(light music) - I want to be able to create connections that I am proud of. - I guess a little
scary, but also exciting. - I really loved it so far. - I'm really looking
forward to graduation. (people talking indistinctly) (light cello music) - And it was truly an honor to be elected by the student body to be student body president
for Pomona College. College can and will be
a test of your character. The discipline and the
values you enter here with will be tested. (smooth music) I'm kinda very content with
my life as a senior right now in fall at Pomona. Hi, my name is Timi Adelakun, and this is my senior
year at Pomona College. (birds chirping) So I'm having a production meeting I guess for a show I plan on shooting, a docuseries called "Testing Free Will". And we're talking about episode one, and kinda talking about how we're gonna, kinda how we're gonna move along through our process for the show. Okay, so I think our plan will be to use a DJI one, the DJI two, and then the road, or the
(Timi talking indistinctly). - Good good good. - I enjoy filming TV,
and I enjoy producing, and it's something I
wanna do in the future. So for my senior thesis,
I thought what best to do besides like actually creating, and having something to like show for it, and just having a physical deliverable for my theater major. Okay, and then same thing
with the monitor, okay. I actually don't know how this project is gonna end up truly, but it feels like we're going
to create something special, and it does feel good, 'cause
I'm very excited about it, and I think throughout the planning of what we have been doing is yeah, I'm just very excited. (smooth music) Wow, another successful meeting. (people clapping) I grew up in South Florida, specifically I was born in Miami, and we moved to Broward County. I think I'm very similar
to as a kid as I am now, which is very, explorative,
if that's a word, just very, like I'm ready to explore, I am eager to just get involved in things. And I think that sorta reflects me now. Currently I'm assistant directing a show in the theater department,
it's called "Anonymous". I'm also working on producing
my own play next semester. And I'm also making a docuseries about that process as well. It's kinda hectic, but we're
gonna see what happens, I mean yeah. (birds chirping) (light music) - My name is Alexandra Turvey, and this is my senior
year at Pomona College. (upbeat music) (diving board clinking) I really just am so grateful
that I chose to come to Pomona. Today it's a Friday afternoon, and we are at the Haldeman Pool, which is the home of our
Pomona-Pitzer Swim and Dive Team. And we're having a team practice. - All right, we're going
every two-and-a-half minutes. Yeah, this is a fun practice, it's an early in the season event where we race 100 yards of every, of the four competitive strokes. We're only, not even two
weeks into our season. But it'll be a fun time to see them sort of put their game face on. (people talking indistinctly) - I think the beginning of the year is always super exciting. The season can feel long at times, but really, I find that it often flies by, it's really just sort of six months and we have our really
big championship meets in the end of February and March. So a big sort of team goal
for us is to win SCIACs. Last year on the women's side,
we lost by just 10 points, and that was pretty disappointing, so this year's a lot about redemption for both the men and women's teams. - 50.4, 50.7. - Yeah, so I haven't like
raced officially since March, so today's fun to like get back into it and sort of get the season
started off on a good note. (diving board clinking) I am a senior, so I'm disappointed, my time here is coming to an end, but I'm really excited
for the final season. (smooth music) (people talking indistinctly) I was born in Boston, so in Massachusetts, and then when we were three-years-old, my family moved to Vancouver in Canada. Swimming obviously has
sort of dominated my life from a very young age, I started competitive swimming
when I was eight-years-old. I was really fortunate to qualify for like the
2020 Olympic trials. Thinking of my goals for this year, like it would be super cool to qualify for Olympic trials again, but I think my main goals
are here for this team. (light music) - I'm Maria Duran Gonzalez, and this is my senior
year at Pomona College. (smooth music) So I'm really glad you guys are here. I'm gonna start wiping this
down, these two tables. So today is the first event of organic October for the Eco Reps, and we called it garden focaccia day. And it's a way for students to
engage with organic produce, not only from a nearby grocery store, but also from the Pitzer student garden, and from the Pomona garden as well. This is our first garden focaccia event, and we hope you guys are enjoying it. The program that I am
affiliated with is the Eco Reps. And with the Eco Reps, we are student ambassadors
of sustainability. Something that the Eco Reps do is to provide resources for students through programming, and projects. (knives clinking) Oh, this is really pretty. - [Woman] Oh wow. - This loaf is really pretty. (Mari laughs) The focaccia
is looking beautiful, but I do think that there
are too many focaccias. We thought 12 people was going
to be enough and intimate, but I think I might have to use every oven in Dialynas to be able
to bake these focaccias. So there's learning experiences. You plan this event, and you
want it to go a certain way, but nothing is perfect, you
have to think on your feet, and I think that's what my senior year is gonna be like, (Maria laughs) nothing is gonna be perfect. Just have to go with the
flow, see how things turn out, (smooth music) and just be able to adjust accordingly, and be fluid as possible. (oven clinking) I was born in Bogotá Colombia. When I moved to the U.S.
when I was eight-years-old. We learned to speak
English through a book, through practicing in classes. The transition was very hard, because you have to learn how
to communicate with people in an informal sense. So that has been like a
huge part of my curiosity. I think as a child I was
very creative, very curious, and very kind. I would win like student
of the month for kindness, student of the month for compassion. I am really interested in
communication and journalism, so I hope in the future, my
career looks like being able to directly engage with
environmental stories. (smooth music continues) - My name is Phillip Kong, and this is my senior
year at Pomona College. (smooth music) If you remember, we like
did the restriction free, like the mega primer approach right? I mean, I think it was gonna be a hard one to do anyways, but. This is a crucial step in my project, which is fusing two genes together, which helps us to study one of them. I'm studying an enzyme
for archaebacteria. I started this project last
fall, so my junior fall, so this I guess my third
semester working on it. And I'm working on it for
my senior thesis right now. I thought I would give this a try. I just kinda take this
on, kinda really I guess, taking it from just like an initial idea all the way through
planning the experiments, planning what the steps will be, how to proceed when something fails, and kinda just keep
responsibility of this project and work through many of the kinks, and try to tackle really
difficult problems. So, all right, we got the DNA out? Let's go. (mechanical beeping) (door clinking) All right, let's see, how this looks. Whoa, why is this so high? (Phillip laughs) One of the values was kinda deviated from what we were expecting to see. Science usually doesn't
work the way you want it to, so yeah, there's a lot of uncertainty, but that's kinda the exciting part yeah. I was born in Shenzhen China, which is a relatively metropolitan city. I have a twin sister, which is I guess very
unusual during that time, as China was under the one
child policy at the time. We moved to Canada in February 2011, when we were eight-years-old. I knew I was very interested
in biology actually, since I was very young. I wanna be a physician scientist, so someone who is both able
to be a practicing physician, and providing clinical care to patients, but also spending time
doing biomedical research. I'm applying to medical
school at the moment, I'm applying to MD PhD programs. I think definitely a little
bit of anxious time right now, not knowing what my future's gonna be. (vehicles rumbling) (soft music) - [Interviewer] What were you thinking when you got accepted? - I was very excited when I got accepted, I remember thinking like, 'cause I got accepted to other schools, and I was really looking
forward to Pomona specifically. - Honestly, I couldn't believe it I guess. So in senior year I guess when you apply, you kinda get in this like
very in sort of head space where everything you seem
to do be thinking about is about college. And I really had, really wanted to come
to Pomona at the time. - It was actually swimming
that drew me to Pomona, so I did apply ED1, and yeah, I feel lucky that Pomona was the only application I had to write. - I was in my room, my
mom was like on my bed, 'cause we were just like all anxiously just like awaiting to hear something. And I get a phone call. And I remember just being like, oh my god. I pick up. - I remember opening my
letter after swim practice on like a rainy December evening, and yeah, just being absolutely thrilled. - And I was so excited, it was like an eight PM on
like a Friday in Toronto, and I was just like screaming
up and down with my mom. - So yeah, I was pretty set on Pomona. - Everyone happened to be
in my room at the same time, like my dad, my mom, my brother and I, and we were just like, (Maria shouting). I started sobbing,
everyone was just sobbing, and it was just like
such a wonderful moment, because okay yes, not only
did I get a like a scholarship to study out of state, but it was also just like the
moment of being with my family and the moment of hearing
someone in higher education kind of recognize who I am, and recognize that my story was important, was very very special. - [Interviewer] That's a great story. (Maria and interviewer laugh) - I am a story teller. (soft music)
