Campus Community Voices, the Arts & More at Family Weekend 2025

It’s been three months since Pitzer families watched their students move to campus for the 2025–26 academic year. With Family Weekend 2025, which was held this month, over 300 family members returned to see how their students are doing.

A full weekend’s worth of activities gave them a chance to step onto the orange carpet and experience Pitzer College alongside their students. From faculty-inspired eureka moments to displays of students’ creative flair, parents had many opportunities to engage the campus community.

Faculty Insights

A centerpiece of every Family Weekend is a series of faculty sessions, enabling families to see some of the Pitzer professors inspiring their students to be community-engaged scholars. This year’s faculty highlights included:

• Merging ethics, justice, and data science with Professor Jemma Lorenat
• Experiencing the Inside-Out justice education program with Professor Barbara Junisbai, whose been involved with that program from its beginning
• Drawing in nature at Pitzer’s Robert Redford Conservancy with Professor Jessica McCoy
• Unpacking artificial intelligence in society with Professor David Bachman
• Applying an economics lens to immigration with Professor Deepti Goel, who specializes in microeconomics and labor economics
• Turning simple toys into physics research with Professor Trung “Average” V. Phan, who presented some of the work and gadgets in his Playful Lab

Student Creative Voices

How do students express themselves on campus? Students shared their artistic prowess in many ways, including:

• Live music by some of Pitzer’s student bands at the Harvest Festival
• A maker market for selling handmade goods at The Hive, a design center for The Claremont Colleges that has launched numerous projects for Pitzer students
• An open mic night that put student creativity and humor on display
• The student art exhibition “Made of Memory,” which was held at the Grove House
• Unscripted hilarity with the 5C student improv group Without a Box

Cultural and Artistic Immersion

How can art become social commentary? How can students get hands-on with cultural and artistic learning? Family Weekend offered numerous opportunities for right-brain thinking, such as:

• Crafting at the Pitzer Student Garden
• Making fresh sushi rolls with an award-winning chef
• Exploring Carmen Argote’s “gajes del oficio” exhibition (open through Dec. 6) at Pitzer College Art Galleries
• Humanizing the unhoused crisis at the “I Have A Name” film screening and discussion as part of Pitzer’s Presidential Initiative on Constructive Dialogue

“Before coming here, I did my research about Pitzer. I saw that the College has done well in rankings, like Princeton Review’s for ‘Making an Impact’ and I knew our time together tonight would be well spent,” said John Linton, the subject of Adam Bronfman’s PO’85 documentary “I Have a Name,” during the Q&A session.

Pitzer Adventures Continue

While Family Weekend 2025 is over, your involvement doesn’t have to end. Pitzer’s Family Leadership Council (FLC) engages families all year long to support students’ academic adventures and build relationships with the campus community.

Check out our photo album for Family Weekend.

Watch the discussion for I Have a Name.