Fall 2009 Appeal

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Mark Jimenez ’11 and his faculty adviser, Professor Jim Lehman, respond to questions about financial aid and diversity at Pitzer College.

Question: How does a "diverse" community contribute to the Pitzer College mission and life on campus?

Mark: Studying in an intimate setting allows me to showcase my strengths. Outside the classroom, Pitzer’s value is in the relationships. Having a diverse community of students and faculty spurs new ideas and colors the campus. It’s great to have a variety of backgrounds and different cultures. I’ve been to schools where students are from the same background and it’s not as interesting. Different perspectives are valuable to the community. In terms of the Pitzer College mission, I think it broadens the classroom and the social experience. It’s difficult to introduce new ideas when you have a homogeneous population. The core of our campus is about supporting students. Pitzer students want to do things their way. If a student has a good idea, this environment helps turn that vision into a reality.

Jim: A generation ago when the College adopted its distinctive educational objectives— intercultural understanding, interdisciplinary perspective and social responsibility—all three of those end up, I think, being promoted by a very diverse community of residents and, more generally, by the student and faculty population. The likelihood of having a rich engagement of ideas and really robust debates is enhanced by having a variety of perspectives. Those perspectives are brought to campus by people from a variety of backgrounds and I think this meets the goals of the college as they’ve been articulated. Although Pitzer’s objectives were really quite innovative, it was acknowledged by one and all at the time that we were doing this all along—we just hadn’t said that these were, in fact, our educational objectives.

Question: Why is support of financial aid critical to the College’s success and why is it critical to your Pitzer College experience?

Mark: Well, I think it’s critical to the College’s success because it brings in people with different perspectives. Without financial aid there’s not much opportunity for low- income students to attend Pitzer. The presence of these students means they will share their life experiences, allowing multiple perspectives to flourish. These funds provide a voice for many students like me. I am able to share my experiences and listen to points of view that I would not have otherwise encountered. It’s magical to be here. It’s unreal. I have withdrawals when I drive away and go back to the real world. This is a really special place. Without financial aid, there’s no way I’d be able to come here. Everything would be completely different.

Jim: I was a scholarship student as an undergraduate so I am deeply appreciative of what financial aid makes possible for students who would not be here in its absence. Given the commitment we have to intercultural understanding, interdisciplinary perspective, and particularly to social responsibility it’s incumbent on us as an institution to protect and make a diverse community possible. It is wonderful to see the conversations that take place within a diverse community as students encounter others from slices of life that were not known to them.

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