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Music at Smith

As a high school student, I was heavily involved in my schools music department, and I knew that I wanted to continue making music at Smith. I ended up joining several ensembles, and I’ve really enjoyed all of them so far. At Montage, the parents weekend concert, all three of my ensembles performed, which was busy, but really fun! Here’s the breakdown:

Wind Ensemble:

I play the flute in wind ensemble. It’s the largest ensemble that I’m in and it’s the most similar to what I was playing in high school. It’s overall a very supportive environment, and I’ve felt welcomed in as a first year! There aren’t auditions, so any amount of experience is welcome. We play a mix of contemporary and more traditional wind ensemble repertoire. 

Handbell Choir

I’ve played the handbells for years at my church, and I was lucky enough to come to a school that had a handbell choir. We just played Good Morning Baltimore, and now we’re working on various seasonal pieces for Christmas time concerts. Depending on numbers of the group, anyone is able to join Handbells regardless of experience!

Crapapella

Okay, so I had originally not planned on auditioning for Crapapella, but after seeing them perform at Arch Sing, the event at the beginning of the semester where all the a cappella groups perform, I was blown away by how silly and hilarious they were. Crapapella is Smith’s only *alternative* a cappella group, and we delight others with our consistently off key singing and enthusiastic moves. Crapapella also performed at Montage, where we sang a medley of Hotel California, California Girls, and Talk Dirty to Me. Performing for sure pushed me out of my comfort zone, and I ended up having way more fun than I thought I would have. 

Overall, I’ve felt incredibly welcomed into all three of the ensembles. Making music a part of my life at Smith was a great way to help me feel more at home!

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Classes!

There’s so much I could be writing about after my first 12 days at Smith, but what I’m going to update on right now is my class schedule! I was able to get all of my top classes during course registration and I’m super excited. Here’s what I’m taking:

Calc 1

I’m both nervous and looking forward to my calc class. I’ve had a tense relationship with math throughout all of high school, but I’m hoping to be able to readjust my mindset and learn what I can during this class!

Sustainability and Social-Ecological Systems

This class is the introductory course for the Environmental Science and Policy major and is focused on the study of environmental systems. This is my biggest class, with about 60 students in it but from what I can see it is designed as an interactive course that includes time spent outside of the classroom when possible.

Introduction to Landscape Studies

So this course focuses on how humans interact with both our natural and built surroundings. I’m looking forward to a lot of things in the class because it’s a subject that I’ve thought a lot about in the past. I’m also thrilled, because I found out that the class is structured so that for most Wednesdays during the first half of the semester, class is spent outside of the classroom, learning about and observing our landscape. 

First Year Seminar: Reacting to the Past

Before being at Smith, I had been planning on taking a different first year seminar, however, during orientation week, I heard so many good things about the Reacting to the Past course, I decided that I would probably regret not taking it, especially since it’s a unique class that I won’t have the opportunity to take again. We’re doing two different role play games in my class, the first one is ancient Athens, and the second is Henry the Eighth and the Reformation. I’m really looking forward to getting my character for the game and diving in!

I’m really pleased with how my schedule turned out! Starting classes and beginning to get into a routine has helped smooth my transition to college and has helped me calm down from the craziness of orientation!

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Gender?? Pronouns??

Even though Smith is a traditionally all women’s college, not everyone at Smith identifies as female. That’s right, there are non-binary (an umbrella term for the wide range of genders that are not male or female, but are somewhere in between or outside of the gender binary) people, like myself, at Smith college and even some men!

Never heard of terms like “gender identity,” “gender expression,” “trans,” “pronouns,” or “nonbinary” before? That is ok! For a lot of people, coming to Smith is a bit of a queer culture shock and you will likely learn all about the wonderful world of pronouns and gender within your first semester! Until then, here is a brief Gender At Smith 101 rundown: 

What is (and isn’t) gender?

Disclaimer: Gender is COMPLICATED and has a slightly different definition for every person. How I define it is not a be all end all definition!!! 

What gender is : Your internal sense of identity of as well as imposed social expectations of “male-ness,” “female-ness,” and/or “other-ness.” Gender is a social construction, meaning how it is defined changes depending on era/location/culture. It is assigned to us at birth but can change throughout a lifetime. 

What gender is NOT : 

Your anatomy (although anatomy CAN be correlated to gender expression)

Your chromosomes

Who you are / are not attracted to (sexually, emotionally, romantically, platonically, or otherwise)

What your wear / what your hair looks like / how you present yourself (people often use their appearance to portray their gender, but the two are not automatically linked)

What does transgender/trans mean? Trans is also an umbrella term referring to anyone who’s gender assigned at birth does not align with their current gender identity. For example, if you were assigned male at birth due to your anatomy, but now identify as female, you are transgender. If you were assigned female at birth but now identify as nonbinary, you are ALSO transgender. However, be mindful transgender is a claimed word that some people, even if they do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, do not choose to describe themselves. Some trans people get medical intervention (hormone replacement therapy, surgery, etc) to change their bodies to align more with their inner sense of self, but not all do. 

Below is a fun graphic that I used in high school to explain gender to my peers / teachers. It is not perfect, but is a good visual to show how gender identity, expression, sex assigned at birth, and various attractions are all separate. 

Want more explanations??? - Here is a master list of resources from a very helpful tumblr blog. Here and here are some resources that I made with my high school’s Gay Straight Alliance several years ago. The first link is a “Trans 101″ presentation; the second link is for a presentation I made for the high school faculty about why pronouns are important. Times are changing but the information in them is still like 98% accurate.

Pronouns

Pronouns are what we use in place of people’s names, and in many languages and cultures they are gendered. In English, she/her/hers are used to indicate that someone is female, and he/him/his are used to indicate that someone is male. However, there are more than just two sets of pronouns! They/them/theirs is the most commonly used for non-binary people. There are also ey/em/eirs, ze/hir/hirs, and more! People can also use more than one set of pronouns to describe themselves - for myself, I use she/her/hers AND they/them/theirs. 

How do you know what pronouns to use for someone? ASK! As long as you ask respectfully and don’t make a huge deal out of it, the great majority of the time people will really appreciate your consideration of their identity. However, make sure that if someone has not voluntarily shared their pronouns with you, that if/when you ask you are in a space where that person feels safe and comfortable both choosing to share or not share their pronouns with you. Gender identity is very personal and can be a scary thing to share with someone - but as I said, it is always better to ask respectfully than to assume. 

Introducing yourself with your pronouns is a regular part of Smith culture - in one on one interactions, in club meetings, house meetings, and even in some classrooms. A typical Smith introduction looks something like - “Hi, my name is Simona. I use she/her and they/them pronouns. I’m a sophomore, an Engineering and Physics double major, and I live in Comstock house.”

Admissions policy

Smith’s admissions website claims that Smith is still a “women’s college,” but most Smithies use the term “traditionally women’s college” to describe our school to be more inclusive of the non-female-identifying population here. The admissions website also boasts that “Smith is a place where students are able to explore who they are in an open and respectful environment,” which I for the most part agree with. 

Smith admits applicants to self-identify as female on the common app. This means that “applicants who were assigned male at birth but identify as women are eligible for admission.” This is a HUGE step in the right direction for Smith, as previously trans women were not allowed to apply!

However, this also raises the questions - What about nonbinary applicants? What about trans men? Unfortunately, there is no “nonbinary” box to check off on the common app. Therefore, most nonbinary Smithies were assigned female at birth and checked off the “female” box on the common app because they had to, or discovered after getting to Smith that they do not identify as female. Smith’s official policy about nonbinary students is pretty vague: “Our focus on women’s education means that we consider for admission applicants who identify as women and who seek entrance into a community dedicated to women’s education.” As for trans men – “Smith does not accept applications from men. Those assigned female at birth but who now identify as male are not eligible for admission.” However, if someone arrives at Smith identifying as female but starts to transition (medically or otherwise) to being male during their college years, Smith gives them the option of either transferring or staying here. 

Click here to read more about Smith’s admissions policy about trans/nonbinary students. 

Resources at Smith 

Smith has an org called Transcending Gender for trans/nonbinary students!

The Resource Center for Gender and Sexuality provides a lot of resources, including counseling, name change help, and more. Click here to see them all. 

We have over 200 gender neutral bathrooms. 

Students can change their own names on Moodle (Smith’s website for your classes and such) and can request a name change in your Smith email.

Personally, one of the biggest support circles I found for my gender identity was joining Smith Rugby. Smith Rugby has a high percentage of trans and non-binary individuals, and just being around and sharing the pitch with people of so many gender identities has been extremely empowering.

As an incoming student I was extremely nervous about the idea of being nonbinary at a “women’s college.” I had the idea that I wouldn’t be comfortable coming out and would have to pretend to be woman – but I was very pleasantly surprised at the fact that this would not be a huge issue at all for me at Smith. While I cannot speak to being a trans man at Smith, because I am not and that comes with a whole other set of challenges and stigmas, being nonbinary is a LOT easier than I anticipated. At first, realizing that I could share my pronouns - especially in a classroom - and that it wouldn’t be made into a big was rather shocking and initially scary for me. I was used to having to constantly explain myself and my gender to everyone, and was apprehensive of having to do the same at Smith, but that simply isn’t the case here. Now, I feel comfortable sharing my pronouns and generally dressing however I please. I don’t intend to speak for all trans students here AT ALL but I do think in general Smith is a very accepting place when it comes to queerness in all forms.

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Packing!

As a disorganized person, packing really stresses me out. However, when packing for college I decided to try things differently in order to minimize the stress I was putting on myself.

I’m flying to Smith from Minnesota, and when we decided to fly I was worried about space. We ended up getting tickets for the airline company Southwest, who let each person take two large suitcases. Between my mom and I, I’m taking four suitcases, which ended up being a lot of space! 

The real secret to my packing method is that I didn’t wait to start packing last minute--I started packing throughout the summer as early as the end of June. I had a couple weeks off from work spaced throughout the summer, so I was able to get a lot done in those weeks! Since my older sister lives away from home, I was able to keep the suitcases I was working on in her room, which definitely helped me feel less overwhelmed. I started by packing both my winter clothes and my bedding that I’m bringing to school, because both of those things were things that I knew I wouldn’t be needing before I left. Then, after I finished working for the whole summer, around the 19th of August, I began to pack other clothes and items that I’m bringing from home. 

Because I got so much done before the last minute, I’ve been able to spend my last few days in St Paul doing the things that I want to do instead of frantically getting ready. Monday I went to the Minnesota State Fair with my family and yesterday I spent catching up and saying goodbye to some people who are important to me. 

I’m ridiculously excited to be at Smith in two days! The time sure flies!!

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I’m gearing up to leave in a bit under two weeks, but some of my close friends are a lot closer to leaving. So, as our last hurrah before college, my three closest friends and I had a formal dinner party where we wore fancy clothes and ate delicious food! All of my emotions about leaving for college have just started to hit me lately, so it was lovely to be surrounded by friends.

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I found out my housing assignment at the end of July, and I’m really excited to be in a double in Emerson House! I’m super pumped to move in 17 days from now!

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I’m starting to get even more excited about moving in! One thing that is making moving to Smith and living away from my home is that I’ve already had an experience living away from home for a significant period of time. As a sophomore in high school I spent a semester at Coastal Studies for Girls, located in Freeport, Maine, which is a semester school focused on marine science and leadership. This was a big step for sophomore year me, since I hadn’t lived away from home before and Maine is really far away from Minnesota, but it helped me grow exponentially as a person, and has really prepared me for my transition to college! I’ve been thinking a lot more about my move there and living away from home lately, so here are some of my thoughts about how my transition to college will be both similar and different.

Similarities

Distance: Both Maine and Massachusetts are equally far from Minnesota. Because of this, moving to Maine gave me a taste of what moving is going to be like. While moving to Maine I flew there and back, so I know a thing or two about how to go about packing for flying this time around. Because of the distance, while I was at CSG I wasn’t able to come home for any breaks, which is similar to how I won’t be able to come home until winter break this semester. 

Communication: While I was at CSG, I communicated with my family mostly through Skype. I imagine it’ll be pretty similar next year, especially since we already have a system set up for skyping with my older sister who has been in college since my sophomore year. 

Homesickness: Honestly, I’ve never really been someone who got homesick very often, and this remained true while I was at CSG. One of the reasons that I’m not very worried about being far away for college is because I didn’t have any issues of being homesick in Maine, and whenever I did miss home, I knew how to either 

Differences

Space: When I lived at CSG, all 15 girls who were in the program lived within two rooms in the farmhouse. This meant that sharing space was really important and that there was very little privacy. This is pretty different from a traditional dorm situation, but it taught me a lot about sharing space and using direct communication with the people that I live with!

Age:  Another huge difference is that so much of my peer group is going through a similar transition of high school to college! When I went to CSG, it was out of the ordinary for me to be leaving school and living away from home, but now, a lot of my peer group is having similar experiences, which makes it easier to talk about with friends from high school.

Permanence: While I was away at CSG, it was comforting to know that in many ways, life would be similar when I left and when I came back. I would come back to the same school and the same activities, as well as pick up life with my family close to where we had left off. Going to college will be different, because it will be a permanent change in my life, and around me, my friends from home will also be undergoing the permanent changes. Even though the permanence scares me, I’m excited to take the plunge.

Okay, I think that’s about it for now! If anyone has any questions about semester schools, feel free to reach out!

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About me!

Hello everybody! My name is Greta and I’m starting to blog for Smith! 

A little bit about me:

I’m from St Paul, Minnesota, where I went to a large, public high school and participated in the full IB diploma program. I’m thinking that I’m going to major in environmental science and policy, and I’m also interested in biology, marine science, and urban design. Right now, I’m busy working as a summer camp counselor at the science museum as well as trying to be as organized as I can be for an extremely disorganized person about packing. I found out this week that I’ll be in Emerson House, which I am wildly excited for!

Feel free to ask me questions about applying ED, moving far away, or anything else!

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How I chose Smith

Okay kids, here’s the story of how I chose Smith:

It all started after attending Coastal Studies for Girls, all girls semester school during the fall of my sophomore year of high school. This experience led me to realize several things about what I wanted in a college, including that I wanted to be away from Minnesota and study environmental science. I also found that I wanted a small college with a close knit community, and that I thrived in a women-focused environment. After visiting Smith, I could tell that it was the place for me because it ticked so many of my boxes, and most importantly felt like somewhere I could call home. I decided to apply Early Decision 1, because I was completely positive that Smith was my number one choice!

Here’s what stood out to me about Smith:

The Academics

I wanted a school where I could find challenging and interesting courses, but not have a negative or competitive attitude about academics. Smith seemed to have a healthy balance of academics which drew me in. The small class sizes and focus on undergraduates also stuck out to me, as well as their Environmental Science and Policy major.

Houses not Dorms

Out of all of the colleges that I looked at, Smith was the one whose housing system felt like it would foster a sense of community. I appreciate that there are all four classes in each house and that students live on campus all four years. I also really appreciated that the houses are much smaller than dorms at most colleges, which also builds a sense of community and feeling of home. 

Location

I had been hoping to go to a college far away from home so that I could explore a new area and new people, which is why I looked on the east coast. The fact that Smith is so close to Northampton also is a big bonus! No other college that I visited had such a close proximity to small downtown areas, and Noho is a gem!

Really, there are a million reasons why I chose Smith, and I’m so glad that I did choose Smith!