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Student
Memories of Summer 2005
By Sarah Gauché
’08
It’s fall now and classes
are well under way at Smith. But during the summer, before
2,800 students moved to campus en masse, they were out in
the world, working, playing and living in 2,800 different
ways. Here’s how a few students spent their summer months.
 Eleanor
Klimas ’06
Major: Government and Economics
Hometown: Miami, Florida
Eleanor Klimas’ summer
experience had her sifting, quite literally, through the legal
history of the United States as she worked with former U.S.
Attorney General Janet Reno, the first woman to serve in that
post. Reno is preparing to write a book of her colorful experiences.
With Reno, Klimas sorted through primary sources of court
cases and proceedings, creating a computerized database of
information for Reno to access and reference in the writing
of her upcoming book. Klimas also had the chance to offer
her input as a young woman who might read and be inspired
by a story such as Reno’s. Klimas came away from the
internship with an appreciation that she had worked alongside
a person of integrity, she says. “Janet Reno is, flat
out, the most honorable person I have met. She has triumphantly
contributed to society, yet remained true to herself.”
 Kaitlin
Northey ’06
Majors: Education and Art History
Hometown: Hamilton, New Jersey
“I’ve always
loved art, and I’ve always loved kids,” says Kaitlin
Northey. “Through my Praxis-funded internship, I was
able to put the two together, and the experience changed me.”
Interning at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington,
D.C., Northey worked as a program coordinator with the exhibition
Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin American Portraits. Her
job involved planning and executing a six-week training program
for 15-year-old inner-city kids to become gallery docents.
A poignant part of the experience for Northey was the opportunity
to be a valued member of the gallery’s team. “The
museum respected me as an intern and as a person, and gave
me their support in my pursuit of private projects,”
she says. “My time at the gallery changed me and gave
me direction. Smith brought me full circle through this internship.”
With her majors in education and art history, and her newfound
direction, Northey has her sights set on working as a gallery
educator for the National Portrait Gallery upon graduation.
 Michele
Jackson ’08
Major: Undecided
Hometown: Marshfield, Massachusetts
Michelle Jackson spent her
summer babysitting -- for piping plovers, that is. The piping
plover, an endangered species, is a diminutive bird -- adults
grow to the size of a toothpick -- that nests on the beaches
of North America. Working for the Harbor Master, Jackson passed
her days at Duxbury Beach on Massachusetts’ south shore,
guarding the piping plovers’ nests there from other
animals and from beach traffic, and recording their movements
and growth over time. Jackson and others worked alongside
the Harbor Master guarding the birds, which are protected
by small fences until the young are able to fly, at 28 days
old. After spending so many hours with her charges -- the
piping plovers are watched from dawn to dusk -- Jackson has
a heightened awareness of the impact humans and their behaviors
have on the natural world. “Because they are such small
birds and their nests are small, too, it doesn’t take
much more than an unleashed dog or a few reckless steps to
destroy a whole nest,” Jackson says. She appreciated
the opportunity to try something new, and learn a lot in the
process. Babysitting, for Jackson, will never be the same.
 Joanna
Bayer ’06
Major: History
Hometown: Arlington, Massachusetts
This summer, Joanna Bayer
was in on the action, both on the field and off, through her
internship with the Bay State Warriors, a women's professional
football team based in Medford, Massachusetts. The Warriors
are one of 31 teams across North America that compete in the
5-year-old Independent Women’s Football League. Bayer’s
skills were utilized on the field through her role as a game-day
coordinator, in which she traveled ahead of the team to prepare
the game site, field problems, and act as a liaison between
the home and opposing teams. Off the field, she worked closely
with the team’s general manager, who guided her through
some of the administrative hurdles of running a professional
team. Bayer was impressed with the women she worked with,
for their enthusiasm for playing football and the genuine
love they felt for the full-contact game. “It is just
like men’s football,” she explains. “They
are intense, dedicated, and aggressive.” There were
no wimps in her summer job, quips Bayer. She hopes to see
more of the action as she pursues a career in sports management.
 Aneca
Crews ’06
Major: Engineering
Hometown: Philadelphia
Senior Aneca Crews spent
most of her summer with her eyes toward the sky. Through her
Praxis-funded internship, Crews worked at the Howard University
Atmospheric Sciences Cooperative Science Center, which was
established to conduct research on critical environmental
conditions occurring nationally and globally. Crews' team
designed a mechanical arm used for graphing points on a telescope
Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) system. The tool is part
of a larger project that enables scientists to clabrate the
LIDAR system more effectively and efficiently when predicting
weather patterns. The LIDAR system reads particles in the
ari on clear days, and Crews was able to see the system improve
in accuracy through her contribution to the design of the
mechanical arm. After all the time looking up, Crews says
she will never see the sky in the same way.
 Eva
Gratta ’06
Major: Art History
Hometown: Old Greenwich, Connecticut
Eva Gratta entered her senior
year with confidence after spending a summer in the city as
a Praxis intern at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum. After living through a collision of the real world
and the Smith world, she says, "I gained a fresh perspective
on the future, and on how my education will play a role in
my life's work." Gratta worked in the museum’s
Photography and Permission Department, cataloguing and digitizing
the collection and exhibitions. One project involved chronicling
the Guggenheim’s physical space -- a Frank Lloyd Wright
building -- through photos. Also, she organized the digital
collections as a resource for curators and outside institutions.
Beyond the hands-on aspects of the internship, the museum
presented a culture seminar for student workers each week
that included a mock auction at Sotheby’s, and a meeting
with Christo, artist of last year’s monumental work,
The Gates. Gratta’s Guggenheim internship afforded
valuable work experience in a museum setting that will complement
her education, she says, and serve as an invaluable stepping-stone
in her pursuit of a career in art history.
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