about the student advisory board
The Center for Work & Life Student Advisory Board will help you develop your leadership skills by . .
- Inviting you to take the lead in planning our "Work, Life & Reali-tea" series.
- Helping you hone your ability to communicate about the goals and programs of an organization.
- Providing you with opportunities for collaboration with peers.
- Giving you a context in which to practice writing a professional “blurb” about yourself.
Interested in joining the CWL Student Advisory Board? Read more about the responsibilities of being a board member here.
Current Student Advisory Board members
Bridget Mientka AC
In addition to being a member of the student advisory board, Bridget Mientka also works as student liaison at the Center for Work & Life. She is a second semester sophomore, an Ada Comstock Scholar and is majoring in sociology. Prior to moving to Northampton this fall, Bridget lived in Vermont and studied at a community college while also working in its financial aid office. She has worked at local not-for-profits including Burlington Community Land Trust and Planned Parenthood. Working with people from all walks of life has deepened her passion for social justice. Bridget has allowed her experience to soften her from a youthful ideologue without blunting her edge. After graduation, she hopes to earn her Master's in social work.
Cornelia Beckett '14
Cornelia Beckett is a English and French Studies double major from Silver Spring, Maryland. She is also involved in the Sophian, Homework House and VOX. She's been a nanny, a law clerk, a clinic defender and a counselor at Girls Rock! DC. Her writing has appeared in Hoax Zine, Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists, The Washington Post, thefbomb.org and more. Cornelia's passions include confessional nonfiction, Anusara yoga, French feminism and vintage recipes. Her dream job is getting paid to write while also teaching and empowering girls and women, preferably in an East Coast city.
Melissa Fares '14
After growing up in Wilton, Connecticut, Melissa Fares made her way to Smith College via Miss Hall's School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where she was first introduced to ideas relating to the development of transcendent self. Melissa began to realize her personal power through the Personal Authority and Leadership Seminar and a variety of leadership opportunities that enabled her to craft an understanding of the power of personal narrative and transformative voice. Experimenting with the strength of memoir and the remarkable character of authentic relationships, Melissa has begun to develop an understanding of the significance of genuine self-reflection and honest connections. An eye-opening freshman year at Smith has provided Melissa with a connection to the Center for Work and Life at Smith and Rachel Simmons' Leadership for Rebels workshop. She plans to pursue her interest in psychology and English literature.
Yenisleidy Simon AC
Yenisleidy Simon was born and raised in Cuba and moved to United States in 2008. She graduated from The Honors College of Miami Dade College and transferred to Smith as an Ada Comstock Scholar in 2011. Yeni is a junior majoring in Psychology who is interested in learning about memory disorders, perfectionism, and decision-making. She is a Salzburg Global Seminar Alumna and a recipient of Miami Dade College Board of Trustees’ Scholarship. She loves being surrounded by people with great sense of humor, and enjoys dancing, comedies, time with family and friends, and traveling. Someday she would like to learn how to play the piano and visit the pyramids of Egypt. At Smith she is involved with the Center for Work & Life, the Career Development Office, and Nosotras, the Latina organization on campus. Yeni currently holds an internship with the Meridians office at Smith where she is developing the research skills needed to pursue a career in either organizational or experimental psychology.
Alice Huang '15
Alice Huang grew up in Montville, New Jersey and arrived to Smith this past fall. She learned about the Center for Work & Life through the freshman orientation group, "Finding Time to Write," and she joined the CWL Student Advisory Board shortly afterwards. Alice believes strongly in the CWL mission of striking a balance between a work and life, as well as slowing down to make sense of the daily chaos. A prospective Engineering major, Alice is the recipient of a George Washington Carver Research Internship, New Jersey Governor's School on the Environment Scholarship, and Borlaug-Ruan International Research Internship. At Smith, she holds an AEMES research position where she is assisting Dr. Donna Riley in developing an Engineering 100 course related to water and global development issues. In her free time, she enjoys writing letters to friends and day-dreaming.
Danielle McColgan '14
Danielle McColgan is a sophomore transfer student who made it to Smith by way of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After spending one year in Philadelphia trying out a slew of majors, she found her calling and tentatively made plans to major in History with an emphasis on Women's History. She is also highly passionate about all aspects of education, from teaching to education policy reform. She has been an assistant teacher to home schooled children through a Co-Op program, offered SAT tutoring to high school students, will be starting an America Reads tutoring position in Northampton, and served on the Executive Board of her prior institution's education reform group, Project E.D.U. Danielle does not dream of one narrow career path, but instead hopes to explore a variety of fields including but not limited to non-profit work, research science, publishing, journalism, and education.
Jackie Lam '14
Jackie Lam is an English Literature major from Long Island, New York. She is a First Group Scholar and a STRIDE scholar currently assisting Professor Floyd Cheung with his Asian American literature research. She enjoys learning foreign languages and is proficient in Spanish, French and German. Jackie is the secretary for the Southeast Asian Alliance at Smith, a student organization that advocates for political, social, and cultural issues in Southeast Asia.
Emma Brown '13
A creative soul, struggling to be defined within a particular major, Emma Rose Brown finds herself in the expansive and interdisciplinary fields of American Studies, Landscape Studies and sustainable food. She has spent the last few summers digging in the dirt with youth; teaching them the joys of growing their own food and filling their bellies. As a part of the CWL board she really enjoys creating the space for women to learn from one another and listen to each other’s stories. She is always searching to find communities and hopes to spend the rest of her life working to create and grow playful, sustainable, and most importantly just communities for the world to inhabit. She is currently working with the Smith College Botanic Garden and a local landscape design firm, hoping to expand her understanding of the relationship between people, space, and land. Additionally, she enjoys public radio, modern dance, singing Sacred Harp, bookbinding, co-operatives, and cooking good food with good friends.
Student Advisory Board members in 2010-2011
Yasmine Evans '13
Self-proclaimed metropolitan woman Yasmine Evans is from Fort Washington, Maryland, and made her way to Smith via Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia. When entering Smith in 2009, Yasmine embraced her commitment to understanding women's leadership in the context of democracy and public service in the 21st century. Yasmine is a government major with a minor in public policy and is active with CWL, the Community Service Office, the Student Government Association and is a research assistant for Smith College Archives and Professor Riché Barnes of Afro-American studies. Yasmine has interned on Capitol Hill and loves historical Washington D.C. In her spare time Yasmine enjoys bragging about Smith, listening to Brazilian Bossa Nova, as well as the Emerging Scholars Program, current events, traveling, film and looking stylish. Yasmine has been written about and photographed in the Northern Virginia Magazine and Smith's 2010 Viewbook. After Smith, Yasmine wants to attend law school and have a successful political campaign in Maryland by the age of thirty.
Kenzi Green '13J
Kenzi Green is a junior studying government and religion, hailing from the tiny town of Ardmore, Alabama. She transferred to Smith from the University of Alabama in fall 2010 and is now working to disguise her thick Southern accent. Kenzi enjoys spending time with the Smith College Debate Society, the College Democrats, the Newman Association, the SGA and of course the CWL. She appreciates good grammar, hot chocolate, a persuasive argument, shiny objects and old maps. Kenzi has written for various news outlets, including CNN and Alabama Public Radio. After graduation, she hopes to make a fortune voicing audiobooks; should that fall through, she will probably go to law school.
Roth Empire '12
Roth Empire is a college student, aspiring filmmaker, part-time playwright and actor and future ambassador. He is a Five College film studies major. He was born and raised in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, grew up in Merritt Island, Florida, and now resides in Northampton. His video short The Evolution of Roth won the Jury's Choice from the Five College Film Festival 2010 and his first play Identification was accepted in the WORD! Festival 2011. When Roth is not so serious, he enjoys working out, attempting baby freezes, reading, yoga, and blogging to improve his grammar on his Web site thetranscender.com.
Phoebe Camilletti '11
Phoebe Camilletti is a senior English literature major and education minor hailing from Orange County, California. Upon graduation she would love to teach theatre, English and environmental studies for an outdoor program and/or on an Indian reservation. At Smith Phoebe particularly enjoys her work with the fencing team, the Community Service Office, the orchestra, the Smith Slam Collective, and the CWL, of which she has been a part for more than a year. Phoebe also loves pasta, the prospect of learning foreign languages, butterflies, espionage accounts and playing the guitar. One of her many personal mottos is, "If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire" (St. Catherine of Sienna).
Chloe Williams '11
Chloe Williams is a senior psychology major, landscape studies minor from White Plains, New York. Chloe is a recipient of the Google, Inc., Undergraduate Scholarship for her contributions to the BOLD internship program and for her outstanding leadership at Smith. Apart from her work with CWL, she is co-chair of the Gold Key Tour Guide Association, a house community adviser, and publicity and social chair of the Jazz Ensemble. In her spare time, Chloe is an aspiring jazz enthusiast and spends her time listening to and singing jazz with the Jazz Ensemble and as a professional solo vocalist. Upon graduating she hopes to move back to Copenhagen, Denmark, where she studied abroad to begin an international career in organizational psychology and business and of course pursuing her passion for travelling.
Ariel Gregory '11
Ariel Gregory is a senior architecture and anthropology double major from Tucson, Arizona. While born in the United States, she was raised outside of the country for the majority of her youth and is looking forward to returning to Denmark for her job this upcoming year. At Smith, Ariel is actively involved with the community as historian for her house and as a student advisor for both the CWL and the Global Studies Center. She received a Mellon Research grant for her work on social sustainability in urban environments, entitled, "Rethinking New England Communities: Importing Scandinavian and Northern European Sustainable Design Practices." She has carried this dual focus into her Anthropology thesis, analyzing the discourse between religion and power in the built environment of Fez, Morocco, and its effects on ideas of heritage and identity. Apart from people and buildings, Ariel enjoys calligraphy, tea, traveling, and getting lost while exploring with her friends.
