Exploring STEM at Smith College

8/25/2025

Yvelisse C. ’28 Shares about Her Summer Adventure

This summer, Yvelisse C. ’28 was accepted into Smith College’s prestigious pre-college program for science and engineering. The two-week experience brought together high school girls from across the country who share a passion for STEM and offered the opportunity to work directly with college professors in a true collegiate environment.

Yvelisse enrolled in Truth in Advertising: A Chemical Analysis of the Products We Buy, a course designed to uncover the science behind everyday items. Throughout the session, she conducted a variety of experiments, including:

Titrating vitamin C levels in orange juice to see if they matched the label’s claims.
Synthesizing Yellow Dye #6, a common additive found in snacks like Cheetos.
Extracting caffeine from both decaffeinated and regular coffee for comparison.
Investigating the side effects of sugar-free sweeteners on the human body.

These hands-on experiments gave Yvelisse a deeper understanding of how chemistry and marketing intersect, while also sharpening her lab skills. Just as importantly, she connected with other high school students who share her excitement for science and engineering.

Her experience at Smith not only challenged her but also inspired her to keep pursuing new opportunities in STEM.

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