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From athletes and activists to artists and enthusiasts, the 437 members of the Occidental Class of 2029 are making their own kind of music. Hailing from 21 countries, 37 states, the District of Columbia, and the North Mariana Islands, each Tiger is eager to make a mark on the world, whether through combating climate change, improving children’s mental health, or building better sports teams.  

What more can we tell you about the Class of ’29? We reached out to a handful of first-years (and a transfer student from the Class of ’27) to learn more about them. You’ll meet a cellist, a contortionist, and a data analyst, to name but three. Odds are you’ll be hearing more from them in the years to come.

Riko Hibino
Seattle

It’s easy to complain if there’s something you don’t like, but taking action to improve matters is a whole different ball game. Just ask softball player Riko Hibino, who started a petition to improve women’s athletic facilities in public parks in her hometown of Seattle, since their poor condition often resulted in games being canceled when it rained.

Riko’s activism captured the attention of a local news station and The Seattle Times. “I hate public speaking, and the attention was really scary for me,” she recalls. But she gathered more than 1,350 signatures and learned that she can use her voice and passion to rally people behind an important cause. “The support I got made me realize that even if it doesn’t feel like your voice is actually that big, it can help make other people feel more heard, even if it doesn’t succeed.”

A two-year captain and MVP of her Lincoln High School softball team with a 4.0 GPA, she also was involved in Lynx, a program that helps ninth graders navigate high school life. “When I was a freshman, my Lynx crew leader was very helpful, so I wanted to do that for other freshmen,” Riko explains. She ended up mentoring students her sophomore through senior year. “They still reach out to see how college is going,” she says of some of her former mentees.

When her older sister was touring colleges several years ago, Occidental made quite an impression—on Riko (her sister wound up enrolling at Bellevue College close to home). The neighborhoods surrounding Occidental give off a small community vibe “that reminds me of Seattle,” Riko says. An avid music lover, “My friends and I go to a lot of concerts,” she adds, naming Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, Rilo Kiley, and Waxahatchee as bands she’s seen since arriving in L.A.

Riko hopes to combine her love of sports with data science and turn it into a career. A sports journalist once told her how, by analyzing pitch statistics, someone developed the software to make a good bullpen for pitchers, which she found inspiring. “I’ve always been a more STEM-oriented person,” she says, “and being able to translate that into a sport and a career, possibly as a baseball data analyst, is very interesting to me.”

Rhys Randlett
Brooklyn

Good marketing copy can be very effective. Just ask Rhys Randlett, who was drawn to Occidental after reading a pamphlet that boasted the campus has a very high bird-to-student ratio. (It’s true: “With 68,000 bird specimens and 1,900 students, our bird-to-student ratio is a whopping 38:1, far above our peer institutions,” says Professor of Biology John McCormack, director and curator of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology.)

“That’s what caught my attention initially,” says the bird-loving aspiring biology major, who interned at the Wild Bird Fund animal shelter on New York City’s Upper West Side throughout high school.

“I’ve always loved animals,” Rhys adds. “I found an injured pigeon and found a place we could take it to for help, and I inquired if they offered volunteer positions.” They did and Rhys immediately signed on to help.

After starting out cleaning animal cages and preparing food, he graduated to “more glamorous tasks” helping the vets with physical therapy and medication administration. This hands-on experience piqued Rhys’ interest in becoming a veterinarian. “I’d love to be a vet, but I’m a freshman and I don’t have that much direction at this point, which is another thing that attracted me to ��������. There’s very little pressure on you to figure it out in the first three years.”

One thing he’s sure about: He’d like to work at ��������’s Moore Lab, which gives undergrads the opportunity to study bird diversity, do DNA research, and help protect birds.

In his free time, Rhys has been exploring Los Angeles neighborhoods on his bike. “L.A.’s not so different from New York,” he declares. “It’s a lot more sprawled out, obviously, and a little bit more difficult to navigate, but there are a lot of similarities.”

Andres Campuzano Ocampo
Medellín, Colombia

Andres Campuzano Ocampo is quite literally a student of the world. Hailing from Colombia, he spent a gap year attending United World College (UWC) Mahindra in Pune, India, before enrolling at Occidental.

“I loved living in India so much,” says Andres, who attended UWC Mahindra through the Davis UWC Scholars Program—the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship program—after his initial application was rejected. “Over 10,000 people applied and only 16 got selected,” he recalls. Undeterred, he waited another year, applied a second time, and was awarded a scholarship to attend Mahindra.

Once Andres was there, he embarked on a yearlong adventure exploring new cultures and languages and meeting people from different backgrounds. “It gave me a new point of view on the world and it was a huge opportunity to grow,” he says.

Growing up in Medellín, Colombia, Andres was acutely aware of its reputation as the home of drug lord Pablo Escobar and the notorious Medellín cartel that operated in the city. “That was impactful for me—I didn’t want my city to be known for that,” he explains.

In response, Andres channeled his energies into doing something positive for marginalized groups and became an LGBTQ advocate in his home city, where homophobia and violence against community members is common. “My brother is transgender, so growing up I wasn’t afraid to discover my sexuality,” explains Andres, who identified as gay at an early age. “When I told my family that I was homosexual, it was very normal. But I realize that for some people in my city, that’s not normal. So, I volunteered for an organization that went to schools in rural areas and showed that having a different sexual orientation is normal.”

Andres and his fellow volunteers talked to approximately 50,000 people over his four years in the program. A subsequent survey of the residents of that area suggests that people’s perspectives have evolved over time, and now fewer of them view homosexuality as “an illness or a mistake,” he says. “It was incredible the impact that we had, and it felt very good.”

After college, Andres aspires to work with the U.N. and in parts of Colombia “where we don’t have enough quality education,” he says. A first-generation college student, he plans to pursue economics and psychology as a double major. “Those subjects are not as different as people might think,” he insists. “Behavioral economics combines people’s decisions and markets’ decisions related to money, and psychology explores how the human brain behaves and shapes us throughout our lives. I’m excited to mix both my passions, and I think I can get something great from that.

Sophie Cross
Hood River, Oregon

As captain of her water polo team at Hood River Valley High School, Sophie Cross had an unforgettable experience of heartbreak and triumph at the state finals her senior year. In the heated final match of her high school career, she got ejected from the game because of the “three kickouts” rule. “It was my last game, and it was really hard to sit on the sidelines,” Sophie says of the experience. “But since I was a leader on the team, my coach told me I needed to stay strong and be supportive for my teammates who were still in the pool. And that was a big lesson for me—to put others before myself and see how powerful a team that’s bonded can be.”

All was not lost, and her team ended up winning the match. Sophie ended up being just as excited to support her teammates and provide encouragement from the sidelines as she would have been if she had played out the final game.

An outgoing student who enjoys performing, Sophie worked a winter job as an elf on the Mount Hood Railroad Polar Express throughout high school. “It’s a tourist train and it’s really fun,” she explains. “You get to be the opener for Santa and play with the kids and do magic.” Sophie enjoyed participating in theater in middle school, but it conflicted with water polo in high school, so she found another gratifying way to do what she loved.

Born and raised in Oregon, Sophie was also captain of her high school swim team; led voter registration drives through Students Demand Action, a national organization that works to end gun violence;  and served on the executive council of her school’s Gender-Sexuality Alliance.

Impressed by ��������’s good vibes and sunny weather, she decided to head south for college. “�������� is close to home in Oregon—but not too close,” she says, adding that the abundance of opportunities and internships that “set you up for real life” was also enticing.

With the women’s water polo season just months away, Sophie is settling into academic life at ��������. She’s interested in studying diplomacy and world affairs and has set her sights on participating in the Kahane ��������-at-the-U.N. program, which gives students the opportunity to gain firsthand experience through U.N.-affiliated internships in New York. “That would be a dream come true,” she says.

María Martínez Castellanos
Guatemala

When deciding where to attend college, María Martínez Castellanos knew she wanted to find a school with a close-knit community. “The people here at �������� are very kind,” says the international student from Guatemala. “Already this first month I have found people who really support me. Professors take care of every one of their students—I was not expecting to have that much support.”

As a scholar and participant in SHE-CAN, an organization that identifies high-achieving young women in Guatemala, Cambodia, and Liberia and supports them on their path to leadership, she learned how powerful a community of driven women can be. “The program has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” María says. “I hope to see more Guatemalan girls joining this community. Connecting with amazing women can inspire incredible change.”

A member of ��������’s Latine Student Union, María also has been participating in a program called Comparte, a student-led service program that provides free English lessons for �������� facilities staff. “Back home I used to teach English classes to beginners,” she explains. “I really like to interact with people, and I know it’s difficult to learn a new language, so l want to support them with what they need.”

In addition to teaching, María is interested in children’s psychology. “I ran a program back home where I taught psychology workshops to sixth graders, which helped me further define what I wanted to do with psychology,” says María, who plans to major in psychology with a minor in neuroscience. “In Guatemala, we don’t have a lot of child psychologists, so I’d like to help in the educational system back home and bring new ways to improve the public system there.”

Lest you think that it’s all work and no play for María, she’s been exploring local beaches and the diverse cultural activities Los Angeles has to offer. “The Mexican culture is big here,” she says excitedly. “I really like that!”

Rosalie Deglise Moore
Los Angeles

You’d be hard-pressed to find a student with a more eclectic background than junior transfer Rosalie Deglise Moore. From the age of 4, Rosalie has practiced circus arts, eventually enrolling during high school at the prestigious École Nationale de Cirque in Montreal, where she studied dance trapeze and was a contortionist. “I loved this medium of artistic expression,” she explains. “I learned so much about myself; it still informs my work ethic today.”

Her college journey began at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, Mass., where she completed a two-year degree and took an interest in environmental studies. Rosalie recently spent a semester studying abroad on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, where she took marine conservation and volcanology courses and studied the biodiversity of the island’s coral reefs.

Midway through her undergraduate studies, Rosalie is back in her hometown of Los Angeles where her family lives and interning with Jobs to Move America, a strategic policy center rooted in racial and economic justice and community organizing. “It is really meaningful to be able to utilize my urban and environmental policy major in a real-world way in my home city.”

Although her route to �������� was circuitous—her Québécois high school diploma was not easily transferable (“I ran away and joined the circus in the eyes of the American school system,” she says)—it all helped land her on her current path. “When I was getting my A.A. and taking classes in different areas, I discovered I love climate justice and policy,” says Rosalie. “It’s made me into the person I am today.”

After completing a summer internship at South Coast Air Quality Management District in Diamond Bar, which gave her a better understanding of how policy and regulation work within a government agency, Rosalie is looking forward to settling back into life in L.A., reconnecting with her friends, and applying what she learns at �������� to a career shaping climate policy: “With the global climate change disaster, it’s where I want to focus.”

Mason Toevs
Lawrence, Kansas

Mason Toevs began playing the cello at the age of 10. “It wasn’t difficult for me to pick up,” says Mason, who performed with the Kansas Music Educators Association All-State String Orchestra in high school. “I found it intuitive to learn, so I got a lot more into it as I went.” Their mother is an accomplished violinist to boot, so pursuing music in school seemed like a no-brainer.

Mason also founded the Free State Kansas Cello Clinic at their high school, providing free music instruction to students who sought out additional guidance beyond group band instruction. “A lot of students didn’t have access or ability to have private music lessons,” Mason explains. “So, I set up a program where I could teach people and they could come in with questions after school on Wednesdays.”

Seeing the positive impact it was having on the music students, Mason found a schoolmate to keep the clinic going after they graduated, and the experience of running the clinic solidified their desire to become a music educator. At ��������, Mason plans to major in music with a focus on instrumental performance and is already keeping busy performing with the Occidental Symphony and Chamber orchestras: “The idea is you teach but you never really stop learning.”

Already, Mason is taking advantage of all that Los Angeles has to offer; they want to see as much as possible of conductor Gustavo Dudamel during his farewell season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “I’d also like to get into what music education looks like here and explore internship programs that get me out into the community,” Mason adds. “You can’t really get the vibrancy of L.A. anywhere else.” They’re not in Kansas anymore.

Alireza Tofangdar
Santa Clarita

Alireza Tofangdar had never participated in a team sport when his family immigrated to California from Iran in 2014. But he didn’t let that stop him. Seeking a well-rounded high school experience, he decided to try out for the cross country team at Hart High School in Santa Clarita. “My freshman year, I was going into my first cross country practice fully blind,” he says. “I had absolutely no idea what I was doing because I had never competed in a sport in my life, nor did I have any experience in running.”

Alireza practiced hard and persevered and went from running a three-mile race with a time of 20:50 to 15:20 by his senior year. “Cross country defined who I am and taught me some of the most important life lessons: working alongside others, overcoming all types of hardships, pushing to my limit and more,” he says. “Running cross country was the most influential decision I’ve ever made.”

As someone who’s passionate about math and teaching, Alireza plans to major in mathematics at �������� and eventually earn a Ph.D. with an eye toward become a college professor. The seeds of his future career were sown, when, following a rigorous workout, he was asked by a friend to help a group study for an upcoming math exam. “Even though it was a daunting task, I decided to go anyway, regardless of how tired I was,” Alireza recalls. “Learning from the math teachers I had in high school, I brought an iPad and streamed my screen onto a TV with everyone gathering around the living room. I will never forget that night. The sheer sense of joy I got from someone finally understanding a topic that I taught them was immeasurable.”

Alireza is enamored with Los Angeles, but he says Iran will always be his true home. “I take pride in being Persian, a culture that I hope share with as many people as possible,” he says.

As for choosing to attend Occidental and join the cross country team—where he has quickly emerged as one of the Tigers’ top runners—Alireza believes they’re some of the best decisions he’s ever made. “Even though I have been here for barely a semester, I could not imagine what life would have been if I had not chosen Occidental,” he says. “��������’s cross country team is the most welcoming and compassionate group of people I’ve ever come across. I have already made friends who I know will be around far past college, making lifelong connections that I won’t forget. Academically, I have been pushed more than I ever have, but that was my own choice. I did not come to �������� to waste my time. I knew this was a school that was going to push me and allow me to be the best version of myself.”

Laura Ferreiro wrote “How I Spent My Summer Vocation” in the Summer 2025 magazine. Alireza Tofangdar photo by Sam Leigh.