Hi, my name is Jill Johnson, the Ada Recruitment Intern for this 2012-2013 school year at Smith College. Happily, I can say I am a senior. My home is 40 minutes away in Brattleboro in southern Vermont, and I commute three days a week, or more, when an event like a poetry reading or a lecture or a social gathering calls. My major is English Language and Literature - I love to write, and I know I have a book or three in me. I need to get going on this writing because I waited thirty years in between colleges to finally get my degree. All possible because of the Ada Comstock Scholar's Program.
Want to join us? We are a stellar group of women of all ages and sensibilities with a myriad of interests and excitements and talents. My journey has been fabulous, and your's will be too.
I am here to help you with questions and any ponder-ings.
Anonymous asked:
Hello Jill, I am just starting the process of applying to Smith as an Ada. I have a dear friend and fellow single mother who graduated from Smith a couple of years ago and she is cheering me on! My question for you is, and I feel that the 30 year span between colleges qualifies you to answer, what if I cannot think of a past instructor to write a letter of recommendation for me? I haven't been in school for five years and the faculty I connected the most with were from TEN years ago. Advice?
Hi - sorry I took so long to answer, but I have been busy graduating!
I had been out of school for 30 years before attending Smith, so I enrolled in community college to get myself up to speed. Plus, I needed more credits to satisfy the requirement for the Ada Comstock Program. Therefore, I was able to get a recommendation from a current professor.
I mentioned your question to Sid Dalby and she suggested you give her a call in the Office of Admissions. Good luck!
Last Word
Farewell, sounds dramatic, but the close of my last week of classes warrants the sentiment. Graduation looms as a bittersweet moment.
It’s been my pleasure to assist many of you through the Ada application process, to chat on-line and in person. I will miss my intern job, and all of you.
However, time to move on….I know everyone will be in good hands next year with the new Ada intern and, as always, with the fabulous Sid Dalby and the staff at the Office of Admission. Find me on Facebook and keep in touch. Cheers!
Anonymous asked:
Hi, I'm anxiously awaiting news of the wait list, and working on getting supplemental materials ready to mail tomorrow in support of my application. I don't even know that I have a question for you, but I am on such tenterhooks that I am reading your blog as reassurance that it really is possible to get in and be a part of the Ada program at Smith.
Oh, I know the feeling. It’s as if your life is on hold. I don’t know what the timing is regarding the wait list, except if all decisions have to be sent in by May 1, we are almost there. I would call the Office of Admission on May 1 and see what you can find out.
Good luck!
Ada Senior Celebration
Another marker of my last days at Smith College –Senior Celebration for Adas. Champagne. Chocolate-dipped strawberries.
Our dean, Erica Laquer read Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman.” Who knew Ms. Angelou wrote a poem about Adas!
At our celebration, we were each given a sealed envelope containing our written ruminations reflecting our feelings on that long-ago day at orientation, with our sister first-year Adas, all about to embark on a Smith journey. Here are my reflections written 6 years ago to Erika’s prompt: Today I feel:
tired, but I am drinking coffee and I will soon perk up to the reality that I am here at Smith, a Smithie, embarking on an adventurous journey,and god knows where I will end up, but it will be right and true and the fulfillment of a potential I am yearning for, something I’ve always known lurked right around the corner, a glimmer out of the corner of my eye, an intangible which is now finally tangible, as I sit here writing in this comfortable chair, feet firmly planted on the ground, in Room 106 in Seelye Hall, where many young, and not so young, women before me have soaked up an incredible education here at Smith College.
Okay, the language could use a little work, but the sentiment shines through.
Cheers!
Special water bottles to keep our brains hydrated, and me with lovely Ada (yes, it’s her real name) Chupp pouring bubbly in the background. I am wearing a pin with the face of the original Ada Comstock.
Onward!
Open Campus last week rocked! No one is luckier than me - meeting and getting to know a brilliant group of women. It sounds like most of you are going to say ‘yes’ to Smith, and I know it can be a difficult decision, for many reasons—other good options, or the huge transition such a choice makes in a life.
As I look forward to graduating, I must say that I do not regret one moment of my decision to become an Ada. I am trying to slow down these last two weeks of classes, to savor them. However, let’s be real—I will be happy to turn in that final paper, get that final exam sealed up in its big white envelope, and look back at my experience will a sigh of relief and gratitude and pride in my accomplishments.
As my advisor Bill Oram writes at the bottom of drafts: Onward!
Daffodil Hill
When you are here for Open Campus find Wright Hall and go down the winding path, and voila!
Been Around Going Places
The Ada Monologues are a blast. I went Saturday night, and took a non-Smithie friend, and she loved the show as much as I did. These women not only delivered their stories with panache and humor, but the writing in their narratives is extremely well done.
And that song! Jana, our co-president—who knew about her beautiful voice.
I urge anyone who gets a chance to see the second show at 7pm this coming Friday April 19th.
