This six-week course teaches students to extend and refine their academic capacities to become autonomous learners. Course content includes research on motivation, learning styles, memory and retrieval, as well as application of goal setting, time management and study skills. Students who take this course are better prepared to handle coursework, commit to a major and take responsibility for their own learning. S/U only. Priority is given to students referred by their dean or adviser. Enrollment limited to 15.

This class is for students who are starting their Smith journey, embarking on or returning from an immersive experience abroad, weaving their interests through a concentration or self-designed major, or wrestling with expressing what a Smith education has prepared them to do. Students test different integrative paths of their own design, tell their own story and create a digital portfolio to showcase their work. Students learn to articulate connections between their work in and outside of the classroom and explain how Smith is preparing them to engage with the world beyond. S/U only.

This class is for students who are starting their Smith journey, embarking on or returning from an immersive experience abroad, weaving their interests through a concentration or self-designed major, or wrestling with expressing what a Smith education has prepared them to do. Students test different integrative paths of their own design, tell their own story and create a digital portfolio to showcase their work. Students learn to articulate connections between their work in and outside of the classroom and explain how Smith is preparing them to engage with the world beyond. S/U only.

This class is for students who are starting their Smith journey, embarking on or returning from an immersive experience abroad, weaving their interests through a concentration or self-designed major, or wrestling with expressing what a Smith education has prepared them to do. Students test different integrative paths of their own design, tell their own story and create a digital portfolio to showcase their work. Students learn to articulate connections between their work in and outside of the classroom and explain how Smith is preparing them to engage with the world beyond. S/U only.

This class is for students who are starting their Smith journey, embarking on or returning from an immersive experience abroad, weaving their interests through a concentration or self-designed major, or wrestling with expressing what a Smith education has prepared them to do. Students test different integrative paths of their own design, tell their own story and create a digital portfolio to showcase their work. Students learn to articulate connections between their work in and outside of the classroom and explain how Smith is preparing them to engage with the world beyond. S/U only.

This class is for students who are starting their Smith journey, embarking on or returning from an immersive experience abroad, weaving their interests through a concentration or self-designed major, or wrestling with expressing what a Smith education has prepared them to do. Students test different integrative paths of their own design, tell their own story and create a digital portfolio to showcase their work. Students learn to articulate connections between their work in and outside of the classroom and explain how Smith is preparing them to engage with the world beyond. S/U only.

Natural and social history of the Ada & Archibald MacLeish Field Station (265 acres; 11 miles away) are explored and experienced. Taking place primarily outside, this course emphasizes the dynamic interconnections of our environment from the small scale interactions between plants and pollinators to the large scale disturbance of human agricultural activity. Through observation and activities of discovery, students tell the natural and social history of the Station through writing, poetry, art or dance. Students are expected to walk several miles each class in all weather.

This course examines different views of Irish identity and allows students to explore how these are represented in the urban landscapes of Dublin and Belfast. Together, students walk the streets and meet local activists, artists and writers. Through reflection and dialogue, students examine the ways communities respond to and propose alternative futures. Instructor permission required. (E)

This course is a series of workshops that situate particular making techniques that take place in Smith’s many “makerspaces” within social, economic, ecological, historical and cultural contexts. Students connect their making practice to the ways making informs their liberal arts education. This course also serves to introduce students to the faculty and staff who facilitate making at the many different making spaces across the college. S/U only. Enrollment limited to 18.

This one-credit course gives students systematic practice in the range of public speaking challenges they face in their academic and professional careers. During each class meeting, the instructor presents material on an aspect of speech craft and delivery; each student then gives a presentation reflecting her mastery of that week’s material. The instructor films each student’s presentations and reviews them in individual conferences. During one class meeting, the students also review and analyze films of notable speeches.