Press Releases | Spotlights

After Two NSF Fellowships, Teo Cooper ’24 Seeks to Balance People and Nature 

Teo Cooper takes a selfie in a laboratory. Cooper wears a white lab coat and has short curly dark hair. Behind Cooper are tables and shelves with tubes, bottles, and equipment.Pitzer senior Teo Cooper ’24 has completed not just one but two fellowships funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In summer 2022, they worked in a UC Berkeley biogeochemical lab and studied soil carbon sequestration. This summer, they joined The Leadership Alliance and Harvard University’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. In this spotlight, Cooper also recalls the racial justice series that brought them to Pitzer and looks ahead to studying abroad in Southern Africa. 
September 11, 2023
Press Releases

Courses Take Exciting and Unexpected Shapes Thanks to the Hive

Claremont, Calif. (May 23, 2023)—Have you ever thought about intertwining art and math by shaping clay? Or connecting historic surf craft to environmentalism? How about wildcrafting and the ethics of foraging? Through these explorations and more, Pitzer students, faculty, and staff are reimagining learning with support from the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative [Read More...]
May 23, 2023
Press Releases | Spotlights

Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida ’24 and Jaspa Ureña ’24 Awarded Curatorial Apprenticeships for First-Generation and Students of Color

Jaspa Ureña stands behind a leafy green plant and has an orange, red, and yellow crocheted circle and a pair of round black glasses over their face. Ureña has curly light brown hair and wears a white sweater. Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida has short wavy dark brown hair and wears a white collared shirt with a purple tie.Claremont, Calif. (April 18, 2023)—Pitzer College students Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida ’24 and Jaspa Ureña ’23 have received an award from the Pitzer College Art Galleries to complete in-depth curatorial apprenticeships. Available to first-generation and students of color, the Benjamin Godsill ’00 and Anna Burns Student Apprenticeship Award provides the chance to work with two of Los Angeles’ most dynamic non-profit arts organizations: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) in Hollywood and Fulcrum Arts in Pasadena.
April 18, 2023
Press Releases | Spotlights

Pitzer Students Awarded for Exceptional Community Engagement

Danika Petit has long straight maroon red hair and poses with a large black dog with pointy ears and a small brown dog with floppy ears.Pitzer College’s Community Engagement Center has recognized nine students with the Fall 2022 Kallick Community Service Award. Provided by Pitzer alum Deborah Kallick ’78, the $500 award goes to students who have completed 100 or more community engagement hours during the academic year. From mental health care, to composting, to voter engagement, to partnerships with Indigenous communities, these Pitzer students exude passion for social change no matter where they work.
January 20, 2023
Spotlights

Seed by Seed: Pitzer Students Preserve a Rare Ecosystem on Campus

Zoë Wong-VanHaren leans over a bush as she cuts a branch of sets with blue scissors. She has long wavy brown hair and wears a pink and maroon tie-dye T-shirt over a long-sleeved black shirt. Behind her is the Outback’s coastal sage scrub and a pale blue sky.What did Claremont look like 100 years ago? One parcel on Pitzer College’s campus gives us a glimpse: the Outback Preserve. Home to alluvial sage scrub—one of the rarest ecosystems in the world—the Outback is a 3.4-acre living-learning laboratory for students to engage in hands-on science with California’s indigenous plants. Pitzer students and environmental analysis majors Tommy Shenoi ’24 and Zoë Wong-VanHaren ’25 have made the Outback a passion in action with the California Botanic Garden and Pitzer’s Robert Redford Conservancy's help.
January 19, 2023
Press Releases | Spotlights

Student Spotlight: Carlos Gomez ’24 Mentors New Students

Carlos Gomez '24 stands in front of a green bush backdrop.Pitzer College junior Carlos Gomez ’24 learned a hard lesson about burnout when he juggled a full-time job while he had to attend college remotely during the 2020–21 academic year due to the pandemic. Now that he understands the importance of self-care and asking for help, he looks for different ways to support incoming students. Almost nothing makes Gomez more excited than mentoring them. “Things may be very overwhelming in your first semester, so make sure that you’re doing daily check-ins with yourself and that you’re seeking help if you need it."
August 1, 2022
Press Releases

Pitzer Students Win 2018 Letters to an Elected Official Competition

Pitzer College Tree from logoClaremont, Calif. (June 22, 2018)—Pitzer College students Amber Burkhart ’20 and Blake Clement ’20 along with three of their “Inside-Out Prison Exchange” (incarcerated) classmates formed one of five winning teams of the national 2018 D4D Letters to an Elected Official Competition sponsored by the nonprofit Project Pericles. Each winning team receives $500 to support their [Read More...]
June 22, 2018
Spotlights

Exceptional Ambassadors: Pitzer’s Royal Thai Scholars

Royal Thai Scholars  When Kanyarat “Kate” Jitmana ’18, Supasiri “Mos” Rittiron ’18 and Chanchanok “Saw” Sudta ’18 join the procession to Commencement Plaza on Saturday, the three young women will be celebrating a journey that began more than 8,000 miles away in Thailand. All three Pitzer seniors came to the College on Royal Thai Scholarships, highly competitive [Read More...]
May 9, 2018
Press Releases

Science Student Lillian Horin ’17 Earns Exceptional Research Opportunity

Claremont, Calif. (February 10, 2016)— Pitzer College student Lillian Horin ’17 has been selected as one of 70 undergraduates from across the US to participate in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP). The program provides college students from groups underrepresented in the sciences with an opportunity to conduct research under the [Read More...]
February 10, 2016
Spotlights

Pitzer Student Sizes up Seismic Safety in Nepal and California

Sumesh Shiwakoty ’18 thinks big. An international student from Nepal, Shiwakoty wants to change the world through global initiatives that tackle issues ranging from climate change to nuclear proliferation. This summer, he took on a problem close to home—8,000 miles from Claremont. After receiving a 2015 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Environmental Analysis Fellowship for Summer [Read More...]
December 1, 2015