Dartmouth College is defined by its people, and 3D is a magazine that tells their stories. It’s not meant to be comprehensive, but an evolving snapshot as vibrant and prismatic as the school itself. 3D is Dartmouth in all its dimensions.
A short drive from campus, the Gile Mountain Trail in nearby Norwich, VT ends in a fire tower that offers 360-degree views of Vermont and New Hampshire’s vibrant fall foliage. Photograph by Don Hamerman Cover illustration by Yifan Wu SEPTEMBER 2022 // ISSUE 14 02 First Hand 03 It’s a Fact 06 Humans of Hanover 12 Think Dartmouth is Beyond Reach Financially? Not Anymore. 16 Walking the Walk 20 Basecamp to the World 24 Welcome Home 26 Welcome to the Woods 32 Onward & Upward 34 D-Plan 38 Courses of Study 42 Funding Outside the Lines 44 On Course 48 Threads Dartmouth College is located on traditional, unceded Abenaki homelands. Admissions Editorial Board Erin Burnett, Editor Topher Bordeau Isabel Bober ’04 Sara D. Morin Student writers Gabriel Gilbert ’23 Selin Hos ’25 Shuyi Jin Chukwuka’23Odigbo ’25 Estelle Stedman ’23 Sydney Wuu ’24
• W ill your college or university meet my full financial need, at least as the school defines it, for all four years? (Yes.)
• How much must I earn during the school year? (This element is called the student contribution, or self-help Federal work study is $2,450 per year.)
• Is my transportation to and from campus covered? (Yes.)
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• W ill I be required to borrow money to finance my education? (No.)
Financial aid counselors emphasize financial fit as a key ques tion. In short, does the aid award from a college make sense for you and your family, in the context of your family’s broader financial resources, needs, and priorities?
• What’s the ratio between scholarship and loan? (Dartmouth does not include loans in its aid awards.)
I was a first-generation college student neither of my parents graduated from college and I needed significant financial aid to fund my undergraduate education. So, given my personal background, questions of college access and affordability are personal to me.
• W ill my financial need be part of the admissions decision made by the college if I am not a U.S. citizen? (Never.)
Consider my title at Dartmouth: I am Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid. But let’s break that string of words into more manageable bites. I am Dartmouth’s dean of financial aid as much as I am its dean of admissions even if “admissions” usually draws more attention from folks. To me, each is an equally critical component of my job. Financial aid is the fuel that enables the admissions “car” to run.
Bottom line: The policy details of each school’s financial aid program and its resources matter, and the policies and resources vary from college to college. Sometimes they vary a lot, so make a checklist with these categories, and get answers from every college on your list before you apply. If you hear more “no” answers than “yes” answers, think hard about financial fit, espe cially when an emotional tug invites you to overlook the financial reality of a particular option. Don’t let “cost” be a dealbreaker as you put together your short list of possible colleges, until you have done your home work. Need-based aid opens far more opportunities than it closes. On this last point, Dartmouth has made several milestone enhancements to its financial aid policies in recent months, and, as you will see, those developments serve as a catalyst for some of our storytelling in this issue of 3D.
• W ill my financial need, at least as defined by the college, be fully met? (Always.)
• Are there resources for things like winter clothing for a kid like me from a warm place? (Yes, although not as part of the formal aid award.)
• W ill my financial aid cover study abroad and other off-cam pus programs? (Yes.)
• Is the required health insurance included in my aid award? (Yes, it is added in June for students who need health insurance.)
Admission officers emphasize “fit.” The academic program, the people, the place at a college or university must each align with your persona, aspirations, and values. I call those qualities “the three Ps,” and they should guide any successful search. Each applicant assesses each “P” through an individualized prism (a bonus “P,” if you will).
• How much must I earn during the summer? (Most students earn a minimum of $1,000–$2,500 each summer.)
Lee A. Coffin Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid
When affordability is a non-negotiable factor in your deci sion-making process, as it was for me in the spring of 1981, a financial award must be received and reviewed and ulti mately measured against your family’s finances. Here are a few of the key questions to ask each college on your emerging list (with Dartmouth’s responses, for what it’s worth, noted in parentheses.)•Willmyfinancial need be part of the admissions decision made by the college? (Never.)
• Based on my family’s income and assets, is a parent contri bution required? (Dartmouth guarantees a “zero” parent contribution for any family with income and typical assets below $65,000 USD.)
admissions.dartmouth.edu | 3 It’s a fact. CLASS OF 2026 PROFILE FINANCIAL AID AT DARTMOUTH NEED-BASED ∙ NEED-BLIND ∙ 100% OF DEMONSTRATED FINANCIAL NEED MET NO PARENT CONTRIBUTION= For families with $65K in household income and typical assets3 1 Dartmouth will not include loans as part of the financial aid award created to meet a student's demonstrated need, regardless of income or citizenship. 2 Average scholarships include the cost of health insurance coverage. To get a personalized estimate of your financial aid award at Dartmouth, visit dartgo.org/3Dcalculator. 3 Zero expected parent contribution for families with $65K USD or less in total income and who possess typical assets. As of August 2022 6.4% Admit Rate 50 64 U.S. States Nations IncomeTotal Average Scholarship2 $83.5K $0 $65K $100K $150K $200K+ $72.8K $65.2K $48.4K $34.3K = NO REQUIRED STUDENT LOANSAll need-based aid recipients1 The average need-based scholarship for the Class of 2026, a record high $66K+ 80% $66,818 The average scholarship for a member of the Class of 2026 equals 80% of the cost of attendance 1516%% 44% 26% 1129 Students in the Class of 2026 17 % 94% First Generation to CitizensInternationalCollege of U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents Are Pell Grant Recipients Students Graduating in the Top 10% of Their Class of U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents are Students of Color Students Belonging to HouseholdsLow-IncomeWorldwide
Dartmouth’s liberal arts curriculum has allowed Arturo to deeply explore connections between seemingly disparate dis ciplines. “I’m primarily interested in the quantitative analysis of educational ecosystems, the degree to which we can use mathe matical data and models to better understand those systems, and the factors that predict good outcomes for those systems,” he says.
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He’s also discovered an interest in Korean history, particularly within the late Chosŏn dynasty, a time when “a huge influx of foreign influence was coming into Korea for the first time after it had been relatively isolated from the West. I’ve been able to research that time period through the lenses of language, religion, international relations, and history.” This January, Arturo will begin a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholarship which provides students with funding for research assistantships with Dartmouth faculty to study artistic and cul tural exchanges of objects and artworks in premodern Korea with Associate Professor of Art History Sunglim Kim. The pair will study the network of intellectuals and missionaries who helped populate the East Asian wings of art museums in the Northeastern United States. “We’ll try to understand how that relatively small group of people has influenced how the entire Western world thinks about Korean art so far into the future,” Arturo says. Outside the classroom, Arturo values the relationships he’s built in his church, the international student community, and in Dartmouth’s Research, Writing, and Information Technology (RWIT) Center, where he serves as a peer tutor. As the chair of RWIT’s diversity and inclusion committee, Arturo helps support non-native English speakers and multilingual students, designing and installing a mural in the center that celebrates the diversity of languages spoken at Dartmouth. “I want to make a statement that on this campus your accent, your variations, your identities are more than welcome they’re celebrated.” Arturo hopes to pay forward the guidance he’s received from his peers and faculty mentors. “Be humble enough to receive help from the people who are dying to give it to you,” he coun sels. “It also makes a difference to be able to give back the help you’ve received.”
HOMETOWN: PANAMA CITY, PANAMA MAJORS: MATHEMATICS MODIFIED WITH PUBLIC POLICY ON THE APPLIED MATHEMATICS TRACK; ASIAN SOCIETIES, CULTURES, AND LANGUAGES MODIFIED WITH HISTORY Where Math a HAMERMANDONBYPHOTOGRAPH HAMERMANDONBYPHOTOGRAPH 4 | admissions.dartmouth.edu
Double majoring opened up Arturo Serrano Borrero ’24’s world as did modifying both of those majors, a process that allows students to combine courses from related areas of study to investigate a specific problem or topic. “An interdisciplinary approach to a single area is incredibly valuable,” he says. “It’s the best feeling when you can make connections among topics in public policy and education and later measure what you’re learning in your linear algebra class. When you’re able to make those connections, you have a more complete understanding of how the world works.”
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Pictured: In Sanborn Library History Meet
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“I am perpetually curious. Apart from the relaxed, cozy campus that feels much like a reading nook, Dartmouth offers myriad opportunities to satiate my particular curiosities. When visiting Dartmouth, I stared up at the second floor of Robinson Hall where The Dartmouth newspaper is written. I was struck with the intense desire to enter, propose potential stories, and employ my creativity to write imperative articles. Until I get to do that, I will maintain my perpetual curiosity of things Dartmouth will satisfy.”
Jesse Chan ’26 , Kansas City, MO “Dartmouth offers the perfect mixture of a rigorous, undergraduate-focused program and a myriad of out door pursuits for a nature-loving nerd like me. The pros pect of exploring my Asian American identity in ASCL 7.03: Asian American Art and Architecture, getting early experience in real-life engineering through the FYREE program, and shredding the mountain biking trails with the Mountain Biking Club thrills me. As somebody with experience leading outdoors, I can’t wait for not only my First-Year Trip, but for the First-Year Trips I’ll lead as an upperclassman.”
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Anika Mukker ’26, Folsom, CA
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Kyrylo Bakumenko ’26, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Na’ilah Johnson ’26, Chicago, IL “As an introvert, First-Year Trips and Sophomore Summer appeal to me because they create a comfortable space to get to know others. They also show me that Dartmouth cares about its students and wants them to build commu nity throughout their whole college experience. Outside the classroom, the Take A Faculty Member to Lunch Program allows students and teachers to bond over a meal at PINE Restaurant. Encouraging students to create personal relationships with students and staff shows that Dartmouth wants everyone to feel comfortable.”
Daniel Gakpetor ’26, Tema, Ghana “As someone with several passionate yet divergent interests, I find creative self-expression and unrestricted lifelong learning in Dartmouth’s liberal arts program and in the D-Plan. I relish the opportunity to nurture my passion for product design by creating next-generation biomedical devices with Professor Kofi Odame while improving my creative writing skills in a Writing 5 class. By leveraging this multidisciplinary approach to education, I will become a well-rounded thinker and problem solver who can successfully apply these cross-cutting insights to solving Ghana’s cross-sectoral developmental challenges.”
“I dream about Dr. Seuss’s lively letters pulling me to a mid night snowball fight; slipping into Sanborn for tea; carving out a home within my House over four tight-knit years; adding to Professor Eugene Santos’s sparkling discussion on the human I in ethical AI; shooting for the moon in Aerospace Engineering Club; and zooming to the finish with Formula Racing. Then I rise in my dorm and think: Huh. I really did just dream about the upcoming events tab on my Google calendar. How weird. How wonderful. How Dartmouth.”
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Sally Young ’26, Geneva, NY
“My stride across the Green boasts the soundtrack of reflections from the weekly Great Issues Scholars lunch discussion. I reach Sanborn Library and arm myself with fresh tea before nestling in the Tudor room to review submissions for the World Outlook Journal, finish read ings for GOVT 85.38: Gender and War, and plan a week end excursion to Holt’s Ledge. Immersed in a community rooted in history yet dedicated to progress, where intel lectual growth and professional ambition are intersec tional with collaboration, at Dartmouth among vibrant fall foliage, comforted by the Hanover snow I belong.”
Rachel Kabala ’26, Detroit, MI
Eliza Miller ’26, Madison, WI
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Lucy Coleman ’26, Calgary, Alberta, Canada “Farm Club? Making maple syrup? Pizza night at the Organic Farm? Dartmouth Outing Club? Yes, please! As an out door enthusiast and sustainability advocate, Dartmouth’s commitment to the enjoyment and protection of the environment sets it apart. Dartmouth will provide me with skills to bring about change in human behaviour through courses like ’Sustainable Food Systems and Science’ and ’Policy and Diplomacy.’ I see myself living and learning in the Sustainable Living Center. As an avid drummer and musician, I will take advantage of the opportunities offered through the Hopkins Center for the Arts.”
DARTMOUTH IS DEFINED BY ITS PEOPLE, SO WE’RE EXCITED TO CELEBRATE THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY. IN EXCERPTS FROM THEIR “WHY DARTMOUTH” ESSAYS, STUDENTS FROM THE CLASS OF 2026 SHARE WHAT DREW THEM TO THE COLLEGE.
“At Dartmouth, I will transform my outdoor adven tures into meaningful environmental contributions. Whether studying local policy, collaborating with the Sustainability Action Program to implement water con servation initiatives my passion since conducting inde pendent research in a nearby brook or exploring trails with the Dartmouth Outing Club and varsity cross coun try team, I am eager to immerse myself in my surround ings. Inspired by the ENVS 72: Nature Writers course, I strive to reflect upon these experiences through Frostinfluenced poetry.” admissions.dartmouth.edu
Garrett Crouch ’26, Edmond, OK “I remember attending the Indigenous Fly-In program in early October. Although I wasn’t able to experience Hanover in person, I was awestruck by everything from the kind, collaborative nature of the faculty and current undergraduates to the utterly captivating snapshots of Indigenous Studies professors working alongside Native students scraping moose hide in the foliated Hanover wilderness. The underlying thought of being able to step foot on campus and contribute to a Native community that made me feel so special solely from a computer screen is what definitively captivated my interest.”
Mia Compton-Engle ’26, Cleveland, OH
FT Chiu ’26, Hong Kong “As an aspiring entrepreneur, Dartmouth’s focus on cultivating and advancing innovation not only inter ests me greatly but will allow me to flourish. I’m par ticularly excited about the DALI Lab, where I’ll become equipped to develop novel solutions for sustainable energy adoption. As I learn about design thinking and market research, I’ll capitalize on Dartmouth’s innova tive approaches in turning students’ ideas into reality. Whether through TuckLAB or ELLC, Dartmouth will enable me to conflate my experiences, new and old, and apply them to further advance my clean-tech venture.”
“I believe bookstores are microcosms of their communi ties. In Hanover, I discovered two such stores. At Left Bank Books, I watched a Dartmouth student discover a rare book for her senior thesis and throw her arms around the store’s owner in excitement. In Still North Books, I saw Dartmouth undergraduates conversing intently over coffee, inches from community members browsing the shelves. These scenes captured what Dartmouth exem plifies for me: rigorous intellectual engagement with inti macy and a strong connection to community. That’s the power of smallness, and why I love Dartmouth.”
“During the sweltering summer of the Midwest, I listened to Tulio Huggins ’23 my Dartmouth Bound Leader (DBL) address my question: Will I fit in at Dartmouth? With a dazzling smile on his face, he replied, ’Are you serious? Dartmouth is home...with small class sizes, a flexible curriculum, and, most significantly, a focus on festivals that bring people together.’ The dialogue between my DBL and I made me realize Dartmouth IS home…where I will thrive and grow as a student while embracing my individualism because of Dartmouth’s diverse curriculum and living communities.”
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Pictured: In a dressing room at the Hopkins Center for the Arts
JOHNSONEMMA any HOMETOWN: OMAHA, NE MAJORS: THEATER AND QUANTITATIVE SOCIAL
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Emma credits faculty members like Production Manager Brianna Parry and Technical Director Jason Merwin with creating a level playing field in theater classrooms on campus. “Bri and Jason refuse to be called ’professor,’” she notes. “They want there to be a connection between the students and the teacher such that we learn from one another.” Thanks in part to the encouragement of her faculty and peers in the theater department, Emma spent her sophomore summer on the department’s Foreign Study Program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where she took coursework in classical performance. At the suggestion of her first-year academic advisor, Associate Professor of Theater Michael Ganio, Emma has also been exploring quantitative social science (QSS). “I’ve always had an interest in both fine arts and STEM and knew I wanted to incorporate both into my education,” she says. “QSS allows me to bring together my appreciation for computer and data science, economics, entrepre neurship, and finance.” Emma now serves as a research assistant to a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and spent a winter break participating in the Tuck Business Bridge Program, an immersive three-week experience designed to prepare under graduates and recent alumni of liberal arts and STEM programs for careers in Emmabusiness.hasn’tdecided whether she’ll pursue graduate studies, entrepreneurship, or a national musical tour after graduation. For now, she’ll continue to draw on the skills she’s learned in and out of the classroom in her student-centric work on both Class Council and Interhouse Council, where she plans social programming for her peers and serves as a voice for the Class of 2024. “Dartmouth is a place I can call home. My peers are my family. It’s always been very important to me to make our programming accessible and inclusive. That’s what I want to use my voice for.” Selin Hos ’25
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“Whenever I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed, I find myself in the costume shop,” says Emma Johnson ’24, who utilized the maker space in Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts (the Hop) to learn how to sew a dress from scrap fabric. “The theater department’s costume shop is an educational space for anyone who wants to come in and learn. It’s a space that prompts me to explore in ways I hadn’t before.” In fact, Emma spends much of her time outside of class at the Hop, whether singing with the Dartmouth Opera Lab, directing rehearsals for her production of Lizzie: The Musical, or gliding in the air during practices with Dartmouth’s aerial circus performance troupe. “Studying theater and fine arts helps you to become a more well-rounded person,” she says. “I’ve found a home in the performance groups on campus.”
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Professor Hicks Pries: When you’re in classes, talk to your professors, find out what they’re researching, and see if it interests you. Start up conversations with them before or after class, come to their office hours, and start discussing what they’re doing to get a better idea of what opportunities there are.
Lali: My biggest piece of advice is that if something sounds interesting to you, go for it. I came into Dartmouth thinking I would be pre-med, but I found Caitlin’s lab, gave it a shot, and here we are three years later. The culture around here is very accepting, welcoming, and helpful. You have a lot of people cheering for you!
Lali: Right now, we’re researching a dry tundra ecosystem in Greenland. We’re exploring how climate change differences in temperature and mois ture gradients, for example affects how much carbon is being respired into the atmosphere.
her journey at Dartmouth and make sure she receives the opportunities she needs for her growth and studies. I’ve helped her decide which classes to take and supported her in different pursuits, like applying for the Department of Biology’s Foreign Study Program. Lali will be going to Costa Rica this winter to conduct research in a tropical rainforest! What do you enjoy most about undergraduate research at Dartmouth?
CITLALLI “LALI” VERGARA ’23 FOUND A FACULTY MENTOR IN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES CAITLIN HICKS PRIES THROUGH DARTMOUTH’S WOMEN IN SCIENCE PROJECT (WISP), WHICH PAIRS FEMALE-IDENTIFYING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS WITH FACULTY MEMBERS ON PAID RESEARCH PROJECTS IN STEM DISCIPLINES. THE TWO HAVE BEEN WORKING ON A RESEARCH PROJECT THAT ANALYZES THE ROLE OF SOIL CARBON IN CLIMATE CHANGE. DR. HICKS PRIES IS NOW ADVISING LALI ON HER SENIOR THESIS, A RESEARCH PROJECT THAT EXAMINES THE INTERSECTION OF BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY IN LALI’S HOMETOWN OF LOS ANGELES. How and why are you researching the vulnerability of soil carbon to climate change?
Lali: I really appreciate our mentor-mentee relationship. Caitlin encourages me to engage with the questions that we’re dealing with, look at them from slightly different angles, and ask questions of my own. Half the lab is com posed of undergraduates like me, so our weekly lab meetings have helped me become comfortable with the field itself. I’ve also taken two classes with Caitlin BIOL 16: Ecology and BIOL 26: Global Change Biology which have made the study of soil ecology much more approachable.
WISP was the catalyst for your partnership. How do you support one another in and out of the lab?
Professor Hicks Pries: What I personally love about working at Dartmouth is that the College supports undergraduate student research so much. When I’m bringing undergraduates into my lab, I don’t expect them to have prior research experience. Thanks to Dartmouth’s support and Lali’s efforts, she will definitely be a contributing author on a scientific paper by the time she graduates.
Do you have any advice for students who want to get involved with research at Dartmouth?
Professor Hicks Pries: Lali had an interesting idea to try to look at controls on soil carbon in this dry environment from a more spatial perspective. Now, we’re running with it to look at how elevation, aspect, and slope different parts of the topography could control the amount of carbon. Because we’ve been working together since she was a first-year, I feel like I’ve really gotten to know Lali beyond the lab. I also feel like I’ve been able to guide her on
CITLALLI VERGARA ’23 she / they MAJORS: BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY HOMETOWN: LOS ANGELES, CA & CAITLIN HICKS PRIES she / her / hers
Lali: What makes research special here is the sheer number of opportunities available in this undergraduate-centric environment. I’m a first-generation student who had never done research before coming to Dartmouth, so I really, really appreciate the ways that professors help students find avenues to pur sue original ideas. Plus, many Dartmouth students are paid to do research my project is sponsored by the E.E. Just Program, which helps create and fund research opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Professor Hicks Pries: Yes, we’re looking at how much carbon is being stored in the soil and its vulnerability to being lost through respiration, which is the process by which microbes eat organic carbon then breathe out carbon dioxide. The Arctic stores massive amounts of carbon in the soil. Scientists are worried about what’s going to happen to this soil carbon as our climate warms because warming speeds up microbial activity, which can increase the amount of soil carbon being lost as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which causes more warming a positive feedback to climate change. Much of the research in the field so far has been focused on very wet environments, but much of the Arctic is a polar desert.
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Pictured: At the Dartmouth Outing Club House
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F inancial aid is an investment in people. It is an essential resource in support of a mission-critical, institutional com mitment. And it serves our overarching objective to bring the best of the best to Dartmouth, from across the United States and from around the world, to exercise their gifts and talents in a high-powered academic community where they can not only pursue their interests and pas sions but also address some of society’s most pressing and vexing challenges. That is the promise of need-based financial aid, and it is a promise that has animated my work as an admissions officer and as an admissions dean for three decades. CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Dartmouth ’91, said it well at a finan cial aid gathering on campus last spring: “Financial aid shapes the future.” It is also an institutional priority, and a professional responsibility, that I feel quite Whenpersonally.Iwasappointed Dartmouth’s dean in early 2016, a reporter for The Dartmouth, the student newspaper, noted my background as a first-gen eration college student and asked me, “How is your first-gen identity an important component of your professional background?” “Being first-gen and being a financial aid recipient is an indelible part of my DNA as a person and as an admissions officer,” I replied. “It informs every thing I do in my role.” I then added: “As Dartmouth imagines and plans the upcoming campaign to raise significant new resources for financial aid, it means the College has a dean with a deep, visceral commit ment to access and affordability, someone who understands the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the forms and the deadlines, of need-based financial aid in a firsthand way.” Now and always, when I champion access and affordability when I describe the urgency of this essential resource to trustees and donors I see the dividend of that investment every time I look in a mirror. It is one of my most deeply held values. Financial aid, like the admissions process overall, represents opportunity. After all, admissions without financial aid is like a cyclist without a bicycle or a baker without an oven. For applicants for whom financial aid is a key element of their college outcome a steadily swelling, global cohort representing over 70 percent of all applicants to Dartmouth last year the question of affordability is the non-negotiable element of each college search. It looms over every cam pus tour, every SAT session, every character typed by anxious fingers as the Common Application and Free Application for Federal Student Aid (or FAFSA) are completed. It’s huge. Our students and alumni, as well as our faculty and staff, take pride in Dartmouth’s long, deep history of expanding access through need-based
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DARTMOUTH IS BEYOND NOTFINANCIALLY?REACHANYMORE. LEE COFFIN, VICE PROVOST FOR ENROLLMENT AND DEAN OF ADMISSIONS FINANCIAL AID
• Extend full financial aid support to undergraduates studying off campus, including terms abroad.
These new policies all of which will be in effect for the Class of 2027 enhance the deep and enduring commitment to full and equal access to a Dartmouth education. Taken together, these policies level the playing field as we invite students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to join the Dartmouth community.Universal loan replacement the most recent leg of the “Triple Crown” was announced by Dartmouth President Philip J. Hanlon ’77 at an on-campus reunion event on a Saturday morning in June. The alumni in the auditorium responded with a standing ovation.
My family drove a different car every year while I was in college because my father kept downsizing our station wagons to pay the parent contribution of my college bill. So, when I consider the impact of a zero-parent contribution for families with incomes and assets below $65,000, I imagine the relief my own hardworking father of five would have felt as he struggled to honor the hopes of his oldest son to attend a private liberal arts college. It was an opportunity my family could not have afforded without need-based aid but it was an outcome he did not want to preempt. Financial aid opened that door for me. These new Dartmouth policies open many doors for many more. Taken together, our significant new aid resources expand the scope and reach of the work we do across all income bands around the world. As an immediate proof point: the mean scholarship for the just-enrolled Class of 2026 reached a record high of $66,818 for the 2022-23 academic year alone. That is 80% of the total cost of attendance.
As the Valley News, the local newspaper serving Hanover and the sur rounding Upper Connecticut River Valley, noted: The no-loan policy “extends the reach of Dartmouth financial aid to a broader band of the middle class and even so-called ’upper-middle class’ families who don’t qualify for the types of financial aid for which lower-income students are eligible but aren’t wealthy enough to afford to pay the full $83,802 tuition, room and board to attendStudentThatDartmouth.”wasme.loanswere
While those are surely the big three points in the “crown” I imagine, two other initiatives over that same period also deserve prominent mention. These are the College’s commitment to:
I worked summers and breaks at McDonalds; I drove the parts truck for a Buick dealership; I worked as a file clerk at an insurance agency. Those jobs bought my books and as a history major, there were lots of books to buy and they paid my portion of late-night pizza orders with my roommates.
• Became the sixth U.S. college or university to offer universal need-blind admissions to all undergraduate applicants while meeting 100 percent of demonstrated need regardless of citizenship;
These new policies enhance the deep and enduring commitment to full and equal access to a Dartmouth education.
• Eliminated all federal and institutional loans from financial aid awards and replaced the previously required loan with an enhanced scholarship of an equal amount, typically $5,500 per academic year.
• Offer full health insurance coverage to undergraduates on aid;
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Lee Coffin was appointed Dartmouth’s Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid in 2016. He previously served as dean of undergraduate admissions at Tufts University and as dean of admission at Connecticut College. You can listen to him on the Dartmouth podcast series Admissions Beat wherever you find your podcasts.
As President Hanlon explained that day: this move to a universal no-loan policy is intended to be particularly helpful to middle-income families, who often have to stretch their budgets to meet the cost of higher education. For many undergraduates, it represents an additional $22,000 in scholarships over four years. More than a few listeners told the President afterward that his announcement of the new policy gave them goosebumps; for me, I will confess, it prompted a few tears.
And I Toagree.borrow a celebratory analogy from American horse racing, Dartmouth achieved the Triple Crown of college admissions and financial aid policy in a little over 12 months beginning in the spring of 2021. Over that time, the College:
Just seven colleges and universities in the United States can celebrate this elusive trifecta. The dean in me is proud and excited to see Dartmouth make so many big moves in a quick 12-month span. The long-ago financial aid recipient in me is almost giddy. Barriers are crumbling, and I cannot help but reflect on this new set of aid policies from that very personal perspective.
In addition to that historic outcome, the initial round of universal needblind admissions mapped a very different geography for the ’26s as 15 per cent are the citizens of more than 60 nations, a record high for Dartmouth. More than a quarter of the first-year class are students from low-income families and communities around the world. As one alumna remarked at reunions: “This is a very different Dartmouth!” She’s right: It is a dynamic, global, heterogeneous Dartmouth across so many compelling dimensions! Of course, “affordability” remains a complicated concept for many fam ilies. Colleges follow the guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Education and FAFSA as we assess a family’s “ability to pay,” and many families find their resources stretched beyond reason by that definition of “need.” Alas, it is a formula beyond Dartmouth’s unilateral control, but there is much we can and do control. These new policies and resources are our proof point. The invitation from Dartmouth to students around the world is clear: Talented applicants from all backgrounds are welcome. Our venerable college in the North Woods of New Hampshire can act on its ideals of expanded access and affordability, and we can do so with clarity and confidence.
WUYIFANBYILLUSTRATION financial aid. The College has practiced need-blind admissions for U.S. citizens and permanent residents for decades, and it has always met 100 percent of demonstrated need for all undergraduates regardless of citizenship. For the 2022-23 academic year, Dartmouth undergraduates are receiving scholarships totaling over $130 million with $34 million awarded to this year’s first-year class alone. Both are historic highs. This longstanding, ongoing investment in people reached new heights over the past year. With over $400 million in new resources, a series of sweep ing financial aid policies made it possible for the College to reset its financial aid landscape in a profoundly new and impactful way. “It’s a sea change,” is how my colleague Dino Koff, Dartmouth’s director of financial aid, put it.
• Eliminated the parental contribution for students from families with annual incomes and typical assets of $65,000 or less;
a mortgage I took on my future: I borrowed over $20,000 to finance my own undergraduate education and then paid it back over the next 10 years while working as an entry-level admissions officer. As I contemplate a $22,000 swing from indebtedness to scholarship, I smile. It would have been a game changer during my early career, as I know it will be for students who imagine careers in fields with lower degrees of entry-level compensation.
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Having unlimited possibilities was my dream for college. I wanted somewhere I could try things I’d never tried, learn what I’d never learned in high school, and be someone I’d never been able to be. I imagined that Dartmouth, as my college, would be a canvas. Even four years later, that’s true. Every day I wake up on campus, I’m reminded that I’m at my dream school; every day, I’m home. Coming from a working class household with parents who couldn’t tell me what a traditional four-year college experience looked like, Dartmouth represented the unknown. Before classes started, I was invited to attend Dartmouth’s Indigenous Pre-Orientation Program. I met students from Native cultures that spanned several continents whose upbringings mirrored mine. Having that cultural connection allowed those early friendships to click. I spent my first fall term staying up late studying with friends in the Native American Program Lounge, watching movies in the basement of the Native American House, and jumping headfirst into programming for Indigenous Peoples’ Month. I had a corner of campus that felt unequivocally mine, like a home base it made Dartmouth feel amazing, and I wanted to share it with others. During my first year, I started documenting my favorite memories and moments on the Office of Admissions’ student blog. I continue to write for 3D magazine, which allows me to tell the stories of some of the incredible individ uals that make up our community. As a peer mentor to prospective students in the Dartmouth Bound and Indigenous Fly-In Programs, both dedicated to helping prospective students from backgrounds like mine, I can advise students on their own journeys to Dartmouth. These tasks never feel like jobs, but exten sions of my love for Dartmouth. My academic pursuits have been inspired by Dartmouth’s Native commu nity. Indigenous communities are on the front lines of language revitalization, fighting to preserve their endangered languages in a rapidly globalizing world. It felt right when I chose my linguistics and Native American and Indigenous Studies double major. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, I received mentorship and funding that jumpstarted my own project on accessing differ ent worldviews through the Hawaiian language. Because of my community, I found a field that continues to excite me, motivates me in my classes and projects, and inspires my possible life after college it’s an accidental passion, and it’s Dartmouthperfect. hasn’t only helped me better understand the world and the hidden mechanisms behind my own lived experiences it’s changed my under standing of who I am. I’m keenly aware of the stories that brought me here, I’m beyond satisfied with those I’ll leave with, and I’m overflowing with excite ment for the ones I’ll get to tell after I graduate. Here, I’ve truly learned about community not as a group of people, or a social unit, but as an ever-growing interface between my evolving self and an endless world.
Indicates location on the Dartmouth Green where Gabe is standing.
A LINGUISTICS AND NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES (NAIS) DOUBLE MAJOR FROM STAFFORD, VA, GABRIEL GILBERT ’23 BEGAN WRITING FOR DARTMOUTH’S PEOPLE PLACES PINES BLOG AND 3D MAGAZINE DURING HIS FIRST TERM ON CAMPUS. SINCE THEN, HE’S SERVED AS PROGRAMMING CHAIR FOR HŌKŪPA’A, DARTMOUTH’S PAN-PASIFIKA STUDENT ORGANIZATION, ACTED AS THE IVY NATIVE COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE FOR NATIVE AMERICANS AT DARTMOUTH, AND BECOME DEEPLY INVOLVED WITH LINGUISTICS RESEARCH. NOW A SENIOR FELLOW IN THE OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS, GABE REFLECTS ON HOW DARTMOUTH’S NATIVE COMMUNITY HAS BECOME HIS HOME AWAY FROM HOME IN HANOVER. WalkingtheWalk GABRIEL GILBERT ’23 admissions.dartmouth.edu | 17
Pictured: In Rauner Special Collections Library
Designing
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Anthony’s mission is informed by his identities as a first-gen eration college student and public high school graduate as well as his experience with an internship in the Family and Criminal Court division of the New Jersey Courts. There, he saw firsthand how a conviction for a nonviolent offense can severely limit a per son’s access to jobs, loans, and quality education. “The work I’m interested in is rooted in the concept of restorative justice,” he says. “For a multitude of reasons, your zip code can determine the quality of your school. I don’t want students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds to see college as another challenge they have to surmount, but as a gateway to any opportunity they couldThrwant.”ough the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Social Sciences' First-Year Fellows program, which places Dartmouth students with alumni mentors in policy internships in Washington, D.C., Anthony spent his first-year summer interning at the U.S. Department of Education under the guidance of Lauren Kennedy ’02. He learned how the federal government distributed relief aid to students and colleges during the pandemic and helped determine organizations’ aid eligibility. “I saw firsthand how the federal gov ernment and private institutions like Dartmouth work together to address crises such as the pandemic. I also saw in action many of the theories and concepts I was learning in my ‘Introduction to Public Policy’ class,” he says.
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Anthony’s view of educational policy was further transformed when he took ENGS 12: Design Thinking with Assistant Professor of Engineering Rafe Steinhauer, whose research interests include education design. “I fell in love with design thinking because the whole premise behind it is that, through design, we can cre ate the world we want to see,” Anthony says. He believes that a human-centered design minor challenges students to solve problems by examining community needs. “The government department gave me the foundation to understand why polit ical problems exist. Design thinking gives me the tools to help solveAfterthem.”graduation, Anthony plans to attend graduate school and one day become a lawyer or education advocate. “I can see myself as a litigator within the Department of Education advo cating for different federal statutes or regulations. I see myself helping folks who have been incarcerated by ensuring that they have access to quality education. As I look toward the future, I want to have a widespread social impact.”
“I see education as something that not only empowers and uplifts but inspires,” says Anthony Fosu ’24. “Dartmouth’s mission is to raise student leaders who are the best in their fields and are really passionate about their work, then send them out into the world to help solve the issues our communities are facing. For me, that comes in the form of addressing inequalities in education.”
ANTHONYFOSU’24 he / him / his HOMETOWN: KEYPORT, NJ
MAJOR: GOVERNMENT; MINORS: PUBLIC POLICY & HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN
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On his commute to high school in Washington, D.C., Matt often encountered people experiencing homelessness near the Capitol Building. “To see people living in tents in the shadow of alabaster monuments and marble statues at the seat of hegemonic power in the world that juxtaposition of extreme power and extreme poverty just doesn’t compute. I began volunteering at a homeless shel ter and realized the stories of the people I met there weren’t being told.” Matt later created Invisible, a film that centers the stories of people experiencing homelessness outside the Capitol Building. At Dartmouth, Matt’s worldview was trans formed after taking four sociology classes with Associate Professor of Sociology Jason Houle. “He showed me how the study of people, power, and inequality can further my use of filmmaking as a social impact tool. He helped me think about the impact of stories on people and policy and how I could analyze that quantitatively.”
IN AND OUT OF THE CLASSROOM, YOUR DARTMOUTH EXPERIENCE CAN CROSS INTELLECTUAL AND INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES.
“My end goal is to create collaborative media centers to make films about solutions to homeless ness,” Matt says. “A big part of my experience at Dartmouth was learning how to think creatively in addressing problems that are facing the world. It’s a place that’s helped me make real change.”
“We must be headlights and not taillights.” The quote from John Lewis, civil rights icon and for mer member of Congress, was part of a speech at a Pulitzer Prize anniversary event in which Lewis encouraged journalists to help their readers envi sion a more just world. Matthew Gannon ’22, recently named an inaugural John Robert Lewis Scholar by the Washington-based nonprofit Faith and Politics Institute (FPI), intends to do just that. T hrough his coursework in film and media studies and sociology, Matt has been a “head light” in the effort to reduce the stigmatization of people experiencing homelessness. He has pro duced documentaries that have raised awareness and thousands of dollars for unhoused people, including Under the Bridge, a film he co-created for one of his classes. The film won the Best Student Documentary Award at the Global Impact Film Festival for its portrayal of a man experiencing homelessness. “I think we need new ways of think ing about how to address homelessness, incarcer ation, and the stigmas that surround people who have experienced those injustices,” Matt says. “My hope is to use film and media to tell peoples’ stories in ways that reduce those stigmas.”
T he Lewis Scholarship connected Matt with contemporary nonviolence practitioners and civil rights leaders during trips to Washington, D.C., where he and the other Lewis Scholars met with government, business, and nonprofit leaders engaged in social impact work. In March, the cohort joined members of Congress in FPI’s annual Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma, Alabama. This fall, Matt will continue his studies as one of 41 recipients of the Marshall Scholarship, which funds graduate education for top American stu dents at universities across the United Kingdom. He’ll first earn his master’s degree in sociology at the University of Manchester, where he’ll study the relationship between media representation, the stigma of homelessness, and support for inclusive housing policies. He’ll then pursue another master’s degree in an experimental documentary program at the University of Edinburgh, where he’ll research the structural barriers to primary care faced by unhoused people in Scotland.
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CÉSAR ALVAREZ they / them / theirs ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MUSIC
Magic spells. That’s what students can expect to create in the classes of Assistant Professor of Music César Alvarez. The acclaimed composer, lyricist, playwright, and performance-maker teaches introductory songwriting courses grounded in the “fundamental idea that songwriting is part of what it means to be human.” “If a song is a little magic spell, then a musical is a whole spellbook,” muses Professor Alvarez, who received a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship to produce their musical The Potluck, which will premiere in New York in 2024. The writer of five musicals FUTURITY, The Elementary Spacetime Show, NOISE, The Universe is a Small Hat, and The Potluck describes their songs as literary. “I consider myself a musical storyteller in that the music I write is quite often in the service of some sort of story or transformation.”ProfessorAlvarez was recently awarded the Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre for most promising lyricist in American musical theater. “I love musicals because they cause people to listen to music in a really specific way. And because they’re funny and colorful and wild and they require so much community.” Every one of Professor Alvarez’s musicals also contains “some kind of dimensional crossing in which we step into a new reality.” In The Universe is a Small Hat, audience members play the role of humans seeking refuge on a ship piloted by sentient androids fleeing Earth. In NOISE, which will be performed at the Hopkins Center for the Arts in 2023, “the whole audience becomes implicated in the cre ation of the show.” They add, “I really want my work to be a joyful site for transformation. My hope is that when you go see one of my musicals, you’re absolutely bewildered and delighted. I think part of writing musicals is having optimism about creating this very large collage of songs with the hope that it means something to people.”Professor Alvarez’s teaching is informed by their background as a jazz saxophonist, band leader, and sound artist. “As a profes sor, I’m trying to create a space where people can birth themselves as what they really want to become. Teaching is a really big part of my practice. I learn so much from my students.” In MUS 36: Songwriting 1, which is open to all regardless of major, sixteen students each produce ten songs that they share with their peers over the course of the term. “Ten weeks and 160 songs later, we’re completely transformed. For me, a classroom should be a space of vulnerability and experimentation, because that’s how learning takes place. You can learn to do anything. You just have to be willing to be bad at it.” Of their Guggenheim and Kleban honors, Professor Alvarez acknowledges that awards are not an end goal of their work.
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“When you make art, your job is to journey into the unknown. I like to be in that unknown with my students. ‘Success,’ to me, is determined by the impact of the magic spell.” Estelle Stedman ’23
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Pictured: In their Hallgarten Hall office
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HOME
WELCOME
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The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society prepares Dartmouth students to shape a more sustainable and equitable future through interdisciplinary learning and research opportunities. The Irving Institute’s new building in the West End is a hub for students, faculty, and global experts invested in meeting future energy needs of societies around the world. The building, which is among the most energy efficient on campus, is home to Dartmouth’s Sustainability Office, research and demonstra tion labs, a café, classrooms, and study spaces including the bright atrium, which features tables made of sustainably harvested wood from the Second College Grant.
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By Sydney Wuu ’24 admissions.dartmouth.edu
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W ith the early September sun overhead, sounds of spirited laughter carry over the Green, the heart of campus, as many incoming students prepare to begin their Dartmouth journey.
Older students with vibrantly dyed hair wearing neon tutus, patterned leggings, and wild onesies line the paved sidewalks cheering and dancing as their newest classmates meet one another. Excitement and chatter fill the air as upbeat tunes blast from speakers outside Robinson Hall. These are some of the first sights and sounds of First-Year Trips.
First-Year Trips commonly known as “Trips” is a signature program that welcomes incoming students to Dartmouth through peer-led outdoor adventures across New England. A collaboration between the Outdoor Programs Office and New Student Orientation, the Trips program serves as one of many layers of support for incoming first-year students.
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More than 90% of every incoming first-year class elects to participate in First-Year Trips. Whether camping in the nearby White Mountains, hiking the Appalachian Trail, kayaking on the Connecticut River, or exploring the sur rounding Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont, students participating in Trips have the opportunity to build connections with the outdoors, create lasting support networks, and forge lifelong friendships with their peers.
Though there is a fee associated with First-Year Trips, the Outdoor Programs Office collaborates with Dartmouth’s Office of Financial Aid to modify each individual’s fee based on the aid they receive from the College. Brandon remembers enjoying lively conversation while paddling and bonding over meals with his fellow Trippees. “I’m a person who really likes food,” Brandon says, “and it was so nice to cook on outdoor stoves together and share community through food.” Now, Brandon views his leadership role as Associate Director of Trips as an opportunity to give back.
During her cabin camping Trip, Eiha Patnaik ’25 and eight other first-year students traveled to Lake Armington in Piermont, New Hampshire, where they enjoyed kayaking, playing icebreaker games, and sharing pita and peanut butter with their Trip Leaders. “A lot of my Trippees are still my good friends to this day,” she says, “and my Trip Leaders have helped me navigate Dartmouth in many ways. They’ve given great advice.” Eiha later teamed up with one of her fellow Trippees to host a Dartmouth College Radio show, which they titled after an inside joke from their Trip.
“Transitioning into any new space but especially college can be such a difficult thing to do. I’m really excited to be part of a team of people who also care a lot about supporting incoming students and providing them with the opportunities to feel connection and belonging in this community.”
A TRIP FOR ALL Brandon Zhou ’22 had never kayaked in a river before his First-Year Trip. He was initially concerned about gathering the gear he’d need but was relieved to learn that the Outdoor Programs Office offered free rentals for dry bags, hiking boots, tents, packs, stoves, sleeping bags, microspikes, and more.
On the final day of Trips, all Trippees and Trip Leaders reunite for Lodj Day, which occurs either at Moosilauke Ravine Lodge or at the McLane Family Lodge. The unifying capstone of the program, Lodj Day marks a final cele bration of community before students resume New Student Orientation in Hanover. Trippees and Trip Leaders enjoy lawn games, contra dancing, movie screenings, letter-writing to their future selves, and a home-cooked meal. Emily cites Lodj Day as her favorite part of her own First-Year Trip. In fact, she applied to become a Ski Lodge support captain or ’Sklodj Croo’ Captain after her own experience made her feel welcomed. “Lodj Day is what made me feel most excited to be a part of the Dartmouth commu nity. The energy and excitement of my Trip Leaders made me want to help give that same amazing experience back to new students.” As a Sklodj Croo Captain, Emily is now involved in planning efforts to make Lodj Day as comfortable as possible for students of all personalities. In an effort to introduce opportunities for more downtime, Captains have introduced craft and board game stations. “Lodj Day isn’t just for people who are superextroverted,” Emily says. “It’s for everyone.”
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
Last year, Samantha Palermo ’24 was a Trip Leader for the cabin camp ing and performing arts Trip. While choreographing goofy beginner-friendly dances and playing improv theater games, the members of Samantha’s Trip felt their bonds grow. “The theme of the Trip is really just the means to an end,” Samantha says. “Learning how to kayak or trying timber sports for the first time are definitely amazing secondary goals, but the primary focus is welcoming people.” This fall, Samantha was thrilled to lead a social impact Trip in partnership with the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact, which helps prepare students to become transformative leaders for the common good. “I had phenome nal Trip Leaders who really helped my transition into Dartmouth go smoothly, so I love having the opportunity to pay it forward and welcome the incoming class,” she says. “If this is your first time spending an extensive amount of time in the outdoors, know that you’re not the only person who is feeling that way. Trip Leaders are trained to be there as a resource and a guide. I lead Trips with the mindset that we’re going to use the outdoors as a means to build connections and community.”
Remembering her own Trip, Armita recalls that her favorite moments were often small ones, like getting to know her fellow Trippees over the macaroni and cheese that her Trip Leaders prepared on an outdoor stove. Today, Armita is still connected with her Trip Leaders, attending one’s thesis presentation on criminal justice and another’s dance show.
COMMUNITY BEGINNINGS
“I’ve lived in cities my whole life, so when browsing the Trip options, I immediately knew that a less strenuous option would be the perfect intro duction to the outdoors for me,” Ivy says. She fondly recalls gazing at the sunset over Boston Lot Lake, where among a cohort of strangers turned friends she felt vividly enveloped by the community and the natural beauty that prompted her to choose Dartmouth as her home for four years.
Aiwei “Ivy” Zhang ’25, an international student with a global back ground that spans Hong Kong, Germany, and Singapore, enjoyed listening to the rustling of leaves and the sounds of the river flowing on her hiking Trip. The program offers multiple variations of hiking Trips for everyone, whether a first-timer or seasoned expert.
Solange Acosta-Rodríguez ’24, co-chair of both People of Color Outdoors and Cabin & Trail, is looking forward to becoming part of Sklodj Croo this year after leading a hiking Trip last fall. She fondly recalls getting to know her Trippees over s’mores and showing them the parts of campus that make her feel most at home, like Pine Park at the north end of campus. “Trips is a way to show incoming students what Dartmouth can be,” Solange says. “The genuine care put into the program reflects the strength of com munity that students can create once they’re here.”
Thanks to a volunteer base of hundreds of current students, Trips thrives on a high degree of student management and leadership. According to Trips Director Jack Kreisler ’22, that effort is a labor of love. “Every student who volunteers to help coordinate Trips was also once an incoming student,” Jack says. “I want to be part of a team effort to help first-year students feel safe and supported as they find a home here.” Each Trip is themed around an activity and consists of a small group of incoming first-year students and two older student Trip Leaders who guide the group’s activities and lead first-year students in getting to know their new classmates. Most Trips take the form of an outdoor excursion, but students can choose from a wide range of multi-day adventures like museum exploration, organic farming, whitewater kayaking, and cabin camping with nature writing and art. For many students, Trips is one of their first encounters with outdoor recreation. “You don’t need to be outdoorsy to go on Trips,” says Associate Director of Trips Brandon Zhou ’22. “Trips is, in part, about engaging with the outdoors, but it’s much more about who you’re doing it with.” Over the years, the Trips program has developed its own quirky vernacu lar that’s quintessentially Dartmouth. Tripmates come to know each other as ’Trippees’ and student-led support teams are affectionately known as ’Croos.’ The Hanover Croo is based on campus; members of Vox Croo are safety and logistics specialists; Lodj and Sklodj Croo members support operations at Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, a cabin owned and operated by Dartmouth in the White Mountains, and at the McLane Family Lodge situated on the Dartmouth Skiway in nearby Lyme, New Hampshire. All of those Croos, Jack says, work together to ensure first-year students feel welcomed and sup ported in their transition to college.
For Emily Aldous ’25, Trips offered the opportunity to exercise her green thumb. Emily and her mother had planted a vegetable garden together in quarantine during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so she felt at home during her Trip just three miles down the road from campus at Dartmouth’s Organic Farm. There, she and her fellow Trippees harvested watermelon, corn, kale, and peppers. “Everything we harvested we then ate in a huge lunch together,” she remembers. Emily is now a member of several Outdoor Programs Office organizations, including the Mountaineering Club, Ledyard Canoe Club, and Cabin & Trail, a student group that organizes hiking and backpacking trips around New Hampshire and Vermont.
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A member of the first-generation low-income (FGLI) community at Dartmouth, Trips Inclusivity Coordinator Armita Mirkarimi ’25 notes that outdoor spaces can sometimes be intimidating and inaccessible for students from underrepresented backgrounds. She works to make Trips an accessible and celebratory experience for students of all identities and levels of comfort with the outdoors. “I want to create spaces where people of different back grounds are not intimidated by the outdoors, where they can walk in feeling welcome and encouraged to ask questions,” she says. “In our Trip Leader and Croo trainings, we center conversations around identity, difference, and inclusivity.” Armita says those efforts extend long beyond Trips, noting that the People of Color Outdoors (POCO) Club continues that mission by organizing outdoor excursions that are primarily led by students of color.
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LODJ DAY: A CELEBRATION OF TRIPS’ SPIRIT
Samantha
“I lead Trips with the mindset that we’re going to use the outdoors as a means to build connections and community.” Palermo ’24
In many ways, the Dartmouth journey of Jessna Brar ’24 is about embracing the unexpected. She never saw herself competing on the varsity heavyweight rowing team until a friend mentioned that the team needed a coxswain. “I said to myself, ’Why not give it a shot?’” she remembers. “I joined the team and haven’t looked back since.” Now, Jessna counts her teammates among her strongest supporters on campus, and she represents them on the StudentAthlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). “The nature of our sport means that we all look forward to something greater than our selves. You think about everyone collectively, because there is no room for selfishness on this team. When I go to the library, I’ll always find a teammate to study with. When I go to the dining hall, I always find a teammate to eat with. If you need anything, someone is always there for you. I think that’s beautiful.” When it comes to her athletic and academic responsibili ties, Jessna has mastered the art of balance. In the spring, she traveled to New Jersey to compete in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s national championship, where the team placed 5th in the country. The trip overlapped with final exams. “Dartmouth professors are very understanding of student-athletes’ sched ules,” she says. “If you make a plan, you can stay focused on yourAnpriorities.”economics and mathematics double major, Jessna has her sights set on law school or a master’s degree in data science. For now, she’s leaning into Dartmouth’s liberal arts curriculum to explore her fascination with history, an interest inspired by her dad’s military service. During her sophomore summer, she received funding from Undergraduate Advising and Research (UGAR) to conduct research with Associate Professor of History Paul Musselwhite. The project: analyzing newspaper and land records data from Saint Kitts and Nevis to investigate the planta tions of the colonial British Empire. They hope to uncover patterns in how estates were named with respect to size, location, and the presence of enslaved people. Though Hanover is over 6,000 miles away from her home town of Chandigarh, India, Jessna chose Dartmouth, in part, for the strong bonds she knew she’d make. She ultimately attributes the strength of her drive to the passion of her peers. “Surrounding yourself with so many different people who have achieved so much and who are brilliant inspires us to challenge one another in different ways. I’m pushed by my teammates and my friends every single day seeing them working hard inspires me to work hard,” Jessna says. “It helps me become the best version of myself, and in doing so, helps others go forward.” Chukwuka Odigbo ’25
JESSNA BRAR ’24 she / her / hers HOMETOWN: CHANDIGARH, INDIA MAJORS: ECONOMICS AND MATHEMATICS Dream 30 | admissions.dartmouth.edu
Pictured: At the Friends of Dartmouth Rowing Boathouse
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NEAL KATYAL ’91 HAS ARGUED MORE SUPREME COURT CASES IN U.S. HISTORY THAN ANY OTHER MINORITY ATTORNEY, BREAKING THE RECORD HELD BY THURGOOD MARSHALL.
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“I STILL GET NERVOUS BEFORE EVERY SUPREME COURT CASE,” HE RECENTLY TOLD DARTMOUTH ALUMNI MAGAZINE. “AS I PASS IN FRONT OF THE COURT, IT SOMETIMES BRINGS ME TO TEARS TO SEE THE INSCRIPTION, ’EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW.’ ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS I SEE INSIDE THE BUILDING IS A STATUE OF CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN MARSHALL, AND THERE’S A SPOT ON HIS FOOT I ALWAYS RUB.”
Arguing a case before the Supreme Court, Katyal told DAM, “is about facilitating a conversation among the justices.” Before every Supreme Court argument, he warms up by discussing it with his three children. “They ask questions. Now they are old enough to truly understand the cases, but when they were 5, 7, and 9, forcing myself to explain one to them was a way to confirm I’d gotten to the heart of the issue.” The recipient of virtually every award a lawyer can win including the Edmund Ralph Award, the highest award bestowed upon a civilian by the U.S. Justice Department Katyal still remembers the mentors he met in Hanover. “Dartmouth debate coach Ken Strange was the most important teacher of my life. Before every Supreme Court argument, I think of the lessons he taught me,” Katyal told DAM. “I’m a reasonably good lawyer, but I’m far better at aggregating a team of really talented people and harnessing their insights, which is much more the Dartmouth way than at other colleges.” After graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in government from Dartmouth, Katyal spent one year coaching the Dartmouth debate team of which he’d been a member as an undergraduate before attending Yale Law School. He then went on to clerk for The Honorable Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and The Honorable Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. Katyal has argued 45 cases before the Supreme Court, which include successfully striking down the Guantanamo military tribunals, defending the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act, and defending the Peace Cross in Maryland. Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States the federal government’s top courtroom lawyer under the Obama administra tion, where he was responsible for representing the federal government in all appellate matters before the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals throughout the nation. Today, he is the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University and a partner at law firm Hogan Lovells. A member of Dartmouth’s Board of Trustees, Katyal continues to channel the lessons he learned during his time as an undergraduate. “A Dartmouth education is collegial and about learning from each other,” he said at a dinner with students during a visit to campus. “I’ve always tried to bring that spirit into all the teams I build, whether that’s in the gov ernment or at Georgetown or in the private sector.”
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Love Tsai ’23 Hometown:she/her/hers Metro Detroit, MI Major: Mathematics on the Pre-Health track Minor: Public Policy
Fall I took a particularly interesting course in the engineering department, ENGS 13: Virtual Medicine and Cybercare, which focused on health systems and designing more robust public health measures. Each lecture was taught by a guest speaker, which allowed students to hear from experts in each field about numerous healthcare challenges. My favorite part of the course was our final research paper. We were tasked with designing a novel healthcare solution to fix one problem in the current American system. I learned a lot and had the privilege of serving as a teaching assistant in the course during my junior fall. Fall Elite institutions like Dartmouth were a big mystery to 18-year-old Love. As a low-income student who was homeschooled for much of my life, I was more than ready to discover all that Dartmouth had to offer. I have many fond memories from first-year fall, including living in the Thought Project Living Learning Community (LLC) with a great group of people, joining Ujima Dance Troupe, and trying my hand at different student clubs. I ended up overcommitting myself and had to scale back in subsequent terms, but these first ten weeks on campus were a whirlwind in the best way! Summer I had already taken four terms of online courses from home in Metro Detroit and was starting to get antsy, so I opted to do this term in person just as things were opening back up. Being back on campus and seeing all my friends after more than a year was extremely cathartic. In addition, I was able to do a lot of fun things such as go canoeing in the Connecticut River, take an in-person dance class with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and operate as vice president of community service for my sorority. Even now, summer at Dartmouth has to be one of my favorite terms ever, and this particular summer was especially meaningful to the ’23s. Fall During the interim between summer and fall, I was a First-Year Trips Leader for the incoming class, co-facilitating the same Trip I went on my first year Cabin Camping: Performing Arts. During orientation week, I helped run events to welcome the ’25s, such as Q&A panels and karaoke night. This term, I was able to live in another LLC known as the Sustainable Living Center, which helps students learn how to reduce their environmental impact. Members are expected to cook for themselves using a shared grocery budget instead of utilizing the school dining plan. As someone who loves cooking, I really enjoyed the experience. Winter Coming back to school after six weeks at home during interim was harder than I anticipated, but I quickly settled back into campus life. One of my favorite memories was the annual school-wide snowball fight that happens after the first snowfall of the year. I wasn’t actually planning on going I think I had an exam the following day and was feeling a little homesick but my entire floor gathered everyone and trekked to the Green together. Once there, I had a great time and was so touched that everyone thought to include me even though I was already holed up in my room for the night. The community at Dartmouth has been a significant source of comfort and happiness during my time at the school, and this is still a particularly strong memory.
With Dartmouth’s distinctive year-round quarter system, you customize your own academic calendar. Dartmouth offers four 10-week terms per year. Within some guidelines, you choose which 12 terms to enroll and which to have incredible experiences elsewhere. Here, Love Tsai ’23 walks you through how she’s explored all Dartmouth and the world has to offer.
Winter I was very grateful when I found a clinical research internship near home. During my internship, I was able to both assist in bench research (PCR, culturing) and clinical research (in-person data collection, interacting with patients, enrolling them in studies). I hadn’t been able to get any clinical research experience because of COVID, so I was thrilled to be back in the healthcare setting again as a pre-health student. All the classes I’d taken thus far (biology, statistics, even English) served me well in helping me integrate into the lab and perform my tasks despite my otherwise limited practical background.
Summer During my first term off, I completed a cohort internship through the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact, which offers programming for students to learn how to apply themselves in ways that better our society. The non-profit I was assigned to was based in San Francisco and worked to combat gentrification, particularly the kind that affects performing arts groups. Everyone was friendly, and the small office size ensured that I could be active in every depart ment, from balancing budgets to writing memos to doing research. Now, I always recommend that first-years reach out to the College for advice on finding funded internships the established relationships and the greater accessibility make it a wonderful option.
FIRST SOPHOMOREYEAR YEAR JUNIOR YEAR Summer I secured a research internship in Germany in applied math, numerical analysis, and computational biology. Since the pandemic limited my ability to study abroad, I prioritized experiences that would allow me to continue research in my field of interest (using math to model and describe biology) while also giving me the chance to live internationally. This internship was paid, but I also received additional support from the Dickey Center for International Understanding through their Build Your Own Internship fund. I am so grateful for the emotional, logistical, and financial support the College has offered admissions.dartmouth.edume!
Spring The pandemic hits! As a member of the Class of 2023, I was able to enjoy two terms of in-person school before the world shut down in March 2020 because of the coronavirus. Though I was disappointed to not be at school, I took advantage of the situation by taking four classes during the pass/fail term rather than three, spending ample amounts of time with family, and allowing myself to relax without rushing from classes to extracurriculars to social events. This time would prove to be really important for self-discovery, so although I regret not being able to have a traditional college experience this term, I still think I grew a lot. Winter Another term, another ten weeks of classes. Pictures from these three months will tell you that I was able to enjoy hot pot and many other home-cooked meals, spent too much time watching K-dramas and the like with my family, and studied a lot for BIOL 13: Gene Expression and Inheritance. BIOL 13 is one of the many classes pre-health students may take for graduate school applications. Although it has an intimidating reputation, I found BIOL 13 extremely rewarding. One of our final tasks in the course was to make inheritance problems for students in the future let me know if you ever see a question about the genetics of zebra-like unicorns!
D-Plan
Spring I embarked on one of the toughest courses I’d tackled yet: organic chemistry. I was quite nervous before starting the class since it’s notorious for being very difficult. However, many introduc tory science courses during the pandemic shifted to flipped classrooms, where all content is learned before class and students spend class time solving problems together and applying the knowledge. Though most organic chemistry classes have now shifted back to the more conventional way of learning, my section used the flipped classroom model. Personally, I loved this approach and did pretty well in the course because of it.
Spring After my off-term, I headed back to campus. The spring of 2022 was when things finally started to get back to normal, so I was able to form stronger connections with my professors, attend research meetings in person, and do a real lab in CHEM 41 (just the second lab I’d done in person since my first year). I lived in another LLC this term, the Chinese Language House. This house is one of my favorite spaces on campus, complete with home-style kitchens, single bathrooms, and numerous living rooms and places to hang out. I loved living here and made some pretty great friends along the way.
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What’s special about doing research at Dartmouth in particular?
Professor Fossum: The reason I came to Dartmouth after being retired twice was to give back to society and to give back to people. Dartmouth is an outstanding place for undergraduate education not just because of the experiential learning that happens in its classrooms. The College also offers students opportunities to work closely with faculty members on leading-edge research across the campus. If I were an undergraduate and I had a long-term interest in furthering knowledge, this would be a top stop for me.
KATHERINE “KAT” LASONDE ’23 WON A GOLDWATER SCHOLARSHIP—ONE THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL SCHOLARSHIPS IN NATURAL SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS—FOR HER QUANTUM COMPUTING RESEARCH WITH PROFESSOR ERIC R. FOSSUM. ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING EXPERTS IN SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSORS, PROFESSOR FOSSUM INVENTED THE CMOS ACTIVE PIXEL IMAGE SENSOR USED IN ALMOST ALL CELL PHONE CAMERAS. TOGETHER, THE PAIR HAVE BEEN CONDUCTING RESEARCH THAT COMBINES KAT’S INTERESTS IN QUANTUM COMPUTING AND CLIMATE CHANGE WITH PROFESSOR FOSSUM’S GROUNDBREAKING QUANTA IMAGE SENSOR TECHNOLOGY.
KATHERINE LASONDE ’23 she / her / hers HOMETOWN: WINNETKA, IL MAJOR: ENGINEERING PHYSICS; MINOR: COMPUTER SCIENCE & ERIC R. FOSSUM he / him / his JOHN H. KREHBIEL SR. PROFESSOR FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
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Professor Fossum: The fact that I have this chance to work with Kat to explore this area is an awesome opportunity for me, too. Working with under graduates is fun because they’re filled with enthusiasm, and Kat’s really tried hard to learn what the state of the art is in this area and to advance that.
Kat: Because quantum computers use laws of quantum physics rather than classical physics, they’re really good at simulating molecules and molecular structures. Quantum computers have the potential to simulate different types of carbon neutral or carbon negative molecules that can significantly help the environment. For instance, to run a simulation of nitrogenase on a regular laptop or classical computer would take more than eight trillion years. The same simulation would take less than a day on a quantum computer. Because quantum computers aren’t powerful enough at present to simulate molecules that help counteract climate change, my plan is to work on building those computers. Specifically, I’m exploring the use of Professor Fossum’s quanta image sensor for quantum computing applications.
Kat: My dad was an engineer, so I grew up fascinated by the ability to fix and build things and never lost my love of tinkering. In my first year at Dartmouth, I was matched with Professor Whitfield, who studies quantum computing in the physics department, through the Women in Science Program. I had no idea what a quantum computer was, but as I started doing more and more research, I ended up really enjoying it and wanted to further explore the hardware work that Professor Fossum does. I emailed him out of the blue and said, “Hi, my name’s Kat, and I’m really interested in doing work with you.” And he said “Cool! Sounds great.”
Professor Fossum: There are two aspects to doing research. One is drilling deep in particular fields I’m kind of a ’driller’ in the image sensor field. But there’s also the dimension of cross-disciplinary work instead of drilling down, you’re drilling across. That’s equally important, and I think Dartmouth has done a good job of supporting both modes of research.
How did you become interested in quantum computing?
Professor Fossum: The goal is to investigate whether the quanta image sensor technology, which originated in my lab, might be useful for quantum computing readout of qubits, the memory storage bits for quantum com puters. Kat is working with the physics department and Thayer School of Engineering to try to create a proof-of-concept experiment that shows that the use of the quanta image sensor technology because of its super lowlight sensitivity makes for better readout than standard camera technology.
Why is quantum computing such a groundbreaking field?
Kat: When I first started this project, I actually didn’t even know that I wanted to connect it back to environmental science. But because I had that time in Professor Fossum’s lab and exposure to his image sensor technology, I thought, “Oh, maybe I can build a quantum computer and then stop climate change.” It’s given me a lot of confidence that this is what I want to do. After graduation, I hope to work in the quantum computing industry and one day earn my master’s in environmental science or environmental technology.
Kat: I’ve been able to have hands-on research experience as an undergradu ate in a really renowned laboratory with someone who has helped so many students before me. The ability to do cutting-edge research is just so cool. Quantum computing is a very young field, so there’s a lot of potential for me to make an impact.
Pictured: In the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center
Courses of
Curious
about the areas of study that Dartmouth offers? Dartmouth students needn’t declare a major until sophomore year, but the classes you take at Dartmouth will span disciplines far outside your chosen concentration. Here, Diana D’Souza ’23 highlights the departments in which she’s taken courses— and shares the inside scoop on her favorites. How will you explore? she / her / hers Hometown: Edison, NJ Majors: Government modified with Economics; Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages with a focus in Chinese African and African American Studies Ancient History Anthropology Applied Mathematics for Biological and Social Sciences m Applied Mathematics for Physical and Engineering Sciences m Art History Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages BiologicalAstronomyChemistry M Biological BiomedicalSciencesEngineering Sciences M Biophysical Chemistry M ClassicalClassicalChemistryArchaeologyLanguagesand Literatures Classical CognitiveStudiesScience M Comparative Literature M Complex Systems m Computer Science Digital Arts m Earth Sciences Economics Education m Engineering Physics M ASCL Social70.18Revolutions East and West: Japan and the United States in the 1960s Over the course of ten weeks, I studied the political and social histories of Japan and the U.S. through the literature, film, and music of the 60s. Professor Dorsey made this class incredibly fun by hosting a field trip to a nearby Japanese Zen garden and coordi nating a Zoom call with Japanese folklorist Goro Nakagawa. We rounded out the term by building digital music exhibits of Japanese songs and categorizing forms of authenticity in a final essay.
Study
I took this class with Professor Robbie during the pandemic. I was really nervous about taking online courses and trying a class out side my major, but so many older students had urged me to take this course. I’m so glad I listened to them. Professor Robbie challenged us to work in small teams to solve problems, such as designing a roller coaster with a limited number of materials or prototyping a mental health app for college students. I ended up enjoying the class so much that I became a teaching assistant and participated in the Designathon, a weeklong virtual design sprint competition.
MedievalMathematicsand Renaissance Studies* Middle Eastern Studies Music Native American and Indigenous Studies PortuguesePhilosophyNeuroscience(Lusophone Studies) PublicPsychologyPhysicsPolicy m Quantitative Social Science Religion Romance Languages M Romance Studies M RussianRussian Area Studies Social Inequalities m SpanishSociology(Hispanic Studies) Statistics m Studio SustainabilityArt m UrbanTheaterStudies m
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ENGS Design12Thinking
ECON 77 Social Entrepreneurship Dartmouth has many lecture-based economics courses like finance and microeconomics, but I love that the department also embraces experiential, hands-on learning. In this course, I worked in a team of three to create a financially-viable social enterprise called BayStay, which was designed to house individuals experiencing homelessness in the San Francisco Bay area. Professor Samwick guided us through the entire process, from coming up with a minimum viable product to building a business model. The best part of the class definitely was getting to present and see everyone’s finished projects. the World I signed up for this course last minute during my first-year fall, but to this day, it remains one of my favorite classes. Professor Washburn is a leading expert on Japanese translation and set aside class time for us to read his translation of The Tale of Genji, the world’s first novel! One of my biggest takeaways from the course was embracing creativity and pushing the boundaries of a typical academic paper. To that end, I wrote my final essay about Captain Underpants and an upside-down urinal.
Engineering Sciences EnvironmentalEnglish Earth Sciences Environmental Science m Environmental Studies Film and Media Studies FrenchFrench Studies M GlobalGermanGeographyStudiesHealth m Government Human-CenteredHistory Design m International Studies m ItalianItalian Studies M Jewish Studies m Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Markets,LinguisticsManagement, and the Economy m Materials Science m Mathematical Biology m Mathematical Finance m Mathematical Logic m Mathematical Physics m Mathematical Data Science M admissions.dartmouth.edu | 39
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies m = minor only M = major only *= major modification only GOVT International5 Politics GOVT 5 was my introduction to the gov ernment department. Professor Powers sup ported the class by providing us with reading guides and laying out clear expectations in her memos. Our course coincided with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Professor Powers adapted the material to reflect cur rent events. Two days after the attack, she organized an in-class Q&A session with gov ernment professor William Wohlforth and foreign policy expert Matthew Rojansky. This class ultimately sparked my interest in international relations, leading to my fall internship at the U.S. Department of State.
Stage
Pictured: On the trail to Gile Mountain in Norwich, VT
MAJORS: SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
JACK HEAPHY ’24 he / him / his HOMETOWN: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA
“I’ve always loved getting into the minds of characters,” reflects lifelong performer Jack Heaphy ’24. A fixture of Dartmouth’s per forming arts spaces, Jack dances with Dartmouth’s oldest dance group, Ujima, sings with the a cappella group the Brovertones, and recently performed in the Department of Theater’s MainStage production of Rent at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. “I’m inter ested in how an analysis of the lines in a script can reveal the inner motivations and desires and thoughts that a character has.”
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Jack’s desire to understand the characters he portrays led him to explore classes in psychology and theater before he ultimately settled on majors in sociology and anthropology. He says that his social science majors are inextricably tied to his love of the performing arts. “In sociology, I learn theories and frameworks about how people interact and how individual movements can change societies. In anthropology, I learn about specific cultures and communities over time. When I act in any role, I’m essen tially doing the same thing by getting into a character’s mind and understanding the inner motivations that fuel each of their actions. For me, it’s all about understanding the human mind.”
During his sophomore summer, Jack took a class called “Film and Visual Culture” with Jesse Weaver Shipley, the John D. Willard Professor of African and African American Studies and Oratory. “We used ethnography and other anthropological research prin ciples to examine African and African American culture through the lens of film and media,” Jack says. “The class perfectly com bined my interests in theater, art, and media with human-focused research.” This winter, Jack will study in Auckland, New Zealand on a Foreign Study Program offered jointly by the anthropology and linguistics departments. There, he’ll take classes on Māori cul ture, colonialism and its legacies in anthropological perspectives, and Aanthropology.ftergraduation, Jack envisions himself completing a service year abroad before turning to a career that combines his interests in design and theater. For now, he can be found hanging out with friends in his Greek house, leading First-Year Trips for incoming students, tutoring his peers as a teaching assistant in the com puter science department, and giving tours of campus. At the end of each tour, Jack leaves prospective students with a few words of advice the same ones he’d give to his seventeen-year-old self. “Enjoy your life in high school. Find what you’re passionate about it doesn’t have to be your lifelong dream or goal and do it. Find what makes you calm. One of the biggest realiza tions I’ve had since coming to college is that you must prioritize your happiness.”
MINOR: HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN
42 | admissions.dartmouth.edu While Dartmouth’s financial aid covers 100% of the demonstrated need of all its students, the opportunity for funding doesn’t stop there. Dartmouth students have access to resources that make all kinds of experiences possible and ensure that every student can take advantage of the diverse opportunities Dartmouth has to offer. We asked current students to share experiences made possible with Dartmouth’s financial support.
“The funding I received from the Mozel Charitable Trust in the Jewish Studies Program allowed me to travel to Egypt to conduct fieldwork as a part of my thesis. This project evolved into an exploration of contemporary issues related to the Jewish minority in Egypt, especially regarding the complex network of relationships between the local Jewish community, the diaspora of Jews from Egypt, and the Egyptian government. I had the opportu nity to embark on a project that has been the highlight of my academic career thanks to funding from Dartmouth’s exceptional Jewish Studies Program and the dedicated work of my thesis advisor, Professor Andrew Simon.”
’22 from Puerto Rico “As a Nicaraguan, I’m enticed by the countless outdoor activities that the New England landscape offers. The Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) organizes tons of outdoor activities that are open and free to all students. This spring, I went on a DOC-sponsored overnight trip to the Nunnemacher Cabin on the Dartmouth Skiway, where I reset my mind and body through nature and met awe some new friends. Sleeping in a cabin in the middle of the woods on a school night? Just another Wednesday at ’25Dartmouth!”fromNicaragua
’23 from New York “West House one of six residential house communities at Dartmouth sponsored a free weekend trip to New York City for its members. After exploring Times Square as a group, our House Professor Ryan Hickox distributed our tickets to the Broadway show Paradise Square. After a night of rest at our hotel which West House paid for we were ready to explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art the next day. We found ourselves lost for hours in hallways filled with ancient relics, famous paintings, and super cool monuments. It was an amazing experience to share with my house community!” ’25 from Louisiana
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“When I wanted to learn more about what I could do with an economics degree, I met up with Professor of Economics Eric Edmonds at Molly’s Restaurant in Hanover through Dartmouth’s Take a Faculty Member to Lunch Program. The program is designed to encourage students and faculty to have substantive conversations over a free meal at a local restaurant. Professor Edmonds asked me why I was drawn to economics, shared insight into his current research, gave me tips on course selec tion, and explained to me the endless career possibilities available with an economics degree. I hope to develop skills I can one day implement within Zimbabwe’s gov ernment to develop policies that allow for economic growth in my home country. It was definitely one of my most memorable moments at Dartmouth!” ’25 from Zimbabwe “This spring, I co-chaired the 2022 Caribbean Carnival: The Caribbean Experience, which took place at the Shabazz Center for Intellectual Inquiry. Our events high lighted rich Caribbean culture through social connection, food, dance, and community. Our committee secured funding for the Carnival from the Office of Pluralism and Leadership (OPAL), the Elections Planning and Advisory Committee (EPAC), Collis Governing Board, the Office of the President, the Dean of the College, and many other departments! I am extremely grateful for the many facets of support from our greater Dartmouth community and the invaluable lessons and memories I have taken away from this spectacular experience.“ ’25 from California “With the generous help of the Pearl Family Fund through the Department of Environmental Studies, I was able to secure funding for my summer internship with Solaflect Energy. Working directly under the COO, Rob Adams ’90, I developed superior lead aggregation by partnering with national solar lead generator companies, improving search engine optimization, and revamping Solaflect’s marketing strategy. The funding allowed me to gain firsthand experience with a company looking to be a central player in the transition to renewable energy.”
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What are Dartmouth students studying? In every issue, we feature a class plucked somewhat randomly from a deep reservoir of fascinating courses. and visualize data using the programming language R, working together to produce a group paper and presentation that teaches the class about our topic.Atthe end of the course, students join a community of scientists by adding their final project papers into an annual Journal of Agroecology for future students to reference. Professor Ong, pictured below during one of our classes at the O-Farm, says that one of her favorite parts of the course is watching students turn casual observations into meaningful connections. “My goal for every class is to inspire students to be creative and curious about the world around them. It’s really a hard task to do in the classroom, but when you take students out into a field setting and give them tools and ideas, it’s impressive what they come up with,” she says. “We only have one planet, and we need more people who want to make the environment a better place not only for humans but also for all the other organisms that live in it. I’m excited to work with young people who are passionate about makingSydneychange.”Wuu’24
ENVS 25: Agroecology On the first day of my sophomore summer, three miles north of campus, I hunt for damselflies on the banks of the Connecticut River to classify them based on their phenotype. I’m at Dartmouth’s Organic Farm, a 220-acre patchwork of unique ecosystems, including greenhouses, educational gardens, and bee hives. The O-Farm, as it’s lovingly called by community members, encourages visitors to learn about sustainable food and energy systems, making it a pop ular site for research, independent projects, and social events. It also serves as a living laboratory for certain Dartmouth classes including my ENVS 25: Agroecology course. The O-Farm is the perfect backdrop for the study of agroecology, which draws on principles of sociology, political science, economics, and ecology to better understand the socio-ecological aspects of food systems. “People and nature are often pitted against one another,” says Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Theresa Ong, our instructor for the course, “but when it comes to food, we see that we’re all part of the same system. We can use that familiarity to create more sustainable futures.” This field-based course gives my peers and me the chance to conduct ecological field research in a collaborative learning environment. In our very first class at the O-Farm, tours of the greenhouses and honeybee hives set the scene for our future lessons on historical agroforestry practices. In later classes, we split into lab sections to collect data on various field problems that explore the same overarching theme. For instance, when learning about agroecological matrices, my group explored how riparian buffers affect water retention on farms. Another group investigated how land use affects tick pop ulations in forests, and the last group analyzed how disturbances influence the presence of weeds on a farm. Back in the classroom, we learned to analyze
ON COURSE
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Pictured: In Moore Hall
On
Professor Chang’s passion for experiential learning radiates beyond the classroom and into his Computational Social Affective Neuroscience Laboratory (COSAN), where undergraduate research assistants collaborate with graduate students and post docs to solve problems using technology and behavioral science.
What are emotions and why do we have them? How can emo tions help us make better decisions? Growing up a competitive skier, Professor Luke Chang always wondered how frontal head injuries sustained during ski accidents affected cognitive abilities. Now, he teaches and studies the brain, working to build equip ment and software to objectively record emotional responses and study their functions. “Psychology is a little different from physics, biology, and chemistry in the sense that it’s a living sci ence,” Professor Chang says. “Psychology is the study of people by people.”Professor Chang was drawn to Dartmouth, in part, because it is the first U.S. college or university to own and operate a research-dedicated fMRI scanner. “Neuroimaging research is quite expensive and usually requires large grants. At Dartmouth, undergraduates can get involved and do this work.” His course PSYC 60: Principles of Human Brain Mapping with fMRI helps undergraduates fully grasp how to process and analyze neuroim aging data so they can test complex questions themselves. “To my knowledge, it’s one of the few courses in the world where undergraduates can learn how to do neuroimaging analysis,” he notes. “It’s such a rare opportunity.”
Another of Professor Chang’s courses, PSYC 53.10: Social and Affective Motivations in Decision-Making, belongs to a special category of coursework at Dartmouth: Social Impact Practicums (SIPs). A SIP is a project-based experiential learning class that connects Dartmouth’s undergraduate courses with community needs in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont. In partnership with local organizations like the Connecticut River Conservancy and the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD), Professor Chang and his students synthesize knowledge in economics, neuroscience, and psychology to design behavioral science intervention solutions that help their community partners tackle real-world issues.
LUKE CHANG he / him / his ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES
the Brain
The COSAN Lab borrows concepts from economics and com puter science like natural language processing, game theory, and computer vision to study emotions and social interactions using quantitative metrics. “The research is inherently interdisciplinary,” Professor Chang says. “What I’ve learned the most through my training is that a singular perspective is usually the wrong one.”
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Professor Chang’s favorite part of the lab is watching his students become excited about discovering an answer to a question. “Where we end up is always very different from where we started,” he says, “but along the way, in the anticipation of understanding how something works, you feel like you’re on the verge of Sydneydiscovery.”Wuu’24
Gabriel Gilbert ’23
Powwow and Lū’au
Note: The officers of the College believe that the information contained herein is accurate as of the date of publication, and they know of no significant changes to be made at the College in the near future. However, Dartmouth reserves the right to make, from time to time, such changes in its operations, programs, and activities as the Trustees, faculty, and officers consider appropriate and in the best interests of the Dartmouth community.
Organized this year by the Native Americans at Dartmouth (NAD) Powwow Committee and Native American Alumni at Dartmouth (NAAAD), Powwow is one of the largest events of its kind in the Northeast. Each year, singers and drum groups travel from around North America to perform, Native artists sell hand made jewelry and crafts, and participants dressed in regalia or cultural attire dance to music belonging to different Indigenous communities in a fusional honoring of Native cultures. The day after this year's Powwow, Hōkūpa’a Dartmouth’s pan-Pasifika organization hosted the College’s annual Lū’au, an event that celebrates Hawaiian and Pasifika culture through traditional food, hula, and live music. Powwow and Lū’au are traditions that honor Dartmouth's diverse, vibrant, and global Indigenous community. Celebrating these milestone anniversaries among my classmates, our fami lies, and alumni reminded me that this beautiful weekend will be waiting for me even after I graduate yet another reminder that Dartmouth is home.
48 | admissions.dartmouth.edu THREADS : ’23LEVINEJULIABYPHOTOGRAPH A PAGE FROM THE DARTMOUTH STORY
Equal Opportunity: Dartmouth is committed to the principle of equal oppor tunity for all its students, faculty, staff, and applicants for admission and employ ment. For that reason, Dartmouth prohibits any form of discrimination against any person on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, national origin, cit izenship, disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other legally protected status in the administration of and access to the College’s pro grams and activities, and in conditions of admission and employment. Dartmouth adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations.
Hundreds of people from around the Upper Valley and beyond gather every May for Dartmouth’s annual Powwow: a celebration of Indigenous culture through music, dance, and community. This past spring, I joined in the celebrations on the Dartmouth Green as Powwow marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the College’s Native American Program and the Department of Native American and Indigenous Studies.
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Dartmouth College Office of Undergraduate Admissions 6016 McNutt Hall Hanover, NH 03755 NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. DartmouthPAIDPostageCollegePermitNo.1383D is printed on 100% post-consumer text paper and 30% post-consumer cover paper. We’re excited to share Dartmouth with you. Learn more at dartgo.org/3Dvisit. Student Blog: dartgo.org/blog Instagram: @dartmouthadmissions Facebook: @dartmouthadmissions YouTube: dartgo.org/admissionsYT Podcast: dartgo.org/3Dpodcast Admissions Beat considers today’s top admissions headlines and hot topics. In each episode, Dean Coffin is joined by a roundtable of experts who offer advice and answer questions from listeners. Join Lee Coffin, Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Dartmouth College, for a podcast that can help families navigate the college admissions process. Listen at dartgo.org/3Dpodcast.
