For Pratya Poosala ’24, Storytelling and Radical Listening Can Improve Healthcare

Pratya Poosala holds up her children’s book titled Rajulko Rukh. The book cover is a digital illustration of a brown monkey sitting on a tree by a street. Poosala has dark wavy hair pulled back and wears a blue top and white pants.

Does storytelling belong in labs and medical offices? Pratya Poosala ’24 would argue yes. Poosala enjoyed her STEM classes as a behavioral neuroscience major, but she still had a passion for the humanities. Her solution was adding a self-designed major in narrative medicine. “The way that science is taught sometimes tends to be detached from the humanities. As someone interested in a healthcare career, I think it’s important we not only learn how to be good scientists and researchers but also good people—people who work with communities.”

March 20, 2024

Spotlights

Hayley Blain-Weinstein ’91 Makes Game Show Dreams Come True

Hayley Blain-Weinstein ’91 wears a headset and takes a selfie in front of the studio audience at The Price is Right.

From Love Connection to Extreme Makeover to My Feet Are Killing Me, Hayley Blain-Weinstein ’91 has met many kinds of people in her reality television casting career. Who would live on a remote island or race around the world for a cash prize? Who has a rare illness in need of treatment? Who would look for love in front of millions of viewers? Blain-Weinstein’s job has been to find people who fit those bills.

February 20, 2024

Spotlights

Beihua Guo ’21 Unearths L.A. Aqueduct’s Dark History Through Photography

Black and white photo of Beihua Guo standing beside a camera on a tripod on a lakeside with mountains in the background.

Photographer and Pitzer alum Beihua Guo ’21 has received $5,000 as a finalist for The Aftermath Project’s 1492/1619 American Aftermaths grant. Guo’s project, “Water Is Thicker Than Blood,” illustrates the ignored and forgotten history of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the California water wars. According to its website, The Aftermath Project is a nonprofit that supports photographers “to [Read More...]

February 16, 2024

Press Releases | Spotlights

Pitzer Marks 25 Years of Social Responsibility in Action

Jessica J. Chairez '13, Jack Contreras '22, Tricia Morgan '08, and Crystal Rodriguez '23 wear all black and stand side by side on a balcony overlooking Pitzer's campus.

For Pitzer students, social responsibility isn’t just an idea found inside a book—it lives in community gardens, warehouses, classrooms, on street corners, and beyond. Pitzer’s Community Engagement Center (CEC) has helped make this work possible since its establishment in 1999. “We’re supporting the innovation, ideas, passions, and justice issues arising in our community partners by [Read More...]

January 19, 2024

Press Releases | Spotlights

Arts Council Fellow Micah Huang ’13 to Continue His Sonic Exploration of Injustice at Los Angeles Festival

Micah Huang has long black hair in a braid and wraps red tulle fabric around his shoulders while looking intensely at the camera. Huang is wearing a black shirt and jeans and stands against a dark gray background.

Micah Huang’s ’13 work as a composer, musician, and sound artist exposes social injustices as well as explores music’s ability to heal and transform. As a Fulbright fellow, Huang visited Hungary to work alongside the marginalized Roma people to amplify and help preserve their musical traditions. Two of his recent pieces, Blood on Gold Mountain, [Read More...]

December 13, 2023

Press Releases | Spotlights

Filmmaker and MOR Fellow Daisy Okazaki ’25 Explores Asian American Identity

Daisy Okazaki has wavy black hair pulled back and wears hoop earrings and a gray T-shirt. Okazaki stands in front of a stone wall with a tree behind it.

Since childhood, Daisy Okazaki ’25 has told stories informed by their experience as an Asian American. After learning watercolor painting from their father, Okazaki depicted the two of them as Kiki and Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service as a Father’s Day card. In high school Okazaki wrote and illustrated a memoir about grappling with their [Read More...]

December 5, 2023

Press Releases | Spotlights

Incarceration to Reintegration: Kenneth Butler ’22 Helps Pilot Program in Uganda

When Kenneth Butler ’22 was released in 2021 after 15 years of incarceration, he was on his way to a bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College. However, he didn’t yet know how to rebuild his place in the community and start his career. Butler turned to the Reintegration Academy, an eight-week program that teaches formerly incarcerated individuals about life skills, career development, and vocational education. Now, Butler is helping expand the academy in Uganda as part of his Fulbright.

November 8, 2023

Press Releases | Spotlights

After Two NSF Fellowships, Teo Cooper ’24 Seeks to Balance People and Nature

Teo Cooper takes a selfie in a laboratory. Cooper wears a white lab coat and has short curly dark hair. Behind Cooper are tables and shelves with tubes, bottles, and equipment.

Pitzer senior Teo Cooper ’24 has completed not just one but two fellowships funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In summer 2022, they worked in a UC Berkeley biogeochemical lab and studied soil carbon sequestration. This summer, they joined The Leadership Alliance and Harvard University’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. In this spotlight, Cooper also recalls the racial justice series that brought them to Pitzer and looks ahead to studying abroad in Southern Africa.

September 11, 2023

Press Releases | Spotlights

Crystal Rodriguez ’23: Artist, Community Advocate, and New Resources Student

Claremont, Calif. (July 28, 2023)—Meet Crystal Rodriguez ’23, a New Resources student who graduated as a studio art major and is the new Hecker Community Fellow at Pitzer’s Community Engagement Center (CEC). The CEC utilizes institutional power, partner collaboration, faculty expertise, and student action to advance social justice on campus and in the surrounding community.

July 28, 2023

Press Releases | Spotlights

Cornella Ver Halen ’83: Teaching ESL With a Novella and a Rolling Chair

Cornella Ver Halen sits across a wood desk from a student and has an open spiral notebook in front of her as she explains something. Ver Halen has short white hair and wears glasses and a black jacket vest over a blue long-sleeved shirt.

Claremont, Calif. (April 26, 2023)—As a teacher, Pitzer alumna Cornella Ver Halen ’83 did not stand by a whiteboard and lecture to students snoozing at their desks. Instead, she rolled. Her chair's little wheels squeaked as she maneuvered to sit beside each student and guide them through whatever they were working on in their workbooks. This was Ver Halen’s teaching style for over 50 years. Until her retirement in December 2022, she was an English as a Second Language (ESL) and sewing teacher at Tri-Community Adult Education/Pioneer Center in Covina. “By working one on one, I let them progress at their own speed,” said Ver Halen. “I said if I couldn’t make grammar interesting, I would quit. I think I succeeded.”

April 26, 2023