Signature Program
Career Development Office
The Smith College Career Development Office prepares students for meaningful undergraduate and post-graduate opportunities and helps them to develop career decision-making skills to use during college and throughout life.
Visit the CDO to learn about all it has to offer:
- Smith will fund your unpaid internship! Learn about Praxis
- Learn everything you ever wanted to know about getting into graduate school, or getting a job or internship
- Freaked out by networking? Read this and then make an appointment to talk to the CDO
You can Get Work Experience at Smith by doing any of these things:
Approximately 400 students per year receive Praxis stipends to work at summer internships here and abroad in such fields as health care, government, education, communications, research, social welfare, technology, law, science and the arts. These internships help students build on their academic studies, make decisions about their careers and acquire the experiences desired by employers and graduate schools.
A concentration gives students a way to organize a combination of intellectual and practical experiences around an area of interest. By declaring a concentration, students receive focused advising to help them design a program in their area of interest. The college currently offers the Archives Concentration, the Biomathematical Sciences Concentration, the Museums Concentration and the Poetry Concentration.
(WFI) workshop
The majority of women consider "financial security" to be one of their top priorities, yet most women feel they do not have the knowledge to address financial matters. WFI is designed to provide women with the skills and knowledge necessary to address financial matters that may arise in their personal, professional, family and community lives.
Smith students receive small stipends to team-teach personal finance workshops on budgeting, credit cards, student loans and the economic benefits of higher education to students at local middle and high schools in Western Massachusetts.
through WFI
Smith students receive small stipends to team-teach personal finance workshops on budgeting, credit cards, student loans and the economic benefits of higher education to students at local middle and high schools in Western Massachusetts.
Interterm is the time between the end of winter break and the beginning of spring semester when special courses and events are planned. The classes we have offered include videography, knitting, fine arts, electron microscopy, Korean cooking, and mask making, performance and auditioning. Smith students, faculty and staff are invited to submit a proposal to teach a noncredit interterm course.
Fellowships are awards from foundations seeking to sponsor bright, innovative and creative students. They grant funds for study, research, interning, self-designed projects or participation in programs. Fellowships offer fabulous benefits—not only do they pay for you to learn, they open doors to further opportunities and dynamic people. Smith runs a campus program to support students applying for various fellowships.
Each year, at the beginning of the spring semester, the director of the institute invites members of the sophomore and junior classes to apply for student fellowships for one of the two year-long projects that the Kahn Institute will support during the next academic year.
school application process
You can get help with graduate application and travel fees by downloading the Smith Student Aid Society (SSAS) funding form. You can even borrow a suit from the Career Development Office through the "Suit Yourself" program.
or house community adviser
Apply for a paid leadership position in Residence Life. Positions include head resident, house coordinator, coordinator of house events, and house community adviser. Summer residence life and housing assistant positions are also available.
Association Reunion Student Worker Program
At the beginning of each spring semester, the Alumnae Association invites students to work for the alumnae reunion in May. Working for reunion is a rare opportunity for students to witness and honor Smith alumnae and traditions. Positions include reunion student worker, reunion work coordinator and reunion ambassador. If selected, reunion work coordinators and ambassadors will receive a $200 stipend for their work in addition to the regular hourly wage rate for all shifts.
Executive Education
Looking for a summer job at Smith? Executive Education hires student program assistants to support an expanding roster of on-campus Leadership Development programs for top-level women executives from Fortune 500 companies. If you need more information or want to apply, contact Susan McDonald at smcdonal@smith.edu.
This internship is offered in conjunction with the Smith College Center for Work and Life and is an opportunity for a Smith student to explore work-life policy and workplace issues facing women and families. Upon completion of the internship, the Smith intern will be asked to participate in the Smith Elects the World Conference and other programs to share her experience, research and knowledge with the entire Smith community.
a religious life liaison
In Multifaith Council, student leaders from different faith or belief groups meet with Dean Walters to foster collaboration and planning of campus programs and events. As religious life liaisons, student representatives from each Smith residence house consult with religious life staff to discuss student needs.
If you are a student with a strong commitment to community involvement, Educational Outreach invites you to get involved with their initiatives for K-12 students and educators. Many of these programs welcome Smith students as volunteers or for service-learning placements.
Each year the Poetry Center hires two paid student interns. Interns produce and distribute Poetry Center publicity, which involves choosing poems and finding images for posters and postcards, doing computer design, etc. They also set up for PC events (signs on chairs, refreshments), help to choose poems and to compile poem packets, learn about arts administration, serve alongside faculty on the Poetry Center policy committee and take on assorted other research and text-writing tasks.
Institution
The one-semester internship program is at one of the 19 Smithsonian museums, where students assist in creating exhibitions and programming, conduct research with archival and museum materials, and work side-by-side with curators on a great range of projects. Students also enroll in a weekly seminar on museum studies conducted by an expert in the field, as well as a monthly colloquium in which they report on the progress of their personal research projects. These activities constitute a full semester of course credit.
Education
Smith College students have the opportunity to gain work experience at the Center for Early Childhood Education in a variety of ways. Students may work directly with children as members of classroom teaching teams through the Student Financial Services and Praxis internships. They can also complete observations and field work for courses in the departments of education and child study, psychology, art, engineering and the landscape studies program.
Lead tours through the greenhouses and gardens, staff the reception area and exhibition gallery, develop thematic tours, provide hospitality for events like the bulb show, assist with exhibitions and the international seed exchange. Volunteer training sessions are held once a year for three days in January, followed by training tours and monthly meetings.
Trained Smith student volunteers learn about art and contribute to the community by giving museum tours for thousands each year from schools and adult groups. Students may also volunteer for as little as once a year to several hours a week, helping with family programs, assisting artists with installations, greeting visitors and translating at bilingual events, being a liaison between students and the museum, and much more.
Office (CSO)
Short-term projects through the chapel include things like building/refurbishing local housing, entertaining residents at nursing homes and local hospitals with poetry readings or performance art, working in community gardens and farms at the Food Bank Farm or Nuestras Raices. Long-term projects may include working at a local day-care center, tutoring, becoming a Girl Scout leader, a Big Sister or working at a shelter for battered women.
The House Community Service and Sustainability Recognition Program encourages house communities to be involved in community service and sustainability projects on and off campus. Based on a portfolio about the work, recognized houses receive $2,500 to donate to nonprofit organizations.
Help serve the Office of Admission by leading campus tours and hosting overnight stays to prospective students.
Students who wish to work as tutors in biology, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish must be recommended by faculty in April for the coming year. They must apply for the position, attend an interview and commit to work three to six hours per week. Training sessions are required.
Students who want to tutor in other courses may submit a tutor registration form early in the semester. The Jacobson Center will contact faculty for a recommendation and provide training.
Write for The Sophian, Smith College's independent weekly newspaper.
The Smith College Bicycle Kitchen serves to provide students with bicycle rentals and bike maintenance education.
The Smith College Community Garden works a plot of land behind the Academy of Music to grow raised bed produce. Throughout the summer students raise arugula, red oak leaf lettuce, radishes, kale, herbs, beets, carrots and much more.
PSE is an independent student organization supported by Smith College Health Services. Trained members provide accessible, accurate information regarding sexuality, safer sex, contraception and services provided at the Health Center.
E-mail pse@smith.edu for more information.
There are many opportunities for students to be awarded funding at Smith.
