To declare a major at Pomona College is to join an academic family, and on Thursday, April 30, sophomores had the chance to do both communally for the first time.
The inaugural Declaration Day brought together second-year students, College faculty and visiting alumni for a reception on Marston Quad celebrating the seminal act of declaring a major.
Sophomore Class President Molly Grace Chakery ’28; Sophomore Class Dean Brooke Lavin; Josh Eisenberg, associate dean of students and dean of campus life; and Associate Dean of the College Heidi Schumacher planned the affair collaboratively.
“A lot of our energy our first two years is spent exploring our interests, which makes declaring a major hard because we’ve been given permission to have a multitude of passions,” Chakery says. “We thought, ‘How can we make students feel like they’re joining a new academic family as they’re being welcomed into departments?’”
A festive dinner to kick off Alumni Weekend seemed apropos, the team concluded.
“We wanted students to see and meet everyone in the areas they are declaring in, including alumni who’d been in those communities before them,” Chakery says. “There’s a great deal of pride in each department, and it is exciting for faculty to see the communities they’ve created.”
