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Celebrating 150 Years

Since it opened its doors in 1875, Smith has been educating women to take on the world’s toughest and most important challenges.

Celebrate with Us

Reasons to Celebrate Smith

Paradise Pond lives up to its name.

Paradise Pond, formed in the 18th century by a dam on the Mill River, is both a top campus attraction and a living laboratory for science students. It’s dredged periodically to manage sediment and preserve its ecosystem. Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind reportedly named it when she visited Northampton in 1851 and found the pond, well, paradisal.

Alums sit on a bench looking out over Paradise Pond

Smith, in the Moment

Stay current with all things Smith. Learn about upcoming events and peruse the news on Smith Today.

Students

Going Back—To Give Back

Over the summer, Arden Grim ’26 worked with the doctors and therapists who helped her as a child.

  • Students
  • September 10, 2025
150th Anniversary

Capturing Stories, Creating History

Students and alums have the chance to participate in a global diary project to celebrate our 150th.

  • 150th Anniversary
  • September 11, 2025
Two journals with "passports" on a wooden tabletop

A Culture of Curiosity

Maneeta Bhandari ’27

Engineering major; Film & Media Studies minor

“I have been a very STEM focused my whole life. With courses like first-year seminars at Smith, I have gotten an opportunity to study the liberal arts from a closer distance.”

Kristin Hughes

Director of Athletics

“It’s a disservice to women athletes to expect anything but the best for themselves. We talk about winning. We talk about why it’s important. We talk about why they need to own what they’re good at.”

Ginetta E.B. Candelario ’90

Professor of Sociology and of Latin American & Latino/a Studies

“Because of what I learned and now teach at Smith, I am more committed than ever to Sophia Smith’s vision of ‘reforming the evils of society’ through our work ‘as teachers, as writers, as mothers, as members of society.’”

J. Courtney Sullivan ’03

Novelist

“I am so thankful that my 18-year-old self unwittingly chose an education that has lived on inside me and continues to teach me things a quarter century after the fact.”