‘Smith Students Always Land on Top’

With seniors crafting hats made to look like everything from flowers and anglerfish to the Titanic, there’s no shortage of creativity at Rally Day, and this year’s celebration, held last month, was no exception. Ahead of the introduction of this year’s Smith Medalists and Commencement speakers, another example of Smithie creativity took center stage—literally—when the Glee Club was invited up to perform a song titled “Students of Smith,” a short number complete with simple dance moves, a double entendre or two, and a few good-natured jabs at Wellesley and Mount Holyoke.

“It’s become a tradition for us to perform that song at Rally Day,” says Abby Kaufman ’25, Glee Club president and conductor of this year’s performance. “I’m not sure when we first began performing it here, but it’s been at least as long as I’ve been at Smith.”

Becky Raymond Millard ’02 has the answer.

While many of Rally Day’s traditions date back more than a century, “Students of Smith” had its beginnings in the spring of 2001, when Millard entered a contest calling for Smithies to pitch new songs celebrating the college. Her song, originally titled “Women of Smith,” ended up being chosen not only as one of three contest winners, but also as staples of events like Commencement, Reunion, and, of course, Rally Day.

“I wrote it as a playful interpretation of some of the stereotypes we encountered at Smith,” she explains, adding that her sister was a Mount Holyoke student while she was at Smith, hence the collegiate digs peppered throughout the lyrics.

Millard lives in Burlington, Vermont, with her husband, Roya Millard ’02, and makes time to teach voice lessons and participate in local community theater in addition to her work as director of Northern Lights at the Community College of Vermont. She is thrilled that the song is still being performed, and is honored that it’s also become a collaboration with current students.

“A few years ago, [Senior Lecturer and Director of Orchestral & Choral Activities] Jonathan Hirsh messaged me that the students in the Glee Club wanted to request a change in the song title to ‘The Students of Smith’ to be more inclusive of the various identities of Smith students,” Millard says. “I was thrilled to make the change, and hope this song continues to be meaningful to Smith students for years to come.”

Not only does the song itself transcend generations, the favorite lyrics do too. “It’s hard to pick just one, especially because they all have their own charm and humor to them,” says Kaufman. But at the end of the day, both Kaufman and Millard have the same answer: ”You should know we’ll never stop, Smith students always land on top!”

“It feels amazing,” says Millard of the song’s continued popularity and performance. “I set out to write something meaningful for me as a student and I never could have predicted it would continue to hold meaning for future Smithies. I love it when I visit the college for Commencement or Reunion weekends and hear the current students singing a song that continues to hold great memories of my time singing at Smith.”