Established in 1944, the Southern Mountain Workship was awarded to a graduating senior who was expected to work for nine to ten months in the isolated rural communities of Appalachia with the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers, as well as at two centers run by the CSMW. A stipend was awarded, as well as room and board for the duration of the "workship." The program was administered by a committee made up of Smith College faculty and administrators, in conjunction with the CSMW.

Faculty members of the Southern Mountain Workship Committee included:

• Dorothy S. Ainsworth, '1916
• Stephen T. Crary
• Alison Cook, 1918
• Virginia Corwin
• Alice N. Davis
• Florence R. Day
• Neal B. DeNood
• Harriet Hitchcock
• Margaret Alexander Marsh
• Miller, H. (Harriet Zimmerman or Henry Laurence, Jr.)
• Marie Schneiders
• Gertrude Parker Smith
• Eleanor Lincoln Terry
• Kathering Reding Whitmore

The Southern Mountain Workship award was given to the following students: