Name

Cassandra “Cassie” Linder

Class

Ada Comstock Scholar 2023

Degree

American Studies | Archives Concentration

Project Inspiration

I chose the Ada Comstock Scholars Program as my topic for my capstone project because I am an Ada. I have served on my class’ cabinet since coming to Smith in 2019 as the class historian (2019-2020), vice president (2020-2021), and class president (2021-2022). During my time in cabinet, I have interacted with college administration and have been consciously aware of many of the issues facing the Ada Class (housing, class population cuts, financial aid, etc.). I wanted to use the archive to try and find when these issues started, why the began, and try and track where the program started to where it is today.

Intended Project Goals

My intended goals for this project are much different than what this project became. Originally, I really wanted to focus on statistics to compare the stages of the Ada Class from what it was to what it is now. I very much wanted to visually show the drastic differences between what the program started out as versus how we are doing now. However, getting some of the more current statistics was very hard as many of the offices that had those numbers never reached back out to me, so I ended up focusing on the history of the class and try to give a glimpse into today’s state of the class.