Smith Quarterly

Smith Quarterly

Writing Her Own Fairy Tale

In a new memoir, Betsy Cornwell ’10 tells the story of her life in Ireland.

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 16, 2026
Smith Quarterly

Sphere of Influence

Smith scholars and alums unpack the rise of the manosphere.

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 16, 2026
“I was following this situation with her husband and son week to week, and it was getting fairly alarming to read.”
From “Writing Her Own Fairy Tale”
Smith Quarterly

When the Past Won’t Let Go

Students, faculty examine spirituality and hauntings via various lenses in Kahn Institute project.

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 17, 2026
Smith Quarterly

Cookie Duncan ’24 Cracks the Grid

Smith alum goes from serious crossword solver to a crossword creator for “The New York Times.”

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 17, 2026
Smith Quarterly

I Go Beyond the Sound Bite

Itoro Bassey ’09 has witnessed the quiet but powerful ways women of color shape the biggest stories.

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 18, 2026
Smith Quarterly

How Art Brings Science to Life

Professor Michael Barresi is creating a traveling art exhibit about how human life develops.

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 18, 2026
Michael Barresi in front of computer screens and an art pad.
Smith Quarterly

A Space for Dreaming

Smith College's McCartney Hall opens up new possibilities for career and leadership development.

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 17, 2026
Smith Quarterly

The Work of Teaching Well

The 2025 Sherrerd Award recipients share what they value about their work as teachers and scholars.

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 18, 2026
Smith Quarterly

Scrolling with Jena Kim ’27

A micro-influencer uses her platform to tell folks about joys and realities of studying at Smith.

  • Smith Quarterly
  • February 17, 2026

Scene

Winter’s Confetti

The season’s first snow flips a magical switch on campus, transforming both the views and the vibe. This winter’s inaugural storm arrived on December 2, dropping more than 6 inches and inspiring snow statues, snowballs, snow angels, and other forms of frosty celebration. For many students arriving from warmer climates around the country and the globe, the snowfall offers an introduction to New England winters. 
—Barbara Solow

Photo by Jessica Scranton

Safe Space for Snakes

Although there have been no recent sightings of the endangered eastern rat snake at Smith’s MacLeish Field Station in Whately, Massachusetts, the hope is “we’ll have a visible presence before long,” says Alex Blaszczyk ’27, left. In the fall, Blaszczyk and Sarah Gygax ’28, right, were among several students who built a hibernaculum—an underground winter shelter for snakes—on a hillside at MacLeish. They filled a deep hole with large rocks, dry leaves, and grasses to mimic snakes’ natural burrows, then added entrance tunnels made of terra-cotta roofing tiles. The project was sponsored by Smith’s Center for the Environment, Ecological Design, and Sustainability (CEEDS) and supported by a grant from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and the National Wildlife Federation. 
—Barbara Solow

Photo by Jessica Scranton

In the Grooves

For Ginger Silverman ’26, the best part of their advanced printmaking class in the fall was “playing with textures and patterns to create an image.” For a final project—building a mobile composed of seedpod prints—Silverman used the intaglio method, in which images are etched below the surface of a copper plate to hold ink in the grooves. Here, Silverman runs an inked plate through an American French Tool press to transfer the image onto paper. Students in the class also experimented with relief, monotype, and lithographic printing.
—Barbara Solow

Photo by Jessica Scranton

Taste of Home

Smith’s 150th anniversary year in 2025 also marked the 80th anniversary of the college’s IS Day—a food festival where international students prepare their favorite dishes from home and share them with the Smith community. Anjia Lu ’28 made Chinese scallion oil noodles for the November event. 
—Barbara Solow

Photo by Candace Hope

Favorites: Smithie Stuff We Love

For more Smithie stuff we love this winter, check out the full list.

Have you written a book? Made a movie? Created a fashion line? Or had a hand in another creative pursuit? Submit your project to be considered in a future Favorites column!

Exhibits

Comprising works from the 13th to 15th centuries, Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages is on display through March 29 at The Met Cloisters in New York City. The exhibit seeks to challenge ideas of love, identity, and kinship, according to the museum. Spectrum of Desire was overseen by longtime Met curator Melanie Holcomb ’85. “Early in my career, I discovered a strange and beautiful painting of Saint Jerome wearing a dress,” Holcomb says of the patron saint and Christian scholar. “That got the wheels slowly turning. For a topic like this, I needed to feel that institutional support and public receptiveness would all align. We have been thrilled by the reception. Someone I know remarked that the exhibit provides an adult space to talk in an adult way about the potent topic of desire.”

[“Water Pitcher in the Form of Aristotle and Phyllis” courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art]

See ‘Spectrum of Desire’

Data Point

27

In the three years since it was created, Smith’s Jandon Activist Fellowship (JAF) has linked 27 students with non-profit organizations in cities and towns throughout western Massachusetts. The paid fellowship program, which is overseen by the Jandon Center for Community Engagement, supports student work with a growing roster of partner organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, Hilltown Land Trust, the International Language Institute of Massachusetts, and Northampton’s Iron Horse Music Hall—to name a few.

In a new placement this year, Josephine Neumann ’26 has been tutoring incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in a literacy justice program in Springfield, Massachusetts, run by the Petey Greene Foundation. The JAF “gave me incredible work experience focused on a cause I am passionate about,” says Neumann, who is continuing to volunteer with the program. “I wanted to be more integrated with my community beyond Smith.”

The JAF offers multiple benefits, says Jandon Center Director Denys Candy, “giving students valuable hands-on experience, applying theory in action, and activating new skill sets.” Fellows, who must complete 220 hours of service with their partner organizations, often apply to the program more than once, and the experience has also helped shape students’ postgraduation plans. One fellow, for example, decided to pursue a career as an occupational therapist after working with a local YMCA. Most importantly, the activist fellowship program gives students “experience making a difference here and now,” Candy says. “It’s an example of why experiential learning is at the heart of a Smith education.”
—Barbara Solow

Archetypes: Exploring Smith College Special Collections

Smith’s Secret Societies

Founded in 1890, the Orangemen began as a collegiate takeoff on the Loyal Orange Association, a Protestant society established in Ireland in 1795 to promote loyalty to Britain and the Protestant succession to the English throne. At Smith, the Orangemen quickly became one of the college’s most popular—and exclusive—secret societies. Membership was capped at just 12 students per class, and initiation required new members to “serve” an upperclassman for a week.

The group was known for its rituals and social activities. Orangemen gathered for dinners, staged nighttime parades across campus in black capes and orange hats, and sang together—often while engaging in intense but good-natured rivalry with their chief competitors, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (A.O.H.). Both societies flourished for decades, becoming a distinctive part of campus culture. 

That era came to an end in 1948, when President Herbert Davis abolished secret societies at Smith, denouncing them as “undemocratic.” Officially, both the Orangemen and the A.O.H. were disbanded. Archival records suggest, however, that each group continued to operate unofficially until the mid-1960s. After the 1965–66 academic year, the historical trail goes quiet: No documentation of either society’s activities survives beyond that point.
—Nanci Young

An orange felt hat, a black and white photograph, and an old nametag
  1. An Orangemen cap that belonged to Anne Tuck Robertson ’36
  2. An undated photo of robed Orangemen behind John M. Greene Hall
  3. A name tag identifying an Orangemen member from the class of 1913
Photo by Jessica Scranton

You Had to Be There

Posing on the steps of Hubbard House, where they all lived during their time at Smith, are, from left, Danielle Dalpiaz Varrichio ’03, Melissa Cullen-DuPont ’04, Allison Crosby-Thompson ’04, Devon Wilson-Hill ’05, and Elizabeth Eyerer McIntire ’04. The Hubbardites were back on campus for Come Home to Smith, a November 1 event held in honor of the college’s 150th anniversary and marked by workshops, performances, and tours.

Here we spotlight some of the most dynamic and engaging photos submitted by Smithies and give a short description of what was happening when the flash went off. All submissions will be considered, with one image selected each quarter. Submit a class note or email classnotes@smith.edu to participate.

But I Play One on TV

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Past Reads

Check out some articles from past issues of the Smith Quarterly to see how members of the Smith community have been working to push the world forward.