot for the admission office. Rudi’s creator, Tim Campos, is a Junior at Pitzer and is double majoring in Sociology and Chicana/o Studies. On top of being a tour guide, Tim is one of our Diversity Interns. You can find out more about our diversity program on our website http://www.pitzer.edu/admission/diversity/index.asp.
Tim has been working hard and winning major points in the office, right now he is so hot that he is on fire! (Sorry I couldn’t resist the pun)
The fact that Rudi happens to be gender neutral happens to give me the opportunity to shamelessly tell you about Pitzer’s new housing policy. Starting this year, Pitzer has begun a gender neutral housing system. You may ask why and so I shall tell you.
Gender-neutral housing provides a living environment where student housing is not restricted to traditional limitations imposed by gender and/or sex definitions. This option is ideal for students whose gender expression, gender identity and/or biological sex varies from the standard paradigm and for students who believe that their gender and/or biological sex should not be limiting factors in roommate decisions. No student will be restricted by traditional limitations of gender identity, gender expression, biological sex or other identities pertaining thereto. All students will have the option to participate in, or opt out of, gender-neutral housing.
To completely change the subject I am going to be leaving for Texas tomorrow. So there probably won’t be any posts till later in the week. This will be my first trip for Pitzer!!! I am excited. If anyone has read this from Texas and they see me at a school visit point it out and give me any feedback you like. If you aren’t from Texas please feel free to post any comments about the blog or questions you may have about Pitzer in the comments section. Wish me luck!
Say hi to Rudi. We loved Rudi so much that he has become sort of an unofficial mascot for the admission office.
