SAVE THE DATE - Saturday, May 11th - for a worthy community service event! Coming up in May, please join us on Mother's Day weekend to help young mothers in the Bay Area. We are sponsoring our third annual community service event to benefit Loved Twice, a nonprofit that collects gently used baby clothing, sorts a year's supply of these precious garments into boxes, and distributes them to needy newborns and their mothers at local hospitals, shelters, and prenatal clinics.
Come help assemble these boxes and enjoy refreshments with fellow Smithies! Family, friends, and significant others are welcome to join in the fun. This event will be held in San Mateo at the home of Marylou Cronin '88 on Saturday, May 11, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. If you're interested in joining us, keep your eyes peeled for an Evite invite (club members only) or reach out to the club directly at
[email protected] for the street address. Please RSVP by Wednesday, May 8.
Club News
Shana Nelson Middler '89 graciously hosted us for our annual Smith College Faculty speaker event. This year's special guest was Brent Durbin, associate professor of Government, who came to share his research on how the 21st-century big data revolution is affecting politics and social change.
The discussion delved into the importance of understanding that data is created, not found, through subjective people who are looking to answer specific questions. Brent shared the challenges with data gathering methods that are being implemented faster than polices can be implemented to contain them, for example, the growing data gathered from facial recognition or purchasing behavior. The talk concluded with a conversation on the importance of people in tech not falling prey to the "I'm only an engineer" mentality and instead challenging the gathering and use of data to ensure it "does no harm." We left the evening with the reminder that: "Technology is only a magnifier of human intent and capacity. It is not a substitute." -@kentarotoyama
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| Brent Durbin presenting to alums |
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| Alumnae discussing the faculty presentation |
Self-Advocacy Event
The Smith College Business Network hosted a successful event in San Carlos on March 13th called "Self-Advocacy: How to get the Title, Salary, and Respect You Deserve." The evening was an opportunity for Smithies from all different professions and graduating years to share their stories, learn from Smith panelists, and then have industry-specific debate. The college representatives shared that Smith will be expanding its offerings of webinars, trainings, and workshops to continue the learning and development we all loved at Smith.
The
Book Club met on Wednesday at the home of Sara Biyabani to discuss "The Perfect Nanny" by Leila Slimani. Most of us found "The Perfect Nanny" a thought-provoking psychological study that manages to provoke empathy for a woman who murders two children. The author explores tensions of class and race and, in the view of at least one of us, shows the moral failure of the parents in not recognizing the mutuality of their relationship with the nanny, their obligation to treat her as more than a purchased commodity. The blunt, cold style only intensifies the horror of the story.
The next two books will be:
April 17:
Code Girls by Liza Mundy: In September 1941, a U.S. Navy admiral wrote to Ada Comstock, president of Radcliffe, asking her to help recruit "bright, close-mouthed" students for a Navy training course. This was the beginning of the U.S. military effort to break the German and Japanese codes, and many of the codebreakers were young women from the Seven Sisters.
May 15:
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje: A 28-year-old Englishman reflects on his "strange and adventure-filled adolescence" in the years following WWII, a story that allows Ondaatje to explore the subject of memory.
If you're interested in joining us, please contact
Sally Smith '64 for more information.
