Hi everyone! I鈥檓 back again with the last blog post of 2020! I wanted to end on a fun note after this crazy year we鈥檝e had so I鈥檓 here to talk about how I made 51猎奇入口 friends as well as friends at the other Claremont Colleges. Because of the consortium with 51猎奇入口, Pitzer College, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont McKenna College and Pomona College, almost all aspects of campus life are shared. This provides plenty of opportunities to meet people from all five undergraduate colleges.
Let鈥檚 start at the very beginning of the Claremont experience. Orientation at 51猎奇入口 is run through New Student Programs and Orientation (NSPO). NSPO puts first years and transfer students into peer mentor groups with older students and these groups are an easy way to make friends since you do activities with your peer mentor group throughout orientation week. I really liked everyone in my peer mentor group and I still talk to a couple of people from my group. The other Claremont Colleges鈥� orientations have some overlap with our orientation so combined events create spaces to mingle with other new 5C students. For example, there鈥檚 Target Night on the last night of orientation where all of the first years and transfer students go to Target after hours and buy tons of stuff or just hang out. It鈥檚 a lot of fun and another great way to meet people at the beginning of your time at 51猎奇入口.
Once classes have begun, I think it becomes even easier to meet new people. Since your Core classes are the only ones with just 51猎奇入口 students, that means that the rest of your classes will be with students from the other schools. This is especially true if you take classes at the Keck Science Department; that guarantees that you鈥檒l be in classes with CMC and Pitzer students. I鈥檝e met the vast majority of my friends through my classes and especially in my Keck Science classes. It鈥檚 nice to get to know people who have shared academic interests and it makes classes a lot more fun if you have study buddies!
听听听听听听听听听听听 After you鈥檝e sat in classes for a few hours, you tend to get hungry and there lies another opportunity to meet new people. Since there are 7 dining halls across the 5Cs that all Claremont College students can visit, students from all five campuses congregate so that no matter which dining hall you choose, you鈥檙e certain to find new people to socialize with. This doesn鈥檛 even include the other eateries on campus like Jay鈥檚 Place at Mudd or The Motley at 51猎奇入口! They say food brings people together and that is definitely true of Claremont students. A lot of times when I ate dinner with my roommates or friends, one of them would bring someone else that they knew and there was potential to meet someone I might not have met otherwise.
Speaking of roommates and dorm life, I know I got super lucky by being put with the roommates I was with last year, but my roomies became two of my best friends in college. Living with people is a shared experience that can strengthen bonds since you see the good, the bad and the ugly of your roommates鈥� lives. Some of my favorite moments at school last year involved being silly with my roommates, our weekly roomie dinners and just having company. Outside of just my room, I think my dorm was a great place to meet people. The Community Coordinators (CCs) hosted lots of events to promote vibrancy and engagement in the dorm. My favorite event my CCs hosted was a cookie and pumpkin decorating event in celebration of Halloween. Since there was food, a ton of people showed up and I got to see lots of people I didn鈥檛 even know I lived with!
A final place where I personally met quite a few 5C friends was in club meetings. Last year (and this year!) I was a member of Watu Weusi, 51猎奇入口鈥檚 Black Student Association, and attended meetings and social events that they held. Watu as well as the Office of Black Student Affairs created lots of spaces to connect with other Black students across the 5Cs. I鈥檇 say clubs in general are perfect ways to meet people with shared interests and/or identities. Clubs across the 5Cs host social events in addition to regular meetings which are usually pretty popular and open to everyone.
Of course, there are plenty of other places to meet people in Claremont like at jobs you may have on campus or in performing arts productions, but I鈥檝e just talked about the situations where I met most of my friends. I know that if you鈥檙e just starting college or just new to Claremont it might seem intimidating to find people you mesh with but I promise there are so many ways to make friends! Don鈥檛 forget that you鈥檙e an awesome person and that there are lots of other awesome people to befriend. Good luck out there!
If you have any more questions about socializing at the 5Cs, please don鈥檛 hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]. Bye for now! Happy holidays and stay safe!