Smitten with Tradition
Family Tree / The McBurney and Colburn Families Smitten With Tradition

Growing up in a family chock full of Pomona alums, there was some expectation that Shanna McBurney '85 would continue that proud tradition. So naturally, when it came time to choose a college, Pomona College was just about the last place she wanted to go. "The last thing you want to do is what's expected of you," McBurney says. Of course, given her family's long Pomona tradition, she had no choice but to visit the campus, and that was all it took to quell her youthful rebellion. "I was instantly smitten," McBurney says. "I also loved that it was a small school with a long history of its own."

As a student, McBurney says her definitive Pomona experience was managing the Coop Fountain. In that position, she tightened up operations significantly and was later able to put to use the lessons she learned from managing the Coop as a management consultant with Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm. "One of my projects was in the dietary department of a hospital in Tulsa," she says. "We used essentially the same methods, albeit more sophisticated, to reduce expenses there." It would seem, then, that despite her initial reluctance to attend Pomona, generations of Sagehens got it right.



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