Doors Opened
Alum News
Published September 13, 2016
Career: “I am engaged in incredibly meaningful work; I was a public defender and now represent parents in child welfare proceedings.”
Winging it: “I was largely unprepared for the college application process. I didn’t take any kind of SAT prep course and sat for the exam without a calculator.”
Taking a chance: “I only knew that Smith was a beautiful women’s college not too far from home and would offer me opportunities my mother and grandmother had never had.”
This story appears in the Summer 2016 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.
Learn More
1st Gen
Changing the script: Coming to Smith as first in the family to finish college can mean culture shock and confusion. But, as one alumna says, can open doors to 'a life I never knew existed'.
Helen Lan Fong Lee AC ’03
Portland, Oregon
Sociology major
Jewels Rhode ’11
Durham, North Carolina
Psychology major
Kiara Gomez ’14
on a Fulbright in Athens, Greece
Geosciences major
Allison Bellew Sousa ’08
Boulder, Colorado
Computer science major
Resources for First-Generation Students
A compliation of some of the resources available to FIGS, the group of First-Generation Students that together form a community of support and success.
Photographed by Zave Smith, April 29, 2016, in Philadelphia