Social Studies

Suzanne Pomey did not make it to her own bed last night. After leading a training session for a PBHA kids’ program, attending the illustrious Senior 15 FM Dinner, holding initiations for Isis, the female final club she recently co-founded, and participating in post-ceremony festivities, Suzanne found that her keys were locked away in Phillips Brooks House. As leader of a multitude of Harvard community organizations and social clubs, she has practically made extracurriculars her concentration, and those little tribulations are bound to happen.

Let’s run down the list. Pomey has been president of Kappa Alpha Theta, one of two on-campus sororities, as well as of the overarching PanHellenic Council; co-producer of The Hasty Pudding Show “Fangs for the Memories”; and the recipient of an Anthony Hopkins kiss when she presented him with the Pudding’s Man of the Year Award. Blockmate Sarah Jo Mahurin ‘02 remembers how “freshman year, at the activities fair, we were so freaked out by the Hasty Pudding guys hounding us to join that we actually ran and hid. Suzanne has certainly gained confidence since then. Being around so many others who are driven to succeed has really galvanized her to put herself in the middle of them.”

After last year’s final club punch season, Pomey came up with the idea to found a new final club: Isis. “I realized it was ridiculous that there were only four existing women’s clubs,” she explains. “It was time to form a new one that would be a primarily social organization with a really open and friendly atmosphere.” So far so good, and coming back in twenty years to see something she created still in existence promises to be “amazing.” As one senior Theta member sees it, “she really likes to be in the middle of things that are going on, whatever is exciting and fun.” For Suzanne, this has certainly not been confined to social clubs.

Although she was encouraged by her mother to do extensive community service work in high school, it was a camp counselor job the summer after her freshman year that turned Pomey on to working with kids. She has since acted as co-director of the Cambridge Youth Enrichment Program summer camp for children from Cambridge housing developments, revitalized its companion big sibling program, which she currently co-runs, and even found time to tutor other kids in the Mission Hill After-school program.

Pomey herself has “two little sisters from Jefferson Park One-to-One,” Vicky (10) and Fanny (8), whose favorite activity is to accompany her to the Winthrop dining hall for grilled cheese sandwiches and socializing with the college kids. Josh Cogswell ‘02, who directed the summer camp with Pomey, notes that “making connections with people is a big part of what she loves. She became so close to her summer campers that she even stayed overnight with one of their families one time.”

So what drives her to be so involved in the Harvard and Cambridge community? According to fellow Winthropian Matt Swanson ‘02, it’s “one part genuine interest, two parts pursuit of fame.” Annie Fernandez ‘03 sees it more as an attention deficit disorder. “She can’t sit still for more than two minutes,” Fernandez relates.

With graduation steadily approaching, Pomey is starting to consider her post-Harvard prospects. Through the Teach for America Program she has applied to, she hopes to work in rural Mississippi public schools—not much different from those she attended—to teach children who may not otherwise get the attention they need and deserve.

After that? Family law. But in the meantime she may as well take a breather and reflect on an illustrious career as Harvard’s ultimate do-gooder wannabe socialite. She describes it best herself, and in rhyme to boot: “Now Theta, Now Isis, Now the Pudding and more/ I guess I became a kind of social club whore.”