PomonaINSIDE: HERO, EXPLODING THE PIANO, THE HUMAN DIFFERENCE COLLEGE MAGAZINE Winter 2011 QUESTION: Is the new Disney Professor of Creative Writing, Jonathan Lethem, a great novelist who teaches or a dedicated teacher who writes novels? ANSWER: Yes. PomonaCollege / HomePage / /Daring Minds/ / FEATURES / Hero / BY AMBER DANCE 19 SCAMFest The crusade of Dr. Emil Kakkis ’82 against orphan diseases SCAMfest (Southern California A Cappella Music Festival) draws Double Dare / BY RATNA KAMATH ’11 24 enthusiastic crowds to Bridges Auditorium each fall to watch and Pomona students who choose not to choose hear the Claremont College’s abundance of a cappella groups, along with those from other SoCal schools such as USC and The Exploding Piano / BY ALEXANDER GELFAND UCLA. The event is put on by the Claremont Shades (pictured Kathleen Supové ’73 and the death of the staid recital 28 here), billed as the consortium’s oldest coed a cappella group. PHOTO BY WILL HUMMEL ’12 Life & Times of Jonathan Lethem / BY SCOTT MARTELLE What makes Pomona’s new Disney Professor tick? 31 The Human Difference / BY ADAM ROGERS ’92 Katie Pollard ’95 and humanity’s tiny DNA distinction 36 / SPECIAL SECTION / Daring Minds 3 A pictorial introduction to Campaign Pomona / DEPARTMENTS / Stray Thoughts 2 Letter Box 8 Coming Soon 10 Pomona Today 11 Picture This 40 / ON THE COVER Bookshelf 42 Cover PHOTO OF JONATHAN LETHEM Class Acts 45 BY JOHN LUCAS Alumni Voices 48 Bulletin Board 51 More at Travel Study 51 PCM Mind Games 52 ONLINE Pomona Blue 52 www.pomona.edu/magazine / StrayThoughts / Pomona Campaign |Pomona COLLEGE MAGAZINE DARING MINDS Winter 2011 • Volume 47, No. 2 Daring Minds Visit PCM Online at www.pomona.edu/magazine. EXECUTIVE EDITOR/ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER Mark Wood ([email protected]) ampaign themes, some have argued, are all pretty much interchangeable. EDITOR Indeed,C the norm is so generically grand that Currents, the magazine of the Mark Kendall ([email protected]) Council for Advancement and Support of Education, once printed a tongue- WEB EDITOR in-cheek menu for selecting a theme. As I recall, you could choose a verb from Laura Tiffany ([email protected]) Column A—like “Building,” “Fulfilling” or “Claiming”—plus an object from ASSISTANT EDITOR Column B—“the Promise,” “a Vision,” “our Destiny”—plus a lofty phrase Mary Marvin from Column C—“of Excellence,” “of Greatness,” “of Tomorrow.” CLASS NOTES EDITOR I’m happy to say the theme of Pomona’s new campaign breaks out of that Perdita Sheirich mold and I find it a unique fit for the college I’ve come to know. Over the past PUZZLE EDITOR Lynne Willems Zold ’67 year, I must have heard and written those two little words thousands of times, and yet their power still feels fresh to me—maybe because they call to mind so CONTRIBUTORS Amber Dance (“Hero”) is a Pasadena-based science writer whose directly the people I’ve gotten to know here. For me, that’s what Pomona is work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Nature and the and always has been—a remarkable assemblage of daring minds. HHMI Bulletin. That’s never been clearer to me than in getting to know the four students Alexander Gelfand (“Exploding the Piano”) is a New York-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times profiled in our campaign video. If you haven’t met them yet, I invite you to go and The Economist. to our campaign website (www.pomona.edu/daring-minds) and watch the Scott Martelle (“Life & Times of Jonathan Lethem”) is a journal- video titled “Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds.” I’ll wait for you back here... ist and critic based in Irvine, Calif., and author of The Fear Within: Spies, Commies, and American Democracy on Trial. When I first met this amazing foursome, Charlie Bufalino was a junior, Adam Rogers ’92 (“The Human Difference”) is a senior editor Kimbia Arno and Chris Fiorello were sophomores and Meredith Course was in for Wired magazine. her first year. Now Charlie is a graduate, tackling the problem of poverty Mary Schmich ’75 (“Being Brenda”) is a columnist for the through education by working at a charter school. Kimbia will soon graduate Chicago Tribune and longtime writer of the Brenda Starr comic strip. with a degree in Japanese and move on to medical school. Chris, recently back CONTRIBUTING STAFF from his interviews as a Rhodes finalist, is preparing for graduate school in so- Ben Belletto ciology. And Meredith is busy conducting serious research in neuroscience and Will Hummel ’12 Ratna Kamath ’11 “THE WORLD NEEDS DARING MINDS.” preparing for another recital with one of her string ensembles. Of the four, I’ve gotten to know Chris best—maybe because he let me in Pomona College Magazine is published three —PRESIDENT DAVID OXTOBY on a personal quest that’s had me rooting for him ever since. times a year. Copyright 2011 by Pomona College. Send letters and submissions to: Pomona College Magazine, 550 North College Chris had never known his biological father, an international student who Ave., Claremont, CA 91711 or [email protected]. For address returned home to Yemen before Chris was born. Chris traces his passion for changes, class notes, scrapbook photos, or birth or death notices, email: [email protected]; phone: 909-621-8635; or fax: sociology to his own sense of alienation growing up in the American heartland 909-621-8535. For other editorial matters, phone: 909-607-9660 preeminent liberal with no knowledge of his paternal roots. In the wake of a trip to Vietnam with or email: [email protected]. Magazine policies are available at: As one of America’s www.pomona.edu/magazine/guidelines. Professor Hung Thai to study repatriated emigrants, he found himself thinking arts colleges, Pomona is uniquely positioned to provide more and more about finding his father. After a semester in Jordan, he spent Pomona College is an independent liberal arts college to some of the nation’s most promising and venturesome established in 1887. Located in Claremont, Calif., it is the found- two weeks on a lonely trek through Yemen, using his skills as a researcher to ing member of The Claremont Colleges. young scholars a distinctive brand of liberal arts seek clues. He found no trace, but like any good scholar, he seemed to view PRESIDENT education with creativity and active engagement at failure as a learning experience and began to plan his next attempt. David W. Oxtoby its core. The geographic and cultural diversity of our Then, last fall, Chris came to my office, bouncing with excitement. A day VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT Southern California home, our proximity to one of the earlier, Professor Thai had forwarded an email from someone who had found Christopher B. Ponce Chris’s name in an online press release about his selection as a Beinecke most dynamic urban centers in the world, and the NONDISCRIMINATION POLICY Scholar and wanted to connect. Chris said, “I called Professor Thai and said, Pomona College complies with all applicable state and federal civil remarkable resources and relationships we offer, both ‘Are you kidding? This is my father’s name.’” His father, as it turned out, had rights laws prohibiting discrimination in education and the work- on campus and off, provide our students with a wealth place. This policy of non-discrimination covers admission, access immigrated to New Jersey years before and had been searching for him ever and service in Pomona College programs and activities, as well as of life-shaping opportunities for educational depth, since. The two met for the first time on the Pomona campus a few days later. hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits and all other terms and conditions of employment at Pomona College. cultural exposure, creative inspiration and practical I used to tease Chris and the others that they were our “poster children,” experience. The greatest challenge facing Pomona but they’re much more than that. They’re real, live daring minds—young peo- ple who are venturesome and curious, eager to learn about themselves and today is building the networks, facilities and resources committed to preparing themselves to make a real difference in the world. In needed to enable all of our students to take full other words, much like our 1,500 or so other students—and much like the advantage of these important opportunities, both thousands who came before them and the many thousands who will follow. locally and internationally. That’s why we’ve launched —Mark Wood Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds. 2 POMONA COLLEGE MAGAZINE >> WINTER 2011 3 Campaign |Pomona DARING MINDS “THAT’S WHAT I SEE AS A DARING MIND—NOT BEING AFRAID TO TAKE THE CHANCE WITH YOUR “EVERYTHING WORK AND JUST TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS, TRUST YOUR THAT WE LEARN, INTELLECT AND ALLOW THAT TO LEAD YOU THROUGH.” EVERYTHING THAT WE TEACH, EVERYTHING —THEATRE PROFESSOR ARTHUR HOROWITZ THAT WE DO HERE ISN’T FOR US ON SOME FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL. IT’S NOT REALLY OURS UNLESS WE GIVE IT AWAY.” —MEDIA STUDIES PROFESSOR KATHLEEN FITZPATRICK “DARE TO CHANGE SOMETHING. DARE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. DON’T TAKE NO AS AN ANSWER.” —DANIEL LOW ’11 Campaign initiatives include increased support for scholarships, a renewed investment in the arts, opportunities for all of our students to test their knowledge and abilities through intensive internships and “POMONA HAS INVESTED A LOT IN ME AND IN MY research, enhanced opportunities to interact across international and cultural boundaries, PEERS, WHICH IS ONE OF THE REASONS I WANT TO DO support for the outstanding Pomona professors of tomorrow and an expanded Annual Fund SOMETHING MEANINGFUL WITH MY EDUCATION.” to provide immediate funding for some of our —MELISSA NGUYEN ’11 most pressing priorities.