Vidusshi Hingad

Some feelings cannot be put into words. A ticket from Terminal 2, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal in Mumbai to LAX. A 26 hour journey. Four oceans sitting between. Before boarding the flight to LA, my dadi (grandma) always put a teeka on my forehead. This red dot symbolized that no matter where I was, she would protect and guide me. Worried what strangers would think, I would wash it off the moment I entered the airport.

A 2019 report by the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) shows all 41 Broadway theaters in New York City are owned and operated by white people. The Claremont Colleges have instituted various efforts to make the theater environment at the 5Cs more inclusive, where diversity is celebrated.

When Niketa Kou PO ’25 was injured last semester, she felt like she couldn’t do the one thing she was born to do — dance. But as she began the process of recovery, she focused not on the injury but how to cope with it. Her story is one of resilience. Kou started dancing when she was five years old. “I was really young and like a lot of other dancers I was put into dance by my parents,” Kou said.