SmART
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transcript:
Greetings, Class of 2015 and welcome and thank you for joining us for SmART, the Smithie Alcohol Risk Tutorial, the mandatory alcohol education program for incoming first-years students.
My name is Devaswa Bhagawati, I'll be in Ziskind house next year, I'm class of 2014, and I'm a biology major.
My name is Ruth Isserman, I'm class of 2013, I'm a film studies major, and I live in Capen House.
I'm Emily Pagano, I'm class of 2012, rising senior, I'm a Sociology major, and I'll be living in Parsons Annex in the fall.
I'm Julia Burns, I'm class of 2012, computer science major, and I'll be joining Emily in Parsons Annex in the fall. And we're the students who made this video for you.
And I'm Emily Nagoski, the Wellness Education Director, the person whose fault it is that you have to do this.
Most colleges require their incoming first-years to do some kind of alcohol education.
Why do we require that? Three reasons:
One, whether or not you choose to drink, you will be exposed to alcohol on campus.
Most students who drink, drink safely, but it's possible to drink so much that you end up in the hospital, and we want to be sure you know how to avoid that.
Alcohol consumption is directly related to academic success: the more a student drinks and the more frequently she drinks, the lower the GPA. Therefore, to support your academic success, we want you to know how to deal with alcohol.
Of course the laws of Massachusetts and the policies of Smith College prohibit the consumption or purchase of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21, or the provision of alcohol to someone underage.
Although underage drinking is both against the law and against policy, the data from our campus show that there's not really a difference in the way students drink, depending on their age, so in order for everyone to be safe, we need even the first years to know about alcohol.
And Smith is a totally unique place - as far as we know, Smith is the only school in America that has students making the alcohol education for the incoming first-years.
And because it's such a unique environment, the education about alcohol you may have received from school, from television, or even from your parents, might not really prepare you for the unique drinking environment at Smith.
We, your fellow Smithies, know what you need to know in order to make smart decisions about drinking here at Smith. So, that's what we put in the video.
We had three goals for this video:
Firstly, to make sure you have the information you need to make educated decisions about alcohol.
To prepare you for the drinking culture here at Smith – which may be different from what you might expect from mainstream representations of college drinking cultures.
And, to make sure you know how to help a friend who you think has had too much.
We worked really, really hard on this video and we tried to make it entertaining, as well as educational. So, we hope that you enjoy watching it, and that you maybe laugh at some of our nerdy jokes.
We'll be back at the end of the video, to give you the instructions you need in order to complete your alcohol education requirement. And until then, we'll see you at the end.
My name is Devaswa Bhagawati, I'll be in Ziskind house next year, I'm class of 2014, and I'm a biology major.
My name is Ruth Isserman, I'm class of 2013, I'm a film studies major, and I live in Capen House.
I'm Emily Pagano, I'm class of 2012, rising senior, I'm a Sociology major, and I'll be living in Parsons Annex in the fall.
I'm Julia Burns, I'm class of 2012, computer science major, and I'll be joining Emily in Parsons Annex in the fall. And we're the students who made this video for you.
And I'm Emily Nagoski, the Wellness Education Director, the person whose fault it is that you have to do this.
Most colleges require their incoming first-years to do some kind of alcohol education.
Why do we require that? Three reasons:
One, whether or not you choose to drink, you will be exposed to alcohol on campus.
Most students who drink, drink safely, but it's possible to drink so much that you end up in the hospital, and we want to be sure you know how to avoid that.
Alcohol consumption is directly related to academic success: the more a student drinks and the more frequently she drinks, the lower the GPA. Therefore, to support your academic success, we want you to know how to deal with alcohol.
Of course the laws of Massachusetts and the policies of Smith College prohibit the consumption or purchase of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21, or the provision of alcohol to someone underage.
Although underage drinking is both against the law and against policy, the data from our campus show that there's not really a difference in the way students drink, depending on their age, so in order for everyone to be safe, we need even the first years to know about alcohol.
And Smith is a totally unique place - as far as we know, Smith is the only school in America that has students making the alcohol education for the incoming first-years.
And because it's such a unique environment, the education about alcohol you may have received from school, from television, or even from your parents, might not really prepare you for the unique drinking environment at Smith.
We, your fellow Smithies, know what you need to know in order to make smart decisions about drinking here at Smith. So, that's what we put in the video.
We had three goals for this video:
Firstly, to make sure you have the information you need to make educated decisions about alcohol.
To prepare you for the drinking culture here at Smith – which may be different from what you might expect from mainstream representations of college drinking cultures.
And, to make sure you know how to help a friend who you think has had too much.
We worked really, really hard on this video and we tried to make it entertaining, as well as educational. So, we hope that you enjoy watching it, and that you maybe laugh at some of our nerdy jokes.
We'll be back at the end of the video, to give you the instructions you need in order to complete your alcohol education requirement. And until then, we'll see you at the end.