Cameron Findlay ’23
Meet the Majors
Other clubs, sports, and activities you’d like to mention:
I’m co-president of Active Minds, Smith’s mental health organization!
What’s your all-time favorite Smith memory?
This isn’t a singular memory, but when I was a first year, my friends and I would camp out in the Emerson dining hall and sit and talk for hours until late-night dining started. Those conversations over plates of fried rice and chicken nuggets solidified a lot of the friendships I have today.
What's something about museums that people often get wrong or that you wish more people understood?
That there are so many jobs in museums! I think people most often think of curators and educators when they imagine museum jobs, which are of course vital roles, but so are the art handlers, database administrators, security staff and PR specialists (to name a few) that help keep museums up and running. I personally want to be a registrar, which is someone who handles objects behind the scenes and does a lot of museum-related paperwork.
Do you have a favorite piece or installation?
Anyone who knows me knows what I’m about to say: the two Faiyum funerary portraits at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I visited the CMA in high school and was immediately captivated by these highly detailed, realistic Egyptian portraits. They just come to life when you see them. Little did I know that I would end up interning there a few years later, and I could visit them whenever I wanted!
A class in Urban Anthropology really solidified that I had chosen the right major and that I was surrounded by people who care as much as I do.
Describe a moment from a class that particularly sticks with you.
I took a class called Urban Anthropology during our first online semester. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like it, but it actually ended up being one of the best classes I have ever taken. Even though it was difficult because we were all online, I felt such a strong sense of community with my fellow classmates. I was genuinely excited to hear what everyone had to say. It really solidified that I had chosen the right major and that I was surrounded by people who care as much as I do.
What do you wish older alums knew about the class of 2023?
That we are the last class that remembers Smith before the pandemic started. I think having that experience bonds us as a class even more than normal, and gives us connections across class years for those who took gap semesters. So many of us are still so burnt out by the ongoing pandemic, which makes these connections even more valuable.
