Virtual Tour Transcript STOP 1: NEWHALL CENTER (Anusha) Welcome! We’re excited to show you around campus. My name is Anusha, and I use she/her pronouns. I’m from Bangalore, India, and I am double majoring in Neuroscience & Behavior and Politics. We’ll start in Newhall Center, home to the Office of Admission and our 60+ student workers. Because you can’t know Mount Holyoke without knowing a bit about our history, a few quick words here: Mount Holyoke was founded in 1837 by chemist and educator Mary Lyon as the first of the powerful Seven Sister colleges. We are chartered as a women’s college and our mission — then as now — is to educate the next generation of leaders and change-makers. I’m going to hand it off to Sabryna to talk to you about the Village Commons! Can I add the usual comments about gender diversity and what that means? I usually say something like "Mount Holyoke is a gender-diverse women's college, we admit cis women as well as trans and non-binary students. We were founded to provide education to gender minorities and we have adapted to an evolving understanding of what that mission means." STOP 2: THE VILLAGE COMMONS Thank you for starting us off, Anusha! My name is Sabryna. I use they/them pronouns and I am class of 2022. I am a politics and philosophy double major from Sandy Hook, CT. I want to tell you about the Village Commons. The Village Commons, located across the street from our main campus, serves the 2,200 students that keep Mount Holyoke thriving each day. The Commons is where you will find many different local restaurants and shops, including our campus bookstore, The Odyssey Bookshop. The Odyssey carries a variety of Mount Holyoke merchandise and it sells school supplies and many other items you may need as a student. Favorite restaurants of our students in the Village Commons include IYA Sushi and Noodle Kitchen, Thirsty Mind Coffee and Wine Bar, and Tailgate Picnic. There is even a movie theater! I love IYA sushi! I have gone to a lot of amazing birthday dinners at IYA. I love being able to get takeout and treat myself and my friends, especially after a hard week. I also love to study in Thirsty Mind- they make amazing oat milk lattes! Now Courtney is going to tell you about another important spot on campus. STOP 3: DWIGHT HALL Thanks Sabryna! My name is Courtney. I use she/her pronouns and I am a senior in the class of 2021! I’m from Pawling, NY and I am a Psychology and Education major. I will now be telling you about Dwight Hall. Dwight Hall, also known as our “center of centers,” sits at the northwest entrance to campus. Dwight houses three of our important hubs on campus, each of which supports student development in a different way. The first is the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives, which promotes cross-disciplinary inquiry into key elements of globalization through events, lectures and our nationally-recognized global curriculum. It is also home to our study abroad program. We offer over 150 different programs accredited through Mount Holyoke in over 50 countries. If you are interested in studying abroad, you can apply for Laurel Fellowship funding in order to ensure that the cost of your time abroad is similar to your cost of attendance at Mount Holyoke. The McCulloch Center is also the resource for our international students, who represent over 60 countries and make up about 27% of our student population. Our second center, the Weissman Center for Leadership, oversees several widely used initiatives on campus: our Community-based Learning program, our Leadership and Public Service program, and our Mediated Educational Work Space, known as the MEWS. Our MEWS teaching area is a staffed, 16-seat multimedia hands-on teaching space and computer lab, including two large wall-mounted displays and a digitization center. The Weissman Center also houses our SAW mentoring hub. SAW stands for speaking, arguing and writing. It’s a space that anyone can use for feedback or assistance on assignments in any discipline. Students who work in the SAW Center are specially trained on how to help their peers with every part of the writing process. Weissman also brings guest speakers to campus for dialogue on empowerment through leadership. In recent years, they’ve included Senator Elizabeth Warren; Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz; former U.S. women’s soccer player and Olympic gold medalist Abby Wambach; Women’s March co-founders Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour; former Secretary of State John Kerry, and more. The third center in Dwight Hall is the Miller Worley Center for the Environment, which is responsible for all of our environmental initiatives on campus. These include our LEED-certified buildings, the solar panels that power our Kendall Sport & Dance Complex, our campus Eco-Reps, and a variety of other measures designed to promote sustainability on campus. This center also oversees our Restoration Ecology Program, which allows students to access over 700 acres of Mount Holyoke land to both study and protect the environment at the same time. The f orest, weather and water stations across campus provide rich avenues for student work. STOP 4: WILLISTON LIBRARY (Anusha) Williston Library is a focal point of our school, architecturally. The beautiful brick exterior doesn’t even compare to the breathtaking interior of our Info Commons, also called the reading room, which has earned us countless comparisons to Hogwarts. The reading room looks over our gorgeous atrium. The centerpiece of the atrium is our Dale Chihuly sculpture made of hand-blown glass and 24-carat gold flecks. It sits in a Venetian urn with an Latin inscription on the side that reads “Those who are thirsty come and drink freely,” another nod to Mary Lyon’s wish for those who are thirsty for knowledge. Or if you’re just thirsty for a coffee, you might try the student-run Frances Perk café a few steps away. This atrium features one of Mount Holyoke’s many traditions. In each corner, a banner hangs that signifies the class colors and animals assigned to each class. Since the early 1900s, this class color and animal, like the houses at Hogwarts, has been an identity students are proud of and is yet another connection between alums and current and future students. Depending on when you join us, you will be a green griffin, red pegasus, yellow sphinx or blue lion. I’m in the Class of 2022, so I’m a red pegasus! Because the atrium staircase is split in two, there is a superstition that if you do not use the side of the stairs that corresponds to the banner of your class color and animal, you will fail your classes or your finals. While I’m unsure of the exact superstition, I never take any chances. Other notable features of our library include: a puzzle and game room, an octagon room, a beanbag lounge , specialized study areas, a tech help desk, and a circulation desk that gives you access to cameras, video equipment, and any of the eight million books in the Five College library system. The circulation desk has been a lifesaver for me on several occasions. I’ve borrowed books from the other Five Colleges for several research projects, and more times than I’d care to admit, I’ve also run down to the circulation desk in a panic to borrow a laptop charger so I can finish a last-minute paper! It’s also home to our alum hall of fame. We have many famous alums, including Frances Perkins, the first woman appointed to a presidential cabinet; Suzan-Lori Parks, the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Dr. Virginia Apgar, the developer of the Apgar score to assess newborn’s health; Ella Grasso, the first woman elected to the seat of governor in her own right; and Debra Martin Chase, producer of the movies “Harriet,” “The Princess Diaries” and “The Cheetah Girls.” Of course, this list would not be complete without Emily Dickinson. While she didn’t graduate from Mount Holyoke, she did study here before becoming a world-famous poet. STOP 5: SHATTUCK HALL AND THE ACADEMIC QUAD Thanks Anusha! Let’s talk academics! We have over 50 majors and minors at Mount Holyoke. Top majors include computer science, biological sciences, psychology, English and international relations. Shattuck Hall, which features striking neo-Gothic architecture, is home to Mount Holyoke’s English, Gender Studies, and Critical Social Thought departments. Shattuck’s inviting Cassani Lounge hosts speakers, activists, Orientation planning committees, department teas and meetings, and seminar classes. Skinner Hall is where you’ll find many of our social sciences, including History, International Relations, Economics, Africana Studies, Religion and Philosophy. Its classrooms boast generous windows that open onto Skinner Green, a crossroads on campus. At any given time in warmer weather, you’ll find students playing Frisbee, eating lunch and lounging in Adirondack chairs. Interested in learning another language? Then you’ll be spending time at the Ciruti Language Center. Mount Holyoke was the first college in the country to require the study of a foreign language and among the earliest to build a language lab. Today, Ciruti supports language acquisition through a variety of media resources, books, films and magazines, and through events like karaoke, cultural nights, and virtual reality and immersive games. I took German my sophomore year and I loved having the opportunity to learn a new language. It’s great that Mount Holyoke encourages us to expand our language development and offers these language classes at all levels. We have science buildings too, of course! You’ll be hearing about those at the next stop. In addition to our majors and minors, we also offer specialized academic concentrations in the form of a Five College certificate or a Nexus pathway. Our nine Nexus concentrations are more specific in their content and incorporate an internship component. We also offer the opportunity to design your own major. The possibilities to tailor your program to your specific academic interests are endless! The strength of our academics is, of course, tied to the strength of our faculty and class dynamics. Our faculty are dynamic teachers who foster collaboration — not competition — in our academically rigorous classrooms. They’re also global scholars with active research agendas, as well as invested mentors who engage deeply to ensure student success. This year, Princeton Review recognized us as having the top faculty in the country with the number one rating in "Professors Get High Marks." Now let’s hear from Emilia about our science buildings on campus! STOP 6: KENDADE HALL AND SCIENCE COMPLEX Wow, thank you for that academic insight Courtney! Hi everyone! My name is Emilia Fallman, I am from Humacao, Puerto Rico, and I use she/her pronouns. I am a junior, a Biology major, and very excited to talk about our science buildings. The Mount Holyoke College Science Center is composed of four buildings: Kendade and Cleveland halls, and Carr and Clapp laboratories. The science complex includes labs dedicated to molecular biology, genetics, advanced physics, and optics. In facilities ranked among the best in the U.S., per the 2019 Princeton Review, students access everything from scanning and transmission electron microscopes and DNA sequenc ing equipment to a custom-built Mössbauer spectrometer and an atomic force microscope. Some experiments I have been able to do here include making a mini roller coaster, hybridizing embryos of two different urchin species, and creating ferrofluid, which is a fluid that changes shape when close to a magnet. Kendade Hall incorporates many science-inspired elements into its design. The exterior entrance features an inlaid periodic table. Instead of traditional tiles, the interior floors boast a neuron and planet design. We have a set of study rooms that are hexagonally shaped, based on beehives. The white lamps hanging from the ceiling are inspired by white blood cells. The staircase is shaped like a DNA’s double helix, and the rugs on the floor resemble amoebas. It also has the largest collection of antique barometers in the world. It’s a science lover’s dream! Kendade’s atrium is a hub with comfortable couches, chairs for relaxing and tables for studying independently or in groups. About 35% of Mount Holyoke students study in one of our 12 STEM majors. In addition to some of the cutting-edge labs mentioned above, our 700 campus acres are an especially exciting destination for hands-on, cross-disciplinary learning in the sciences. Our Restoration Ecology Program, for example, offers a one-of-a-kind experience for undergraduate students to engage with this growing field — and to take the lead in restoring the campus lake and wetland ecosystems. Our diverse ecosystems — lakes, streams, forests, fields, wetlands, vernal pools — invite student–faculty research and environmental monitoring. And our campus research center stores decades of data from five weather stations, 15 sampling stations, and ecological field sites across campus. Such resources mean that year after year, our s tudents, faculty and alums change the face of scientific research, collaboration and innovation. Now I will pass it back to Courtney to talk about some career oriented aspects of Mount Holyoke. STOP 7: CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTER AND STUDENT SUCCESS Thanks Emilia! Now I’m going to talk about our Center for Career Development, which has great importance to me my senior year, but has been here to support me since the first weeks of my first year. Near the academic buildings is the Career Development Center, or CDC. The CDC is your stop if you want to: find and fund an internship or research project, develop and polish your resume, build your network, job search, or launch your career. And the CDC will support our students for up to eight years after they graduate! As a research liberal arts institution, our undergraduate students have unparalleled opportunities to do research in a variety of fields, from neuroscience to music and everything in between. Our Lynk program guarantees that every student who matriculates is eligible for a minimum stipend of $3,000 for the summer after their sophomore or junior year to take an otherwise unpaid internship or to complete research. Mount Holyoke believes economic barriers should not affect students’ ability to obtain empowering experiences that will inform their future. And if the job search has you feeling stressed, you can pop next door to the Health Center, which houses one of our two MoAsis spaces on campus. These are tranquil spaces where students can unplug, take a breath, and make time for peace and stillness in their busy days. They’re part of our broader Be Well program at Mount Holyokes, which gives students strategies and opportunities to engage wellness in four main areas: healthy mind, healthy body, healthy community, and healthy life. Another form of student support on campus comes from AccessAbility services. We provide reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. We also have AccessAbility Fellows, who are current students who help incoming students with the transition from high school to college. Now I’ll pass it to Kass to talk about Kendall Sports and Dance Complex. STOP 8: KENDALL SPORTS & DANCE COMPLEX Hi - I’m Kass, I use she/her pronouns and I’m a junior at Mount Holyoke. I am majoring in economics and minoring in psychology. I am also a varsity Field Hockey Athlete. I am super excited to talk about my second home on campus! At Mount Holyoke, the Athletics Department partners with the Office of Student Involvement to support 13 varsity and a number of competitive club sports. We’re a primary member of the NEWMAC, which is regarded as one of the nation’s top conferences at the NCAA Division III level. We support nearly 300 student-athletes who annually compete against many top-ranked teams and long-time local rivals, and we continue to be looked upon as national leaders in the area of student-athlete leadership and development. As a student-athlete at Mount Holyoke College, I speak from experience when I say we are immediately embraced by a community that is unmatched. We have coaches and department members who are invested in developing our athletic talent and leadership skills. We have teammates who stand with you every step of the way, and celebrate your accomplishments, both on and off the field. The alum network continues to invest in our programs and support our academic interests. Best of all, we spend four years developing friendships and making memories that will last us a lifetime. One of my favorite memories as a field hockey athlete was our preseason trip to Sydney Australia. Many teams travel during some sort of off season. This opportunity allows each team to have a remarkable team bonding experience in a different place. The field hockey team travels abroad every four years to another country to not only get the abroad experience, but to train with teammates for such an incredible bonding experience. I was able to see the Sydney Opera House, the Blue Mountains, and even compete in an old Olympic Stadium against Australian National Team players. It was an unforgettable way to make close connections with my teammates and experience a new country that I had never been to. Through opportunities such as the Peak Performance and Leadership Academy, my teammates and I are offered frequent programming and opportunities that focus on five areas of development: personal health and wellness, athletic performance, leadership development, career development, and community engagement. You might know that one of Mount Holyoke's distribution requirements is four units of Physical Education. Our founder, Mary Lyon, believed in the importance of exercising mind and body. Today, our physical education program offers a wide range of activities that students can choose from. P.E. classes, which are taught by faculty within the department, include many options such as aquatics, racket sports, horseback riding, weight training, and much more. The College also offers recreational programming as a part of the Be Well initiative. Classes such as PiYo, kickboxing, cycling, yoga, and high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, are offered throughout the week for students looking for a great workout. We also have activities like dive-in movies held in the pool, which are a lot of fun and give students the chance to connect with friends. Mount Holyoke’s athletic facilities are impressive and they support the recreational and fitness needs of the community. Kendall Sports & Dance Complex includes our field house, natatorium, fitness center and locker rooms. Also on campus is the beautiful Equestrian Center, which is considered to be one of the finest facilities for educational and competitive riding available to students anywhere. Just a short drive from the main campus is the Community Boathouse, as well as The Orchards Golf Club. An added bonus to our facilities are the two lakes on campus (Upper and Lower Lake). Upper Lake is located right beside Kendall. Not only does this lake have gorgeous views, but it is also a great spot for outdoor physical activity. PE classes can be seen walking around the lake loop trail and athletes run the trails consistently as well. It’s a beautiful place to get some fresh air and work out. Be sure to check out the Mount Holyoke College athletics tab to find out more information about our teams or to connect with head coaches about the recruiting process. Go Lyons! STOP 9: BOTANIC GARDEN Our next stop is the Botanic Garden, comprising Talcott Greenhouse and the surrounding cultivated gardens. Talcott Greenhouse, which is home to over 2,000 species of plants, is the origin of another of our beloved traditions: the New-student Plant. Each incoming student gets one as a way of welcoming them into the community and inviting them to grow with us. Legend has it that if you keep your plant alive for all four years, you’ll become a millionaire. Each spring, our bulb show fills the greenhouse with a gorgeous display of color and attracts visitors from across the Connecticut River Valley. Year round, the greenhouse serves as a valuable teaching resource, giving academic departments, programs and centers a variety of ways to collaborate and work across disciplines. For me, I use the Greenhouse as a place to relax. I would walk past the greenhouse to class everyday my first year at MHC, and it was a great rest stop to warm up inside during a cold winter day. It is so refreshing and all of the plants are beautiful. STOP 10: ART BUILDING Thank you Kass, you definitely brought back some nostalgia to when I got my plant my first year. We have two academic art programs at Mount Holyoke: Art Studio and Art History, each of which is hosted in the Art Building. Mount Holyoke’s Art Building houses studios for painting, sculpture and printmaking. The sculpture facilities offer opportunities to study in a variety of media, including wood, clay, plaster and metal. A short distance away from the Art Building in the Central Services Building is a spacious, well-lit drawing studio. A student-run gallery devoted to student artwork can be found in Blanchard Hall. Students in both the Art Studio and the Art History majors make ample use of our award-winning Art Museum, which actually consists of two facilities: The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum and the Joseph Allen Skinner Museum. Together they house over 24,000 works. The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum is home to over 17,000 pieces in its collection. Opened in 1876, it is one of the oldest college art museums in the country. It is used by faculty across disciplines as a space to connect course themes and spark creativity through direct engagement with its rich collections of art and material culture Its 10 galleries contain everything from ancient artifacts to contemporary works of art. What once started as a single oil painting and a few hundred objects from missionary efforts by MHC alums has grown to now feature works of art from all over the world and includes special exhibitions created by faculty and students from a variety of academic disciplines. My personal favorite piece is Vanitas Still Life by Hendrick Andriessen. I got a chance to see this piece my first semester in my Intro to Biology class. To learn more about the museum, please visit its Virtual Engagement Page. Located just past our main campus, The Joseph Allen Skinner Museum is a collection of four buildings that were moved from the town of Prescott, Massachusetts, when it was razed to create the Quabbin Reservoir. The Skinner Museum contains more than 6,000 objects that are used for a variety of different teaching purposes. To learn more about the history of the museum, you can visit its Virtual Tour Page. STOP 11: FIMBEL MAKERSPACE & INNOVATION LAB Across from the Art Building is the Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab. Located in Prospect Hall, this brand-new, 8,000-square-foot space features wood and metal workshops, 3D printers, laser cutters, sewing machines, a full kitchen, convertible multipurpose spaces, and anything else you may need to create and explore. Many classes use the lab throughout the year to work on a variety of projects across all academic disciplines. Some popular non-academic workshops include creating chocolate molds and building Halloween costumes. By far my favorite workshop has been when we created our own mini monsters and got to print the 3D modules using the printer. My six legged dragon/wolf is still one of my proudest creations.The Fimbel Makerspace & Innovation Lab is open to the entire campus community and has a staff on hand to help you create anything you can dream of. For example some creations I have made include: a giant plush worm on a string, a plush duck whose heart glows red, silicone jewelry, and a wooden door welcome sign for my friend and her cat To learn more about the lab and see the spaces, check out its Virtual Tour Video collection. Besides the maker space, we have other campus places where students can get involved in different ways. Anusha will give a rundown of our cultural houses on campus. STOP 12: ELIOT HOUSE AND THE CULTURAL CENTERS (Anusha) The hub of Mount Holyoke’s interfaith community is the Eliot House for religious and spiritual life. There are eight major religions represented here, with a chaplain or spiritual advisor for each. Eliot House features a Muslim prayer room, a Hindu prayer room and Wa-Shin-An, a Japanese teahouse and garden. We also have an interfaith luncheon weekly that invites people of many backgrounds for engaging discussions. Eliot House is just one of our many cultural spaces on campus. The others are the Eliana Ortega Cultural Center for the Latinx community, the Betty Shabazz Cultural Center for those who identify with the African diaspora, the Asian Center for Empowerment, the Jeannette Marks House for the LGBTQIA+ community, the Zowie Banteah Cultural Center for our Native American/Indigenous students, and the Unity Space for cross-cultural discussions. All of our centers provide safe spaces for the purposes of support, education, networking and sanctuary. They serve as a testament to the Mount Holyoke ideology where every student and identity is valued and has a space here on campus. I like to say that when you come to Mount Holyoke, we want you to be able to bring all of yourself to Mount Holyoke, and the cultural centers are a great place to stay involved with parts of your identity that are important to you. STOP 13: GETTELL AMPHITHEATER Thank you so much, Anusha! You’re now looking at our outdoor amphitheater, which is home to a few more of our traditions. On the first night of Orientation for our incoming students, everyone gathers here to watch “Dirty Dancing.” Do you know why? It’s because of the line “Baby’s starting Mount Holyoke in the fall.” Fun fact: Baby’s real name is Frances, after alum Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, under FDR! Even years later, I can so vividly remember sitting next to my brand new friends on my first night, nervous and excited. One of my favorite parts of the start of the academic year is watching Dirty Dancing, singing and dancing along with my friends. I think that we as Mount Holyoke students can relate to Baby because she is so empathetic and determined. The amphitheater is also where Convocation takes place. Convocation is a celebration that occurs the day before classes start each fall. Everyone dresses in their class colors, the seniors in their graduation gowns parade in, and we all cheer for the excitement of the upcoming school year. Convocation also consists of speakers including our President, live music, and a picnic on Skinner Green afterwards. It’s a great way to welcome new students and for returning students to reconnect with friends. I’m going to pass it back to Kass to talk to you about our Community Center. STOP 14: COMMUNITY CENTER Welcome to Mount Holyoke’s Community Center, which comprises Blanchard Hall and our new centralized Dining Commons. This complex is the center of student life on campus. On the top floor of Blanchard Hall, we have our major student organization offices. With over 100 student-led organizations, chances are there’s at least one for you! The ground floor houses the Division of Student Life suite, as well as the Unity Space. The bottom floor of Blanchard is home to a variety of places to get food. There’s the Cochary Pub & Kitchen, which has locally sourced tea and coffee and fresh-baked gourmet cookies, as well as hearty meals like falafel and burgers. Next to the Cochary is our Grab ’n Go, which is perfect for when you don’t have much time between classes and need a quick bite. Connected to Blanchard Hall is Mount Holyoke’s state-of-the-art Dining Commons. The wide variety of menu options include cooked-to-order and made-from-scratch foods, much of it using locally-sourced produce and protein. You can choose from nine different stations: Breakfast All Day, Comfort, Global, Grill, Made to Order, Baraka, L’Chaim, Harvest, and Wok. A fun fact about our dining hall is that you can submit recipes for our chefs to make! We have one primary dining plan that allows for unlimited meals in the Dining Commons and includes funds for you to use at our Grab ’n Go and the Cochary Pub. Something else to note is that this meal plan also allows for one free swipe at the Grab ’n Go every day! I love hanging out with friends in our dining hall, having team dinners with my field hockey teammates, and taking study breaks with some snacks. My favorite food to get at the dining hall is a fresh egg omelette from our breakfast all day station. STOP 15: ROOKE THEATRE AND PERFORMING ARTS Thanks, Kass! I want to talk a little bit about something I love! Mount Holyoke is a great place to immerse yourself in the performing arts. Pra tt Hall, built in 1909, has been elevated to a state-of-the-art space for music creation and performance. It contains teaching studios and classrooms, music and recording libraries, practice rooms, a computer lab devoted to musical applications, rehearsal and performance halls, a virtual room that simulates acoustical environments, and a 40-seat, fully mediated classroom. Pratt is one of my favorite places on campus. My a cappella group practices here three times a week, so I spend a lot of time in Pratt’s practice rooms. We would spend late nights arranging songs and singing our favorites from our repertoire. My favorite memories of the school are in a practice room singing with my friends. For those interested in drama, you’ll find everything you need at Rooke Theatre. Rooke is an intimate theater with a seating capacity of 192. The stage is 25 feet wide, with 22 line sets in the fly loft and a fully equipped shop directly upstage. Several shows are performed here each year, with students taking part as directors, actors, set designers, and costume designers. The theater even includes its own costume shop, to make anything performers may need that is not already in our extensive costume collection. Students can also take classes or show their work in our black box theater, located in the basement of Rooke. Last year, we put on the musical Lizzie, and my friends and I all bought tickets to see it on closing night. It was so well done and unlike any show I’ve ever seen. Finally, the Dance department, located in the Kendall Sports & Dance Complex, featured in stop eight, offers many different types of dance classes to those interested in both taking live classes and learning about dance theory and practice. Classes include ballet and contemporary, with a rotating schedule of other styles, including (but not limited to) tap, jazz, hip-hop, African dance, and Indian classical dance. The dance, theater and music departments hold lectures, master classes and performances throughout the year. Dance shows are one of my favorite events on campus, and an amazing way to support your classmates. I have been to a lot of student-led productions and they have all left me blown away. I’m going to pass it to Courtney, who will tell you about what it’s like to live on campus! Stop 16: MEAD HALL AND RESIDENTIAL LIFE Thanks for that insight Sabryna! One of the most important parts of the Mount Holyoke experience is Residential Life! Let’s talk about residential life. Did you know that 98% of students live on campus all four years? This creates a vibrant, tight-knit community. Some of our 21 residence halls are home to specialized Living-Learning Communities — LLCs for short — that bring together students with common interests or identities. There are language, arts and outdoor adventure LLCs, while our Mosaic, Shirley Chisholm, and Mi Gente LLC’s celebrate students of color, students from African Diaspora and students of Latinx heritage. Students are housed in singles, doubles, triples and a few quads. We also have suite- and apartment-style housing, which is reserved for upperclass students. Most students in their first two or three years of college here should expect to live in a double room. Our housing selection is done via a lottery system. First-year students fill out a questionnaire about their preferences in regard to their living situation. Our residential life staff is very good at creating roommate matches that lead to lasting friendships! I have been fortunate enough to have lasting friendships with all of my roommates and made sure to stay in touch with them during my time abroad in the Caribbean. Each of our residential halls is unique, with a wide variety of room layouts and features that make them feel both comfortable and welcoming. In most of the residence halls, there is a full- size kitchen that can be used by any student. Additionally, there are kitchenettes on most floors in all residence halls, with a sink, microwave, and sometimes other items. In the basement of each residence hall are high-efficiency washers and dryers. Residence halls also have a grandfather clock, a piano and a fireplace, because our founder, Mary Lyon, felt that including these items in each residence hall made them feel more comfortable. Another thing Mary Lyon started that has become a well-loved tradition is M&C’s, which stands for milk and cookies. Each school night at 9:30, milk, juice and a delicious dessert are put out in the common areas for students to enjoy. This is a great way to take a break from studying and remember the power of human interaction. We learn so much from each other, especially with the diverse backgrounds of Mount Holyoke students. Now let’s hear from Kass about Mary Lyon Hall. STOP 17: MARY LYON HALL One of the most widely recognized buildings on campus is Mary Lyon Hall, which includes the clock tower and the beautiful Abbey Memorial Chapel. Mary Lyon Hall was built where the Seminary Building that welcomed the very first Mount Holyoke students to campus in 1837 stood before it. Although it now houses mostly administrative offices, including the Office of the President, it calls in the spirit of Mary Lyon herself, and the deep traditions that have been built throughout the years. We have already learned about a few of our traditions, but let’s talk about a few more. Traditions are a very important part of the Mount Holyoke College experience. One of our most cherished traditions is Mountain Day — always a surprise and announced by the bell ringing across campus. Classes are cancelled and the entire Mount Holyoke College community heads to the top of Mt. Holyoke in Skinner State Park. The stunning views of fall color on either side of the winding Connecticut River, coupled with hot cocoa and local apple cider doughnuts at the summit is the definition of an idyllic New England fall day. Pictures cannot do it justice. Our school is filled with wonderful traditions, which is one of the things that makes our school unique. My absolute favorite tradition is convocation! My class color is red, and our mascot is the pegasus. One year, my field hockey team and I decided to dress up as crayons for convocation. It’s such a fun time to come together with friends and represent your class year right before school starts. One of the most important traditions is the Laurel Parade. This parade takes place during Commencement weekend, and signifies the change in status from student to alum. The new graduates wear white, with accessories in their class color, as they walk through campus in between two laurel chains, each 275 feet long. Family, friends, faculty, staff and alums cheer them on as they make this journey and transition. STOP 18: THE GATES (Anusha) Mount Holyoke offers plenty within our gates. But we’re also part of something bigger: the Five College Consortium. This partnership, which includes nearby Amherst, Hampshire and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, allows students at Mount Holyoke access to the academic, social and co curricular opportunities of all five institutions. The Five Colleges are a very integrated community - I once did a group project for a class at UMass Amherst where I worked with students from Mount Holyoke, UMass, Smith, and Amherst College, all in my group of 6 people! Our campuses are connected by a free bus system known as the PVTA, and buses run every 30 minutes until the early hours of the morning so you can get to classes or events. So while you can bring a car to campus, you don’t need one. I don’t have one, and it hasn’t ever been an issue! With over 30,000 college students, 6,000 academic courses per semester, and 700 clubs and organizations within a dozen miles of campus, the consortium means the possibilities are endless! STOP 19: FINAL STOP I hope you enjoyed the tour today and gained useful insight into life at Mount Holyoke. Be sure to fill out our form to let us know that you were here and to learn more about the College and its opportunities. If you have any further questions for current students, admissions staff or other College personnel, feel free to contact us. We wish you the best of luck on your college journey. Stay safe and healthy, and we hope to welcome you back to campus soon!