Brian Gose ’12, Mark Gose ’11, Myles MacDonald ’11, and Harrison Zivot ’11 are this year’s top winners of the 21st annual Henry R. Kravis Concept Plan Competition, hosted by the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management of Claremont Graduate University.
A CMCer compiled a list of “10 Classes You HAVE to Take Before Graduation.” This list is by no means a complete list of the “best” courses that CMC offers, but are some of the stand-outs.
My name is Pieter Cornel, and I am a rising sophomore at CMC. In light of my intended major, international relations, I decided to do an international internship this summer. Through connections back home I got an internship at Ready 4 Life, a small educational non-profit in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I was thrilled with the opportunity, but worried about the cost of spending two months on the other side of the world. Thankfully I am a CMC student, so there were many opportunities for me to get funding. Through CMC’s Center for Human Rights I received a grant that covers a very substantial part of my costs, so I am now writing this while soaking in African sunlight.
South Africa is a country of extremes, and my work here has made that incredibly clear to me. The difference between blacks and coloureds, two completely different groups in South Africa, somewhat shocked me, because I never realized that they were seen as different from each other. In the Post-Apartheid era the differences between black, colored, a completely separate racial group consistent of people with both African and European influences, and white are still extreme, and the racial integration does not seem to have started. The townships, the poor and crime-ridden suburbs where most of the blacks and coloreds live, are located miles away from the center of the city, as they had been during Apartheid. The wide roads going into those townships serve as a reminder of the tanks and police vehicles that used these roads when they had to “keep the peace”. In the townships around where I work the unemployment rate lies somewhere between 80% and 90%, which is significantly higher than the national rate of 50%. There are no clear data on the HIV/Aids infected percentage because that is simply not spoken of. People would much rather not know than have to worry about that too.
In Jacksonville, one of the colored townships, I work four days a week as a sort of career advisor. Many young adults, almost all of whom are unemployed and have children to support, have not finished high school, and do not know what their possibilities are. I help them by doing job interview workshops, providing information about college opportunities, bursaries, scholarships in the US, learnerships (three year long paid job training), etc. Additionally, I help them make their résumés. There are individuals in the area who charge large sums of money to make résumés filled with errors with missing or extraneous information. The leadership skills I have gathered at CMC help me tremendously, and it is amazing have the opportunity to actually use skills gained of the last year to help people uplift themselves. Hopefully some of the people I work with will be able to continue their education, or find a job.
Even though the work is often challenging and mentally exhausting, every day is still filled with happiness thanks to the warm hearts of the local people, and the sheer beauty South Africa possesses. Food here is quite cheap, so dining out has become a habit, and the most amazing game-parks lie only an hour away. A few weeks ago I rode an elephant, and two days later I cuddled with lions and walked amongst giraffes and zebras. Time goes by so fast, and yet every experience is unforgettable. I am currently at the midpoint of my time here, and I must say that I will be sad to go back home, like I never thought I ever could.
This internship is already one of the best experiences of my life, and I would like to thank CMC and the Center for Human Rights for making this possible. CMC allows its students to have a life-changing summer and receive school credit for their experiences. Although I am starting to love South Africa, I cannot wait to go back to the, once again, happiest college in America. I know that everybody I know will have amazing stories about this summer, and that sophomore year will be incredible. For all the incoming freshmen, you guys are some of the luckiest people alive; I wish I still had four years of happiness ahead of me. See you in August!
Summer has arrived in Claremont (not that we can tell the difference... we have summer weather all year!) and CMCers have flocked to every corner of the globe for summer internships, jobs, service trips, and study. While there are some students on campus attending CMC Summer Session and working for various CMC offices and research centers, our beloved campus is, for the most part, empty. As you can see, CMCers are generally not content with letting their summers go to waste, so we're going to be posting articles over the summer highlighting the enriching and diverse experiences of a few Stags and Athenas. Stay tuned for more up-to-date information, and check back in the fall for more regular content! - Hillary the Editor
Collins brought us a romantic Lady and the Tramp dinner on Valentine's Day, but the real feast was two days later, Wednesday, February 16th at Chef Wars.
The day was a nice but rainy, middle of the week, midterms on the brain kind of day. As I walked through the cold door fans of Collins, huddled for warmth with my friend Katie, our growling stomachs goading us to prepare our cards to be swiped, it was an act all so familiar. We all know Collins well, but this night was much different. No matter where you were, you could see the overwhelming lines of students, mouths drooling in anticipation of a feast. There is a distressed murmuring in the air for the need of more forks, although people easily resort to using spoons and knives. The crowds and cheery faces reminded me that I attend the happiest school in the world!
When I think about why CMC students dine at Collins I wonder: is it because the weather is rainy and Collins is close, or because we know what we want and Collins has it, or out of our love and loyalty to Doris and the other staff members? But the fact is, it is their love and loyalty to us! I asked General Manager, Pam Franco, why this event is thrown and she happily replied "It's something special to do for you!" (not me specifically, the whole student body).
Chef Wars is an event where executive chefs of Bon Appétit from other Southern California colleges compete in a friendly cook off. For the past two years this event has included voting, where students are given a wooden chip to vote for their favorite dish. Before the voting, in previous years Chef Wars was a "Chef Road Show" to highlight the talents of other Bon Appétit executive chefs. Last year's winner was CMC, and it came as no surprise that they held the title in a landslide win this year as well! They receive extra points for sustainability, using local products, and healthy ingredients, etc. When asked what the winner is awarded, Pam chuckled and said "bragging rights."
When I mailed my enrollment check to CMC last spring, I knew I was making a fantastic decision. What I didn't realize was that I was making the best decision of my life. In my personal effort to explain why Claremont McKenna is the happiest college in America (thank you, Daily Beast), here are fifteen of my favorite things about CMC.
1. Dining Halls
I don't know about you, but food is pretty important to me. I can't imagine spending nine months eating terrible food everyday, and here at CMC we don't have to worry about the quality of our food. Our dining hall, Collins, is staffed by a catering company as opposed to a cafeteria service, so the food isn't your stereotypical cafeteria-esque food. Best part? We don't only have access to our own dining hall; we can choose from any of the six dining halls at the 5C's for any meal. Not feeling Steak Night at Collins? Head over to Scripps for Sushi Night. Taco Tuesdays at Pitzer and Make-Your-Own Pizza at Frary are my personal favorites. Yeah... our taste buds are slightly spoiled.
2. Parents Field/Green Beach
Yes, I know. All schools have fields. Duh. Parents is sick because on the nicer days (and let's be honest, there are a lot of them), you can find Parents Field riddled with students laying out in the sun, kicking around soccer balls, or doing some schoolwork. At the north end of Parents Field lies Green Beach, the grassy hill directly behind Green Hall, one of the four North Quad dorms. Green Beach is our solution to the lack of an actual beach on campus; you'll sometimes find slip and slides set up on the hill and the barbeque pit is in constant use.
3. Weather
I feel like this goes without saying, but the weather in Southern California is incredible. 88 degrees and sunny in December? Enough said.
4. CMS/Pomona Pitzer Basketball Games
Where else can you live closer to your rival's home court than to your own? The CMS (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps)/Pomona Pitzer rivalry is a lot of fun, and it reaches a boiling point on the nights of the CMS/PP basketball games. Both teams are members of SCIAC (the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) and play each other twice each season, and the games are among the most fun you'll find in D3 sports. I grew up going to Division 1 games at my dad's alma mater, a state school with a huge emphasis on athletics, and while CMC is a fraction of the size of my hometown school, the atmosphere at the CMS/PP games rivals that of some of the D1 games I've attended.
5. Tanks
After seven months in Claremont, I own more tanks than I could ever need. We have dorm tanks, tanks from parties, CMS tanks, and more. For those of us who aren't from Southern California, tanks aren't exactly wardrobe staples, but CMC students embrace the tanks and we wear them all the time.
6. Free Printing
Imagine a professor emailing you a 35-page article to read for class and having to pay ten cents per page to print that article... it adds up. We have free printing here, which is one of the countless advantages to attending a small school. We can print at any of the four computer labs on campus, so not only do you get to print for free, but you don't have to bother bringing your own printer to campus.
7. Snack & Tea
I know I've already talked about food, but snack and tea deserve their own category. Our school loves feeding us, and they do so every Monday-Friday from 3-4:30 with Athenaeum Tea and every Monday-Thursday night from 10:30-11:30 with snack. If you stop by the Ath for tea, you can get tea, coffee, and juice, but you can also get giant Ath Rice Krispies treats, pastries, and chocolate-covered strawberries. Collins is open for an hour every weeknight for snack; there's always one main food, whether it be mozzarella sticks, pizza bagels, or waffles, and you have access to the drink machines, sandwich stuff, and ice cream.
8. CMC Community
Being a small school of only 1,200 students, CMC strives to create a true school community; while you're obviously not going to know every student you walk by on campus, you will always run into people you know at parties and other social events. We don't have a Greek Life on campus, so our student body isn't divided between Greeks and non-Greeks, which helps to create a very open and inclusive community. There isn't a great deal of divide between the classes, and chances are you will find yourself becoming friends with students of all ages in Claremont. The CMC Community is a welcoming one, and we all share a common bond that stems from our extreme love for CMC.
After four amazing years at CMC, it's tough to single out a favorite class, but if I had to come up with a list of my top three, Environmental Law with Professor Bill Christian and Professor Tom McHenry would definitely make the cut. Sifting through the details of Supreme Court rulings and environmental legislation could easily turn into a tedious exercise under any other circumstance, but in this instance the course material was brought wonderfully to life by the class field trip through the Mojave Desert midway through the semester. Throughout the weekend our class met with representatives from a number of government agencies to learn more about the practical implications of the environmental legislation we had spent so much time poring over; we talked with several members of the Bureau of Land Management's office in Barstow about land use issues in the Mojave Desert and we were led on a hike through Death Valley National Park by a ranger from the Fish and Wildlife Service to see the endangered Devil's Hole Pupfish and learn how the Endangered Species Act related in this particular case. A weekend full of these meetings had the cumulative effect of truly bringing to life all that our class had been studying over the course of the semester, and I think this experience really highlights how CMC courses tend to take a very ‘hands-on' approach to learning.
Beyond our formal meetings with agency representatives, the field trip afforded a great opportunity for students interested in environmental professions to network and learn about potential career paths. Attendees of the field trip included not only the students and the professors, but also a number of friends and colleagues invited along by Bill and Tom. Each night at dinner or through the course of each day hiking and sight-seeing, our class had the opportunity to learn from this array of professionals accompanying us on the trip, including not only environmental attorneys from Tom's law firm, but also an incredibly inspiring couple who film and produce nature documentaries, and an old friend of Tom's who owns the China Ranch Date Farm in the Mojave.
After four amazing years at CMC, it's tough to single out a favorite class, but if I had to come up with a list of my top three, Environmental Law with Professor Bill Christian and Professor Tom McHenry would definitely make the cut. Sifting through the details of Supreme Court rulings and environmental legislation could easily turn into a tedious exercise under any other circumstance, but in this instance the course material was brought wonderfully to life by the class field trip through the Mojave Desert midway through the semester. Throughout the weekend our class met with representatives from a number of government agencies to learn more about the practical implications of the environmental legislation we had spent so much time poring over; we talked with several members of the Bureau of Land Management's office in Barstow about land use issues in the Mojave Desert and we were led on a hike through Death Valley National Park by a ranger from the Fish and Wildlife Service to see the endangered Devil's Hole Pupfish and learn how the Endangered Species Act related in this particular case. A weekend full of these meetings had the cumulative effect of truly bringing to life all that our class had been studying over the course of the semester, and I think this experience really highlights how CMC courses tend to take a very ‘hands-on' approach to learning.