New Hive Awards Unleash Student Creativity in Unexpected Way

The Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity (the Hive) has awarded grants to Pitzer and other Claremont Colleges students for a slate of innovative projects this fall.

A few things students are exploring that you may have never thought of include:

• Developing a scent opera that weaves together sounds and fragrances
• Repurposing litter from a wildlife and alluvial sage scrub preserve
• Rethinking an organizational studies club through collective decision-making

The Hive’s student creativity grants support students who need resources including funding, materials, space, or mentoring from staff for their creative and collaborative endeavors. Monetary funding has ranged from $30 to $3,000, while some projects only require supplies and equipment from the Hive’s making spaces. This season, several Pitzer students are among recipients of the award.

Learn more about the projects of some of this fall’s Hive grantees:

Scent is a creative medium for Miranda Yee ’27, Ambika Tiwari SC’25, Emilio Esquivel PO’25, and Jason Gounder HMC’26. Their project, “Fragrance Symposium + Scent Opera Performance,” explores whether a scent can become an original piece that can obtain copyright protection. The scent opera combines sounds and scents in Richard Strauss’ “Alpine” symphony. “Alpine” is a tone poem with 22 “chapters” of music that evoke a journey in the Alps. Each chapter starts without visual cues—only music and a particular scent designed to bring the scene to life.

Riley Thibodeau’s ’27 “Respect This Land” project encourages users of the Pitzer Outback Preserve to take responsibility for their waste. Thibodeau is curating litter (human-made garbage without clear ownership or artistic value) left in the Outback and creating a sign for the Outback’s entrance. Thibodeau intends for the sign to raise awareness as people enter the space, encouraging them to ensure they leave no garbage behind.  

Chi Adi ’26 and Celine Bernhardt-Lanier CMC’26 received their grant to revitalize a 5C club, Org Sigma!, for organizational studies students. Org Sigma! students train with organizational consultants who specialize in sociocracy—a decentralized, peer-to-peer governance approach with an emphasis on equitable and collective decision-making.

Yaw Danquah Acquah ’28 is collaborating with Scripps, Pomona, and Harvey Mudd students to revamp the Scripps data science website. Their goal is to create an online hub for resources and community building for 5C students in data science, math, computer science, and engineering. Jay Renaker SC’25, Nicole Kerschner SC’26, Ceci Wade PO’25, Diya Gangwar HMC’26, Hanna Kenyatta HMC’27, and Sofia Robertson HMC’27 are also leading the project.

Read more about these and other Hive grant recipients.