CRSL Newsletter

June 2, 2023

Dear Friends,

Ending the academic year is always bittersweet. There are the joys and the reliefs of finishing classes, and for seniors the joy and the sadnesses of the conclusion of this momentous time of life. For staff this can be a time of wrapping up and getting ready to prepare for next year, some vacations, and some slower work shifts. There have been losses and gains in our community this past year, and while everyone, to different degrees, is still experiencing the repercussions of the pandemic on so many levels, this year did bring back some of our familiar routines and made space for many, though not all, of us to be able to be less cautious.

We, the CRSL team, see one of our primary jobs as listening; listening and observing as widely and yet also as deeply as we can. When I deliver my openings and closings at commencement events, my thoughts are always drawn from what I have observed and heard— the needs, the hopes, the desires and the griefs of the community. I also draw on my own joys and sorrows. My hope is that everyone who reads these words sees a tiny glimpse of themselves and their experience in them. Of course, this is too lofty of a goal, but it is what I strive for. We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter, whether or not you are a senior, taking a moment to reflect back on the year. The academic year, like most of life in our society, moves so fast. Those of us whose roles or jobs allow for it are very privileged to have natural pauses to catch our breath and be present, look back, and prepare ourselves to go forward. 

We wish everyone a good summer and can’t wait to see you in the fall.

Matilda and the CRSL staff

Reverend Matilda Cantwell's

Commencement Remarks

Ivy Day Convocation, May 2023

As we begin this morning, I invite us to take a moment of quiet, acknowledging all that, and all those, we have lost in the last year or years before. May their memories be a blessing, and may their spirits pave new roads of understanding that live and grow in us anew every day. I now offer Smith College’s Land Acknowledgment:

We acknowledge that this campus is built within the ancestral homelands of the Nonotuck peoples. We also recognize our present-day neighboring Indigenous nations: The Nipmuc and the Wampanoag to the East, the Mohegan and Pequot to the South, the Mohican to the West, and the Abenaki to the North. We acknowledge and celebrate, too, the presence of Native people among and all around us.

These words are not just the confessions of an institution which recognizes its complicity; this is an utterance which was initiated and fashioned by indigenous students in collaboration with faculty and administration. It invites us to move from being overwhelmed by the harms of the past to confronting the opportunities of the present.

Good morning and welcome – staff, faculty, alums, junior ushers, and Class of 2023, to Ivy Day. Seniors and Alums, look around at one another. This day links you inextricably to each other, to a shared experience of one of the most significant periods of your life.

We praise that the tradition, innovation, and the world changing paradigms that the liberal arts offers, have knit you together as a force for good in the world in keeping with the vision of Sophia Smith, that “the college would do the most good to the greatest number. I would have it a perennial blessing to the country and the world."

Praise this perennial blessing right here in the flesh and watching on Facebook, this intergenerational gathering–-that you, alums, can have your Smith experience reflected back to you, providing you with a renewed perspective on the life you are living now.

Praise beautiful old buildings that have stood the test of time, praise the houses with new names. Praise Daffodil Hill, and Smith's geothermal progress our genuine commitment to face and address the urgent problems of our planet. Praise Paradise Pond, which though its dredging and draining always rises again like a mirror, reflecting the glorious blossoms of May, as it flows into the Mill River which has held our joys and sorrows as we walk along its banks. Praise the red chair on Paradise Island, and whoever got it there, and how.

Praise the life and breath of Smith College--the housekeepers, and the groundskeepers, the chefs, praise events management who makes this day, and almost all the other days possible. Praise the Deans and Directors, praise the professors.

Praise Kathy McCartney, her scholarship, her commitment to social justice, for ice-cream on Chapin Lawn, her yoga practice, her study of Buddhism, her love of poetry. Her husband Bill, and her children and grandchildren–no offense Smith, but not in that order. Praise her legacy, that she has taken every single obstacle on her path as a college president in one of the most fractious times in U.S. history as an opportunity to learn and persist toward the good, and modeled this for every one of us.

Praise you seniors. You, like Kathy, each in your own ways, have made a precious and unique contribution to this place. 

Praise the ivy, and may this moment help us to grow our roots wild and wonderful, through this broken yet beautiful world. Let us begin.



Commencement Benediction, May 2023

Seniors, (I mean, recent graduates,) years from now, you may not remember who got what awards or which house got more cheers from among you. 

Class of 2023, for all the knowledge you have gained in the past four years, in one of the most fractious periods in history, from your beginnings on zoom screens and masked from each other, you have been relentless in your efforts to build community, and resist the isolation, and alienation, and commodification that society has been assiduously trying to force upon you. 

I hope you remember most of all, from this institution which prepares people for lives of distinction and purpose: belonging does not come from conforming to an imagined ideal, but from claiming your place in movement toward the good.

In the words of queer activist adrienne maree brown:

We will not cancel us. If we give up this strategy, we will learn together the other strategies that ultimately break these cycles, liberate future generations from the burden of our shared and private pain, leaving nothing unspeakable in our bones…Each of us is precious. We together must break the cycle that makes us forget this.

I hope you take with you more than GPAs or hard earned accolades, 

but the recognition that our world is hungry for moments like this one that mark our passing from one phase of life to the next, wherein we celebrate not just success but emergence, not just excellence but growth. 

In the tradition of the deeply held values that brought the liberal arts into being, Smith hopes you have learned a basic faith in your capacity to stay tethered to what matters.

I will close with these words drawn from poet William Stafford:

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can’t get lost.

…..Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.

You don’t ever let go of the thread.



Recognition and Thank You

The CRSL is run not only by our staff but by our talented and dedicated interns. We are deeply grateful to interns Renata Bourin, Melissa Charles, Louisa Goltry, Nayelis Lopez, Namwiinga Maimbo, Mars Sell, and Eloise Van Meter for their thoughtful and authentic creative, religious, spiritual, and organizational contributions to our office.

Melissa Charles is a Junior at Smith majoring in Quantitative Economics with a minor in Statistics and Data Science and a concentration in Global Finance. From Stoneham, Massachusetts, Melissa is passionate about issues concerning immigration and displacement. Beyond Smith, she’s excited to continue exploring the intersection of technology and business. This summer Melissa will be interning at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Melissa made creative eye-catching flyers for Center programs and served as our primary social media manager among other responsbilities.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and creativity around our social media, Melissa, and your two years worth of contributions to the CRSL! Have a great summer.

Namwiinga Maimbo ('24J) is the current CRSL Black Spirituality intern focused on creating a space for Black students of African descent to practice and learn more about their ancestral traditions. Black Spirituality has been a phenomenon that has shaped Black communities and indigenous societies not only in Africa, from where its indigenous roots can be traced, but also all over the African diaspora including the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.



Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Lusaka, Zambia and Atlanta, Georgia; Namwiinga found it extremely important to honor their roots in Africa and the South through ancestral reverence and the practice of Hoodoo. They have held workshops here at Smith like “The Mothers of Gynecology” which focused on the unsung Black women who were harmed for advancements in American medicine; as well as “The Role of Black Spirituality in Black Liberation” for Otelia Cromwell Day 2022. In addition, Namwiinga hopes to create a new library section focused on African Traditional Religion, which will soon be found in the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life!

Thank you, Namwiinga, for you steadfast efforts in building and expanding space in the CRSL for Black Spirituality. We appreciate your commitment to spirit, justice, and liberation!

Photo featured below: The co-organizers and presenters of the 2023 Otelia Cromwell Day Workshop, "The Role of Black Spirituality in Black Liberation," featured from left to right Kim Alston, Asst. Prof. of Theatre Jonathan Dent (Hampshire College), Namwiinga Maimbo '24J, Hermanica Thelusca '23J, and Moderator Helen Bezuneh '23.

Hi, Mars Sell ('26) here - I really enjoyed my time this year working as an intern for the CRSL! This summer, I’ll be heading home to Vermont to work at a bakery near my house and work on my creative writing. Next semester, when I come back to Smith, I will be working as a Peer Writing Tutor at the Jacobson Writing Center. There, I will help students develop their writing. I’m grateful for the time I spent at the CRSL, both for the students I met and the experience I gained working in an office. I’ll miss this job and my coworkers next year, but I’m looking forward to what’s to come! Mars served as the CRSL van driver and coordinator. They organized transportation to religious services and spiritual conferences for students among other work projects.

Thank you for contributing your creativity, steadiness, and attention to detail to all that you do, Mars! Good luck in all of your future endeavors - you will be missed.

A Note from the Soup, Salad and Soul Cooks -Louisa Goltry and Eloise Van Meter

Cooking for Soup Salad & Soul was such a pleasure this semester! We––Lou and Eloise––found it to be a gratifying way to connect with others. And not to pat ourselves on the back or anything, but we created some souper yummy soups. Inside and outside of the kitchen, we got to know people on a deeper level. 

It was wonderful to contribute meaningfully to the CRSL cast, though most of the praying during our lunch meetings had to do with hoping the three bean salad would agree with people’s bowels.

We felt so trusted by our employers Anna, Kim, and Maureen. Incorporating the recipes close to us, and a few of other people’s favorites from home, made for a warm and inviting community. 

Over time we curated the perfect cooking playlist: a balance between classics like Jimmy Buffet’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” some French breakup songs, and of course Sesame Street’s “C is for Cookie.”

“Remember that one time we thought we got electrocuted?” Lou recalls, “That was pretty funny.” We got to know two Smith electricians pretty well that day.

All in all, working was a total steal and we can’t believe they let us play in the kitchen. We love the community we found and we hope to continue contributing to it.

Crockpots and crackers,

Eloise & Lou

Photos featured below, clockwise from upper left: Louisa Goltry, Eloise Van Meter, a delicious buffet of soup and salad, and participant/facilitators Nadira Talayee (left) and Annabelle Li (right).

Student Leader Sheher-Bano Ahmed

Honored at the 2023 Impact Awards

When Muslim students were perceived as a singular religious tradition, neuroscience major Sheher-Bano Ahmed '24, questioned why other Muslim faith traditions were not effectively recognized and acknowledged on the Smith campus. Pointing out that religion is critically important to the diversity and well-being of students, Sheher-Bano raised her voice to speak for Muslim minority groups that are often unacknowledged and pushed underground due to discrimination, xenophobia and/or marginalization. With support from the CRSL’s Muslim Student Adviser, she brought together co-chairs of Al Iman and other students by forming an interest group, comprised of Shia, Sunni and other marginalized Muslim faiths to foster dialogue around challenging issues. The group became the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life’s IntraMuslim Diversity Committee. Sheher-Bano is pictured here below with Kim Alston, Muslim Student Adviser, who presented her with the Social Justice, Inclusion, Equity Advocate award at the 2023 Impact Awards last month.

Ramadan Reflections

CRSL Shepherds a Reenergized Ramadan at Smith



By Kim Alston, CRSL Muslim Student Advisor

Whenever we guide others on a path or journey, whether spiritual or physical, it is a great responsibility for the appointed leader. The Center for Religious and Spiritual Life holds this sacred role dear to its heart. Students know when the journey has gone off course and will eventually share their discontent and dissatisfaction to express their profound truth. To some extent, our role as religious advisers is like the role of a shepherd; both supporting the well-being of the whole herd yet also making sure no one is left inadvertently out of the fold.

Ramadan requires the collaboration of many different centers and departments with CRSL from Dining, to Facilities, to Residence Life, to the Office of Student Engagement, just to name a few. Throughout the month we work hand in hand with leaders of Al Iman, Smith’s Muslim Student Association. This year the planning for Ramadan emerged somewhat differently than in past years. Students shared with CRSL in early September hidden issues that they felt interfered with their Ramadan experience. Ramadan, the annual sacred period of spiritual renewal for Muslims, involves not only fasting from dawn to sunset, but additional prayers and continuous self-reflection. Muslim student leaders shared that Muslim students were seeking more support from faculty, staff and their fellow Smithies during Ramadan. Being away from families and community festivities during this time can fuel a sense of personal loneliness and isolation. The fatigue and stress caused by fasting and long nights can exacerbate feelings of vulnerability for observant students.

Continued on the CRSL blog....

Below, Al Iman and Kim Alston, CRSL Muslim Student Advisor, enjoy the Suhur (early dawn) meal at the Hampshire Mosque during Ramadan.

Baccalaureate

This year's Baccalaureate, a ceremony for seniors to reflect on their years together as a class, took place in the Neilson Library outside ampitheatre on a beautiful sunny day. The event was led by College Chaplain Matilda Cantwell and President McCartney, marking the end of senior week, the beginning of commencement weekend, and featuring poignant yet uplifting offerings from the Glee Club.