Serena Geroe ’24

Other clubs, sports, activities: 
President of the Smith College Society of Women Engineers chapter, Engineering Liaison, guitarist and founder of the Jazz Smiths combo. 

Describe your major. 
As an engineering major, you learn how to solve poorly defined problems with limited information! You learn how to define a problem scope so that it is possible to compute a solution, as well as what kind of information you can / may need to assume in order to reach a solution. It's like piecing together a puzzle! 

If another student was considering your major, what would you tell them? 
Do it! It's a super fun major, with many opportunities for hands-on experience—e.g. labs, projects where you build things, testing, working with equipment, launching bottle rockets, working with a wind tunnel! 

What’s one piece of advice you’d like to share about your time at Smith? 
Explore Western Mass! Being from California, there are so many opportunities to explore new landscapes here that I can't find back home. I went snowboarding and snowshoeing for the first time at Smith. I also got to explore Mount Sugarloaf (where I did some sketching), Fitzgerald Lake, and Mount Tom! 

Describe one moment when a professor was particularly generous (with time, advice, other resources, etc.)? 
My first year at Smith I took Calculus I with Dr. [Candice] Price. I remember when it snowed for the first time that year. We were on the fourth floor of McConnell Hall, and the students from warm places (including myself) were all awestruck. Dr. Price was in the middle of answering a question I had asked when she excused us from class for a few minutes to go down and see the snow! 

What was your favorite class outside of your major? 
My first year, I wanted to play in a small jazz combo that is rooted in improvisation and composition. That didn't exist at Smith when I got here, but I worked with Dr. Joel Pitchon in the Music Department and found an instructor—we were able to establish the band rehearsals as an official class! This was definitely my favorite class outside of my major. Our band, the Jazz Smiths, wrote our own music and performed on Chapin Lawn every other Friday afternoon. We also opened up our performances as jam sessions, and had the pleasure of jamming with Professor Susannah Howe and students from both Smith and UMass Amherst! 

Describe the last project you worked on in a one-sentence review. 
In my senior capstone engineering project, my team and I streamlined the experimental setup for an in-house testing procedure aimed at refining a blood-gas analyzer device. 

Where are your favorite spots on campus? 
I'll tell you two of my favorite spots on campus! First, there's a bench in the botanic garden under a palm tree. Being from San Diego, I was really excited to find this piece of home on campus! Also, the Mill River trail has a lot of really peaceful places to walk, jog, or just sit and enjoy nature.