Affordable Finds, Community Resources, and Accessibility Opportunities for Mt Holyoke Students

In college, penny-pinching is a crucial skill – suddenly no one is there to buy your groceries, your essay writing takes up too much time for a full-time job, and your car is always out of gas. However, as critical as this skill is to practice in your daily life as a college student, it is equally important in knowing where to start: but where do you start? 

There are innumerable facets from which you can derive individualized support, unique opportunities, and hidden treasures right here on campus. Additionally, I’ve included a brief list of additional (but equally accessible!) resources right beyond campus. Below are a few of the most remarkable resources I’ve found (however omitted from the day-to-day acclaim of MoHo students!):

The Career Development Center

The Career Development Center, or more commonly referred to as the CDC, provides countless student resources, opportunities to network, and connections to MHC Alumni all to help you find a job post-grad! I lead my list of accessible resources with the CDC since it is equally invaluable as it is commonly omitted from daily conversation. The CDC offers support to help you practice your interview skills, foster connections between yourself and other individuals within your field (and beyond, of course!), and can even offer assistance in attaining professional attire like blazers and business cards. Amidst this plight of meeting obligations, learning to live– and budgeting completely autonomously– and most notably, ensuring the work you’re putting in now is ultimately worth-while, it really never is too early to start planning and practicing proactivity through utilizing this free student resource!

Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab

The next deeply accessible, unique, and advantageous resource you can take advantage of right here on campus is the Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab. Located right next to Lower Lake (and featuring a portrait of autumn in Western Massachusetts, free to view!) Fimbel, as it’s commonly referred to, is the ultimate student-spot for creating, building, challenging the limits of space, and letting yourself explore your own capacity for creativity in a free and accessible way. A few of my favorite features of Fimble are the sewing machines, laser cutter station, and 3D printers (which aren’t completely free, but there is more than enough to explore and delve into without spending a cent). Utilize these student spaces to their fullest potential while they’re available to you!

MHC Archival Spaces: The Archives & Special Collections and the Mount Holyoke Art Museum

The most special (and accessible) opportunity available to students through campus resources, I’ve found, is within College Archival spaces, including The Archive & Special Collections (located in the Dwight basement) and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. The pasts of influential alumni, changemakers of Western Mass, and the opportunity to produce knowledge around these histories are illuminated and extended to students like you through these archival spaces (including the consortium!). Both history and knowledge are made accessible through these distinct spaces, materials, and resources offered. Knowledge is power, and the most ultimate form of unreplicable wealth. Take these spaces, and their associated opportunities provided, to construct an individualized, comprehensive understanding of the unique and extensive history of Mount Holyoke College

Beyond Mount Holyoke’s spectacularly unique (and equally affordable!) resources I’ve explored, additional student spaces appealing to affordability and the pressures presented by budgeting as a college student are just as beneficial to you. From my experience penny-pinching while attempting to seize the most from my college experience, the most invaluable community resources you’ll find are local thrift stores. You can use the activity as a device of connection, bonding over the trials and triumphs associated with thrifting, and simultaneously, can curate your own wardrobe suitable for New England’s rhythmically-harsh winters. Thrifting, of course, requires a bit of effort and is largely rooted in luck, but is also undoubtedly the most accessible route to take in getting your hands on a lived-in academia sweater, or that old pair of farmer’s overalls you’ve countlessly mulled over buying. You can find everything from books to shoes, from all the local styles. 

For both the cheap prices and unsystematic experience:

• Goodwill (1604 Memorial Dr, Chicopee, MA 01020)

• Saver’s (135 Memorial Ave, West Springfield, MA 01089)

• Salvation Army (310 Russell St, Hadley, MA 01035)

For cheaper prices, but a significantly more organized experience:

• Cinderelli’s Consignment (183 W State St, Granby, MA 01033)

• Angel’s Attic (34 Franklin St, Easthampton, MA 01027)

• Consign 360 (141 Damon Rd, Northampton, MA 01060)

Above I’ve explored the most accessible, affordable, and opportunistic resources found right here on campus and just beyond. Your college experience and as a student doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t be, constrained by fiscal limitations, being unaware of the remarkable resources available to you, or muddled by the doubts and/or fears of seizing these opportunities that surround you! Now is the optimum time to discover new passions, resources, and implement long-lasting practices (like experiencing college on a budget!), and I aim to make this pursuit a bit easier through this list, and explanations of accessible resources to you!

• #student budget
• advice
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• free resources