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Other Summer Visitors Those visiting Smith during the 10 weeks of summer 1998 were as eclectic a group as the programs that drew them. They ranged from research scientists who came from all over the world to attend Smith Professor Steven Williams' molecular biology workshops to local youngsters who took enrichment and remedial courses at the Smith/Northampton Summer School or attended the field hockey camp directed by Olympic star and Smith coach Judy Strong.
Since 1980, the Smith Management Program has brought promising women professionals to campus for sessions that cover a variety of topics. Participants come from the private, nonprofit and public sectors. Michael Zide photo. One unique group was a traveling band of 30 Japanese and 30 American university students participating in the 50th Japan-America Student Conference (JASC), the oldest student exchange program between the two countries. The conferences, which are entirely student-run, count among their alumni Henry Kissinger and some Japanese prime ministers. Japan and the U.S. take turns hosting the month-long conferences, which have been presented annually except in times of war or financial crisis. During each conference participants visit three colleges or universities in the host country. Smith hosted JASC's New England stay this summer, which fell between visits to Arizona State University and DePaul University in Chicago. At the latter site the delegates celebrated the fact that this was JASC's 50th conference. "Seeking Solutions to Facilitate Mutual Understanding" was the theme for this year's program, which was a combination of roundtable discussion, academic exchange, local sightseeing and socializing. Smith graduate Nao Tase '98 of Yokohama City, Japan, served on the group's 16-member executive committee and helped organize the stay at Smith. "It is a very academic conference," she noted, "but there is also time for fun. Remember, this is 60 college students who like to stay up all night talking or going out dancing. The main thing, though, is to make friends and discuss the broad issues that will help to promote mutual understanding of the two countries." The conference stimulates not only international understanding but also a tight fellowship among the students. "It's a very intense month," said Tase, who will soon begin working in Japan as a news reporter for the Tokyo Broadcasting System. "By the end of the month we're all best friends. I can't imagine now what my life would be like without having had this experience. It's been so meaningful." In addition to the JASC students on campus there were psychotherapists studying trauma theory, nurses working for certification in holistic health care, adults learning about fitness, college students researching science, liberal arts graduates practicing their teaching skills, musicians, vocalists, field hockey teams, geologists, soccer players, women corporate executives and fledgling scientists under the age of 12. And then there were the social workers. The Smith College School for Social Work celebrated its 80th anniversary this summer with a four-day conference and the school's program of continuing education held its 67th series of summer sessions this July. The School for Social Work opened at Smith in the fall of 1918 with some 40 students pursuing master's degrees in social science. It has since graduated more than 6,000 students with master's and doctoral degrees in social work. For the 13th year in a row Steve Williams, Gates Professor of Biological Sciences, ran intensive 14-hour-a-day courses emphasizing hands-on laboratory research in molecular biology. Research scientists new to molecular biology signed up for "intensive bench experience" and to try their hand at experiments in such areas as purification of DNA and RNA, restriction enzyme digestion, DNA sequencing and synthesis. Each of the three courses lasted two weeks. The research scientists attending-like most other participants of programs at Smith this summer, whether they were professional adults, college students or high schoolers-stayed in Smith houses where they had single rooms, each with a twin bed, desk, bureau, phone and closet. Male and female participants were housed on separate floors. Each floor had a communal bathroom that was cleaned daily by Smith's housekeeping staff. But the information Williams sent out reminded all applicants that the "houses are not hotels." Another annual program at Smith is Community College Connections (CCC), which this summer drew 20 women from community colleges in Massachusetts, Florida, Connecticut, New Mexico and North Dakota. Ranging in age from 19 to 58, the women lived on campus for five weeks and got academic credit for taking two intensive, interdisciplinary courses taught by Smith faculty. More than 80 percent of past CCC participants have gone on to full-time college or university enrollment. Yet another annual event, the Smith Management Program, has been offered since 1980 and is one of the first executive education programs designed exclusively for women. It offers promising women professionals two-week sessions that cover a variety of topics, including negotiation and corporate strategies, global economic issues and communication styles and techniques. Participants are selected from a broad spectrum of organizations from the private, nonprofit and public sectors. Gaynelle Weiss, former director of Smith Management and Summer programs and current employee services director for the college, defined the core mission of the summer programs at Smith as an extension of the college's academic mission: to foster women's education and professional and personal development. "In a gracious college setting that offers academically rigorous programs, we furnish women with the means to be successful in their lives," she said. Some of the programs, especially those designed for young women in middle and high school, "bring students to the Smith campus and give them a taste of college life at an earlier age," Weiss said. "And they go home with a positive perception of Smith." |
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