Bryan Monroy
Pasadena High Alumni
Harvey Mudd College
Major: Physics
Sophomore Year
I am currently finishing my sophomore year at Harvey Mudd College. The course load at Mudd has been incredibly challenging, but it has been balanced by exciting new activities and opportunities. Mudd's unofficial motto is "work hard, play hard." My transition from high school to college was helped by the Summer Institute Program that Mudd offers to incoming freshman. It is organized by the Office of Diversity and aimed primarily at helping underrepresented students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It is similar to Upward Bound's Summer Sessions. To further ease the transition, the first semester of our freshman year is pass/fail, meaning that we do not have to worry about getting a letter grade or our GPA. This made freshman year much less stressful. There is also Academic Excellence (AE) a student run tutor program for all core classes, which works similar to Upward Bound's after school tutoring. As a freshman, I was unsure whether to major in Physics or Engineering. Fortunately, we do not have to declare until the end of our sophomore year. Since Mudd is technically a liberal arts college, we were exposes to all of the branches of science including Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, and Mathematics during our freshman year. It was this exposure that led me to become a Physics major.
Darleshia Towns
Wilson High School Alumni
CSU Long Beach
Major: Philosophy
Sophomore Year
My Experience at CSU Long Beach has been great. While living in the dorms my freshman year I met so many wonderful people. I have had so much support and counseling along the way through being a part of the EOP Program. The counselors helped me pick out most of my classes and made sure tutoring was available when I needed it. Most of the professors I have had are interested in seeing you succeed and pass their class while also enjoying it! The professors interact with students and strive to make the lectures bearable, and I find myself listening and learning! If you pick CSULB as a school you will hopefully surprise yourself with your ability to listen and understand and maybe even enjoy the class. I am majoring in Philosophy and I have a minor in English, and plan to go into law after I receive my Bachelors Degree. I am also a student assistant in the philosophy department and I get a chance to meet and work with many of my Philosophy Professors. The campus has a lot of resources and there are a ton of on campus organizations and a lot of opportunities to meet people and have fun.
Carolina Trigueros
Pasadena High School Alumni
Columbia University
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Sophomore Year
I am a rising junior at Columbia University studying Mechanical Engineering. My experience at Columbia has been an interesting and very educational one, not only with regards to my studies but also with regards to myself as a person. Just by changing environments, going from California to New York, which I personally think are complete opposites, you learn so much and meet so many different people. Not only is NYC very diverse, Columbia itself is very big on diversity; therefore there are many ethnic clubs on campus and they put on many showcases throughout the year. These events have helped me get more in touch with my culture and learn about so many others. Also, meeting so many different people, it's inevitable that you will start to question or change your beliefs/point of view on different matters, but that's good. It's good to question because only then will you find the answers. You could end up doing a complete 180 on what you believe or even solidifying your beliefs even more. But that's what college is for: Learning.