Home Sweet Home

It’s hard to believe, but I have actually stayed in the same city for the past two weeks! Now I know this doesn’t sound like a huge achievement, but just to give you an idea of what my life was like, for the past month I haven’t slept in my own bed for more than two nights in a row. So this was a nice relaxing break. I am sure the travel season of an admission counselor sounds exciting, staying in hotels, eating out every night and getting to see a ton of new places. To be honest, it is exciting and I still love my job, but every admission counselor I have met agrees, by the end of travel season eating out or ordering in isn’t appealing in the slightest and all you want is to cook your own meal, even if it is as simple as a salad.

Although it was nice to be home, it did get a little lonely since last weekend was fall break, so students weren’t on campus on Monday or Tuesday. This break is perfectly placed mid semester and gives students a chance to take a trip or just unwind after midterms. Fall break is also when a lot of outdoor trips take place.

This is a perfect chance for me to talk about one of my favorite clubs on campus, POA Pitzer Outdoor Adventures. This club has to do with any outdoor activity. Such as, beach trips, surfing, camping, hiking, kayaking and skiing and snowboarding. POA has a weekly meeting where students can propose trips or listen for trips. As long as two Pitzer students sign up and it is open for other Pitzer students they will reimburse the cost of gas. This last break there were trips to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park CA (this trip had 3 different groups totaling about 40 students), Big Sur CA, Point Reyes, CA (I heard they saw a ton of whales), Bryce Canyon, UT and San Onofre, CA. If you can’t tell I am a bit jealous and am trying to live vicariously through the students in the office.

Tomorrow I am off to Miami and will be attending the Miami International College Fair and the Palmer Trinity College Fair, so if you are going to be attending either of those events please stop by and say hello.

Just a quick reminder before I let you go, the early decision deadline and the Preview Pitzer Days are fast approaching. So if you are planning on applying ED, make sure to give that essay one last spell check before you send it in by Nov 15. Our Preview Pitzer days are on November 7 and 14. You can register for those events by going to our website https://www.pitzer.edu/admission/ and clicking on the link on the right hand side of the page.

And now the newest installment of WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CECIL THE SAGEHEN:

Cecil soldier field — Where is Cecil this week?

Posted by Danny Irving, Admission Counselor

Admissison Unpeeled » admission travel

Southwest and Evil Hot Dogs

This week led to one of my favorite tourist stops during my travels. I mean I have been to a lot of cool places that I hadn’t seen before, but the standard tourist attractions weren’t thrilling me as much as I thought they would. However, this place was great and it posed a challenge.

A sports bar owned by Rock legend Alice Cooper. The decorations were great, the food was amazing and all the employees were wearing black eyeshadow, just like Alice. It turns out that Alice isn’t the only owner. Randy Johnson is also a part owner of Cooper’s Town. Now I am no friend of Randy, but after seeing the Anthony Bourdain – No Reservation’s episode for the southwest I had to try the hotdog named after him.

Say hello to Randy Johnson’s Big Unit:

This two foot chili cheese hotdog was….well a hotdog, but one of the best that I have ever eaten. And to top it off it was served to me by the same employee who served Anthony Bourdain in the episode. Since I had missed lunch, I viewed this hotdog as the Mount Everest of eating challenges.

Needless to say I came close, but ultimately failed.

Even though I came close, it did leave me feeling a little too full for the next hour, but it was totally worth it.

alice cecil and me — Cecil had a good time too.

Now I know you are all on top of your game, but just in case, I figured I would remind you that the voter registration deadline is quickly approaching for many states (and has already passed for others). So if you are already 18 make sure you get out and take advantage of your right to vote, regardless of who you are voting for.

Before I leave you, its time for another installment of…

Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen?

As always, write your answer in the comments section.

I am also feeling a bit selfish, so I wanted to give you the opportunity to hear from another member of our admission office. I mean I know I am important, but I’m not the only one around. So in the spirit of the upcoming election I am leaving it up to a vote, would you like to hear the next blog entry from another counselor, a student employee or me again? Cast your vote in the comments section.

I also felt bad about my lack of internet, hence slow post time, so I thought I would leave you some fun.

First my cracked windshield:

broken windshield1 — I caught a rock on the way from Tucson to Phoenix.

Second the cute elephant in my hotel room:

Posted by Danny Irving, Admission Counselor

Admissison Unpeeled » admission travel

Fun in the Midwest

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 Monday.

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:

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.

Cecil lunch — 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 https://www.pitzer.edu/admission/diversity-program/ and the on campus day information at https://www.pitzer.edu/admission/admission-events/. Take advantage of these great opportunities to visit campus and see what Pitzer is like.

Posted by Danny Irving, Admission Counselor

Admissison Unpeeled » admission travel

Travel Stories

Hey guys sorry for the delay. For those of you who haven’t met me on the road, my travel season has begun. It is official, I love my job. Getting to visit 4 different high schools every day is a lot of fun, but I am surprisingly wiped out at the end of the day. I spent the last week in Texas, 3 days in Dallas, 2 in Austin, 1 in San Antonio and 2 in Houston. It was a new experience for me, but fortunately I had Cecil with me to keep me company.

Speaking of rental cars, I already have my first funny, embarrassing story for you. I finished my first day of visits in Dallas and somehow managed to make it to every school without getting horribly lost. However, after finishing my last school visit I was able to turn a 15 minute drive back to my hotel, into an hour long loop around Dallas. Needless to say, I was a little frazzled when I got back. After relaxing for a little bit I decided to go out to dinner, but wanted to get my directions first. It was then that I realized that my car keys were no where to be found. I spent a good 15 minutes tearing my hotel room apart before I went to see if I had left the car unlocked and was able to see the faintest outline of my keys on the back floor on the car. My rental car was a Yarris and for those of you who haven’t seen one, it looks like a blown up hotwheels car (I mean it makes me feel tall). So I am assuming that since my briefcase was sitting right above where my keys rested, they must have fallen out of my pocket when I went to grab my bag. At this point I stopped panicking and went into problem solving mode. By the time the AAA guy showed up, forgot his tools and showed up a second time, there was no way I was going out to dinner. Fortunately the hotel served one of the best tortilla soups I have ever had. Not only was the food in the hotel great, but it provided amenities above expectations.I mean they even had friends for Cecil.

Well I now have a full two days in my bed until I take off on my next trip, but since I made you wait so long for this post, I will be adding a special installment of where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen. Since this is a harder picture to identify, the first person to respond will win a fabulous Pitzer T-Shirt. You have to post your response on the blog this time, so no emailed guesses will count.

Last week’s winner was Janelle Alexander, and since I forgot to mention that you need to post your answers online, we have a runner up who also gets a point Jacey Rubenstein.

As well, Cecil is starting to get lonely on this blog. Don’t forget you can post any questions you have about Pitzer under the comments section of the most recent post.

Posted by Danny Irving, Admission Counselor

Admissison Unpeeled » admission travel

Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen

So I have been a little behind on posting (which I will talk about later today) but figured I would catch up with a new installment of…

Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen.

Please post your guess in the comments section.

Where is Cecil this time?

Posted by Danny Irving, Admission Counselor

Admissison Unpeeled » admission travel

Lions and Sagehens and Gender Neutral Dragons…OH MY!

Just kidding…….about the lions at least.

So for those of you who don’t know, Pitzer shares all of our athletic teams with Pomona College. Together we make up the mighty, fighting Sagehens.

To clear up a bit of uncertainty…..the answer is yes. The Sagehen is a desert chicken. To be more specific a species of Grouse and has a diminishing population, but is not listed as an endangered species due to political reasons (which have nothing to do with Pitzer College). There are many rumors of why the Sagehen is endangered. Most of these have to do with what the animal does when threatened, which ranges from running in fear, running in circles to plucking out its own feathers. Although my favorite theory, and the one most backed-up by internet research, is that the Sagehen population is diminishing due to global warming.

All of our sports teams are D3 and we compete against our feared rivals the CMS (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd and Scripps) Stags (men’s teams) or Athenas (women’s teams). This means we can have a home game and an away game on campus at the same time. This leads to a big school rivalry at a small school that lasts for all of, I don’t know…….1 day and then you go back to class with the people you were cheering against the night before.

There is something a little off putting about that Sagehen picture, so I decided to post one that is a little more friendly.

Meet Cecil the Sagehen. He is our official mascot.

He tends to spend a good chunk of his time roaming the admission office grazing and stealing name tags.

Despite the diminishing Sagehen population, we have seen a recent boom in our local population.

Hopefully you are all slightly amused by these plushies because now we get to our contest.

Where in the World is Cecil the Sagehen

This small army of Cecil dolls will be accompanying us on our travels. Throughout the fall I will be posting pictures of Cecil in different cities around the U.S. If you guess where the picture was taken you get a point. The 6 Pitzer applicants with the most points win a Cecil plushy and the applicant with the most correct guesses will win a plushy and a t-shirt. To qualify for this game you must be a prospective Pitzer student (either in high school, a transfer applicant or a new resource student). Parents, I encourage you to read and comment, but please, in the spirit of competition, don’t fill in answers to the game.

So now that you know the rules let’s start playing!!!!

Since we are just starting out, this week’s picture will be an easy one.

Can you guess where Cecil is??????

Posted by Danny Irving, Admission Counselor