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Sharing the best of Elms College.

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It’s summer orientation, so we'd like to give our newest students a big WELCOME TO ELMS!

For a photo tour of our campus, including some gathering spaces, academic buildings, the library, residence halls and health/sports spots, visit http://on.fb.me/1H3J3Nn.

For more information about orientation, visit www.elms.edu/about-elms/orientation/. And for a photo gallery from today’s orientation session, visit http://on.fb.me/1Frb9e2.

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The "Forbidden Art" exhibit -- a collection of artwork created by prisoners at Auschwitz and discovered after the concentration camp's liberation -- arrived on campus this morning. It will be shown on the main floor of the Alumnae Library from March 19 through April 19, giving students, faculty, staff and the community at large a chance to visit the pieces and reflect. Elms is honored to host this exhibit on the heels of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and to be able to showcase the plight of the prisoners during Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), which is April 15-16. The pieces – often made using scraps of paper or other discarded materials – feature scenes documenting daily life in the camps as well as portraits of prisoners. They offer a window into how the prisoners mentally escaped from the horrors of their imprisonment by creating drawings and paintings, albums of greetings, and even illustrated fairy tales written for their children, with whom they longed to reunite. This is the New England premiere of “Forbidden Art,” arranged through an ongoing interfaith collaboration with the Elms College Social Work Department and the Women’s Philanthropy Steering Committee, a division of the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts. The campus installation is made possible through a generous grant from the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ Harold Grinspoon & Diane Troderman Hatikvah Holocaust Education Fund. Additional supporters in bringing this traveling exhibit to Elms College include the Kosciuszko Foundation’s New England Chapter and the Polish Center of Discovery and Learning. The exhibit is presented in North America by the Polish Mission of the Orchard Lake Schools in exclusive partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/1wYyjWw.

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Nine students from the University of Kochi in Japan arrived at Elms College Feb. 24 as part of a longtime exchange program between the two schools. For the following 12 days, Elms hosted the Japanese students and University of Kochi associate professor Yoshi Yamaguchi. This is the exchange’s 15th consecutive year. Each year, the Kochi students stay in residence halls at Elms, study English, attend classes related to their majors, and take in Western Massachusetts sights and cuisine.

This year’s cohort -- whose majors include English, nursing, nutrition, cultural studies and social welfare -- visited Baystate Medical Center and Bowe Elementary School to gain a more in-depth understanding of American healthcare and school systems. In addition to English instruction, the Kochi students attended Elms classes such as Global Business, Child/Learn Development, Intro to Sociology, Sociology of Healthcare, Modern American History, Human Behavior/Social Environment, and Pharmacology.

Nearly 40 Elms students served as Friendship Partners for the Japanese students. These Friendship Partners participated in a three-hour training course to act as roommates, classmates and partners in language and cultural activities. Special extracurricular activities -- including bowling, shopping in Northampton and a visit to Sturbridge Village -- showed the Kochi students the fun side of American college life.

The program, including a Japanese Festival hosted by the Friendship Partners in the cafeteria, “opens up the world” to Elms students and gives visiting Japanese students a global perspective on their academic studies, said Joyce Hampton, Ed.D., dean of student success and strategic initiatives.

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3, 2, 1 ... and we're live! Director of Social Work Maureen Holland (left) and Scott Hartblay, associate professor of social work, stopped by the WGGB station today along with Susan Goldman, VP of the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts, to film a live lunchtime news segment about the free Irena Sendler film screening and filmmaker Q&A to be held on campus this Sunday (Feb. 1). Have you registered yet? Details about Sendler and registration for the film: www.elms.edu/irenasendler

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Elms College offers a number of weeklong service opportunities in destinations in the U.S. and abroad.

This January, we sent students to Baltimore to work with Catholic Charities, helping those in need. Yesterday, a group of eight worked in Maryland's largest soup kitchen and spent time at Sarah's House, a transitional housing program.

The goals of the service trips are to teach community building, to further the mission of the college and the Sisters of Saint Joseph, to implement the Catholic social teachings that form the base of the Elms experience, to instill the importance of cultural sensitivity and service to others, and to teach students how to safely conduct themselves in new environments and cultures.

Students pay their own way, but there are numerous school-sponsored fundraisers, and they also can solicit individual sponsors to finance the trip. Every trip is led by student leaders, overseen by faculty and staff.

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Devonte Marshall, getting ready to film his part of the new Elms commercial! #elmscollege #elmstwenty18

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Gargoyles in the sky at Elms College.