At Smith’s 147th Commencement on May 18, honorary degrees will be awarded to four distinguished individuals (shown above, from left): writer Preeti Simran Sethi ’92, physician Rachel Levine, singer Evelyn Harris, and Harvard professor Danielle Allen. In continuing a tradition that President Sarah Willie-LeBreton started last year, each honorand will offer a few words of wisdom and congratulations to the 2025 graduates.

During the event at Syracuse University, Willie-LeBreton paid tribute to her late father, Charles Willie, a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and Syracuse’s first Black full professor. “I was inspired by and enthralled by my dad’s career from an early age,” Willie-LeBreton says.

Celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2025, Smith College fulfills Sophia Smith’s dream for better education opportunities for women. The Daily Hampshire Gazette recently spoke to members of Smith’s community about the college’s past and its plans for the next 150 years.

Currently a graduate assistant coach at Smith, Yamada will join a two-day workshop this spring as part of WBCA’s So You Want To Be a Coach program. “We are very proud she'll be representing Smith across divisions at the event,” says basketball head coach Lynn Hersey.

The American Astronomical Society has recently opposed the concept of space billboards promoting a company or product. Lowenthal agrees with the AAS, telling science website Gizmodo, “The sky belongs to everyone and must be protected for all humans, now and in the future.”

In 2019, Golden-Castaño developed the Girls’ Innovation Research Laboratory (aka G.I.R.L.) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to empower girls to pursue STEM projects. Recent G.I.R.L. workshops have focused on building cameras and designing wearable technology.

In the October 1909 edition of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly, readers learned of the appointment of President Marion LeRoy Burton, Laurenus Clark Seelye’s successor. Ruth Bowles Baldwin, class of 1887, reported on the news, sharing biographical information about Burton and describing the new president as someone “open-eyed and open-minded to new needs, new possibilities, new methods.”

Formerly a special adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris, Brooks will lead a discussion on the future of U.S. foreign policy on Feb. 24 at 4:30 p.m. EST. Open to the Smith community, the talk will be held in Neilson Library’s Klingenstein Browsing Room.

In the Footsteps of a Shadow: North American Literary Responses to Fernando Pessoa comprises works inspired by the late poet Fernando Pessoa. “He’s such a cult figure. Everybody’s reading [Pessoa],” Cutler tells the Greenfield Recorder.

In this role, Ginder will support nationwide and statewide campaigns of FoodCorps, a nonprofit that promotes food education in schools. According to a statement, Ginder previously served as a FoodCorps member in Providence, Rhode Island.

As the Maine State Chamber of Commerce’s new director of communications, Clark will ensure the mission and activities of the chamber are shared with the media, the community, and appointed officials, according to a statement.

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