College Fly-in: Pomona College

Hi everyone!
Right now, I'm in Claremont, California at the Pomona Diversity Weekend. There are 54 students from around the nation invited to participate in the events of this weekend just to experience the college and get a taste of what it has to offer. After my 5 hour flight followed by a 2 hour SuperShuttle ride from the airport, I finally arrived on campus. It is hot and sunny like my hometown except without the humidity. Palm trees line the roads and the sidewalks are filled with friendly diverse students. There are people from the diversity team waiting to greet me as I exit the shuttle and hand me a folder with my name on it as well as a bag with a water bottle inside. They walk me  through every piece of paper in the folder and hand me over to some other students. I check in at a table of relaxed college kids, the table of which is FULL of snacks. I ask questions about dual enrollment and my host for the weekend. All the people handling check in know my host and seem to assume that we would be a perfect match based on ethnicity and similar hometown. My host isn't available to pick me up and walk me to my dorm so she sends her friend Jasmine to get me instead.

Literally what the quad looks like ^_^

Jasmine is really cool and majors in Linguistics. She tells me about the dorm and the different halls based on focus languages (i.e. Spanish hall, French hall, Chinese hall). I am ecstatic because I love language and I major in International Relations. I drop off my bags, go pick up a piece of pizza from check-in, and follow Jasmine around campus. We walk pass the quad (which looks like it came straight out of a movie) to the Psychology building. The building looks brand new with several places to relax in peace. We go upstairs to what looks like a glass sunroom filled with books, a couch, a big comfy chair, some working tables, and respective decorations. I finally meet my host. We'll call her Nelly. Nelly is really cool too. I am like the younger version of her; we both are of the same ethnic background, come from the same hometown, applied for the same scholarships, and completed high school with an A.A. degree. I meet her other friends at the same time and everyone is very relaxed and comfortable with each other and themselves.

I really like this program because they have organized it so that each student has an individualized experience. I've already got to experience the freedom and spontaneity that comes with the college experience and I really appreciate that.