CMC Conversations

Passing the Mic: A Senior Send-off with Parishi Kanuga '26 and Natalie Chen '26

Just days before they walk across the Commencement stage, our beloved senior podcast hosts, Parishi Kanuga ’26 and Natalie Chen ’26, settled into our studio —this time as interviewees. A full-circle moment. Hosted by Lena Ciganer-Albeniz ’29, this special episode is a heartfelt reflection on the Claremont McKenna Collegeexperience. From the 'summer camp' feeling of freshman year to the intellectual depth of senior theses on love and microfinance, Parishi and Natalie share the CMC stories that shaped them. Tune in for a beautiful 'passing of the torch' as we celebrate our graduates and the lifelong community they leave behind and carry with them.

Learn to Learn: President Hiram Chodosh on Leadership, Purpose, and What Comes Next

President Hiram Chodosh has spent 13 years leading ClaremontMcKenna College by asking one question above all others: What are we here to do? In this special episode of CMC Conversations — recorded inpartnership with CMC Leads — Parishi Kanuga ‘26 sits down with President Chodosh to explore what responsible leadership actually looks like in practice: not the professional title, not the authority, but the small acts, the hard questions, and the courage to face what you don’t know.   He shares about growing up in New Jersey with little interestin school, finding the same fundamental question across theater, law, and higher education, what it means to hold your own value system inside a world of professional incentives, the India mediation project that became something no one could have predicted, and how to develop the confidence to handle your own lack of confidence. President Chodosh reflects on his final year at CMC, what CMCLeads: The Summit means to him, and what it’s like to face a new unfamiliar territory — just like the rest of us.

The Art of Gathering: Priya Junnar on Building Community at CMC's Athenaeum

For 13 years, Priya Junnar has led the intellectual heart of Claremont McKenna College as the fifth director of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum — one of higher education's most distinctive speaker series, where students, faculty, staff, and a spectrum of luminaries gather around a dinner table to wrestle with the essential ideas of our time.   In this episode, host Natalie Chen ’26 sits down with Priya — CMC's First Lady and outgoing Ath director — to explore what it takes to curate nearly four nights a week of intellectually rigorous programming, how she learned to read a community's hunger for ideas, and why sharing a meal together still matters in an age of screens and algorithmic echo chambers.   They also talk about Priya's philosophy of serendipity in leadership, her passion for historical fiction and podcasts, the Beyoncé suggestion that became a Rutgers scholar guest speaker, the legendary CMC campus dog Theo, and what she's carrying with her into the next chapter. Learn more about Priya and the Athenaeum: https://www.cmc.edu/magazine/fall-2025/end-of-an-era https://www.cmc.edu/athenaeum

The Quiet Work of Leadership - Jennie Kung ’04

What does it look like to build a career by running toward something — not away from it? Jennie Kung ’04 has spent her career crossing sectors that most people never imagine connecting: capital markets, Deloitte Consulting, Disney Imagineers, Johnson & Johnson, UCLAHealth, and now the Mayo Clinic, where she leads one of the most distinctive healthcare innovation platforms in the world. In this episode, Natalie Chen ’26 sits down with Jennie to explore how a CMC Gov and Legal Studies pivot became the foundation for a career reimagining what healthcare can feellike, and why the skills that matter most right now have nothing to do with what you majored in. They discuss the aha moment that sent Jennie from Disney to hospital administration, what serve-first leadership actually looks like in practice, how AI is reshaping who gets to lead, and why the best advice she has for graduating CMCers is simply: just chill out. This is a special episode of CMC Conversations in partnership with CMC Leads. The conversation continues at The Summit, April 24–25 on the CMC campus. https://www.cmc.edu/cmc-leads

Lead When Nobody's Watching - Scott Akasaki ’98

What does it take to manage travel and logistics for one of the world's most famous baseball teams for over a quarter-century? In this episode, Parishi Kanuga ’26 sits down with Scott Akasaki '98, Senior Director of Team Travel for the Los Angeles Dodgers, to explore the "unseen" side of leadership. Scott shares how a homesick study abroad trip to Japan planted a seed that grew into a 26-year career in Major League Baseball, and why he believes the details are the true difference between winning and losing. He also reflects on what it means to watch Shohei Ohtani become the best player in the world, and why representation matters more to him now that his own kids are watching. Read more about Scott: https://www.cmc.edu/magazine/fall-2019/travelin-man https://www.cmc.edu/newsfeed/inside-baseball-careers-ath