By Johnny Pagano ’22, Staff Writer

Karly Smith is a sophomore nursing major from Endicott, New York who serves as a member of the Executive Board of the Fisher Dance Club.. 

As a member of the board, Smith is responsible for leading a dance class once a week. During her classes, she is in charge of choreographing every dance move and teaching it to her peers. During normal circumstances, the dance club holds a recital at the end of the semester to showcase their talents.

“Karly shows a strong dedication to everything she does, whether it is school, dance, or making time for her friends,” Senior Dance Club President Emily Crispin said.

As a high school senior, Smith knew that Fisher would be the best fit for her to attend college. “I chose Fisher because the campus is absolutely beautiful, I knew friends that went here and loved it, and because it’s close enough to home that I can still see my family when I want to or need to.”

Since she the age of 3, Smith has been dancing — sometimes competitively. When she arrived at Fisher as a freshman, she decided to stick with dance and joined the club to stay active. “I knew that I didn’t want to cheer at Fisher,” Smith said. “I figured that being in the dance club would be a great opportunity to continue dancing in college.” 

“Karly is easily one of the sweetest human beings I know. She is insanely thoughtful and hardworking,” Dance Club Vice President Caroline McMahon said.

Outside of dance, Smith said she enjoys baking, fishing, hunting and working on home improvement projects. She is also very involved in many other things on campus including being a peer mentor and an orientation leader for incoming freshmen.

Since the beginning of COVID-19, the Fisher Dance Club has been forced to adapt the way that they practice and hold recitals. Beginning last fall, the club had to resort to zoom meeting practices only causing participation to go down. “It was tough for us as an executive board to get to know new members as well as have the same fun environment over zoom,” McMahon said.

This semester, Smith and the rest of the club have had the opportunity to hold their practices in person. They have had to follow multiple different COVID-19 guidelines including masking and social distancing. As of right now, the club is planning on holding the traditional end of the year recital virtually.