Every fall, two recent Pomona College graduates travel across the pond to the University of Cambridge as Downing Scholars. The scholarship funds a year of study as well as room, board and travel expenses. While there, the scholars participate as members of Downing College, one of the 31 colleges that comprise the University of Cambridge. Scholars can pursue any field of study offered at the university.
Starting in October, Haakon Pihlaja ’25 and Gabriel Schuhl ’25 will represent Pomona College in Cambridge for nine months.
Pihlaja, a physics major at Pomona from Duluth, Minnesota, will pursue an MPhil in quantitative climate and environmental science.
“Since it’s Cambridge, there are a lot of resources there,” says Pihlaja. “Engaging with all the resources that are available is really exciting.”
His master’s degree will incorporate both coursework and research.
In his first term, Pihlaja will take courses exposing him to climate and environmental science topics. During the second term, he will take elective courses along with beginning thesis research, and in the third term he will write a thesis.
Pihlaja hopes to study a topic related to oceanography and to work with scientists at the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey.
Last summer, Pihlaja researched recent extreme warming in the North Atlantic Ocean at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The project became the foundation for his senior thesis.
“It’s lucky to have this award now, to see what other people are doing around the world, how they’re conducting their research and engaging with these environmental issues,” says Pihlaja.
Schuhl, a philosophy and politics double major at Pomona from Charlotte, North Carolina, will pursue an MPhil in American history at Cambridge University. Diverging from his two undergraduate majors into a new field will round out his education, he says.
“The idea of being at a place like Cambridge, which is so rich and dense with history is exciting,” says Schuhl. Studying American history from a British perspective was especially appealing to him.
At Pomona, Schuhl first landed on a philosophy focus, appreciating “the deep logical and analytical thinking and intense ways of reading” the discipline afforded. But politics also drew his attention. “Politics is a reminder that things have real world implications, and you can take logical skills and literary theories and make them work in problems today,” Schuhl says.
His intended research at Cambridge will investigate the shared assumptions held by organized labor and corporate management in the early 20th century.
Schuhl hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in political theory eventually, with the intention of applying his studies to political campaigns and party politics.
“Coming to Cambridge will mean starting a new string of academic, professional and social relationships,” says Schuhl. “These relationships will undoubtedly inspire my learning at Cambridge and my academic career to come.”