#apda

1.) Friends: A lot of my closest friends at Smith are people I met through debate. Tournaments are such intense, fun places that you bond super quickly. But I also have friends through debate from all other colleges!

2.) Time Management: Balancing debate and school (& work & all my other activities) takes so much diligence. Since I am traveling and debating for 2 days about every other weekend, I have learned how to properly manage my time. I don’t leave for tournaments with any work unfinished.

3.) Public Speaking Skills: Everytime I give a presentation in class, I am not nervous. After having to give speeches on niche topics I know nothing about with no preparation, presenting on research or a project from class is so easy.

4.) Critical thinking skills: When you debate for a while, you develop these incredible analysis skills. Give me an argument, and I can tell you at least 5 reasons why it is wrong.

5.) Exposure to a wide set of ideas: Smith is a liberal place. There is obviously still a lot of diversity of thought at Smith, but APDA has thousands of different types of people. I love being challenged on my beliefs!

Want to travel all across the U.S., and even the world? Want your visits to places like Boston, NYC, Chicago paid for by Smith? Want to engage in meaningful, critical conversations about politics, popular culture, ethics, philosophy and more? Check out Smith Debate Society on Instagram and Facebook for more! All are welcome-no debate experience necessary!

This past weekend, Smith Debate Society hosted our own tournament. Schools from all across the country came to compete-including BU, Brandeis, Brown, Amherst, UChicago, Harvard, and many more. Schools don’t compete in their own tournaments, so our team had a great time judging & running all the rounds this weekend!

1.) House Council-This year, I am the First Year Representative for Northrop House. I attend House council meetings weekly, and plan first year events! Running for House Council Positions (which range from Health Reps to Treasurers to Birthday Fairies) is a great way to involved in your house community!

2.) Student Disability Alliance: I am actually a board member of this organization (treasurer). We meet weekly, plan events for Smithies who indentify as disabled to talk about issues of disability on Smith’s campus, and work on activism/awareness. Through the Office of Disability Services and The Wuertle Center, I am actually participating in a writing seminar called Empowered Voices, which teaches students with disability to write about their own experiences. We have had multiple sucessful authors, activists, and even a Smith alumna (who is currently getting her JD at UC Berkeley) come and visit/teach us about writing and disability! In two weeks, for our last session, we are all going out to eat in Northampton!

Parkinson’s seems to be the hot topic on the internet in the last few weeks. There have been a number of promising developments. I want to share just a few interesting things I have found. Several are from Parkinson’s News Today, which is a great resource. If you don’t subscribe to it, you should do so now. But first, here is the recording for the amazing webinar with Dr. Ray Dorsey last week.…

Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. You will have good days, and you will havebad days, and so will someone without Parkinson’s. Frank C. Church, PhD. Person with Parkinson’s First, I want to thank all of you for your continued support. Next week marks the 10 year anniversary for Twitchy Woman! The first blog was posted on March 22, 2015. Things have definitely changed since then, when I started…

Every 6 minutes, someone will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in the U.S. This April for Parkinson’s Awareness Month, we want everyone to take 6 minutes to raise Parkinson’s awareness. Parkinson’s Foundation As the number of People with Parkinson’s continues to increase at an alarming rate, it is so important that we take the time this month to learn more about Parkinson’s Disease and…