Giving back and being an advocate has always been part of Secretary Anthony Woods’, EMBA ’15, career. 

When Abby Meyers, MiM ’23, transferred to the University of Maryland for her final year of college basketball eligibility, she wasn’t just chasing her hoop dreams.

Earning a Smith degree spans generations in individual families. Alumni share stories with younger family members about their experiences at the school and subsequently, those relatives often end up attending Smith themselves.

Joseph B. Gildenhorn ’51, a lawyer, real estate developer and former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland who generously supported the performing arts at the University of Maryland and established its Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, died on Saturday. He was 94 years old.

During an early job interview with Accenture, Pallavi Agarwal ’05, asked how long it would take to become a partner. Never afraid to ask bold questions, Agarwal used her determination to map her successful business career. Today, she is the CEO and founder of Kander, an award-winning woman- and minority-founded Salesforce global consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.

By Sala Levin ’10  When the producers of HBO’s political satire “Veep” needed to send scheming, spineless protagonist Selina Meyer and her bumbling aides to the sleek headquarters of a tech company, they didn’t fly Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the rest of the cast to Silicon Valley. Instead, they looked no farther than the University of Maryland campus, a short trip from their usual Baltimore shooting location, where the Physical Sciences Complex stood in for the imaginary startup Clovis.

By Karen Shih ’09 She might be just under a foot tall (in heels!), but Barbie looms large this summer. Her spotless, plastic, bright-pink aesthetic is inescapable as “Barbie” movie promotions have gone viral. Want to float on the classic cursive “B” in the pool? You got it. Live out childhood fantasies in a Malibu DreamHouse? Ken (and Airbnb) are ready to host you. Eat like Barbie—if she could? Treat yourself to a sparkly fro-yo concoction. And that’s all before the film comes out this Friday.

With over 20 years of service in the U.S. military and upper echelons of the federal government, Eric Hamlin, EMBA ’20, is well on his way to completing his latest mission—transitioning to a successful private sector career in business development.

More Smith alumni are giving back to help current students get jobs, thanks to new efforts from the Office of Career Services and the newly launched Office of Experiential Learning.