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And that’s a wrap y’all! My family came up to share these wonderful moments with me and to celebrate this as an accomplishment for all of us. Oh and of course we had to represent!

Thanks to everyone that took interest in my experience, I hope my blog has been helpful for all students considering Smith. While I won’t be blogging here anymore, I’m keeping the account open so you can explore the blog and be able to ask me questions. I’ll be happy to come back to answer them. Remember, once a Smithie always a Smithie! <3

#smithie #dominicangraduate #sisepudo

As I close this chapter of my life (which sadly includes blogging about my Smith experience for you all), I wanted to share my last two days at Smith. These were taken on the day before my commencement, also known as Ivy Day. It was a beautiful day and I was surrounded by amazing Smithies everywhere <3

This is my family at Smith, Nosotr@s. This was the day that the first years, sophomores, and juniors send us off in our senior banquet. After four amazing years with these beautiful people, I can't believe that it's time to move on and up. My biggest inspirations came from this organization and I wouldn't have been able to make it this far without the strength and love I found in this community. Shoutout to my Nosotr@s family! Thank you for being amazing. Thank you for making me feel loved. Las amo!

And as I wrap up my year, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts about the org overall:

I spent most of my blogging here about these people. I joined Nosotr@s my first year to see what I wanted to get involved in, and I stayed and ran for a position on the eboard. After three years of being the five college representative, I got elected as cochair with Rebecca.

This year I spent most of my time organizing and planning events as well as advocating for the organization. I couldn’t have kept my dedication and energy this strong if it wasn’t for the wonderful people I met through this organization.

Nosotr@s is filling with amazing and inspiring Smithies and made my time at Smith SO worth it. I have to admit that saying goodbye to this community is going to be one of the most difficult things I will have to do as a graduating senior. Everyone here has impacted my life in a way that I can’t explain, but I’m so glad they did. I’m so glad I found a family that I can cry with, laugh with, dance with and do work with.

If someone were to ask me about my experience, these would be the people i mention and the experiences I would gush about. These are the memories I will cherish like no other. Thank you Nosotr@s for being my lifeline. I love y’all! <3

A photo posted by Smith College (@smithcollege) on Apr 29, 2016 at 10:38am PDT

Here’s another picture I posted on the Smith instagram. This was my last Unity President's Council Meeting (UPC) ever. Every Friday, all the president's of the Unity Organizations meet for lunch to discuss upcoming events and to work on different ways to create a support system for students of color. This meeting was a transition meeting as we welcomed our upcoming presidents into the UPC family. Anything that has to do with the Unity Organizations is supported by Mrs. Richmond (also pictured above) and she is amazing to say the least ❤#mysmith

On those days that the sun is shining and the temperature feels warm enough, Smithies like to sit on Chapin lawn during lunch to soak in the sun and enjoy the music played by our student DJs from WOZQ, Smith’s radio station. Here are my friends and I doing just that and crossing our fingers so that everyday until our graduation is sunny :)

As a way to treat myself after attending my last class ever, I went to the Campus Center Café and ordered a little Smithie. This little ice cream based drink is pretty popular among Smithies, but confession: this is actually the first time I ever got one…just in time to graduate.

So I actually finished my classes 3 days before most Smithies (on a Tuesday) and as soon as I walked away from my last class I teared up and went to meet with a friend so she can give me a hug. She got this picture of me which I think sums up all the feelings I got knowing I’m never going to attend a Smith class again.

This year Nosotr@s started a photography campaign to celebrate Latinidad in a variety of ways. We took pictures of of Smithies that identify as Latin@ and printed them to display them all around Chapin Lawn for a week. Our goal was to deconstruct the stereotypical image people have when they think of Latin@s. We are of different races and have different beliefs and different physical appearances and that is part of the beauty of our culture. We used this platform to help our fellow Latin@s feel proud of their identity and not feel like they need to look/act a certain way to "fit in" or take ownership of the Latin@ identity. Everyone took a whiteboard and answered the prompt “I am” and “I am not.” Here’s mine :)

This was the first year we did this so the rising eboard will be working on adding to this collection each year so it continues to grow and our presence continues to be seen on this campus <3

A video posted by Smith College (@smithcollege) on Apr 29, 2016 at 12:46pm PDT

On Friday I took over the Smith instagram and made the following post:

Everyday I workout with my friend Amber's fitness group. She has been working on a special studies this semester focusing on fitness and community and I had the honor of being part of this with other wonderful Smithies. Our Fridays are game day so instead of a structured workout, we have one of the members run it and get our workout in through a variety of ways, such as dance, basketball, recess and everything in between. Here's Amber and I doing a handstand together. We're celebrating that we all came a long way :)

Before this I didn’t really enjoy the vibe I got from the gym, so I only took Get Fit Smith classes (which are really fun!) but I didn’t really push myself to learn more and do more until this semester. So here we are actually doing our own thing at the gym for once thanks to Amber and letting you know that you can too :) Here is the get fit get lit fam having some fun <3

She showed us that fitness and health shouldn’t feel like a tedious obligation and that we can build a bond with the people that we work out with. When you come to Smith find a workout community that will motivate and inspire you just like these wonderful people did with me <3

Nice weather calls for lunch on Chapin Lawn and a mini photoshoot with the friends you eat with :)

Finals period is among us and so are the times of endless studying. Around this time, Smithies move into a study location to maximize their productivity. I move into Unity House, one of the cultural spaces on campus. Here are my friends and I doing work together for moral support. If this doesn’t show you a lived in study space I don’t know what will! haha

Every year, Nosotr@s designs some piece of apparel so our members can wear their membership in the organization with Pride. This year we had the honor of having two different pieces of apparel for our members. For the fall semester we got a sweatshirt with our logo and a well known motivational quote in the Latin@ community: Si Se Puede (yes we can). Pictured above is me and my mother with our sweatshirts. My mom has come up to Smith from New York for some of the Nosotr@s events so i got her one because she’s basically a member.

This semester we got baseball t shirts that say “Unidas Jamás Vencidas” (United Never Defeated). Also pictured above is me and Rebecca, the other co chair of Nosotr@s and my partner in crime. We actually got about 40 members to purchase this shirt (which was a new record!) so we picked a day where we encouraged all of our members to wear the shirt for visibility. Our Aztec dance group also did a flash mob in front of the Campus Center during lunch that day to continue our effort to be present and visible on campus.

Last week of class feels! Here’s a few pictures of my last education class here EVER. (Still doesn’t feel true)

This is a capstone seminar so we all got to work on our own research in education. On the last day, we all brought something to showcase our work and took most of the class to participate in a gallery walk so we can see our peer’s work and write down some comments we have for them.

After class, our professor treated us to a class dinner so we can sit and reflect on what we saw and wrap up the course. The class is mostly seniors so it was hard to fathom that for a lot of us, this was really goodbye (or see you later…). Either way, this was a really sweet way to close off the year :)

The season of many send offs is upon us! These are pics of the Comstock Senior Banquet last week. The younger house members put together a really nice evening for us and remind us of all the wonderful times we had these past four years by showing us a slideshow of old pictures, having first years recall some of our highlights while at Smith and having the juniors read our prophecies as they send us off into the real world. They also gave us jars with the house name so we can carry our house pride post Smith.

Pictured above: some of my closest housemates :)

In the midst of lots of work, it’s also good to get off campus every now and then to have some fun :) My friends and I took a Sunday and broke from our normal schedule so we can go to a concert at UMass Amherst :)

Pictured above: current Nosotr@s members and Nosotr@s alumnae <3

This year we made an alumnae tea and invited former Nosotr@s members to a informal panel where they got to share their own experiences at Smith, what they done since they left and answer any questions we had. As a whole, the Smith alumnae network is wonderful. As a Latin@, the Nosotr@s alumnae network in incredible. Before this tea, I was already connected with a few of these alumnae one way or another so it was great to see their faces again. In fact, two of them graduated last year and surprised me with their visit! Another alumna I met at the Dominican Conference I attended the week before so that was a pretty cool coincidence. And another alumna pictured above is basically future me. Not only do we have a bunch of things in common but she’s currently working at the school that recently hired me! I actually got to build a connection with that school because of her so what I’m trying to say here is that she helped me attain my job :)

What I enjoy about these types of events is that no matter when we graduated, Nosotr@s is family. These events are beautiful because they foster such a special community and ensure that these connections are ever lasting.

Here’s a little preview into Nosotr@s’ last Cafecitos of the year. We only have 3 of these a semester but this event is one of the spaces we create to allow students to speak up on important issues connected to the Latin@ community. This Cafecitos focused on the elections, its candidates and which one has the best interest in the Latin@ community. Some of us came in with no prior knowledge, others came in with memes, and others with some research they did themselves. The space becomes safe no matter how much you (don’t) know, as long as you’re willing to learn and keep an open mind.

Also not pictured: delicious snacks ;)

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