Nadia is a rising senior hoping to do an Honors Thesis in her lab. She was planning on using SURF, the Summer Research and Fellowship Program, to push forward with the experiments. “I’ve never had just one thing that I am working on,” she says, and SURF was an opportunity to focus.
Claire’21* had an internship in DC that she had settled months ago. She says it was an amazing opportunity that she had been told would be funded by Praxis, a program through Smith which provides stipends to students to pursue unpaid internships.
On a typical summer, there would be around 150 SURF and 400 Praxis funded projects. This summer, however, is anything but typical. In light of the pandemic, both SURF and Praxis have changed form significantly. An April 8 email from Susan Etheredge, Dean of the College and Vice President for Campus Life and Michael Thurston, Provost and Dean of the Faculty, announced that SURF and Praxis would be going remote. SURF will now apply only to projects that adapt to remote contexts and Praxis will fund internship proposals that are strictly remote based.
Nadia and Claire were both quick to react. Nadia formed a Facebook page that now has 43 members. Claire made posts sharing the information she had. They are both sympathetic to the SURF and Praxis committee. “Everything about COVID-19 is so novel that I can imagine making any decision was extremely difficult. Given the potential risks, I think the SURF committee ultimately made the right call to move to remote internships,” Nadia says. Claire, however, disagrees with the Praxis committee’s decision. “It is unfair to take away Praxis from students because their internships are location-based when it is not really up to us,” she says.
Stacie Hagenbaugh, Director of the Lazarus Center, explains the decision made regarding Praxis. “Our primary concern is the health and safety of students. The vast majority of the country has social distancing orders for the foreseeable future. To ensure students have access to opportunities, the college implemented the policy to privilege the safety and well being of students while also ensuring they have access to experience through Praxis funding.” She further adds that many employers have been flexible and willing to work with students in transitioning to remote settings.
Additionally, the Praxis minimum has been reduced to 120 hours in hopes that it will “ease the pressure on both students and employers.” Students are now allowed to use Praxis funding during JTerm, which Hagenbaugh hopes will benefit students unable to pursue Praxis in the summer.
Thomas Richardson, Administrative Director of the Clark Science Center, explains changes made to SURF funding. While the program normally gets its funding from four major sources: The Clark Science Center, Committee on Faculty Compensation and Development (CFCD), Endowments and gifts, and Faculty research grants, this summer The Clark Science Center and CFCD have withdrawn from SURF. “The good news is that the Science Center’s Schultz Foundation Fund, academic department endowments, and faculty research grants are still available and are sufficient to fund the 100 or so students we expect to participate,” Richardson maintains.
It would be an understatement to say this summer will be unusual. There have been many changes and not everyone can adjust to all of them. Now, more than ever, it falls to both the administration and the student body to work together.
*Claire is a pseudonym to protect a student’s identity
