My Smith Life

Huge congrats to everyone accepted to the newest class of Smith College!

Since the college is currently closed to in-person visits, I compiled some resources to get to know Smith-no matter where you are:

1.) Chats with current Smithies!

I highly recommend coming to a chat, which is our replacement for student-led campus tours! These informal chats with current Smith students happen almost everyday of the week and are a great way to get an unfiltered look at Smith College from students’ perspectives! You can find the sign up information here under “Smith From a Distance: Connect with a Current Smithie”. Currently, they are only for admitted students, but they will return to being for prospective students as soon as college decisions are done! Feel free to bring any questions about Smith to these chats.

2.) Information sessions!

There are also virtual information sessions lead by Smith’s admissions officers. These are great for learning the nitty-gritty details about Smith (statistics & facts)!

3.) Virtual Campus Tours

Although I’d recommend a current student chat to learn about Smith, the virtual campus tour options here are a great way to see what Smith looks like in person!

4.) Follow Smith College on ZeeMee and join Smith College Class of 2025 Social Media groups on Facebook and Instagram!

ZeeMee is an free app that you can download and follow Smith College for videos and more information about Smith! Class social media pages are created by future Smithies to connect with other admitted students!

5.) Attend a Smith class!

Admitted students are currently able to attend Smith classes to get a feel for a classroom at Smith! You can register for class visits through your Admitted Student portal under the Academics tab.

6.) Other various admission events for admitted students!

The Admissions office is hosting events spread out over the next month for students admitted to Smith! More information also available in your admitted students portal! I know there’s currently an activism series happening that looks cool.

Since Smith sent out acceptances yesterday, I just wanted to extend a congrats to all the new Smith accepted!!!!! To all those waitlisted or rejected: I know it sucks, but trust that you will make your experience your’s no matter where you go. I’m sure getting college decisions right now during a pandemic feels surreal, and I wish the circumstances could be different so all of y’all could come visit campus, do overnights, and experience a Smith classroom. Please reach out if any accepted students have any questions! I hope you join our community!

During junior year, most Smithies go abroad in some form. For some, that means doing one of the Smith programs in Geneva, Hamburg, Florence, or Paris. For others, they participate in other Smith-approved study abroad options offered by other colleges. But there are also study away options that stay within the U.S.; in addition to the 12-College Exchange (where you can do up to a year at another college), there are also two Smith domestic study-away options in Washington, D.C. The American Studies department runs a Smithsonian Internship Program every fall that sends students to take classes and intern at a project within a Smithsonian Museum. The other DC program, which I am doing, is the Picker Semester through the Government department. The Picker Program accepts about 10-12 students each year. For Picker, we actually go to DC in the summer and intern. The program provides a stipend similar to Praxis that covers your living expenses while you are in DC. We also get guidance on finding housing, internships, and exploring the city.

Internships: During the summer and fall, Picker students work full time at an internship of their choice. For the summer, I worked at the Human Rights Campaign on workplace policies for LGBTQ+ people. In the fall, I’m interning at Georgetown Law’s Criminal Justice Clinic. Other Picker Students are interning in the senate, at think tanks, federal government departments, and more. It’s a really cool way to get experience being a real adult working full time at organizations.

Academics: Because we are working full time, the classes are at night. This fall, I will be writing a mini-thesis research paper, taking a seminar on American Public Policy and a research methods class. Our professor is a Smith (and Picker) alum who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. It’s a really intense program academically, but the group camaraderie really helps us get through it.

I’ve been interning and living in DC for over a month now through the Picker Semester in Washington. The best part about living in DC is that most of the tourist things to do are free! I’ve complied a list of things I’ve done so far:

Smithonsonian Musuem of African American History and Culture

National Portrait Gallery

Vietnam War Memorial (designed by Maya Lin, who is also the designer of Smith’s New Neilson Library!)

Holocaust Memorial Museum

Smithsonian Gallery of Art

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!

For the dedication of the Wuertle Center of Leadership at Smith, Tarana Burke came and spoke! Burke is an incredible social justice activist and the founder of the #MeToo movement. It was so interesting to hear her speak about her life, movement building, and activism in this current polarized political age. Thank you to Smith for bringing such influential speakers to talk to us!

This spring, the Student Event Committee brought Tan France, a successful fashion designer on the hit show Queer Eye, to speak at Smith! JMG, the biggest auditorium on campus, was packed with a line that stretched almost to the Quad. It was extremely fun, and he talked about his career, his experiences as a Pakistani gay man, and more! Smithies brought a lot of energy and audience participation. Smith brings high-profile speakers like Tan France to campus multiple times a year, and it’s free for students to attend!

I thought I’d share what my schedule looked like as a Government & American Studies double major.

GOV 241 International Politics:

This class covered the basis of international relations theory, using historical events as examples. In the Government Major, you are required to take classes within different disciplines (American Government, International Relations, Comparative Politics, Political Theory), and this counts towards my International Relations requirement.

SWG 222: Gender, Law & Policy:

This class covered so much interesting material! We learned about the history of the fight for gender equality through courts, political activism, and legislation. The topics we covered ranged from education inequalities, workplace discrimination, income inequalities, immigration, and much more.

SPN 220: Contemporary Cultures of the Spanish Speaking World:

Language classes often have vague descriptions that don’t match the classes. In my experience, the classes in the Spanish department tend to be narrowly focused on the specialty of the professor. Instead of just learning Spanish grammar, you learn about Spanish grammar through analyzing modern Spanish cinema. In this particular class, the professor’s focus was surrealist Latin American and South American literature, so we read some beautiful, disturbing, and all around interesting pieces.

LAS 150: Intro to Latin American Studies:

Take this class, especially if it is offered with Michelle Joffroy. We looked at a range of different topics in the discipline, from identity, indigenitity, LGBTQ+ rights, workers’ movemets, political movements, and much more. One class is obviously not enough to properly learn about all of Latin America, but it still provides an interesting introduction to many important topics.

Every spring, the Museum hosts a fancy event at the Smith College Art Museum. We all get dressed up to drink mocktails, eat food and enjoy the school’s museum. It’s a great time, and it’s lovely to see all the beautiful pieces at artwork the college has with such great people.

This semester, I’ve been focused on branching out past my comfort zone. Part of this, for me, was moving to the Quad from my old house on Upper Elm. While I liked my old house, I always tell prospective students to request to live in the Quad since there is a level of extra community that I felt I missed out on. I finally decided to brave the extra 5 minute walk to class and move, and I now live in King House! My old house was extremely quiet, my new house is still really respectful and quiet. The main difference is that, on the weekends, there is a lot of laughing and talking and people going out whereas my old house was still quiet. The house community in King is more relaxed but has a stronger presence, which I really like. Since I can no longer run back to my room in between classes, I have found myself being a lot more productive and using my time better. The hands down best thing about living in King is the dining hall downstairs which is open for every meal. Here are a few pictures of my house/the Quad/the walk to the Quad/my room!

Hop into your friend’s car, or rent a zipcar for a few hours, and drive for about an hour through gorgeous country backroads to explore Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. This industrial museum located in a refurbished old mill contains breathtaking exhibits perfect for an off-campus retreat. I spent a couple hours in there during the first week of classes during a free day, but could’ve spent a whole day exploring. There are free days a couple times a year, where there are no entrance fees, and there are also free tickets available at Forbes Library in Northampton.