about the student advisory board
The Wurtele 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 WCWL Student Advisory Board? Read more about the responsibilities of being a board member here.
Current Student Advisory Board members
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. She recently spent her summer at News 12 Connecticut as an interning journalist and did some political advocacy work for Democratic Party candidate in the 2012 US Senate election in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren. Melissa is the creator of the blog Womankind, and is the Opinions Editor of The Sophian. Her writing has appeared in The Dallas News, FindLaw, FinerMinds, India Times, and more. She plans to pursue her interests in psychology, journalism and power-napping.
Yenisleidy Simon AC '13
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. She is a Salzburg Global Seminar Alumna and a recipient of Miami Dade College Board of Trustees’ Scholarship. After attending PLEN’s “Women and International Policy Seminar” this summer in Washington D.C and doing psychology research at the University of Miami, Yeni has decided to combine her passion for psychology with public policy studies. She also wishes to expand her knowledge about international development, women’s empowerment, health and education. She enjoys traveling, dancing and a good laugh. Someday she would like to learn how to play the piano, speak Portuguese and visit the pyramids of Egypt. At Smith she is involved with the Jacobson Center for Writing, Teaching and Learning and Nosotras, the Latina organization on campus.
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 who has worked as a research assistant to Professors Floyd Cheung and Andrea Hairston. 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. Her hobbies include dancing, swimming, photography, and travel. Jackie also enjoys learning foreign languages and is proficient in Spanish, French and German. In the future she is considering a possible career in publishing. She would like to one day learn ballroom dancing and archery, and be part of a flash mob.
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.
ShuMing Huang '15
ShuMing Huang was born and raised in Guang Dong, China. She came to United States with her family in 2007. She is a sophomore with strong interests in biology and chemistry. She joined the Student Advisory Board because she is interested in developing workshops to help first-year students in their transition to college, such as maintaining relationships with families while away from home and building communication skills with professors and roommates. ShuMing also enjoys photography and crafting on her free time.
Dannia Guzman '15
Dannia Guzman is an adventurous New Yorker born in the Dominican Republic. She is a sophomore who has chosen to change from engineering to a yet unknown major. This semester is an exciting opportunity for her to reconcile her passion for leadership and women’s empowerment with her academic strengths. It is this love for leadership and education that led her to being a counselor at a Girl Scout camp in Alaska during this past summer. Through her work as a Q-Tutor at the Spinelli Center for Quantitative Learning and as a board member at the Wurtele Center for Work & Life, Dannia uses her talents and passion to better the Smith community. Some of her hobbies include scrapbooking, hiking, reading, and walking in the rain. Among other things, she aspires to learn a third language, play the piano, and travel to every continent and US State.
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.
Student Advisory Board members in 2011-2012
Bridget Mientka AC
In addition to being a member of the student advisory board, Bridget Mientka also works as student liaison at the Wurtele 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.
Alice Huang '15
Alice Huang grew up in Montville, New Jersey and arrived to Smith this past fall. She learned about the Wurtele Center for Work & Life through the freshman orientation group, "Finding Time to Write," and she joined the WCWL Student Advisory Board shortly afterwards. Alice believes strongly in the WCWL 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.
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 WCWL, 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 WCWL. 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 WCWL, 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 WCWL, 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 WCWL 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.
