<p>I worked as a first link leader for two years. I didn’t do one as an entering firstyear because my parents could only bring me to Smith on a weekend (they couldn’t take time off work) and preorientation programs start on a weekday. </p>
<p>First link is fun–you do a day of community service and there’s time for reflection and fun, too. It’s also a good way to get to know the chaplains, who help organize the program (though there’s nothing implicitly or explicitly religious about it) and the staff and board of Service Organizations of Smith, the campus community service org.</p>
<p>I don’t know much more about the other programs beyond what the description on the website will tell you–I believe that Bridge is only for underrepresented ethic minorities. Intellectual Inquiry is the newest one–I was a TA for an experimental Jterm class of the same name that predated it, and if they’d offered it when I was an entering firstyear I think I would have loved it. </p>
<p>Many of my friends have led and participated in the Outdoor Adventure one, which sounds great too–it’s the one I really wanted to do as an incoming student, and it fills up fast. Apparently, in years past the participants have been joined at a certain point by Tori McClure, a Smith alum, trustee, and quite an amazing outdoor adventurer: <a href=“http://www.nols.edu/about/profiles/board/tori_murden_mcclure.shtml[/url]”>http://www.nols.edu/about/profiles/board/tori_murden_mcclure.shtml</a></p>