As I lean over my desk, slumped between piles of textbooks and scrawled notes, the weight of my schoolwork drags down my mind. The pressure to excel academically and carve out a niche in the competitive university environment sometimes becomes overwhelming. Yet amidst the chaos of deadlines and exams, an old song unexpectedly pierces the drudgery. The rich, sweeping sounds of “Belle” from Beauty and the Beast sweep me, in the blink of an eye, from the chill of my dorm room to one of wonder and magic. In an instant, I am no longer a struggling student trying to find her place, but a capable, independent young woman, venturing out into the world’s possibilities. The burden of academic intensity and the pressure to conform to societal norms melt away, replaced by a sense of empowerment, joy, and pure fantasy.
It’s 2:17 a.m., and here, time—so rigid during daylight, dictated by the unyielding rhythm of schedules and the steady ticking of laboratory clocks—has become fluid, expanding and contracting with the beat of my thoughts. I sit cross-legged on the windowsill of my Caltech dorm, my knees pressed against the cold glass, staring out at a city that sparkles with flickering lights and unformed aspirations. In the stillness of these early hours, with a mug of tea cooling beside me, the world falls quiet enough for the oldest questions to resonate more powerfully: What is love, if it even exists?
Today, I want to talk about a figure that we too often take for granted: coaches, instructors, guides who surround us and who, in one way or another, transform our lives. They are like sculptors who, with patience and dedication, shape the clay that we are, smoothing the edges with the chisel and helping us find a shape that we often cannot see on our own. And yet, we never thank them enough.
Connecting three philosophers that created a specific school of thought in Magna Grecia. The Mediterranean sun hung low over the horizon, casting long shadows across the olive groves…
On April 12, 2025, members of the Caltech community gathered for the annual “Make a Difference Day” event organized by the Caltech Y. This article explores one volunteer team’s day at Friends in Deed, a local nonprofit food pantry in Pasadena, highlighting their community impact and personal growth through service.
There is a question pulsing quietly beneath the surface of every lab bench, every line of code, every equation scribbled onto a whiteboard: Why are we doing this? Is it for discovery, for prestige, for the betterment of humanity—or something more elusive? At Caltech, we pride ourselves on pushing the boundaries of what is knowable, and we do, no one says the opposite. We decode the stars, manipulate the quantum, edit genes and simulate the brain. But in a world full of complexity, speed, and ambition, can knowledge make us wise? Can science teach us how to live well?
If Democritus were alive today, he’d fit right in at Caltech—probably wandering around campus, laughing at his own jokes, and asking if he could borrow a supercomputer “just to check something.”
I have discovered that, deep down, each of us secretly cultivates the desire to be elsewhere. It’s as if, despite all the sacrifices made to get to one of the most prestigious universities in the world, we suddenly discover that complete satisfaction is an illusion.
We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Jenijoy La Belle, a trailblazing administrative leader, devoted professor, and outspoken advocate for academic integrity and the rights of women. Along a career trajectory marked by keen intelligence, unyielding resolve, and passion for literature, La Belle was the first woman to be hired as a faculty member at Caltech. The indelible contributions she has made to Shakespeare, William Blake, Theodore Roethke, and 17th-century poetry remain attached to scholarship in literature.
