Hearts and Minds

BY MEGAN RUBINER ZINN; ILLUSTRATION: ALICE MOLLON/GETTY IMAGES

The Smith College School for Social Work’s M.S.W. program is, as any alum will attest, an intensive experience. Yet in the midst of this rigorous challenge, many students choose to devote their valuable time to extracurricular student organizations—to groups that work to better the experience of students in SSW, better the School as a whole and better the field of social work.

There are more than a dozen student groups at SSW, serving a variety of constituencies and interests. They advocate for students, spearhead events and provide essential communities of support. They give students opportunities to meet students in other years, better understand the workings of the School and build rapport with the faculty and administration. Sometimes they work to effect significant change at the School, and sometimes they simply provide a place to hang out and unwind.

Members of the Alliance leadership team pose for a quick selfie during summer 2018. First row, from left: Rickey Thorn, M.S.W. ’18; Lucy Graves, M.S.W. ’18; Emma Batting, A ’19. Back row, from left: Alize Lazare, A ’19; Elizabeth Southwell, A ’19; Rebecca Maston, A ’19. Photo courtesy of Emma Batting.

Three of the student groups with long histories at SSW are Student Org, Council for Students of Color (“Council”) and the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (“the Alliance”). Of these, Student Org is the oldest. It is an elected body that works to foster a greater sense of community among students throughout the year and to advocate for their needs. Their current priorities, according to Lea Calderon-Guthe, A ’19, a member of Student Org’s leadership team, Executive 4, include establishing a nurse on campus during the summer, pushing for greater transparency regarding financial aid and the SSW budget and ratifying a students’ “rights and responsibilities” document. They’ve also worked to combine the student- and faculty-run orientations into one collaborative session with mandatory anti-racism training.

In Calderon-Guthe’s view, being part of Student Org deeply enhances her experience as a social work student, especially “sitting with peers and hearing their structural breakdown of what they see happening at the School for Social Work and getting to share in these conversations with so many other brilliant thinkers.”

Council began in the 1970s as the Third World Council and became the Council for Students of Color in 1990. When Yvette Colón, M.S.W. ’90, joined, there were only nine students of color in her cohort. Their priorities were to support each other and provide opportunities to address their experiences and responsibilities as people of color in the social work field. Colón cites these conversations as deeply influential on her later work in mental-health care and as a professor of social work.

Associate Dean Irene Rodriguez- Martin has been the administrative liaison to Council for 19 years and has had a unique opportunity to watch it evolve. As it grew, she said, members struggled with how to define membership, given the diversity and complexity of students’ identities. In response, the group decided to broadly redefine what it means to be a person of color. “They said, ‘it’s not for us to decide. If you identify as a student of color, you are welcome here.’”

Today, Council serves as a place where students of color can find support and mentorship. As Co-Vice President Natali Rauseo-Ricupero, A ’19, explained, “If I can have a conversation with people and try to ease that transition a little bit, or just help someone to feel heard, I think I would consider my time at Council hugely successful.”

It is also an advocacy organization, moving the School towards greater accountability and action. Council members played a key role in the student demonstrations in 2016, challenging the administration to better incorporate current understandings of racism, marginalization and the needs of students of color into the School’s Anti-Racism Commitment.

Gary Raymond, M.S.W. ’80, launched the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Alliance during his first summer in 1978. As one of the first out gay men in the program, he wasn’t able to identify any other gay and lesbian students on campus. He started a group to bring them together and had eight people at the first meeting. “Just being at that meeting changed my feeling about being at Smith immeasurably,” Raymond recalled.

In those early days, the Alliance’s priority was building community, creating safe spaces on campus and partnering with groups like the Third World Council to advocate for change. They also provided support for each other in addressing homophobia they faced, both on campus and in their internships. David Aronstein, M.S.W. ’80, who was part of the group from the beginning, led the charge to add sexual orientation to the School’s nondiscrimination statement. Like many active in student organizations, Aronstein was deeply affected by his advocacy with the Alliance. “I’ve learned more from doing that work than I did from a lot of the courses that I took,” he noted. “I became an organizer, and socioeconomic and social justice issues became central to my career.”

Members of the Council E-Board pose together during summer 2018. First row, from left: Tara Venkatraman, A ’19; Josh Espinoza, A ’19; Grace Beah, A ’19; Dana Joud, A ’20; Xajaah Williams-Flores, A ’19; Latisha Rocke, A ’20. Second row, from left: Natali Rauseo-Ricupero, A ’19; Naomi Johnson, A ’20; Michelle Humbert, A ’20; Xuxa Fraites, A ’19; Hala Lord, A ’19. E-Board members not pictured: Sarah Seitz, A ’19; Lucia Osman, A ’20. Photo courtesy of Natali Rauseo-Ricupero.

Since the late 1970s, the Alliance has significantly expanded its reach and agenda. The group welcomes people of all sexual orientations, gender expressions and their allies. The priority is to maintain a welcoming space for queer students where they can voice concerns and find support and community. “Some of my closest friends are people I met at Alliance,” Vice President Alice Lazare, A ’19, said. “It’s also helped me understand different ways of being queer.” The tight bonds of the group proved essential last fall, as the members mourned the death of Lucy Graves, M.S.W. ’18, who had been a key member of the organization and kept it thriving during her tenure.

The Alliance also works with other groups to bring in speakers and performers and they host the Lavender Graduation to honor out - going students. According to Lazare and President Emma Batting, A ’19, Alliance is currently restructuring in order to provide space and share resources with allied groups, especially QTPOC (Queer and Trans People of Color) and TGNC (Trans and Gender Nonconforming), which can often provide more intimate support than the larger organizations can. “It’s felt really important to me over the past year to be more intentional about coming together and figuring out how we can support each other moving forward,” Batting explained.

While students get involved with organizations at SSW for a variety of reasons, inevitably, the experiences thoroughly enhance their own personal growth, education and career preparation.

Being part of Council, Rauseo- Ricupero has been privy to the experience of many individual students and has seen consistent themes that speak to the systemic issues for people of color in the field. In response, she plans to pursue research along with clinical work to help address the dispar ities. Similarly, Erin Wolf, A ’20, affirmed that being part of Student Org’s Executive 4, “further solidified that I want to continue to do anti-racism work to meet the needs of the most marginalized in our communities.”

As the priorities of SSW student organizations evolve, the importance of their role as places of support has remained consistent. Looking back, Colón described Council’s appeal: “Just having a community and people who experienced similar things that I did —I didn’t have to explain anything to them, they already knew it.” Nearly thirty years later, Council Co-President Grace Beah, A ’19, echoed Colón’s sentiment: “I found my coalition and my accomplices. They were my cheerleaders when things were rough on campus, they were also ready to help change the environment around us for the better.” It was also, she added, “a place for me to be unapologetically myself.” ◆