My Smith Experience

I am just finishing my third week at Smith College School for Social Work. It seems that there is so much to say that I don't know what to start with. When I was applying and preparing to relocate to this graduate school program, I heard these few things about the 'Smith experience' students have: that it is intense, that Smith focuses on the whole person and not just the intellect, and that the program is transforming. I wasn't quite sure what these things meant until I arrived on campus for orientation. After participating in meetings, activities, conversations, etc. I began to feel the weight of what I was getting into. Smith has a very respected social work program, and we are responsible for representing the school well in our field placements, where we will be beginning social work therapists. During the summer we take ten classes over ten weeks and the homework load is humanly impossible. But the classes are pass/fail and the professors are therapists who make every effort to make the classrooms safe and supportive environments where we can process our thoughts and feelings over the material we are learning.

As well as learning to process my own stuff while trying to learn an immense amount of information in a very short time, I am living in a dormitory sharing a bathroom with 20 other females and eating all of my meals in a cafeteria with 200 other people. The second year students fondly call this summer experience 'summer camp.' And the name fits. We are all dealing with heavy material in our classes, away from our support systems, and going through this really intense experience where our emotions are bubbling at the surface. It does remind me of being an adolescent at summer camp.

The campus here is amazing. All of the buildings are New England style made with red bricks and hardwood floors inside. The dorms look like big houses (they used to be mansions before the school purchased them). Last weekend some friends and I checked out canoes at the pond (yes we have a pond and canoes!) and paddled up the river to a swimming hole. Everything is so lush and green, and there are tons of cute little squirrels and chipmunks running around everywhere. The rain comes down in huge drops and it just pours. Its no use trying to stay dry, even with an umbrella your legs get soaked. I'm just glad its summer!

That's my update for now. Sorry its taken so long to post! I'll try to keep up on the everyday stuff now that you have an intro to my life here!