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- What first-years can expect in their first year
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- By Jan McCoy Ebbets
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- Related Articles:
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- "Don't Put Me in a Room With a Neat Freak!"
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- Smart Studying for First-Years
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- So, What's It Like to Be a Rookie?
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- Perhaps you know her. Kate Zondlo of Morgantown, West Virginia, is
a Smith College first-year. She's already been published in Newsweek with
a "My Turn" essay making the case for treating teenagers with
more respect. She spent the summer before college as a counselor to junior
and senior Girl Scout cadets at a camp in Pennsylvania. She thinks
- that after graduating from college, she might join the Peace Corps.
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- But first she has to get through this little matter of a major life
passage: leaving home and going off to college. It's a notion that gave
Kate pause even in the middle of last summer, well before she had to start
packing up and heading north to her new home on the Smith campus.
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- "I have this intense feeling that I'm leaving something very comfortable
and secure in order to go on to something new," she said in June.
"If I were to let myself think about it all the time, I might get
worried."
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A familiar face on campus and in the residential houses,
Nancy Asai is the associate dean of student affairs. (Click on the image
to view a larger version.) |
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- It's that uncertainty about making successful transitions that gives
all of us pause. Ask Becca Whitin, a seasoned sophomore. She'll give you
the lowdown on what it is to be a rookie at Smith.
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- "When you first get to school, you've got your ivy plant [a welcoming
gift from the Smith Friends of the Botanic Gardens] and you've got your
HONS [Heads of New Students] doing all these things to make you feel at
home in your house. But then you get to a point where all that starts slowing
down. And you start to wonder, 'OK, where do I really fit in? And is this
really where I want to be?' Some people think about transfering out, and
that's OK for them. They feel lost and think they're having a horrible
first semester. My best friend went through it at the University of Georgia.
But she stuck it out and she's still there now, going into her second year.
Now she loves it."
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- Other students call this phase the "temporary freshman flop."
Becca never seriously considered transfering, but she may speak for every
first-year who, having arrived at Smith, has felt that she has embarked
on a strange, albeit exciting, new journey, and has found herself wondering
Is this really where I want to be?
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- The Rookies' First Season
- Let's face it. There are many speed bumps on the road that winds through
four years of college-especially in the first semester of the first year.
Experts say fledgling first-years can expect to experience the thrill of
autonomy, of being in the driver's seat for what may be the first time
ever. Add to that such feelings as anxiety, homesickness, terror, confusion
and excitement--and that's just in the first month.
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| Dean of the First-Year Class Velma Garcia, left, and Assistant
Dean for Student Affairs Meredith Farnum take seriously their responsibilities
for the well-being of students. Here they greet Smith juniors Sarah Grover,
second from right, and Emily Futransky during a stroll across campus. (Click
on the image to view a larger version.) |
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- Even Velma Garcia '79, dean of the first-year class, can recall the
challenges she encountered as a first-year at Smith. "I'm from a small
town in Texas, so my life at Smith was very different. Though at times
I experienced severe culture shock, I was also thrilled to be able to live
and study here. Joining varsity teams [volleyball and softball, as well
as rugby, a club sport] and taking Spanish literature courses helped me
feel more at home."
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- The first year of college also forces the newcomer to master all those
pesky details of real life-the mysteries of a load of laundry, the puzzle
of proper protein, the frustration of too many choices. And no matter how
prepared she thinks she is, it may take a while before a campus starts
to feel like home.
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- "There are fairly predictable stages of what we call the 'seasons
of the first year,'" observes Meredith Farnum, assistant dean of student
affairs, referring to a timeline developed in 1992 by a former dean of
the first-years, Elizabeth Doherty. September looks like a dizzying roller
coaster ride of emotions for the first-year, with the obvious high of finally
being on her own tempered by some predictable lows.
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- "There's going to be a certain amount of inevitable stress-if
the books you need for a class aren't available, if your roommates are
still new, if you haven't had enough downtime to yourself. You can't help
but feel emotional tugs," Farnum says. "I remember several years
ago walking down Green Street in the fall and seeing a student standing
there, sobbing. It didn't take long to find out what the matter was: she
was a first-year, she was late for a music audition, she couldn't find
the right building, and she was scared and nervous. All I had to do was
walk her there, and then she was OK. I also reminded her that there are
people around who can offer help, if she needs it."
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- By October and November, a first-year may slip toward a slump prompted
by such events as midterms and a Thanksgiving visit home (or lack of one),
or by the fading novelty of new friendships and roommate alliances. Anxiety
about the looming end of the first semester and completing everything that
needs to be done also sets in.
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- But by December's winter recess, most students are glorying in their
achievements and looking forward to a vacation. A similar cycle can play
out in the second semester, but then the ups and downs tend to be more
influenced by weather and friends.
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- Indeed, counselors, class deans and students all agree that the first
year of college is a nerve-wracking time. "It's a tumultuous and exciting
period in anyone's life, making that leap from late adolescence to adulthood,"
says Tom Riddell, economics professor and past dean of the first-year class.
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- Mastering the Challenges
- According to Pam McCarthy, associate director of health services responsible
for Smith's counseling services, three major developmental tasks must be
mastered in order to make a successful adjustment to college life. A student
must (1) let go, leave behind the familiar support of her home, family
and friends; (2) establish a new network of friends; and (3) learn self-regulating
behavior. How successful a young woman is at those tasks will be determined
in part by her own level of maturity and what expectations she brings to
the college landscape.
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- But no matter how ready a first-year may feel, adjusting to college
life can be a real challenge. "Her expectations will be affected by
the strengths she brings with her and what kinds of experiences she's had
so far at home and in school," McCarthy says. The difference between
the experience a student brings from home and what she'll encounter at
Smith will determine much about how well she adapts and gets a sense of
herself in the new college environment. "If she hasn't had much nurturing
or confidence-building experience at home or in high school, she may get
here and have more difficulty," McCarthy predicts.
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- Being in charge of your own life, being handed permission to reinvent
yourself as an adult, also can be daunting. "By its very nature, the
college experience promotes risk-taking and experimentation. But some students
may not be able to figure out how to combine all that with self-preserving
behavior," she said.
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- Even little things like getting enough sleep, getting to morning classes,
and regulating eating, sexual behavior and general health care can be challenging.
If a student is having a hard time in any area, McCarthy urges her to seek
help among any of the campus resources, including the free, confidential
counseling services available to all students.
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- Parents, although they may be miles away, can help a daughter cope
with the dilemmas of college life by being good listeners when she calls
home and by being easily accessible via phone or e-mail. Likewise, they
can offer support and confidence in their daughter's ability to solve her
own problems. (In fact, a good guide for parents, recommended by both Farnum
and Riddell, is Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College
Years by Karen Levin Coburn and Madge Lawrence Treeger, just revised and
reissued by HarperCollins.)
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- "If there are minor problems, show your support by listening and
encouraging your daughter to solve them herself," Riddell suggests.
"One of the best ways to help her is to remind her of the available
resources on campus."
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- "What's really important," agrees Farnum, "is to get
students tapped into all our resources so they can reach out and get help
if they need it and have a healthy involvement in Smith." Among those
who can help with problems or concerns are the faculty advisers, the class
deans, the head resident in each house and the student affairs deans, as
well as health service counselors and the chaplains at the Helen Hills
Hills Chapel who are available for religious and personal counseling.
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- Of all the challenges of college life that call for a new maturity,
the academic workload is by far the most obvious. But preparing for and
getting to class, writing papers and having to choose between pizza parties
and studying offer challenges, too.
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- "Some students have trouble adjusting to the New England geography
and culture and to Smith itself because they've come from someplace very
different," Riddell says. But adapting to college-level work can cause
even more stress.
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- "Students may arrive at Smith with different expectations about
college-level learning and what is expected of them with their study or
test-taking skills," says Riddell, noting that the class dean's primary
responsibility is the academic welfare of first-years. "These students
may not have developed these skills very deeply, plus there are a lot of
very bright people who may have difficulties adjusting to the level of
expectation that awaits them in the academic culture at Smith."
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- Midsemester grades in October are a common indicator of difficulties.
When they're sent out, the dean of the first-year class contacts students
who seem to be having academic difficulties and offers help by way of available
resources. These include talking with the dean, professors and faculty
advisers, or arranging for tutorial services or writing assistance available
through the Center for Academic Development.
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- With such a broad range of assistance on tap, the new student need
never go far for help. Garcia is very clear about her role with the class
of 2001: it is to oversee their academic welfare. "The first year
of college is an extremely important period of transition for students
in general," she says. "I believe that my role is to work with
a student's premajor adviser and with her instructors in order to smooth
that transition."
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- Grist for the Greenhorn
- So if you're a greenhorn, how can you make a smooth transition to college
life?
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- For one thing, make new friends-get connected through extracurricular
activities, whether they're with a campus organization, a house committee,
a sports team or a religious group. "Some students get here and begin
questioning God and humanity. They also begin to get quite active with
religious organizations," says the Rev. Richard Unsworth, interim
dean of the chapel. "They don't always follow their own traditional
religious life. It's not so much what you leave behind as what you are
heading for as an adult, and very often this quest sets off a lifetime
of inquiry."
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- "I think it's really important for a student to find a place to
belong," Farnum says. "That place can vary from academic involvement
to playing a sport, volunteering or joining a student organization. It's
another place to hang your hat."
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- Finding a place to fit in is one of the things that helped Kansas native
Hillary Hartley '97, now a Smith graduate, when she first arrived on campus.
"It doesn't matter if it's a weekly study group or an a cappella singing
group like the one I joined. The second week I was at Smith I auditioned
for Noteables and surprisingly, I got in. The 15 women in that group became
my closest friends," she recalls.
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- "You can find your niche in student organizations or house activities,"
observes Nancy Asai, associate dean of student affairs/residence life.
"There are a lot of opportunities in the residential house. Every
first-year takes turns having responsibility for tea duty, and a variety
of other house jobs-fire captain and social chair, to name a few-are available."
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- Asai's office takes seriously its responsibility to ease the adjustment
of new initiates to the residential and social culture of Smith. Traditionally,
HONS are responsible for assisting with new-student orientation and introducing
new students to life in the houses. They do so in a variety of ways ranging
from coordinating a Big Sister-Little Sister matchup of returning students
with first-years to creating door decorations for the rooms of the newest
occupants. Meanwhile, each house has a head resident (HR), normally a Smith
senior who has been extensively trained to oversee the house's basic management
and who also serves as a peer counselor.
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- "First-years often travel in packs the first few weeks of school-safety
in numbers," Asai notes with a smile. "But some of the house
council members or the HONS will try to do simple things like taking the
first-years downtown on ice-cream runs and exploring Northampton. We tell
the student leaders in our [residential life] training that it's the upper-class
women in the house who can make or break a first-year's successful adjustment
to group living experience."
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- Likewise, the on-campus orientation, in which all new students participate
before classes actually begin, features receptions, picnics and forums
on the curriculum and other events designed to introduce new students to
the college and to each other. Orientation also includes activities geared
toward raising awareness and appreciation of the cultural diversity that
exists within the Smith community.
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- Optional preorientation programs are offered as well, designed to lessen
the culture shock of being a stranger in a strange new land. For instance,
Bridge, a program for American students of color, has for many women been
a first place at Smith to form long-lasting friendships. The International
Students' Preorientation is designed to acquaint entering students from
foreign countries with the academic and social life at Smith as well with
life in the United States. Preludes, a two-and-a-half-day camp experience
in central Massachusetts, aims to give new students an early edge on getting
acclimated and creating a new sense of community among neophyte Smithies
in an informal, off-campus setting.
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- Before starting her first year at Smith a year ago, Susan Bentsi-Enchill
from North Ghana, Africa, took part in several preorientation programs.
"It was an easy adjustment and I made quite a few friends through
the International Students' Preorientation," she notes. At this year's
orientation, returning second-year Bentsi-Enchill was an official greeter
of new students, serving as a HONS for Morris House, where she lives.
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- Happy Endings
- So whatever became of the distressed student encountered by Merry Farnum
years ago on Green Street?
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- "I never saw her again-until I saw her on Commencement Day four
years later, a successful graduating senior. I would say that at Smith
it works out that way for most. The students do survive, and they do come
out the other end feeling successful and confident. It's always hard for
me to see them go," she added with a sigh. "They certainly touch
all our hearts and our lives."
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- And what of Becca Whitin, who was feeling a touch of the blues in September
1996? She's all over that now, she'll tell you, and has been since the
second semester of her first year. Today she's a participant in the prestigious
Student Research in Departments (STRIDE) program and an energetic second-year
at Smith. "There is so much to look forward to," she said in
July. "I'm going to be a gallery assistant. I'm going to be a HONS
in Northrop House. I have STRIDE. I have a place now at Smith."
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