What Smith Made Possible

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
1

<p>Okay. This is a horn-tooting post. My d. today received not one, but two graduate fellowships to work on her dissertation (and bunch of other stuff) in Venice. We've been joking that she will be there so long that she'll come home as a Venetian blind.</p>

<p>All this was made possible initially through Smith and the Five-College Consortium (those who think the Consortium is simply about taking courses at other colleges, think again:</p>

<p>My d. had Smith's highest academic merit scholarship - the Zollman. But the main reason she chose to go there was because she had received a STRIDE scholarship that provided her two years of paid research work with a professor, beginning her first year.</p>

<p>They created a position specifically for her (she was only 16 when she entered). The Five College Consortium was planning to mount a production of the first opera ever written by a woman (by Francesca Caccini, from 1623). She was required to assist in coordination and, most important of all, to produce a performance score for the work (none existed.) The Consortium meetings (and the chair) were at Amherst. (The director, by the way, was from Vassar.) The supervisor of her work was a very well-known Renaissance music performer and scholar who was a Five College Professor, based at Mount Holyoke, but who taught all his classes at Smith. She took Italian and began using it on day one - all the manuscripts were in Italian. The performances took place at Smith at the end of her sophomore year, with more than 2,000 people attending. We flew in for the event. (She also studied baroque violin with the professor, and sung medieval/Renaissance choral music at Mt. Holyoke.) She spent her junior year at the Smith College program in Florence (where she also played with a local symphonic ensemble), and then received a stipend from Smith to pursue her research work in Italy further. In her senior year, she was named a Kahn Fellow, Kahn being an interdisciplinary humanities institute at Smith including both faculty and students, with professors from several of the colleges, but conducted at Smith. Her work with the institute became her senior thesis, and was parlayed into a five/six-year Ph.D. fellowship at Princeton in both musicology and Italian studies. Out of several hundred applicants, they only took four that year. </p>

<p>All of this stemmed from her work in her first year at Smith, made possible because of the Five-College Consortium. (I continue to wonder what Ivy League school would have afforded her even half these opportunities, especially as a first-year student.)</p>

<p>This is where you'll find her:
<a href="http://www.cini.it/en/fondazione%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cini.it/en/fondazione&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>We continue to be so grateful to Smith!</p>

2

<p>Mini-- Congrats to daugther and to you – support for sure. I trust what you have written re your daughter’s success is noted by potential Smithies.</p>

<p>Nice!</p>

<p>.02</p>

<p>David</p>

3

<p>Mini, I could not agree more that the Five College Consortium, Smith and the STRIDE program contributed greatly to your daughter’s impressive academic success(es). However, there’s a very important fact that is missing in the equation. I’m sure very few people who frequent the Smith thread are aware that you’re a renown homeschooling and educational consultant and lecturer. The fact that your daughter was homeschooled by someone of your stature also contributed in no small way to her success. It’s a shame more students and parents don’t have access to individuals with your educational expertise.</p>

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<p>Oh, I am sure of that. And, yes, she is really smart, perhaps exceptionally so. But the reality is Smith provided much, much, much more than we ever had any reason to expect. Needless to say, my d. had to grab the opportunities as they appeared. But for her, the nurturing environment at Smith made that so much easier - and the opportunities were there. </p>

<p>I was prompted to post (besides enjoying the good news) to especially emphasize that the Five College Consortium offers advantages that can go way beyond the ability to take a couple of classes on another campus.</p>

5

<p>Mini, your daughter did an admirable job of parlaying one opportunity into the next and Smith and the Five-College Consortium did an equally admirable job of providing her with a rich array of opportunities! Mini, I agree with CrewDad that you most likely also had something to do with her success. :wink: I think the most notable aspect of her story is her singular, consistent focus on her subject matter. What astounds me, that I didn’t know before, is that she was able to pull off doing both the Kahn Institute AND a senior thesis in her senior year! Congratulations to her on her graduate fellowships in Venice.</p>

6

<p>Congratulations to your daughter. I am glad Smith has worked out so well for her. I’ve had a great experience with admissions there, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that Smith is a very different environment than most colleges, and one that may not be a fit for everyone. However, this goes without saying for most top liberal arts colleges, so I guess it really is important to visit- especially when your school of choice is so small!</p>

7

<p>Oh, yes! It is a women’s college that happens to teach the liberal arts, not a liberal arts college that happens to be all women.</p>

<p>I discovered you can take a tour of her pad:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cini.it/en/visite-guidate[/url]”>http://www.cini.it/en/visite-guidate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;