UPCOMING EVENTS
Sunday, September 26 - 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
ANNUAL CLUB MEETING!
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The annual all-club meeting is upon us. This year we are planning to meet in person at the home of Joy Silver '96 in Los Altos. While traditionally this event has been a potluck, this year we are departing from tradition and enjoying a catered tea. The event will be outdoors, but we ask you to take precautions by bringing a mask, maintaining a safe distance from one another, and only attending in-person if you have been vaccinated.


Get ready to vote for your Smith Club of the Peninsula Board of Directors
On August 26th all members (become a member) will receive an email with a link to Survey Monkey, allowing them to formally elect the Executive Committee. Voting will be open from August 26th through September 8th. The Executive Committee is presented as a single slate for approval as a team. That committee will then approve additional board members who will oversee the Club's finances, event coordination, member recruitment, book club, communications, and high school and prospective student outreach. This year the Nominating Committee included Laura Hyatt and Arian White, with assistance from Sally Smith, Nisha Thatte-Potter, and Marylou Cronin.
The executive committee up for election is as follows:

  • President: Donna Dong '13
  • Vice President/Events: Alix Davie '08
  • Secretary: Indira Deonandan '08
  • Treasurer: Marylou Cronin '88

Additionally, the Nominating Committee will recommend to the Executive Committee the following candidates for the roles as listed below. These individuals will be confirmed in their roles prior to the Annual Meeting:

  • Alumnae Admissions Coordinator: Joy Silver ’96
  • Membership Chair: Pasha Dahncke '97
  • Communications/eNewsletter Coordinator: Amy Gardner '92
  • Webmaster: Amy Gardner '92
  • Young Alum Coordinator: Juliane Donahue Bombosch '20
  • Student Care Packages Coordinators: Christine Hoffman '14 and Trang Le '20
  • Book Awards Coordinator: Eugenia Yee '16
  • Book Club Coordinator: Sally Smith '64
  • Board Members at Large: Nisha Thatte-Potter '88, Laura Hyatt '89, Arian White '92
Only full members are eligible to vote. Our new fiscal year begins on September 1 and annual memberships are up for renewal. BECOME A MEMBER!

If you're not sure if your membership is active, send us an email at thepeninsulasmithclub@gmail.com and we will confirm your status.  
STAY APPRISED OF MORE UPCOMING EVENTS
Follow us on social media to stay up to date on our gatherings, which are currently cautiously moving from virtual to in-person.
SUGGEST A GROUP EVENT
As opportunities to gather in person emerge, we're always looking for new ways to meet up and connect. If you have great ideas for group events, there's a new way to make those suggestions: Go to our website under the Events tab, or just click here, and you will be presented with a Google form to guide you through your event suggestion. Please complete the form, including as much information as you can. After you submit the form, someone from the club's events team will contact you.
Are you a current student headed back to campus?
If you need a ride on August 31 from Logan Airport to Smith College, reach out to Donna Dong '16 at 408-613-3796. Space is limited.
Please contact Donna by August 22 to make arrangements. 
FACULTY PRESENTATIONS - RECORDINGS AVAILABLE
In a year without travel, the Office of Alumnae Relations and Development launched a virtual faculty lectures program for all Smith Clubs to access. Earlier this summer, we joined 16 other clubs in three different cohorts to share in the experience of a Smith faculty lecture. For a limited time, these specially cultivated faculty lectures are available online.

Members were invited to attend these live online presentations. and many of us were able to take part in the conversation. Do you want to get invitations to these live events? Become a member!
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No Such Thing as Neutral: Racism and Technology Design
Jen Malkowski, Associate Professor of Film & Media Studies

Today’s world relies heavily on digital platforms now more than ever before, but at what cost to equality and social progress? Focusing on the racial biases built into technologies and the ways in which users interact with them, this lecture invites participants to consider the harms and inequities of design processes that consistently center on white technology users. We’ll examine case studies from media history (the racist foundations of photography and film equipment design) to our current digital moment (facial recognition software, Google search algorithms, Zoom as a platform). View the Recording »
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Art Inspires Poetry: A Conversation Celebrating the Publication of The Map of Every Lilac Leaf: Poets Respond to the Smith College Museum of Art
Jessica Nicoll, Museums Concentration Director; Director and Louise Ines Doyle ’34 Chief Curator, Smith College Museum of Art
Matt Donovan, Professor of Practice in English Language & Literature and Director of The Boutelle-Day Poetry Center

In a two-year collaboration between the Smith College Museum of Art and the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center, forty renowned poets (including two former Poets Laureate and six Smith alumnae) wrote a poem in response to a work of art in the Museum’s collection. In a lively discussion, our speakers will share some of these works—both art and poems—and the unique strategies employed by the contributing poets. View the Recording »
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Black Holes: Peering Behind the Curtain of One of Nature’s Greatest Mysteries
Gary Felder, Professor of Physics

A black hole is an object so dense that nothing, not even light itself, can escape from its gravity. While we can’t see inside a black hole, we still have so much to learn by observing matter as it falls in towards them, and by using the laws of physics to predict what happens inside. Are black holes singularities of infinite density? Are they wormholes to other regions of time and space? What would you experience if you fell into a black hole? View the Recording »
PENINSULA BOOK CLUB
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If you are interested in attending our meetings or getting on the mailing list, please contact the Book Club Coordinator, Sally W. Smith '64, via email or by filling out the form on our website at https://www.peninsulasmithclubca.org/book-club.

The book club meets at 7:00 p.m., generally on the third Wednesday of each month.
On Wednesday, June 16, eight of us met via Zoom to discuss “The Principles of Uncertainty” by Maira Kalman.
Most of us liked this quirky illustrated kind-of-memoir, although some were puzzled/frustrated by its lack of structure. We felt the whimsical, colorful art complemented the varied text— seemingly stream of consciousness, sometimes mundane, sometimes profound. Many of us felt we’d return to the book from time to time, gaining something new from each reading. It’s another example of how the book club often leads us to books we would probably never have read otherwise.

Traditionally we take the month of July off, and that tradition continues this year! There was no book club meeting in July.
On August 18 we continued another book club tradition: enjoying a movie based on a book: Nomadland based on the book by Jessica Bruder, directed by Academy Award winner and Mount Holyoke graduate Chloé Zhao.
Remember that we get a discount at keplers.com. You can also order at bookshop.org, which supports local, independent bookstores. To join us, head over to our book club page on the website and sign up! We will send you the Zoom link proactively.
PREVIOUS EVENTS THIS SUMMER
On Thursday June 10 Donna Dong '13 continued to lead a series of online workshops for local alums to gather, network, get assistance on resume writing, and have a cocktail. Since she began these workshops in January, Donna has been instrumental in helping six of our Smith alums land new jobs in high tech. This is a huge success rate. Thank you, Donna, for playing an instrumental part in the post-Smith career network! These networking and resume assistance opportunities will continue later this year. Keep an eye on our website for upcoming dates!
On Sunday June 13 Club members gathered virtually for a private screening of Borderland: The Life & Times of Blanche Ames Ames and a Q&A session with the filmmakers immediately following the film. Borderland is a 55-minute documentary that chronicles the life of a woman who was born in the 19th century, worked to change the 20th century, and whose wisdom still resonates in the 21st century. Read more about the film.

An alumna of Smith College, class of 1899, Blanche Ames Ames (1878-1969) was an artist, an activist, a builder, an inventor, a birth control maverick, and a leader of the woman suffrage movement in Massachusetts. She was a woman of privilege who was not afraid to shock polite society. Her name doesn't appear in most American history books. This, too, is part of her story. Become a member to join us for special events like these.
On June 24 and on July 30 we had in-person social/happy hours! As we carefully emerge from isolation, these small gatherings have been light and lively, taking place at local peninsula restaurants that have outdoor seating. We will continue to plan these as time and weather permits. Keep an eye on our website and on our social media channels for updates.
New Smithies got their welcome packages! This week the club mailed out welcome packages to six rising first-years from the Peninsula Bay Area. Packages include a custom mug, teas, a cookie, and a note with our contact information and our wishes for a great semester.