#special studies

It's crazy that we are 6 weeks into the semester already. Before returning to campus, I was dismayed at the prospect of being trapped in solitary confinement on campus, but the freedom Green Mode brings and the lovely Northampton spring I didn't get to experience during my first year have been overall a delightful surprise. Exhilarated, I’ve been trying to spend as much time as possible outside my room. I am always on my way somewhere: to a dining hall, to an academic building, to the gym, to a friend’s house, etc. A migrating homo sapiens I have become indeed. 

The list below answers the question: What are some of my blog-worthy destinations? 

SCMA: Search for Identity

As one of the perks of Green Mode, Smith College Museum of Art is open to students and faculty in the testing protocol. Last Thursday two friends and I signed up to visit the lower level and first-floor galleries where Monet's La Cour d'Albane and Picasso's Table, Guitar and Bottle were on view. The quietness of the uncrowded museum allowed me to feel calm inside and be immersed in art.

 A piece that struck me the most during the visit was Birth Certificate by María Magdalena Campos Pons, a Cuban-American artist. The giant woodcuts of fingerprints and palms of her art confused me at first, but the meaning became clear to me after I read the texts in the frames below the woodcuts: Even If My Hands Are Clenched By Mud My Finger Prints Are My Own Let Me Be Myself Let Me Be Alone. In my head I was picturing a giant (in the cold, sunless Jotunheim, far far away from Asgard), or a misfit, an outcast, who stumbles in the darkness, seeking a place where they belong, staunchly repudiating assimilation and invalidation. The caption helped me better understand the work: It represents the symbols of personal and national identity and how they are communicated to the world. The message resonated with me, since as a non-US passport holder, I am sensitive to the subtle ways where my identity is perceived differently in a country that isn’t always friendly to foreigners. 

Sage: Sound of Music

Writing about the art museum provides a perfect segue into the next place I have in mind: Sage Hall, home to the music department. It is unofficially my second home that I visit almost everyday. There I take private lessons, practice the violin (and sometimes fall asleep on the piano. Shh!); before the pandemic, I also helped set up the stage for rehearsals every week as part of the concert crew. Sage the only building on campus that has a cool dome (the rooftop observatory of McConnell doesn't count). This semester, the practice rooms and the locker rooms are accessible to students, the only significant difference being that we need to sign up in advance to use the practice rooms. Isopropanol wipes, paper towels and hand sanitizers are placed in every practice room to keep the shared space clean. A typical practice room (pictured below, where my violin made a cameo appearance) has a grand piano, chair, and music stand.

Ford: Getting Hands Dirty

The third place I spent a significant amount of time in is Ford Hall, the home for the Picker Engineering Program. I had my first in-person lab of this school year two weeks ago in the organic chemistry laboratory on the second floor of Ford. My orgo professor also held in-person office hours in a classroom in Ford. It was nice to see the professor and classmates in 3D. 

It is worth mentioning that a few changes had been made to my previous schedule: I dropped the 4-credit Classical Mythology and took a 2-credit special studies instead to make my workload more manageable. So now I go to lab with my special studies partner/ lab buddy about twice per week. I actually like working with chemicals while masked (once I found a way to make the goggles less foggy). It offers an extra layer of protection. The special studies focuses on the synthesis and characterization of different types of nylon. Ultimately, we’d like to design a lab for polymer chemistry students where they can repeat our experiment during two lab periods. (I might write a blog about this in greater detail.) Although I am only a first-semester organic chemistry student, the two professors I am doing the special studies with and the senior chemistry major working on the same project are super friendly and patient as they explain to me the science of polymers. 

Special Studies are a great opportunity to connect with professors and dive deeper into your interests. Unlike your typical class, you get to work with a professor in a very small group; sometimes even one on one (!!) and make your own schedule. Usually students decide to do a Special Studies from their major department and connect with a professor who may have an open project and looking for students to participate. Sometimes students are the ones that approach professors with their own ideas and seek support in this way, but it’s best to start planning for this the semester before so logistics are worked out by the time you participate in the special studies.

I participated in two special studies in the past three years and am participating in another special studies this semester. My first one was with the education department and it was on leadership in higher education. I worked with one other student and a professor and we established an alumni database for the Smith College Campus School. We met once a week for an hour and would bring in our own ideas and research to the class and used to time to divide up the work and organize our projects. It was a great experience for me because it was my first time connecting with a professor on a deeper level and being able to learn about topics in education that weren’t traditionally brought up.

My second special studies was for both the Education and Portuguese-Brazilian Studies department (my second major). This one was focused on providing a space for Brazilian and Portuguese speaking families to practice and strengthen their language skills. Two other Smithies and I worked with children who ranged in age from 1 to 15 and divided them into groups to play age appropriate language games. We met every other week with our professor to discuss the process of pedagogy. We particularly focused on the work of a Brazilian philosopher, Paulo Freire, and talked about how we can use more interactive learning spaces to promote education. The following day, we would spend the morning with these families to participate in these activities. It was a great time because I was able to build a relationship with the children and it was such an informal environment that we always ended up having a lot of fun. Needless to say, our last meeting was bittersweet but we all walked away feeling like we gained something.

As for this semester, we’re still developing the kind of material we want to work with but the professors I’m working with have already been so supportive and understanding of our own experiences in a way that allows us to work with them without compromising self care.

Overall, I would definitely recommend that everyone participates in a special studies at least once throughout the four years here. Each of these studies have allowed me the opportunity to think about which direction I want to take my learning path in because I had so much more control over what we did in these groups.