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Residence Life training!

Though Smith officially starts on the 6th, and move-in day for the majority of campus is on the 4th and the 5th, many house leaders are returning several days-2 weeks earlier to participate in training! I’ve been back on campus since Aug 19th and participating in Res Life (RL) training, which is a mix of various social justice workshops, learning about policies, and brain storming various events to build house community throughout the year.

One of my favorite things during RL training is the MacLeish Field Station. The field station is within 240 acres of forest/farm land that Smith owns where people conduct environmental research, and also some recreational activities. To help foster some team bonding, they encourage us to complete some low-ropes courses. It always works since we have to get VERY hands on to support each other on the ropes. I’ve done the course several times with different people, but it’s always fun because you never know the group dynamics when you come with new people. I will say, long arms are always incredibly helpful for these courses.

Here’s a picture of my Green St Area team this year! We’re missing a few people but we had a great time anyway :D

Top 3 Things

Here’s my top 3s for different aspects of Smith that you should definitely bring/ship/buy when you get here!

@ a Smith Dorm

A fan. Especially you first-years!! Smith in August and September still gets pretty hot, and only a few houses have air conditioning, so fans are absolutely necessary. Maybe even two fans? If you’re tight on money, these box fans should be ok. If you want to splurge? A vornado.

A good thick comforter. My parents bought me a nice down-alternative comforter my first-year which has saved me during -20°F weather next to the windows.

Shower Slippers. Communal bathrooms are cleaned daily...but you just want to be extra safe you know? Shower slippers or just those $1 Old Navy flip flops will protect your feet from everything you might encounter in the bathrooms.

For Classes

Planner. It’s great to write down all your deadlines ahead of time so you know which weeks will be hell week...and which will be mild hell week. Having everything written out also helps with time management to help you prioritize what you should complete first! Honestly by my junior year, I have used Google Calendars to schedule everything from midterms to hang outs with friends since things keep piling up.

A good laptop. Many Smith classes, in both the STEM and humanities departments tend to get writing heavy as you reach the 200-300 levels. You’d need a good laptop that can last you the 4 years to write paper, do research in, and maybe even take notes on. I have a Macbook Pro that has survived, even with software additions for some of my research projects. It’s also pretty light, but incredibly expensive. Laptops are also important for my favorite past time--Netflix.

Note-taking materials. This is an obvious but pretty broad category. Do you learn better when you write? Type? Middle of both? I started out my first-year with those Five-Star 5 subject notebooks compiled into one...but those were so heavy I switched to having 2 3 subject ones for different days (1 for Mon, Wed, Fri classes, and the other for Tue, Thurs classes). Now that I don’t have much note heavy classes, I’ve switched to just having one 3 subject notebook, writing on loose leaf and putting it in a binder, or just printing out PPTs ahead of time to write notes on them. There are many different ways to take notes, so find your fit!

Smith Winters/Weather

Waterproof, lined winter boots. One of the most popular winter boot styles here in the New England is the LL Bean Duck Boot. Definitely not fashionable but it gets the job done! It’s pretty expensive, but it’s quite an investment. Smith also has a winter clothing stipend that you can get from the Dean’s Office if you’re on financial aid. There are also many other options, like Sorel and North Face boots, and some can be found at old trusty Marshall’s.

Good thick beanie and gloves. What’s pretty obvious is that you should get a good thick jacket. What’s not that obvious is gloves and a hat is even more important as you lose heat through your extremities and keeping these areas warm will definitely help. I have a fur lined beanie I got off amazon that keeps me warm, and $10 thick gloves shoved in my jacket are usually good enough. Beanies are also great to warm my ears...especially since my piercings get extra cold and hurt!

Thermals. Uniqlo heattech is a life saver. Thin, breathable, and regulates your body heat. What more could you ask for??? It’s honestly a staple for layering as it’s pretty versatile to wear on it’s own or under a sweater/jacket.

Can’t wait to meet you guys at Smith!!

And that’s a wrap!!

I had a great time this summer researching at The Rockefeller University! In the end my project focused on optimizing a protocol with my Graduate Student mentor that would induce the highest amounts of neuroinflammation in the brain from a peripheral LPS injection. This is based on past studies that show that an increase in body inflammation would increase brain inflammation...so my lab is trying to see if decreasing body inflammation can be a potential therapeutic target to decrease neuroinflammation. This has potential in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, which are linked to high levels of neuroinflammation.

We had a poster session to end the program and we got to learn of what other people did throughout the summer. It was amazing to see the range of research we did, from molecular biology to working with monkeys! This particular group of 25 was selected from over 750+ applicants, so I was really lucky to be selected!

I’ll miss working with my mice, but I’m excited to continue my research project back at Smith!

Trying to go to Grad School in STEM?

Same here! I just went to a talk with the Dean of Admissions at The Rockefeller University, and he gave some helpful tips for applying that I thought stood out/I haven’t really heard about anywhere else.

1. Focus on STEM

What surprised me most is he insisted that Grad School is different from college admissions where everyone has to be a well rounded individual. If you plan on applying to higher education in STEM, make sure your life centers around it! He mentioned that extracurricular activities won’t weigh much unless they have something to do with research, clinical experience, or science outreach programs.

2. Pick a good all-encompassing major

Admissions committees look at the breadth and depth of your STEM courses. This means have the basics covered in bio, chem, physics, and sometimes math. They also look at how well you did in difficult classes...so challenge yourself and take the classes that everyone tries to avoid (Cell bio...)!! This is a lot easier if the major you choose, or the double major/minor combinations you choose cover all these things at once.

3. Get involved in research (STEM research)!

If you’re trying to do research in graduate school, then it’s crucial to get some research experience. Join a lab in your college early on and build up your skill set to apply for summer internships and opportunities. I also think it’s important to get experience from a couple different institutions, and during the summer to see if you really want to spend an extra 5-6 years of your life devoted to just research 24/7. The programs you apply to for summer internships also matter as they can determine your letters of rec (e.g. get into REUs and AMGENs or other prestigious programs to strengthen your resume)!

Customary Times Sq picture!

Last Friday, a group of us celebrated Pay-Day by going to Cafe China, a Michelin star restaurant. The food was amazing (specifically their cumin lamb), and we had a great time getting to know one another! Afterwards, we went to Junior’s to get some cheesecake, and ate it on these steps in Time Square.

I usually try and avoid Times Sq like the plaque...it’s too crowded, very bright, and 1000% overwhelming. In small doses, it was great being surrounded by all the lights and the performances, though I think I won’t be back on 42nd St this summer!

Tuesday Lunch Talks!

In addition to Journal Club, we also have mandatory Tuesday lunch talks where professors or development staff come to give us a lecture. This week it was careers in STEM, and what to do with that PhD! It was great to learn about the various options available, and that it’s not just becoming a Principle Investigator.

I found this slide particularly funny because I have definitely been in this situation! My secret plan is to open a vineyard and just bask in all the homemade wine...cross my fingers!

Journal Club

The summer program at Rockefeller includes a mandatory Journal Club, where the students are divided into groups and given a topic in the biomedical sciences that they are least familiar with. Each group is guided by 2 mentors, grad students who specialize in the specific subject area, and they help the group pick a paper to present to the rest of the group. The aim of Journal Club is to teach us how to read papers analytically that are outside our fields, and also to help us familiarize ourselves with a wide variety of topics that may or may not intersect with our area of interest.

Of course, this means everyone is slightly unhappy and incredibly nervous about the topics they were assigned. I got biophysics and cell biology, and our group just had to pick a paper that aligned more towards biophysics (I have not taken physics since middle school...help me). Nonetheless, it’s a good opportunity for me to learn from people who specialize in the field, and the types of experiments that they do. Our presentation is in 2 weeks so we’re currently working on our slides.

Wish us luck!

A Food-Filled Weekend!!

My goal this summer, besides to learn a few things about science, is to eat a ton of great food that NYC has to offer!! Northampton has its share of restaurants, but they are not as varied, or authentic as the ones in the city. While my weekdays are filled with 9-5/6 lab time, followed by possible GRE studying, my weekends will hopefully be designated exploring and eating time.

This past weekend my labmate and I spent a lot of time in East Village. East Village is known for a lot of ethnic restaurants, such as the famous Drunken Dumpling with the XL xiao long bao soup dumplings, and the rose-gelato! We also stopped by a couple of thrift stores and specialty shops (like a shop dedicated to lightbulbs). I really enjoyed this area of Manhattan compared to the quiet Upper East Side that our intern housing is located at.

A group of us SURFers also went to Smorgasburg in Brooklyn! It’s a food festival that happens every weekend in the summer, with a bunch of great food vendors from all over. As a group, we had yakitori (Japanese skewers), dumplings, squid skewers, sushi bowls, crawfish mac n cheese, pineapple juice, lobster rolls...and fried cookie dough!! The food was great, though overpriced. It’s worth the experience and pictures though!

A hidden part of research (that takes up too much time honestly) is data analysis. I’ve been quantifying the intensity of the tissue stains we collected last week using the program called ImageJ. We’re trying to get rid of the background signal, and so we make sure the bright red spots on the right image only correspond to the ones on the left.

This stain looks at astrocytes in the brain, which is a type of glial cell that can be activated during an immune response. We’re trying to see if this statement is true by comparing the cells in the mice that were injected with saline, and the mice that were injected with LPS, an inflammatory agent.

Hope this works!!

I saw your post about overnight visits at Smith and I was wondering when would be the best time to schedule one. I am a rising senior and I would like to visit before it’s time to send in applications. I checked on the website, but no dates are scheduled yet. Thank you! :)

Hello! Great to hear that you’re interested in visiting!!

So I don’t think overnight visit dates will be posted until the end of the summer/beginning of next semester, but if you were on this website, you’re on the right track! I’d check back towards August/September to see if they’ve updated the dates. An alternative is to call the Admissions Office and ask them directly (413-585-2500)!

Our lab takes up half the 4th floor of Rockefeller’s Hospital building, and we’re one of the only labs here that have a balcony! Though it’s been rather cloudy, it’s still a great view of Roosevelt Island and FDR drive!

First Weekend in NYC!!!

I’m expected to be in lab at about 9:45-10am everyday, and we usually get off at about 5-6pm. Because it’s lab work though, we do have control over when we want to start or end our experiments, and when we decide to take a break! Since it’s a full work day, I usually end up collapsing back in my room, so the weekends are probably when I’m going to explore the city.

On Saturday, my labmate and I decided that we were going to get the famous Levain Bakery cookies (pictured above is chocolate chip walnut). However instead of taking any public transportation, we walked all the way across Central Park from the East side to the West side, and down 20 blocks or so (to justify the huge cookie). Midway through the park we went on an impromptu boat ride around the “lake”. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we got some Instagram worthy pics!!

I’m definitely going to spend more time at the park since it’s such a gorgeous space. I also really love seeing the contrast between skyscrapers and full, green trees!

Summer Research!

This summer I’m doing a SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) program at The Rockefeller University in NYC! It’s a 10-week long PAID internship, with free housing, and apparently an unlimited MetroCard??? In other words, it’s quite the dream program!

I’ve been placed in the Strickland Lab this summer, which you can find more information about here. It’s a neurobiology and genetics lab focusing on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and how blood factors/components interact with AD proteins to worsen the symptoms. Here’s a couple of pictures from my section of the lab:

That’s basically my workbench the whole summer! We had an informal lab meeting this week where members of the lab presented their raw data for the past 2 weeks to the PI, and it was really cool to experience how larger labs function since we have quite a small one back at Smith.

Can’t wait to update you guys about my project!

Part of the job of Class Assistants is to set up reunion headquarters! The HQ is where the different classes would report to and hang out, so we try to decorate it with a bunch of things that the class has accumulated over the years. The Smith College Alumni House keeps these memorabilia in class lockers, everything from yearbooks, banners, photos and even past class SWAG are kept over the years. Above are some of the HQs that we set up for the class of ‘38, ‘43, and ‘48, celebrating their 70th, 75th and 80th reunion! It’s always really inspiring to see the Smith love when alumni come back home after so long!

For the first time in about 10 years, Ivy Day is in the Indoor Track and Tennis! Because of the downpour we’re experiencing today, Ivy Day was officially moved indoors, though everyone still looked incredible in their white dresses! The parade went around the track instead of the quad, and though it was a little cramped with about 1000 alumni and 600 seniors, it all worked out in the end.

During Ivy Day, the alumni class years get awarded for the class that raised the largest amount of money in the 5 year period, and the class that had the highest number of alumni come back to campus. This year, both were won by the Class of 1968, celebrating their 50th reunion! This is also the day we announce the winners for various Smith prizes, and Honor recipients of the current graduation class. Most of them do not know this information ahead of time, so it is always exciting to open up the program and read your name as an awards winner!

Here’s to hoping Commencement tomorrow will be outdoors in good weather!!!

Green St Residence Life Team 2017-2018

Here’s a picture of my Res Life family this year! I knew we would be a great team from succeeding in our early ropes courses for orientation, and now we’ve survived a whole year together! It’s heartbreaking because not everyone will return back to Green St--many have been promoted to Head Resident positions in other areas (which is great for them but very sad for me).

Honestly, area teams are a great support system when working this job. They’re basically people in the same situation as I am, working 24/7 in our homes, and balancing a ton of other Smith commitments. These people are always willing to give advice when asked, and also a shoulder to cry on. I’m so grateful for their existence! I look forward to working with our new team next year, and building community in Lawrence!!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! Lawrence house has filled a piñata with 3lbs of candy to celebrate this Mexican American holiday!!!

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