3D Magazine :: April 2023

Performing and Learning, Inside and Outside the Box, at Dartmouth

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.

FEATURES

12 A Backstage Snapshot of the Performing Arts at Dartmouth

28 Meet Dartmouth’s 19th President, Sian Leah Beilock

COLUMNS

2 First Hand

Dartmouth’s Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid advises college applicants to “take an existential selfie”

3 It’s a Fact

The Class of 2026—and Dartmouth financial aid—by the numbers

6 Humans of Hanover

Meet some of the first members of the Class of 2027, through excerpts from their application essays

20 Walking the Walk

A senior from Charlotte, NC, reflects on her leadership within Dartmouth’s Greek system

24 Basecamp to the World

A new program fuses engineering and German studies in Berlin

36 How to Open the STEM Pipeline

A call for new pathways for underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

38 Onward & Upward

A young alumna finds inspiration for her first novel

42 D-Plan

A senior who calls Montreal and Shanghai home illustrates the flexibility of Dartmouth’s quarter system

46 Courses of Study

A quantitative social science major dives into the Dartmouth curriculum

48 Funding Outside the Lines

Current students highlight how Dartmouth’s financial support extends well beyond financial aid

52 Threads

Dartmouth alumnae ensure an iconic campus building gets a renovation for the 21st century

Dartmouth College is located on traditional, unceded Abenaki homelands.

On the cover: Emma Johnson ’24 rehearses for the Department of Theater’s MainStage production of the pop musical Pippin.

Cover photograph by Don Hamerman

Photograph at left by Julia Levine ’23

Here’s a counterintuitive thing about a college search as it takes shape: it’s not about a college. Oh sure, you’re looking at colleges as you check out a campus and ponder its program, culture, and vibe. You wonder if it’s affordable, far enough from home, whether its degree will enhance your resume. Those are important considerations, but they lack context as a search commences.

An embryonic search requires a more personal point of reflection as your queue of institutional priorities takes shape. High school juniors and seniors need to ask themselves: Who am I? What’s the best environment for me to learn and thrive? What are my hopes and aspirations? A college search is your search. So, start with you. Hello, you.

I’m not advising narcissism. What I am advising is that you take an existential selfie, of sorts. By which I mean: hold up an imaginary camera, or mirror, and take an extended moment to pause and ponder what you see. Begin by asking yourself: What animates your personality, talents, interests, and goals? Write those things down. Add a degree of weighting to each item as a priority of more or less importance to you. Now, guided by that vivid, “high-res” selfie, assess your higher ed options.

Start with what I call "program." Do you like exploring, or are you ready for a specific academic path? Do you favor words

more than numbers or equations more than languages? Hands-on learning more than note-taking? Open options versus requirements? Every college offers a different answer to those personal inquiries, and they are important clues for you to examine. Do you favor discussion or listening, familiarity or more anonymity? Do 10 seats around a conversational table with a professor feel cozy and stimulating or too confining? Does a lecture hall of 500 with a faculty member presenting to you feel exciting or intimidating? Would you raise your hand? Do you want to raise your hand?

Those are clues about campus scale and classroom size from your perspective. My answer to those questions might not be yours. (I always preferred a small circle, and I raised my hand. But that’s me, not you.)

Now to sense of place. Are you a city slicker, outdoorsy, cosmopolitan, a hip kind of cat, a tinkerer, crunchy? Are you entrepreneurial, conservative, an activist, a geek? Are you laid-back or do you thrive on competition? Those qualities will ultimately inform the application you submit (more on that later) but, right now, they also inform the list you explore. Do you need a jazz scene nearby or a place to get your hair cut? Do you hope to watch your university play its football games on ESPN or is club soccer okay with you? How close is a major airport, and how straightforward would the semesterly trek to and from campus be? Do you want to drive or fly? Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it does. You tell me.

What else matters to you? How do you feel about snow? Humidity? Subways? Cows? Diversity? Brick sidewalks? Museums? Religion? Partying? Open spaces? Required courses? Politics? Night skies? A rah-rah vibe? Quarters versus semesters? Nightlife? Intensity versus chill? Are you a nerd who needs a community of nerdy peers? So many questions. Only you know the answers. Your sibling’s search last year wasn’t your search, even if you tagged along on the visits. For others, your best friend’s list does not need to sync with yours. Maybe it’s time for you and your twin to go solo. Maybe mom’s alma mater doesn’t sing to you even though you’ve been wearing the sweatshirt since you were in diapers. This is about you. Own it.

Begin your exploration and discovery phase with self-assessment then progress to your list of options. Your list will shift. Your priorities will rise and fall. A few might evaporate from your list and others might reveal themselves as you learn more about the various options and consider them through your own prism. It’s a fluid process. Shifts are normal, good even. A college that feels appealing might yield a type of college that hadn’t occurred to you like a women’s college or a rural campus. If so, check out a second one. Is a theme emerging, or was it a one-off reaction?

Be open to surprises. Set aside “reputation” as you begin your list and consider the substance of each place as you meet it. Today’s list won’t necessarily be the one you end up with at the application deadline. And don’t worry about those deadlines right now. This is the time to explore, try things on, sort things out. When something doesn’t resonate, let it go. When it does, look closer, add more options that channel whatever theme you’ve identified as important.

Make sure your selfie is “in focus.” Ready, set, click. What do you see?

Lee A. Coffin Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

It’s a fact.

910 High Schools Represented

1125 Students in the Class of 2026

16% 15%

First Generation to College International Citizens

FINANCIAL AID AT DARTMOUTH

$67K+ 80%

$67,127

The average need-based scholarship for the Class of 2026, a record high

The average scholarship for a member of the Class of 2026 equals 80% of the cost of attendance

45% 25%

of U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents are Pell Grant Recipients

17 % 95%

Students Belonging to Low-Income Households Worldwide

of U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents are Students of Color

Students Graduating in the Top 10% of Their Class

All need-based aid recipients1

= NO REQUIRED STUDENT LOANS

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.

Pictured: At Dartmouth Bikes' mechanic shop

A ’24 Finds His Cadence in Mechanical Engineering

WELLS WILLETT ’24

he/him/his

HOMETOWN: NEW PALTZ, NY

MAJOR: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

MINOR: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

“In my senior year of high school, my bedroom looked like a makeshift bike shop,” Wells Willett ’24 says, laughing as he recalls how he first began tinkering with bikes and unicycles. “I liked working with my hands, fixing up bikes in my bedroom or basement. And I’d always liked math. I think that was where my interest in mechanical engineering started.”

For Wells, the decision to major in mechanical engineering a branch of engineering rooted in physical machines, force, and movement was inextricably tied to his enduring love of biking. “A bicycle is a mechanical engineer's dream,” he says. “In one way, they’re so simple and useful but they can also be really complex and very cool to study and build.”

Some of the first engineering classes Wells took at Dartmouth including Introduction to Engineering with Elizabeth Murnane, an assistant professor of engineering helped him connect his interests in math and hands-on project work. “I realized I loved the process of figuring out how to solve a problem,” he says, “and I became especially interested in topics like fluid mechanics the study of fluid behavior because they’re key to understanding the operation of bikes.”

Wells later joined Professor Murnane’s Empower Lab, which aims to develop technology that promotes human well-being and the welfare of the environment. There, he studied how making it easier for people to access information about complicated electronic power systems, such as cars, can help them make more informed political decisions about those systems. “The research focused not just on what makes a piece of technology easy to sell, but also what makes a product good for humankind,” Wells explains. “It completely reshaped my perspective on what I think is important about engineering.”

Now president of the Dartmouth Cycling Team, Wells began racing competitively at Dartmouth. “As a high school senior, one of the things I loved about Dartmouth was that its students were excited about what they were studying, but were also deeply interested in being active outside,” he says. Last spring, the cycling team funded Wells’ trip to the National Collegiate Cycling Championships in Georgia, where he won the title of Omnium Champion, awarded to the top overall finisher at the event.

Wells still works in a bike shop not the makeshift one he created in his bedroom, but the one Dartmouth Bikes occupies in the lower level of the Fahey and McLane residence halls. The members of Dartmouth Bikes an initiative of the Sustainability Office collect abandoned bikes, refurbish them, and rent them out to students. “I've gotten even more into tinkering by working at the bike shop,” he says. “I’m so grateful that Dartmouth has opened up so many opportunities that have helped me figure out that I want to be an engineer.”

Erin Burnett

Riley Brinsfield ’27 Wilmington, DE

“The Policy Research Shop, the O-Farm, and the Sustainable Living Center would perfectly equip me to pursue my goals: tackling climate change and food inequality through regenerative agriculture and policy. I'm excited to join the Outing Club, to challenge myself during drill for Chinese, and to explore the Upper Valley.”

Ayman Hazaa ’27 Taiz, Yemen

“At 5'5", I'm small like Dartmouth, but I see my career in education journalism begin at Robinson Hall writing for The Dartmouth. I hope to tell stories with Dean Coffin on Admissions Beat after taking Tell Me a Story: Introduction to Nonfiction Radio and Podcasting. I envision myself conversing with my first-generation low-income brothers and sisters over tea at Sanborn.”

Zoe Jerva ’27 Gaithersburg, MD

“I'd leverage the D-Plan's versatility to study chemistry, art history, and applied mathematics. I imagine jumping headfirst into campus life: grabbing dinner with teammates after intramural ice hockey, having deep conversations over coffee with the Philosophy Society, or assisting backstage for the Rude Mechanicals Shakespeare troupe. Dartmouth's open, welcoming environment makes me confident that I'd feel at home.”

HUMANS OF HANOVER

Maria Hebling ’27 Valinhos, Brazil

“Dartmouth is the home I long for as I investigate social issues through art, building lasting bonds with people from plural backgrounds inspired by the same inquisitive spirit. I picture myself collecting marginalized communities’ stories at the ImpACT Winterim Leadership Initiative, pursuing an internship at the German Literature Archive, and creating poems at Spare Rib Magazine.”

William An ’27 Arcadia, CA

“I look forward to studying with professors like Dr. William Cheng to understand the interdisciplinary queer influence in contemporary music while decolonizing classical music. Whether playing in the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, the Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra, or studying abroad with the music department in London, I will enjoy the rich, diverse offerings while contributing to the Dartmouth community.”

Miriam Dia ’27 Towson, MD

“Avid composer, growing creative writer, and environmental science enthusiast, I draw inspiration from nature. The splendor of Dartmouth's Life Sciences Greenhouse entices me as much as the wild Appalachian Mountains and Connecticut River surrounding the College. The nature around campus is as crucial to me as the nature of the college community: warm, welcoming, and intellectually challenging.”

Hirunchupong ’27 Bangkok, Thailand

"Hanover is 1/1000th the size of Bangkok, but that's why I love it. Dartmouth is the perfect place to concentrate on economics modified with computer science, empowering me to leverage data to accurately model our world. I long to bury myself in Baker Library, play my cello at the Hop, and try the breakfast at Lou's."

Madi Shaer ’27 Needham, MA

“On a crisp October day, I will sit on the Green finishing an essay while reminiscing about my rowing practice. As the sun peeks through the trees on my walk to Decibelles rehearsal, I see the Roth Center, where my fellow Jewish students would have recently gathered for Yom Kippur. Dartmouth is the college where I hope to see, feel, and hear myself.”

Nathan Hammerschmitt Le Gal ’27 Lynn, MA

“I look to Dartmouth to grow an environmental identity. I see myself starting the day with an insightful exchange on climate stabilization policy with Professor Richard Howarth. I'll absorb a full canvas of vibrant coursework to view human impacts from different angles, support research projects in the Virginia Lab, and apply my passion for art at the Hood.”

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 2027 SHARE WHAT DREW THEM TO THE COLLEGE.

Jeffrey McAtee ’27 Louisville, KY

“As an art history major with a pre-health concentration, the Hood Museum of Art will inspire me to reach for the sky and embark on the art history Foreign Study Program (FSP) in Rome. The D-Plan and the Health Professions Program will allow me to focus on gaining additional clinical experience, facilitating a smooth transition to the Geisel School of Medicine.”

Votey Mom ’27

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

“Dartmouth will equip me with the tools to alleviate poverty in my country. I will work closely with the Tuck School of Business via TuckLAB: Entrepreneurship to leverage my ability to think critically. I’ll seek the mentorship of Professor Apoorv Gupta on the development of financial inclusion in developing countries and pertinent technologies viable in Cambodia.”

Roland Waguespack ’27 Metairie, LA

“I have always found studying Greek and Latin much like solving a complicated puzzle. Classical philosophers share deeper knowledge of thought, understanding, and even happiness that is often overlooked or misunderstood in modern society. The faculty at Dartmouth share my passion for historiography and how these ancient texts and philosophers shape the modern world.”

Kris

Captain

Follows in Her Father’s Footsteps

A

and Commander

KARINA MITCHELL ’23

she / her / hers

HOMETOWN: CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

MAJOR: BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

MINORS: SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY

When asked about the roots of her military and academic pursuits, Karina Mitchell ’23 immediately thinks of her father, a civil engineer currently serving in the U.S. Army.

“I have a core memory of my Dad’s deployment, taking him up to the airport and seeing him leave and then the joy of him coming home safe,” she says. “I look up to people in my family who were in the military because they taught me the importance of being willing to serve outside yourself.”

Now, Karina is following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, a Navy veteran, as Company Commander of Dartmouth’s Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), a program that prepares college students to become officers in the U.S. military. Karina undergoes intensive training and takes military science classes along with her Dartmouth classes. The leader of Dartmouth’s 13 cadets, Karina is particularly inspiring to other women of color looking to join ROTC.

“The Army tries really hard to build an inclusive culture, and so does Dartmouth,” Karina says. “You can tell people are making an effort to diversify this community. It’s a challenge, but we can’t be afraid to embrace that challenge.”

Karina is also the co-captain of the women’s varsity basketball team where she’s focused on creating a community and a culture. “That starts by helping people become accustomed to living a championship lifestyle,” she says. “A pillar of my basketball career has been leaving this place better than I found it.” Karina sees herself as a built-in mentor to her fellow teammates and cadets, adding: “Something that’s vital to my style of leadership is leading by example. If I want you to bring effort, I should bring that myself in a way that’s going to encourage you to follow me. That makes me a more effective leader.”

When not on the court or in the classroom, Karina can be found in Assistant Professor of Engineering Katie Hixon’s Tissue Engineering Lab. There, Karina studies wound care, “which is especially applicable to both the Army and athletics,” she says. “Using biomedical engineering, we can develop products that surgeons can use to heal soldiers and athletes.” She plans to complete graduate work in biomedical engineering before pursuing a career as an orthopedic trauma surgeon in the military.

But before embarking on that career, Karina will experience another milestone: she will be commissioned into the Army just one day prior to her graduation from Dartmouth in June. “In my eyes, it’s about taking advantage of every day that I’m given to do the things that I love to the best of my ability because I know that someone would love to be in my position.”

Clara Goulding ’25

Pictured: In the basketball team's lounge at Berry Sports Center

ELI HECHT ’23

he/him/his

MAJOR: COGNITIVE SCIENCE

HOMETOWN: BROOKLYN, NY &

JONATHAN PHILLIPS

he/him/his

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, PROGRAM IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE; AFFILIATED ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, PHILOSOPHY; PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR OF PHILLAB

AFTER TAKING PROFESSOR JONATHAN PHILLIPS’ INTRODUCTORY COGNITIVE SCIENCE COURSE, ELI HECHT ’23 WAS HOOKED ON THE STUDY OF THE MIND. THE FOLLOWING SUMMER, HE ASKED PROFESSOR PHILLIPS IF HE COULD BECOME INVOLVED IN RESEARCH IN THE PHILLAB. THE LAB DRAWS ON A BROAD RANGE OF METHODS EMPLOYED ACROSS PSYCHOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, LINGUISTICS, AND COMPUTER SCIENCE TO BETTER UNDERSTAND QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW OUR MINDS MAKE CHOICES WHEN FACED WITH AN ARRAY OF POSSIBILITIES. TWO YEARS LATER, THE PAIR SAT DOWN WITH 3D TO DISCUSS THEIR WORK TOGETHER.

How did you come to study cognitive science?

Professor Phillips: I studied philosophy as an undergrad and was interested in deep questions like ‘How do you live the right life? What's a good moral decision? Do we act freely or not?’ That led me to related questions that we can answer pretty concretely: ‘How do people make those moral decisions? How do we reason about what's possible?’ I started taking philosophical questions and thinking about them as cognitive science questions. I think Eli and I are very similar in loving deep insight into the mind.

Eli: Definitely. It’s so fascinating to me that through cognitive science you can connect hard science with bigger questions about how people make decisions. I really like that cognitive science draws on information from different fields like linguistics, computer science, and philosophy.

Together, you’re investigating people's ability to effortlessly understand the various ways a given situation might play out, depending, in part, on the choices made by those involved. Can you break that down for us?

Professor Phillips: I'll tell you a story, then I'll try to unpack it. So, imagine that your friend is telling you that they were the ring bearer at their sister's wedding. They realized ten minutes into the ceremony that they left the ring on the seat of the taxi. Then, that person tells you they decided to blame it on the maid of honor. Now: Did that person have to do that? Your immediate answer is probably ‘no.’ You can intuitively answer that question without ever having actually considered all the alternative things that your friend could have done. The cool idea here is that we seem to have an implicit way of understanding the alternative options that were available for a person in a given circumstance. Our project asks: can we study that set of possibilities rigorously?

Eli: Yes. The main idea is that we recognize that moral decisions and judgments about whether someone was forced to do something depend on context. Our goal is to predict responses to various high-level questions based on the set of answers that people come up with when freely listing actions that

the agent in a given scenario could have taken. We’re also investigating how those possibilities end up affecting the different decisions that one makes.

Professor Phillips: We find that when presented with novel problems, people imagine solutions that are remarkably good and that they actually tend to think of the best options first. We then go on to show that without consciously trying, people automatically have an intuitive sense for the kind of options that are likely available and that they use this intuitive sense to guide their decision-making and judgments.

What’s the most rewarding part of working in PhilLab?

Eli: I really appreciate the trust Jonathan has in me to explore these questions. It's not like I come into a lab meeting and he says, ‘This is what you need to do.’ Together, we say, ‘Okay, here's our goal. What do we each need to do to get there?’ Even though I didn't have that much experience coming in, Jonathan really trusted me to get started putting these studies together. He really listens and is receptive to my asking questions and suggesting pivots. Every step of the way has felt like we've talked it through together.

Professor Phillips: I don't expect students to come in with past research experience. What's really key is for you to come in with an excitement about the question you're going to engage in. A lot of the undergraduates in my lab are doing or have done graduate-level work that has been published in great scientific journals. Undergraduates play a really critical role in research at Dartmouth, and that’s my vision for my lab.

So, where does your research go from here?

Eli: We’ve been working on this project for two years and recently submitted it to a top general science journal. It’s so exciting to feel like I really contributed to this project and to know that all our work is paying off.

Professor Phillips: Absolutely. It’s just so much more fun to make discoveries with other people than to go into my office and close the door and just think. The most joyful part of research is to make these discoveries together.

Pictured: At Still North Books & Bar in downtown Hanover

A Backstage Snapshot of the

JOIN 3D FOR A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THEATER'S RECENT PRODUCTION OF PIPPIN, AND MEET SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT HAPPEN

BY ERIN BURNETT PHOTOGRAPHY BY DON HAMERMAN

Interested in pursuing the arts at Dartmouth as a performer, creator, or audience member?

The Department of Theater’s recent MainStage production of the pop musical Pippin which follows the main character’s journey to find his life’s purpose—provides a vivid example of the critical role of the arts in the Dartmouth community and the various ways students can take part. Students of all experience levels and majors from engineers to artists to athletes collaborated with Dartmouth faculty, staff, and renowned guest professionals to bring this vibrant production to life. 3D went behind the scenes to meet a few of the individuals who lit up the stage at the Hopkins Center for the Arts' Moore Theater (in one case, quite literally).

Performing Arts at Dartmouth

Matt Jachim-Gallagher ’25

he/him/his

Role: Stage manager

Hometown: Newport, NH

Major: Theater with a focus on Stage Management

Campus involvement: Executive Board of West House, one of six residential house communities at Dartmouth; Class of 2025 Council

When did you first become interested in theater?

I’ve been interning at the Northern Stage a professional theater company near Hanover in White River Junction, Vermont since I was 15. Most recently, I’ve been a props apprentice and stage management apprentice there. The majority of people I worked with at Northern Stage are either Dartmouth professors or alumni. When my senior year of high school arrived, I had a choice between a stage management program and Dartmouth, a liberal arts college where I could get hands-on theater experience while learning about so many other subjects, on-campus and off.

What does the role of a stage manager involve?

A stage manager’s job is to ensure that the production goes well. In rehearsal, they take down blocking the positions of the actors on the stage and track prop and set changes. During the show, they’re calling cues for lights and sounds. I see their actual role in the theater as a kind of bridge between the company and the production team. Theater majors at Dartmouth are required to stage manage at least one show.

To what extent have you been able to find mentors within the Department of Theater? Kathleen Cunneen, a lecturer in the theater department and Director of New Student Programs, was actually one of the people who helped me choose Dartmouth. When I emailed the department asking to talk to someone about stage management, she set up a Zoom with me right away. I’ve taken her stage management course and worked with her in my role as a member of Class Council. Everyone in the theater department is so eager to teach students of all experience levels.

Alex Campbell ’26 he/they

Role: King Charles

Hometown: Nolensville, TN

Intended Majors: English and Theater Campus involvement: Rude Mechanicals, Dartmouth’s student-run Shakespeare company

How did you become involved with theater in your first year at Dartmouth?

I was excited to find out during New Student Orientation that there was a production of Pippin happening my first term. Even though I only found out about it the week before auditions, everyone involved encouraged me to join. And I thought, “You seem so excited about it sure!” The energy at Dartmouth is electric because everyone loves what they do.

I also learned that you don't have to be a theater major to be involved with theater at Dartmouth. Even if theater is a side passion for someone, they’ll bring the same amount of energy and commitment to it as the theater majors do. That's just the nature of Dartmouth as a place everyone is really committed to everything they do, and they’re here to do what they love. It’s refreshing.

Tell us about your lead role in Pippin

I play King Charles, Pippin’s father, a character full of visceral and comedic anger. I came out as trans in my last year of high school, and this is only my third production auditioning for male characters. I found a lot of support in my small, rural, Southern high school, more than I was expecting. It’s been great to continue to explore that in college and to find that support even more present at Dartmouth. It's a very supportive, encouraging, and accepting community.

What’s surprised you about theater at Dartmouth?

I didn't realize just how many different people were going to be pursuing theater in so many different ways directing, writing, acting, and more. I have multiple friends who have written and produced plays. One is directing a musical next term for their senior thesis in theater, and another is writing a play about queerness and coeducation based on historical documents from Harvard Medical School. Where I’m from, those opportunities just didn't exist at the high school level. But Dartmouth feels similar to home in that the community members support each other. People come out to the shows, games, and events to cheer on their peers in all sectors of campus. When my siblings ask me, ‘Do you miss home at all?’ I say ‘yes,’ but it’s not like I’m missing connection. I’ve found that at Dartmouth.

Emma Ginsberg ’23 she/her/hers

Role: Leading Player

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Majors: English and Geography

Minor: Theater

Campus involvement: Social chair of Phi Tau, a coeducational fraternity; Rude Mechanicals; and Amarna, a gender-inclusive social organization

How did your theater journey at Dartmouth begin?

I first became involved in theater at Dartmouth by joining the Rude Mechanicals, a student-produced Shakespeare company. We hold auditions every fall and winter, but anyone can join regardless of experience level. I joined my first-year fall, and I'm very grateful that I did. The Rude Mechs helped me understand a new form of acting and gave me an instant community to learn from. A lot of the theater that happens at Dartmouth is student-driven pitched, directed, and designed by students with support from the Department of Theater.

Your character, the Leading Player, essentially acts as the narrator of Pippin. How did you embrace that role?

The Leading Player is a really fun character because there's no description about the kind of person who is supposed to play her. I loved working closely with Shirley Jo Finney, our visiting director, to figure out what role she wanted my character to play in the broader design. Shirley Jo had a very clear vision for what the production as a whole should look like, but the wonderful thing was that the directors gave us all room to explore who we wanted to be. It was easy for me to find a character that felt like mine but still lived in the world Shirley Jo envisioned.

What’s different about theater at Dartmouth? While a lot of my high school friends ended up attending theater conservatories, I was excited by the liberal arts approach at Dartmouth. One thing that unites the people who do theater at Dartmouth is that we want to create art. But the fact that students who do theater at Dartmouth are involved with lots of other pursuits really impacts the kinds of art that are produced here. It’s easier to come to theater and love it as an artistic expression when you have a life outside of it. Theater is about telling stories about the world around you and the liberal arts teaches you about that world. Dartmouth allows you to bring the liberal arts into the theater to tell those stories.

I chose Dartmouth because I could be interdisciplinary, and I’ve found that the liberal arts has allowed me to embrace that. Dartmouth gives you space to be yourself in a way that is not contained in any one box. Allow that discovery to happen.

Shirley Jo Finney she/her/hers

Award-winning director in theater, film, and television, nationally and globally

Role: Guest lecturer and director, Pippin

This past fall, you were a visiting director and teacher at Dartmouth. Tell us about your approach to Pippin.

Almost every project that I've done has been rooted in social activism. When we decided on Pippin as the department’s MainStage production, I figured that I could bring a different concept to the piece. I wanted to play and have fun, so that's what we did. For the visual concept, I borrowed from the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. We also did a mashup of time in the play, there was no past, present, or future. The story is quite literally timeless. I like to put my own stamp on each show, and I think I accomplished that.

You also taught an Introduction to Acting class this past fall.

Yes. I loved that the class was composed of students pursuing a wide range of different majors.

One member of our class was a costume designer for Pippin, but each student had varying levels of experience in the arts. And because they all came from different backgrounds, each student had their own objective of why they came to class. It was wonderful, and I found the students to be highly disciplined.

How do you approach teaching?

My teaching philosophy is built on the idea that acting is a study of human behavior. In exploring character, you're exploring people's universal needs, wants, and desires and in doing so, you learn that you are not alone in your doubts, fears, and insecurities. In my classes, we build camaraderie as we conduct self-investigations about who we are. Students commented at the end of the course how much they’d learned about themselves.

What do you hope to impart upon someone who sees one of your productions?

I am an actor's director, and I'm also an emotional director. When someone sees a project of mine, I want them to feel and experience that. On each

show, I set intentions with the production and acting teams: When people come into the theater and sit down in those seats, what is our intention? What is it that we want them to feel? What do we want that conversation to be as they go out the door? Everything in the story from the color palette to the music must then serve that purpose.

What advice would you offer students who are considering the pursuit of fine arts in college?

Know that you will draw outside the lines when it comes to your craft, but Dartmouth provides a safe space for one to create. Theater helps you throw off the yoke of your doubts and your fears and your insecurities and get in contact with your core as a human being. Whatever creative space you're in know that you can walk in that space, feel it as a safe space in which you can explore, expound, and transform as you develop your craft.

Leon E. Williams Professor of Theater

Role: Lighting Director, Pippin

As part of your THEA44: Lighting Design class, your students were directly involved in the production of Pippin Yes. During class, we studied artistry and craft. Then the students worked on technology for the show they hung and focused all the lights and ran the light board. Two other classes are also tied directly into Dartmouth’s MainStage shows: members of THEA40: Technical Productions help build and run the production, and members of THEA41: Stage Management serve as stage managers on the show. Fascinatingly, only about a third of the students in my lighting design class were theater majors. The fact that the art of lighting attracts people from both artistic and technological perspectives gives students a different way of seeing the world. My classes focus on strengthening creativity and collaboration.

What role does lighting play in a production?

Lighting is the art of making specific choices about how we see. We don't see objects; rather, we see light reflected off objects. For any show, everything you see is a collaboration between light and the objects it illuminates. Lighting allows you to paint without using your hands and it’s very much like music in the way it allows you to set tone and mood. In Pippin, light speaks to the mood of the moment. For example, the moment when King Charles is killed, there's a very intense light from behind you see it, but you also really feel that moment a little bit more intensely. Light helps the audience to both see and feel.

Many folks are drawn to theater for its sense of community. How does that ring true for you at Dartmouth?

There's an enormous amount of one-on-one interaction and mentoring between students and faculty at Dartmouth and it's not just on the productions that this happens. For instance, we

offer an internship program that allows students to work at Northern Stage for a quarter. I think a lot of people are initially drawn to theater because of the community, and that community actually extends into the postgraduate world. That’s a critical element of theater at Dartmouth.

Why are the liberal arts essential to the study of theater?

Theater is literally a microcosm for the liberal arts. I'm a lighting designer, but really what I do is I help tell stories. Every time I work on a play, I'm focused on what that story is, and the lighting follows. A liberal arts approach is essential to theater because storytelling is based in collaboration. In a really good collaboration, the ideas grow on one another, become amplified and heightened. One of the most exciting moments in theater for me is when other designers start coming in with their ideas, because it pushes me. The liberal arts are key to studying theater. I've always been convinced of that.

Dan Kotlowitz he/him/his

A Graduating Senior Recounts An Experience with the Dartmouth Greek System That Challenged Her Expectations and Preconceptions

Walking the Walk

IN EACH ISSUE OF 3D, WE TURN THIS PAGE OVER TO A CURRENT STUDENT TO REFLECT ON THEIR DARTMOUTH EXPERIENCE— OR, TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY: TO SHARE HOW THEY’VE BEEN “WALKING THE WALK.” A GOVERNMENT MAJOR AND PSYCHOLOGY MINOR FROM CHARLOTTE, NC, CHELSEA-STARR JONES ’23 IS AN AMBASSADOR TO PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS AS A SENIOR FELLOW IN THE OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS. SHE’S ALSO BEEN A TOUR GUIDE, A RESEARCH ASSISTANT AT DARTMOUTH ENGINEERING, AND CURRENTLY SERVES AS PRESIDENT OF KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA SORORITY AT DARTMOUTH. AFTER GRADUATION, SHE’LL BEGIN HER CAREER WITH A JOB IN HEALTHCARE CONSULTING. AS SHE NEARS THE CONCLUSION OF HER UNDERGRADUATE EXPERIENCE, CHELSEA-STARR REFLECTS ON BEING A LEADER OF A GREEK ORGANIZATION.

When I arrived on the Dartmouth campus, the idea of Greek life conjured up images of a huge mansion filled with wealthy, white, blonde women who all come from similar backgrounds, dress and sound alike, and enjoy the same things. Essentially, I thought of someone who is the antithesis of me. So, people often ask me and I often ask myself how I ended up as the president of a sorority at Dartmouth.

Greek life is, for lack of a better word, an enigma. The phrase is used to describe fraternities and sororities, also known as “Greek houses,” organizations of men, women, and/or non-binary individuals who come together for social, academic, or philanthropic reasons. The history of Greek life in the United States is riddled with instances of racism, sexism, classism, nepotism, and hazing. But for many, Greek life can be a way of finding community on a college campus. In other words, fraternities and sororities are complicated organizations and difficult to paint with a broad brush.

Dartmouth has local sororities and fraternities, national Panhellenic Greek organizations, historically Black Greek organizations, gender-inclusive Greek houses, and multicultural Greek houses that students can join beginning in sophomore year.

My sophomore winter, I underwent rush (the process by which many Greek houses recruit new members) virtually because of the pandemic. I spent that time wondering what I wanted out of a Greek experience, which house I wanted to join, and if I really fit in anywhere. As the end of rush neared, I

attended an event where the president of what would become my future sorority spoke to all the potential new members. Much to my surprise, she was a dark-skinned Black woman who spoke with confidence and kindness. I remember sitting in awe of this woman who was doing what I subconsciously didn’t think was possible or allowed: taking up space in a place that wasn’t made for her.

As someone who has grown up in spaces that weren’t made for me a low-income, first-generation American in private schools surrounded by generationally wealthy white peers I’ve survived by making myself as palatable as possible. I have said what needed to be said, showed “star power” in all the acceptable ways, and otherwise kept myself as small and nondisruptive as I could; I stayed in my place. But here was this Black president who wasn’t limiting herself to the shadows, to what was easy or expected of her. I found inspiration in her that led me to join that sorority and her family.

That woman became a mentor for me and later empowered me to run for the presidency of our sorority. My rationale mirrored what I found inspirational when I first met her: I wanted to be a voice for those women who feel marginalized, to show them that taking up space is not only allowed, it’s encouraged. As an exercise in preparing myself for the real world where spaces are not made for me and as a participant in a legacy of women who live fully, being a leader in the Greek community has been fulfilling and, hopefully, will impact generations of women after me.

Indicates location on the Dartmouth Green where Chelsea-Starr is standing.

CHELSEA-STARR JONES ’23

LUKE GRAYSON ’25

he / him / his HOMETOWN: SEAHAM, ENGLAND MAJOR: ECONOMICS

Luke Grayson ’25 remembers the day that an issue of 3D magazine landed on the doorstep of his home in a small town in northeastern England. “I was honestly pretty shocked that it was sent all the way to the U.K.,” Luke recalls. “It was this physical catalog of life at Dartmouth that helped me gain insight into the student experience.”

The first member of his family to attend college, Luke became interested in studying in the United States when he joined Sutton Trust, a foundation that aims to foster social mobility by bulldozing economic barriers to educational success. “I grew up in a small seaside town whose industry centered around coal mining through the ’90s,” Luke says. “Education was never a big focus in the area. I always wanted to go somewhere where I could find more room to grow.”

Sutton Trust helped Luke find colleges and universities that fit his interests and could support his financial need. Dartmouth stood out for its commitment to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for all students regardless of citizenship. “That's one of the central reasons I'm at Dartmouth today,” Luke says.

The concept of a liberal arts college was unfamiliar to Luke until he discovered Dartmouth. In describing the value of a liberal arts education, Luke underscores its emphasis on ensuring that students learn how to think often by encouraging them to take coursework that spans a wide variety of disciplines.

“Imagine sitting at a dinner table with history's greatest scholars,” he says. “The product of a liberal arts education is a person who could sit at the head of such a table and quite comfortably take on any and all of the attending party in enthusiastic conversation, no matter the topic. I arrived at Dartmouth intending to major in engineering, but the flexible liberal arts system helped me discover subjects I'd never considered before.”

Luke now plans to pursue an economics major and has taken classes in computer science, Italian, history, linguistics, and more. But a highly-immersive living and learning environment in the U.S., he says, has “opened up so many opportunities to me outside of the classroom.” He joined the Rockefeller Center’s Global Leadership Program (RGLP), a nine-week experiential learning program that culminates in an all-expenses-paid immersion trip to Boston or Montreal. He also embraced his adventurous side by tackling The Fifty, a hallowed Dartmouth tradition. Teams of students hike a 53.5-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail as fellow students support and cheer them along the way. The mountainous path that extends from Georgia to Maine passes right through downtown Hanover.

Luke says the sense of community he’s felt at Dartmouth has made it feel like a second home. “There’s such an intense togetherness on campus,” Luke says. “As an international student, I've found such a strong community of friends to help me through. Dartmouth has allowed me the option of redefining myself.”

Chase Harvey ’25

Feeling at Home in Hanover, Far from a Small English Town

Pictured: At the Cube, a study and social space on campus

The Department of German Studies and Dartmouth Engineering Join Forces to Teach Environmental Engineering and Sustainability in Berlin

BY HANNAH SILVERSTEIN

Dartmouth’s foreign study and language off-campus programs more commonly known as FSPs and LSAs have long been a signature offering, transporting students far from Hanover to locations around the globe, one off-campus term at a time.

Among the newest: “Green City, Sustainable Engineering and Full-Immersion German in Berlin,” a joint effort of the Department of German Studies and Dartmouth Engineering. It’s a pilot program blending study in German language and culture with the opportunity to earn engineering credits. This first-of-its-kind program is co-led by Associate Professor of German Petra McGillen and Professor of Engineering Petra Bonfert-Taylor.

The Green City program is one example of how Dartmouth faculty have been collaborating on new interdisciplinary programs to complement the curriculum and build on traditional FSP and LSA offerings.

The push for the combined program in German and engineering came from the students

themselves, McGillen and Bonfert-Taylor say. "Students kept coming to me to ask, 'Can't you start a program that combines a foreign study experience with engineering?' And the same students came to Petra McGillen to say, 'We're interested in German, but we need engineering credits, can't you organize something?' So, we did some surveys and found that there's a great need and desire for a program like this."

In Berlin, students live with host families and have the choice of three of four courses: a fast-track German language course, a course in German history and culture, and, for engineering credit, ENGS37: Introduction to Environmental Engineering and ENGS45: Sustainable Urban Systems. They also participate in field trips and other enrichment activities that showcase the importance of language and cultural understanding to effective engineering solutions.

On a day trip to Görlitz a town in the former East Germany in a region shaped by lignite coal

mining students toured surviving pre-World War II architecture and visited a remediated mine site where they spoke with a former miner who had lost his livelihood in the transition to cleaner energy.

"Hearing our guide speak with so much nostalgia about his work was incredible," Stephen Veatch ’24 says of the experience. "It was so moving to see how people can feel left behind in the transition from one predominant energy source to alternatives."

"It was one of those moments when German culture and political history and sustainable engineering topics came together in this really eye-opening way," McGillen says. "The students immediately understood that in any energy transition you need to be aware of the profound social implications and find ways to mitigate them."

Adapted from an article that originally appeared on the Dartmouth News site in May 2022.

basecamp world to the

IN AND OUT OF THE CLASSROOM, YOUR DARTMOUTH EXPERIENCE CAN CROSS INTELLECTUAL AND INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES.

JOSHUA BENNETT

he / him / his PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AND CREATIVE WRITING

In late November, a dozen students in poet Joshua Bennett’s class on nature writing read their poems for an audience of family and friends. Other than having shared their work in the intimacy of their writing workshop, some had never recited their poetry in public.

“The reason I wasn’t as nervous as I could have been is that Professor Bennett gives off the aura that your words are valued and that he wants to hear what you have to say,” recalled Hollin Hakimian ’23, a psychology major who performed two poems. “He celebrates you and how you want to present your experience.”

Bennett, 34, has won prestigious awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship, which recognizes “exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form,” and a Whiting Award, “given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.”

“His poetry is piercingly intelligent,” the Whiting judges said. “There is so much yearning and emotion alongside a mesmerizing musical craft.”

But Bennett understands what it is to be nervous even terrified. When he was 11, his mother insisted that he get on stage to recite one of his poems at a slam at the local public library in Yonkers, New York. “She told me that gifts were meant to be shared,” he said. By the time he was in college, he was competing in up to 40 poetry slams a year around the country, and in May 2009, at age 20, he performed at the White House. “I realize now that doing the thing that scares you, over and over, can be worthwhile.”

The soft-spoken poet has a passion for pushing the power of language into surprising new realms. He recently curated The Bond of Live Things Everywhere, an open-air poetry and soundscape installation at the New York Botanical Garden that explored the connection between Black dreams of freedom and stewardship of the Earth. He roots his compelling poems in the cadences and dramatic delivery of spoken-word performances. That fiercely competitive world is the topic of his upcoming book Spoken Word: A Cultural History, which Knopf is releasing this spring, as well as the focus of his new podcast Say It Loud

And “The Book of Mycah,” a powerful, surreal poem that evolved into a longer novella at the center of Bennett’s latest poetry collection, The Study of Human Life, is being adapted into a television project for Warner Brothers with Bennett as co-executive producer. In it, Malcolm X and Mycah Dudley, a teenage boy slain at a neighborhood block party, are resurrected from the dead, a half-century apart.

“I needed to figure out who all these characters are and what their commitments and obsessions were,” he says. “I’d never written anything like this. I wanted to keep the intensity of the poetic language, and to reflect it in the way these people described their witnessing of these miraculous events.”

Nancy Schoeffler

Nancy Schoeffler is Executive Editor of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. This profile is adapted, in part, from an article she originally published in DAM in 2021.

A Gifted Poet

Shares the Transformative Power of the Spoken Word

Pictured: At Trinity Church in Boston, MA

Meet Dartmouth’s 19 th President

Sian Leah Beilock, a Brain Scientist Who Studies

INTERVIEW BY ESTELLE STEDMAN ’23 ILLUSTRATIONS BY MIGUEL PORLAN

On July 1, Dartmouth will welcome Sian Leah Beilock as its 19th president. The current president of Barnard College, she is a leading cognitive scientist who studies how people perform under pressure. The first woman to be elected president in the 253-year history of Dartmouth, Beilock recently sat down with 3D for a wide-ranging interview. What follows are excerpts from that conversation. (Editor’s Note: Questions and answers have been edited, including for space and style.)

ESTELLE STEDMAN: If the high school students reading this interview were to attend Dartmouth, they would do so during the early years of your presidency. What should they know about you?

PRESIDENT-ELECT SIAN LEAH BEILOCK: First, I would want them to know that I am excited about being around young people who challenge ideas and viewpoints. That is something Dartmouth embodies wholeheartedly. And I hope they’d be excited about being around really great minds other students, faculty, staff and alums and getting equipped with the tools to go out and change the world.

ES: Drawing on your experience as a university leader and, in particular, on your research on young people and stress what advice would you give high school seniors with some big decisions to make this spring?

SLB: Be compassionate with yourself. We high achievers tend to be really hard on ourselves. Psychologists talk about “self-compassion,” this idea that we should give ourselves a break. That the decisions we make, we will find a way to make them work for us. And oftentimes the things you’d say to be supportive of a friend or family member, we need to say to ourselves, too. And the way we talk to ourselves we’d never be that mean to someone else. And so, it’s really important to practice self-compassion.

ES: High school juniors are beginning to make college lists, or at least beginning the research that informs the making of those lists. What advice do you have for them?

SLB: You’re trying to learn about the DNA of a place. How people are with each other. How students are with each other. How students and faculty

“Choking Under Pressure,” Encourages College Applicants and Their Parents to “Practice Self-Compassion”

Choke: The Book

In her book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting it Right When You Have To, Sian Beilock explores questions that are likely as mystifying as they are familiar to readers. What happens in our brains and bodies when we “crack under pressure?” Why do smart students often perform poorly on standardized tests? Why do we often “mess up” when the stakes are highest? And what steps we might to take to avoid choking?

Beilock draws on the breadth and depth of her work as an expert on performance and brain science, as well as first-hand experience. As the book’s dust jacket puts it: “Whether you’re at the Olympics, in the boardroom or taking the SAT, Beilock’s clear, prescriptive guidance shows how to remain cool under pressure.”

are with each other. And what I think is so special about Dartmouth is that undergraduates are wholly taught by faculty, not just taught by faculty in the classroom. They go to lunch with faculty, they work in their labs, and those faculty become mentors forever.

ES: You yourself are the mother of a daughter who’s currently 11 years old. As a parent, what advice would you give parents and other adults?

SLB: It’s always important to let your student drive the admissions process, and to be there as a supporter and a questioner and a cheerleader. This is really one of the first times students are making their own decisions about what comes next. And, of course, they don’t do that in a vacuum. For parents like me who want to be very involved, being a supportive voice and letting the student be out front and center is so important.

ES: You earned your bachelor’s degree in cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego. What was it like for you to apply to college?

SLB: When I was in high school, I had no idea where I wanted to go to school, and I was really stressed by everyone around me who seemed to have it all figured out. But the truth is, no one has it figured out. The idea is to continue to get more information.

ES: How did you choose your major?

SLB: My first year in college, I probably considered six different majors. The beauty of a liberal arts education is that it exposes you to so many different ways of thinking and to different fields, and from there you get to choose what you’ll pursue. But your major does not dictate your career path. At Dartmouth, English majors work at Google and chemistry majors end up in publishing. You’re pursuing your passion as you’re learning how to think. Not

what to think, how to think. As an undergrad, I was excited that I could study myself and understand other people. And that’s what led me into cognitive science. I do a lot of “me-search,” not just research. I wanted to understand why I sometimes didn’t perform at my best, especially when it mattered most.

ES: As a senior nearing the end of my time here, I am struck by how it’s flown by. What advice do you have for making the most of the college experience?

SLB: Resist FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. Especially coming out of the pandemic, it’s important to be present. I would urge students to pick classes and extracurriculars in a way that gives them time just to be. And to think. We know from psychology that when those great ideas come, it’s when you’re stepping back. It’s when you’re not banging your head against the wall. Dartmouth does a really good job of creating opportunities for students to take that step back. But we could all do a little more of that.

ES: You are one of the world’s experts in the brain science behind “choking under pressure.” You have explored this subject in business, in education, in sports. Tell me about your book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting it Right When You Have To, as well as your TED Talk. It has been viewed more than 2.5 million times, and one of those viewers was me.

SLB: Many of those views were my mother! Seriously, if you take anything away from my research, it’s that how we think matters. And how we prepare matters. We tend to think about our psychological state as an afterthought, like, “We’ll learn all the material and then we’ll figure it out.” But it turns out that how you feel, and how you prepare to be in a stressful situation, make the difference between whether you put your best foot forward or not. The idea is that you’re not just preparing content or getting your body ready for a competition. You have to train your mind too. My research looks at how best to do that. So, for example, we know that when we walk into a high-stress

situation, and we have sweaty palms and a beating heart, we tend to think, “Oh no, I’m about to fail.” And just the act of interpreting our physiological response in that way changes how our brain functions, and it can actually lead to worse performance. But if we think, “Oh, this sweaty-palms-beating-heart is a sign that I’m ready to go,” we tend to perform better. In fact, the heart is beating and shunting blood to your brain so you can think.

ES: Let’s connect what you were discussing before, in terms of having self-compassion, to taking care of yourself in the college admission process. Many high school juniors may be feeling pressure to apply to a specific college or to colleges within a specific tier.

SLB: There are so many great institutions, so it goes back to keeping an open mind and understanding that even the thing you wanted the most may not actually be what is best for you. And understanding that after the fact. It’s always helpful to do that exercise with yourself, because it’s easier to say than do. Think back to any time where there was something you really wanted and maybe you didn’t get it. How did things work out? What did you do? Generally, it tends to open up new doors.

ES: I love looking at that as a way of opening up the aperture instead of closing it.

SLB: And remember, even though everyone around you might seem like they have it figured out, they don’t.

ES: I read something you said during your time at Barnard that I felt was particularly powerful: “It’s important for young girls to view examples of women scientists. But instead of framing these careers as something they can be, let’s show them science as something they can do.” You also said that you “make a point of highlighting these women to my daughter throughout our daily

“Dartmouth creates this life of the mind that you don’t see in many places. It’s the best of all worlds. It’s the secret Dartmouth sauce.”

lives.” How does this vision connect to your research and to the work you’re hoping to do at Dartmouth?

SLB: It’s about changing the conversation about who goes where. As you’re learning how to think, that allows you to go into any situation, a situation that you don’t know about, and learn, and tackle problems and opportunities. And I love the fact that students at Dartmouth take so many different classes. Most students end up taking an engineering class at some point, Design Thinking, whether they’re an engineer or not, and that students who are scientists take English and art history and have study-abroad experiences and get to see the world in different ways. All this is about doing. Whether you decide this certain field is for you or not, it gives you a sense of confidence that you can tackle anything.

ES: Many 3D readers will have experienced or are going to experience the task of writing the classic “Why Dartmouth?” essay. You spent 12 years at the University of Chicago and you’re currently at Barnard. Moving from New York City to Hanover is quite the leap, so, I’d love to know, in your words: Why Dartmouth?

SLB: I fell in love with what Dartmouth stands for. This model of higher education combines the best of an undergraduate education across the arts and sciences with great graduate and professional schools on campus, so Dartmouth creates this life of the mind that you don’t see in many places. It’s the best of all worlds. It’s the secret Dartmouth sauce: as an undergrad, you get to interact with, spend time with, have breakfast with world-class faculty who are doing work that is changing the world. It sets up the standard for you to go out and

do the same, and it gives you an unparalleled undergraduate experience in the world of higher education. Plus, I love the environment of Hanover. The community, the sense of outdoors, the sense of place it’s very clear that this is a place where people take care of and look out for one another.

ES: How do you feel about becoming the first female president of Dartmouth?

SLB: It’s an honor. And it’s a call to action. Dartmouth is such a storied, impressive institution, and like everything in our world today, it’s time to take it to the next level.

ES: When you become president this summer, you’ll be 47. How would you characterize the importance of being among a younger generation than many college presidents?

SLB: I’m a big fan of having different people with different lived experiences at the table for everything. Because the research is really clear: that leads to the best ideas. And I think that comes with generational diversity as well. I’m excited to be able to model that you can be a mother with young kids, and you can also be a president, you can be a scientist, and you can help use that to pull in the voices of the younger generation to make a place be successful.

ES: We are having this conversation on campus during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of coeducation at Dartmouth. It is also the 50th anniversary of the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association as well as the department of Native American and Indigenous Studies. How do these anniversaries resonate with you?

“You can’t have academic excellence without a precursor of health and wellness. Which means health and wellness needs to be everywhere in the Dartmouth experience.”

A TED Talk Seen by Millions

In fall 2018, Sian Beilock recorded a Ted Talk titled: “Why we choke under pressure and how to avoid it.” As of winter 2023, nearly 2.5 million viewers had tuned in. “One of the most humiliating things that you can say about someone is, ‘they choked,’“ Beilock begins. “And boy, do I know that feeling.”

Beilock describes an important game she played as a goalie for the California state high school soccer team, a part of the Olympic Development Program. On this day, the national coach was watching as she tipped a shot into her own net. The team lost. The coach walked away. She observes: “Just knowing I was being evaluated changed my performance and forever how I thought about the mental aspect of how we perform.”

SLB: I really wanted to be on campus this weekend, because it sends a signal of the strength of an institution being built on the diversity and inclusion of different perspectives. Being a leader who’s a woman is part of that. Just as coeducation and the anniversaries of these really important groups all make Dartmouth better. And so, it’s a signal. It allows Dartmouth to thrive, and this work is not finished. We have to continue to be a place that educates and supports the best and brightest across differences. I see it as a celebration, a call to action. Especially celebrating the 50th anniversary of coeducation, it has been special hearing from women who were “firsts” and “onlies.” It underscores that they did the work that allowed me to be here. Now it’s my turn to do the work that will allow even more individuals and folks to thrive here at Dartmouth.

ES: One of your initiatives at Barnard is called “Feel Well, Do Well,” which is focused on mental health and mindfulness. How might you bring elements of that important work to Dartmouth?

SLB: You can’t have academic excellence without a precursor of health and wellness. Which means health and wellness needs to be everywhere in the Dartmouth experience. That allows you to be successful. It allows you to push. It allows you to get up from failure. I’m excited to learn more about the programs already in place and to continue to expand them. Dartmouth is a place that can be a leader in ensuring that our students come out not just with great academic training, and with a commitment to make the world better, but with the tools to be well and to take care of their own wellbeing in the many years to come.

Estelle Stedman ’23 is an English major with a minor in Chinese language from Seattle, Washington.

NICK SUGIARTO ’23

he / him / his HOMETOWNS: SAN DIEGO, CA AND JAKARTA, INDONESIA

MAJOR: BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING; SENIOR FELLOWSHIP IN COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY

Lately, Nick Sugiarto ’23 has been spending most of his time in a cancer lab at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. He’s completing a Senior Fellowship in computational biology under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Molecular and Systems Biology Xiaofeng Wang. “As a Senior Fellow, I pursue research full-time in lieu of taking classes. My goal is to one day complete an MD-PhD,” Nick explains, noting that the dual-degree program trains students in both medicine and research. “Hands-on research with a faculty mentor who's in the lab with me every single day is the best preparation I could have for what I want to do.”

The members of the Wang lab are using next-generation sequencing data, which is used to determine the kind of genetic information carried in a DNA segment, to better understand cancer biology and potential treatments, Nick says. “We’re studying the mechanism behind the mutations of a molecule called SWI/ SNF. Understanding that mechanism could provide possible drug targets for cancers that are mediated by SWI/SNF.” The implications of the work are wide-ranging. In fact, Nick is a co-author on a study produced by the Wang lab that was recently published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

As a junior, Nick won a Goldwater Scholarship, one of the most prestigious national scholarships for undergraduates interested in careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering. The grant allowed him to deepen his lab work with Dr. Wang, with whom he’s partnered since his first year at Dartmouth. “We have this relationship that goes beyond the work,” Nick says, noting that he and Dr. Wang have hiked local trails together, often accompanied by other labmates. “The Wang lab is highly collaborative. I really love being in an intellectually curious environment where people still want to have fun.”

Outside of his research, Nick has found a way to relax and unwind and to help others to do the same by trying his hand at stand-up comedy. Despite having no prior experience in comedy, he saw Dartmouth’s on-campus performance spaces as a safe place to try and occasionally fail at new things. “Hearing laughter from the crowd solidified for me that Dartmouth was the place to try this,” he says of his first open mic night. He later became president of the Dartmouth Comedy Network and editor of the Jack-o-Lantern, Dartmouth’s comedy publication.

One day, Nick hopes to draw on his love of laughter and fun as the principal investigator of his own lab to create a close community just like the one he’s experienced at Dartmouth. “Fostering a tight-knit research circle through comedy and laughter I think that's how I see the research and comedy experiences that Dartmouth has given me playing a pivotal role in my life.”

Chukwuka V. Odigbo ’25

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

Pictured: At the Wang lab at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine

How to Open the STEM Pipeline

BY PHILIP J. HANLON AND SIAN LEAH BEILOCK •

3D Editor's Note: In late December 2022, Philip J. Hanlon, the President of Dartmouth since 2013, and Sian Leah Beilock, who is currently the President of Barnard College and who will succeed Hanlon as Dartmouth President in July, published a joint essay in the Opinion section of The Boston Globe. In the essay, they called on the nation to find new ways to make the study of science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, more inviting, approachable, accessible, and possible. Earlier that month, Dartmouth announced Dartmouth STEM-X, a $100 million program that will increase existing efforts, and provide a springboard for others, to “increase access and leadership opportunities” for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in STEM disciplines, “and prepare the next generation of leaders in these fields.” That initiative builds on popular offerings already in place at Dartmouth, such as the E.E. Just Dartmouth Adventures in STEM program, a five-day series of pre-orientation summer mini courses taught by Dartmouth professors. The essay is reprinted below.

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITIONS can create unexpected alliances. And so, too, with the two of us, as a mathematician (Phil) prepares to hand off the presidency of Dartmouth to a cognitive scientist who studies math anxiety (Sian).

In the process, we have discovered many things on which we agree, and chief among them is this: Our nation must find more effective ways to imbue young people with the curiosity, confidence, and joy to pursue the study of math as well as science, technology, and engineering, the three other vectors on the compass known as STEM.

First, we as a nation need to be honest with ourselves about the depth of the problem. Education leaders bemoan the precipitous drop in math test

scores during the COVID years. But the virus, however deadly, is a convenient scapegoat. National Assessment of Educational Progress scores have lingered at below-proficient levels for more than a decade in math, despite billions in federal funding and new policies focused on lagging academic success.

That the persistent underperformance in math remains a defining challenge especially for women and students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, despite decades of effort is underscored by, well, the math: While Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and Alaska Natives represent 33 percent of the US population, they receive only 24 percent of all science and engineering degrees awarded to US citizens and just 13 percent of doctoral degrees. Meanwhile, women earn just 22 percent of bachelor’s degrees in engineering and are similarly underrepresented at the master’s and doctorate degree level in engineering, computer science, and math.

Those stark statistics only begin to illuminate the ripple effect of that disproportionate representation. Research shows that innovation and discovery are powered by the fuel of fresh insight. And the spark of combustion is often ignited by the collective efforts of scientists from widespread backgrounds raising, and then pursuing, a range of questions.

At a moment when job opportunities in STEM fields are surging, what can be done to change a persistent problem that hasn’t already been tried?

There needs to be new access points to open up and diversify the STEM talent pipeline, as well as ensure that everyone regardless of race, gender, or background who wants to study a STEM subject or embark on a career in a growing STEM field has clear paths to do so.

First, teachers and parents need to acknowledge the importance of mindset in students’ performance in math and science. Rose Vukovic, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Victoria in British

Schools should drop the sink-or-swim mentality and fire up undergraduates’ imaginations with the real-world problems they might solve through science.

Columbia, has explored math anxiety in a sample of first-graders at New York City elementary schools in lower-income neighborhoods. She found that their negative perceptions of their abilities in math as manifested in stomach aches, headaches, and quickening heartbeats had a negative impact on their performance.

Other research has documented how similar instances of stress felt by elementary school teachers themselves (most of whom are women), as well as parents, rub off on students leading to a population of math-anxious young people. But when students enter math, not through the traditional front door of math class, but through fun puzzles to practice problem-solving, their math performance improves, as does the belief in the importance of math from the adults in their lives.

At the undergraduate level, we as educators need to bulldoze longstanding barriers to entry like introductory STEM courses which have been shown to drive down underrepresented minority student participation in STEM. Instead, schools should drop the sink-or-swim mentality and fire up undergraduates’ imaginations with the real-world problems they might solve through science. Students get more jazzed by puzzles and practice problems than the traditional math and science classes, the latter of which often have a new vocabulary load more similar to learning a foreign language than most other disciplines. Once engaged, educators can set about arming them with the technical terms and other tools to do their work.

Case in point: Undergraduates at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering first earn a bachelor of arts degree, with its foundation in the broader liberal arts, before going on to earn a bachelor’s degree in engineering. In 2016, Thayer was among the first undergraduate engineering programs in the nation to graduate a majority-female class, and the ratio of women to men has held steady since. Many of those students report that entry-level courses, such as design thinking, which weaves in collaboration,

teamwork, and an emphasis on empathy, are important in enticing them to study engineering.

But that’s not enough. Fresh efforts must be supplemented with support for those who want to study STEM. The Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore has done this through summer programming, along with intensive mentoring and cohort building and early research lab placement. Similarly, the E.E. Just Dartmouth Adventures in STEM program is a five-day series of pre-orientation summer mini-courses taught by Dartmouth professors that opens up the young minds from underrepresented backgrounds to the breadth, possibilities, and excitement of science. Barnard does something similar through its Science Pathways Scholars Program, and the outcomes are clear. More than 80 percent of Pathways Scholars students have gone on to major in STEM.

Our nation needs to make new, targeted investments at scale drawing on philanthropy, private sector companies, and universities themselves toward the goal of creating new doors to increase representation in STEM majors, graduate, and post-graduate programs and professions. On Dec. 6, Dartmouth announced Dartmouth STEM-X, a $100 million program that will increase existing efforts, and provide a launchpad for others, toward the goal of preparing and placing talented young people from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM-related advanced degree programs, policy roles, and industry.

We cannot summon a solution and eliminate the deep divide in representation in the STEM fields by waving a magic wand. But we believe the problem is an equation that is eminently solvable, especially if our efforts as educators at all levels can create engaging ways to persuade a diverse group of students to walk through one of many new and inviting front doors and then to support them along the way.

The new buildings on Dartmouth’s West End serve as a hub for engineering, technology, and innovation.

THE WORLD

onwardupward & ALUMNI WHO CARRY DARTMOUTH INTO

Writer, Researcher, Historian

A Recent Graduate Finds Inspiration, and Her Voice, in the Story of Dartmouth’s First Tenured Female Professor

By Caroline Cook ’21 The author of Tell Them to Be Quiet and Wait, published by Atmosphere Press in 2022

Light filtered in through the big windows in the mezzanine in Rauner Special Collections Library, casting oblong sunny shapes across the cardboard boxes of Christmas cards, onionskin carboncopies, black-and-white photographs, and deep red and sage green algae samples glued to matboard. Little did I know how important those items would become to me.

I was Dartmouth’s first Historical Accountability Research Fellow, hired to spend my first-year summer researching the life of the College’s first tenured female professor, Dr. Hannah Croasdale, a biologist. She began at Dartmouth in 1935 as a research technician and retired as a full professor in 1971.

As I embarked on my research, what struck me most was that pioneers rarely act the way our modern lenses would expect them to. Hannah was earning 60 percent of her male peers’ salaries, but never seemed overly frustrated by that fact. She just supplemented her income by illustrating textbooks. She never expected better treatment from an employer, and she was unwilling to let that stop her from pursuing her passion for the natural world. That was what I found so inspiring: the razor focus on what she considered most important.

I wasn’t expecting the research to live beyond some blog posts for the library I certainly never imagined getting it published until Jay Satterfield, Head of Special Collections, told me one day, “This story could be a graphic novel.” I laughed when Jay suggested it. I was nervous about not doing this story justice. After all, who was I, still a student of writing, to tell someone else’s story? But being taken seriously as a writer, researcher, and historian was a pattern for me at Dartmouth. And I had no shortage of encouragement along that path. My thesis advisor, Professor Thomas O’Malley, told me

to write myself a note and keep it where I could see it. For the rest of the year, the edge of my laptop screen had a sticky note with Professor O’Malley’s words: “Only you can tell this story.” My senior year, I did indeed turn Hannah’s story into a novel.

Tell Them to Be Quiet and Wait was published a year and a half after I graduated. Based loosely on all that I learned about Hannah’s life, it’s historical fiction that compares the life of a professor at a college in New Hampshire with the life of a modern-day student in the same, now-coed, biology department. While the things I was taught about story construction and character development in my Dartmouth creative writing classes as well as about archival research in my time at Rauner quite literally made the book possible, I wouldn’t have finished it or put it up for publication were it not for those conversations with Jay and Professor O’Malley.

Those two moments of encouragement stood out amid all the hundreds of others that blurred together. It was beyond mere support. It was speaking to me as a fellow writer and a visiting researcher, not as a student or a summer intern. It made me feel like anything was possible, whatever I decided to pursue next. And now, as I’m just beginning my career, I think of those sunny days in Rauner and know that I’m poised for whatever is ahead because of the community of people who have always looked at the work I’m doing and said, “Keep going.”

In “Onward and Upward,” 3D presents essays by and about Dartmouth alumni, a close-knit network (currently 79,500 people and counting) with no shortage of stories of lessons learned and lifelong bonds forged beginning with their time in Hanover. Just ask them!

JODIE MACK

she/her/hers PROFESSOR OF FILM & MEDIA STUDIES

Jodie Mack works in experimental animation, and the focus of those efforts can be distilled to understanding a single question: What does it mean to be alive? “I feel every object has a soul that can be unleashed in cinema,” she muses. “Animation is such a beautiful way of making films and thinking about life.”

Professor Mack specializes in animation and animation history as well as avant-garde cinema, a mode of filmmaking that challenges conventional cinematic techniques. Her years in the field have taught her that animation is an art used to study and rationalize an ever-changing world. “I really came to a new understanding of animation as this place to think about constant change,” she says.

In addition to animation classes, Professor Mack is currently teaching courses that, in effect, serve as bookends to the fouryear experience of students in the film and media studies department, including Introduction to Film: From Script to Screen and a culminating experience seminar for thesis students. One of her favorites to teach is Water in the Lake: Real Events for the Imagination, a film class offered in partnership with the studio art and music departments.

“We treat the entire class like an artistic collective,” she says, adding that the assignments help students explore different mediums like video, painting, and sound pieces. The class even works as a group to care for a garden, using the plants to create cyanotypes, a type of photographic print. At the end of the 10-week term, students display their work in a large-scale professional exhibition of their work at the Black Family Visual Arts Center.

In her own work, Professor Mack has experimented with various types of animating. “Bringing life to objects where there is none is something that has really fascinated me,” she says a nod perhaps to the objects that make up personal collections, like fabric, that often appear as motifs in her work. In an homage to her home state, Professor Mack is currently working on a film that tells the story of change in what was once the quaint sponge-diving community of Tarpon Springs, Florida.

It’s that sentiment of change and growth, of creation and destruction, that drives Professor Mack’s philosophy as a teacher and an animator. “I think my department is particularly hungry to welcome new students,” she shares, noting that the film and media studies department has more than doubled in size over the past six years. “Animation and art and filmmaking can be really amazing social and cultural barometers to help us understand our role as humans during our time here on this earth,” she says. “It's a beautiful thing to remember that everyone is an animator with the capacity to bring ideas and projects into being.”

Selin Hos ’25

Pictured: In her office at the Black Family Visual Arts Center

Exploring Life’s Fundamental Mysteries Through Animation

Shuyi Jin ’23

he/him/his

Hometowns: Shanghai, China and Montreal, Canada

Major: Quantitative Social Science

Minor: Economics

D-Plan

Dartmouth has a distinctive year-round quarter system the D-Plan that allows students to customize their own academic calendars across four years. Dartmouth offers four, 10-week academic terms per year that loosely align with the four seasons. Within some guidelines, students choose how and where they’ll spend each of those terms, whether taking classes in Hanover, studying away on an off-campus program, or embarking on a “leave term” to pursue an internship, research, creative pursuit, or time off. Here, Shuyi Jin ’23 shares snapshots drawn from his D-Plan, organized by season.

Since high school, I have traveled from my home in Shanghai, China to the United States at the start of every fall to begin a new academic year. Like many, I headed into my first-year fall at Dartmouth with a mix of excitement and fear. Fortunately, any feelings of fear quickly turned into excitement thanks to my first-year trip, a pre-orientation program that helps first-year students acclimate to life at the College through peer-led adventures, many of which take place outdoors. On my fishing trip, I quickly grew close to a great group of other ’23s, and my trip leaders became mentors that I still keep in touch with today.

My sophomore fall, I stayed in Shanghai with my family because of COVID-19. I was nervous about how I would stay connected with the College, but quickly realized how easy it was to engage with the Dartmouth community from afar. I remained involved with club squash, joined the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program as well as a Greek organization, and continued my campus job writing for the Office of Admissions’ student blog. I was so thankful to have a fulfilling academic and social life even from thousands of miles away.

WINTER

As I approached my first-year winter, I felt confident that I had gotten the hang of Dartmouth so when my friend asked if I wanted to join him in applying to TuckLAB, I responded with an enthusiastic ‘yes!’ Hosted by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, TuckLAB helps students obtain the business skills they need to leverage their liberal arts education in the competitive job market. I attended classes taught by Tuck professors every weekend, participated in an entrepreneurship competition, and met other students interested in business and entrepreneurship.

Through TuckLAB, I partnered with Laurens Debo, a professor of operations management, on two research projects: one that examined the behavior of physicians following a redesign of medical codes, and another that investigated how to optimize the energy efficiency of food waste disposal. Not only did I learn about business analytics, spreadsheet modeling, and marketing communications, but I also made a lot of friends along the way. The best part: Everything was free, including the weekend lunches!

SUMMER

Hanging out on the Green, swimming in the nearby Connecticut River, and taking nature walks around campus are some of my favorite things to do in the spring. Spring has also been a time for me to explore new academic interests outside my major in quantitative social science.

During my first-year spring, I took one of my most memorable classes: ANTH020: Primate Evolution and Ecology, an anthropology class about the evolution of primates. After taking the course, I often surprised my friends and family with my intimate knowledge of the names of different monkeys and apes. Sophomore spring, I took ENGL034: Modern American Drama, a course that examined iconic plays like Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton Junior spring, I enjoyed exploring Native American music in my MUS03.06: Sound Relations class. I learned so much from the Native American musician who visited our class to discuss how he introduces modern elements into traditional music.

I spent my junior summer interning at a management consultant firm in New York City. Although I was nervous to begin my internship, my concerns quickly dissipated after the first week. Not only did the company have great training programs, but the skills I learned through my liberal arts education at Dartmouth prepared me to adapt to an internship in the corporate world. By picking up new concepts efficiently and knowing when to ask questions, I was able to have a successful internship experience. In fact, I’m returning to the firm after graduation to start my professional career as an associate consultant!

Even though Dartmouth does not offer a business major to undergraduates, the College’s unique academic calendar, co-curricular offerings, and extensive research opportunities have prepared me with skills that I can apply to any professional field with confidence. I’m grateful that my summer experience in consulting set me on a path to success after graduation.

FALL

SPRING

Pictured: At the offices of The Dartmouth, the College's student newspaper

A First-Gen Student Pivots, Courtesy of the Dartmouth Curriculum

NATALIE DOKKEN ’23

she/her/hers and they/them/theirs

HOMETOWN: DELTONA, FLORIDA

MAJOR: PHILOSOPHY; MINOR: BIOLOGY

If there is something that needs to be said, trust that Natalie Dokken ’23 will be the one to say it. She’s spent the past four years immersing herself in the Dartmouth experience and reveling in the sense of identity that comes with it. “The person I was when I arrived here is so radically different from who I am now,” she reflects. “Dartmouth has been such a helpful place for me to come into my own.”

Natalie credits part of that change to Dartmouth’s liberal arts curriculum, which emphasizes flexibility. She switched her focus from the pre-health track, which prepares students for careers in health professions, to philosophy after taking the course Identity, Liberalism, and Democracy with Professor of Philosophy David Plunkett and visiting professor Yascha Mounk. “It was the first class that really made me question what I thought about the world,” she remembers.

Natalie now works with Professor Plunkett as a research assistant, and she’s also found a mentor in Assistant Professor of Government Charles Crabtree, who like Natalie is the first member of his family to attend college. “He very much brings that identity into the classroom,” Natalie says. “It was perhaps the first time I've had a first-generation, low-income professor telling me ‘You have this wonderful analytical mind, and we need more students like you here. That's why I am here.’” Together, the two have been studying factors that influence assimilation in America.

Professor Crabtree’s class wasn’t the first time that Natalie had explored parts of her identity in the classroom. “Being queer was something I understood in the context of myself, but not in the larger context of the world,” she says. “The liberal arts curriculum has allowed me to explore parts of myself I hadn't ever explored.”

In her senior seminar class on the controversies in feminist philosophy, she confidently brings her perspective to the discussion. “I’ve seen myself progress from someone who was very hesitant to even openly identify as queer to someone now willing to have these conversations in a small classroom setting,” she says. She’s also the Vice President of Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority, where “a good portion of our members are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Our hope is to be a community where everyone feels welcome.”

Natalie believes that using her voice is the greatest gift she can give to Dartmouth. As a senior staff columnist and editor for the Opinion section of the school newspaper, The Dartmouth, Natalie has contributed to more than 80 Verbum Ultimums, the joint weekly column written by the paper’s more senior Opinion columnists and editors. Each week, the Verbum Ultimum features a column on a topic deemed worthy of discussion for the community, ranging from mental health and inclusivity to housing and dining prices.

“It's a place to express your ideas, advocate for yourself, and advocate for the community,” she says. “As a whole, Dartmouth has really pushed me to reflect on my own place in the world."

Selin Hos ’25

Courses of Study

Curious about the areas of study that Dartmouth has to offer? Dartmouth students can wait until sophomore year to declare a major, leaving plenty of time for exploration. But regardless of what you choose, the classes you take at Dartmouth will span disciplines far outside your chosen concentration. Here, Bess Neiblum ’23 highlights the departments she’s taken courses within—and shares the inside scoop on her favorites. How will you explore?

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

Astronomy

Biological Chemistry M

Biological Sciences

Biomedical Engineering Sciences M

Biophysical Chemistry M

Chemistry

Classical Archaeology

Classical Languages and Literatures

Classical Studies

Cognitive Science M

Comparative Literature M

Complex Systems m

Computer Science

Digital Arts m

Earth Sciences

Economics

Education m

Engineering Physics M

she / her / hers

Hometown: West Chester, PA

Major: Quantitative Social Science

AAAS 63

Race Matters

Bess says: "Beginning with the fact that race is a social construct, this class reminds us how race still creates real lived experiences and consequences. Race matters, despite the fact that the biological basis for it is a farce invented to create and maintain power hierarchies and economic gain. Professor Keaton is fascinating and incredibly knowledgeable, and I felt during this class that the things I learned would change the way I thought about the world—just as I have always expected a college education to do."

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

Engineering Sciences

English

Environmental Earth Sciences

Environmental Science m

Environmental Studies

Film and Media Studies

French

French Studies M

Geography

German Studies

Global Health m

Government History

Human-Centered Design m

International Studies m

Italian

Italian Studies M

Jewish Studies m

Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies

Linguistics

Markets, Management, and the Economy m

Materials Science m

Mathematical Biology m

Mathematical Finance m

Mathematical Logic m

Mathematical Physics m

Mathematical Data Science M

Mathematics

Medieval and Renaissance Studies*

Middle Eastern Studies

Music

Native American and Indigenous Studies

Neuroscience

Philosophy

Portuguese (Lusophone Studies)

Physics

Psychology

Public Policy m

Quantitative Social Science

Religion

Romance Languages M

Romance Studies M

Russian

Russian Area Studies

Social Inequalities m

Sociology

Spanish (Hispanic Studies)

Statistics m

Studio Art

Sustainability m Theater

Urban Studies m

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

m

SART 27

Printmaking I

Bess says: "Studio art is a department I thought I’d never explore during my time at Dartmouth, but a combination of the distributive requirements and fantastic things I’d heard about the class inspired me to take printmaking my junior spring. The course pushed me creatively and technically as I learned how to create successful, artistic, and meaningful prints all in the span of ten weeks. My classmates’ prints are currently hanging in my room, a constant reminder of the close-knit community I found in that class."

MUS 46 Video Games and the Meaning of Life

Bess says: "I took this class to fulfill the Thought, Meaning and Value distributive requirement—one of a series of academic requirements that each undergraduate must fulfill—and I am so glad I did. Not only did we play video games as part of this class, but we delved into extremely interesting conversations about the boundaries of a game and what it means to play and even be present in one. Where do reality and fiction intersect in sports, television shows, and video games? In this class, I was able to explore fascinating philosophical questions without questioning my personal existence."

PSYC 53.15

Positive Psychology and Resilience

Bess says: "In this course, I learned how mindfulness actually increases happiness and well-being, how positive relationships make you happier than money ever can, and that self-compassion is much more beneficial than self-esteem in the long term. Outside the classroom, we practiced meditation, attended a spiritual service, and interviewed successful, happy people. I know that the teachings of this course will have a meaningful and long-term impact on my life."

QSS 18

Introduction to Game Theory

Bess says: "Though initially one of the classes that scared me most about my major, this class turned into perhaps my favorite at Dartmouth, and this was in large part due to Professor Herron. He wants his students to succeed above all else. He has more faith in us to understand tough concepts than we sometimes do in ourselves, and he throws everything into teaching. This class changed the way I looked at the world and viewed problems, and when it pushed me beyond my comfort zone, I realized I could thrive there."

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 range of opportunities Dartmouth has to offer. We asked current students to share experiences made possible with Dartmouth’s financial support.

“Through its new ImpACT Winterim Leadership Intensive, the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact (DCSI) provides students with a $1500 stipend to volunteer with an organization serving underrepresented communities. This past winter break, I received funding to volunteer with the local National Weather Service office in Memphis, Tennessee. I wouldn't have been able to do that if it weren't for this funding; now, I'm getting to learn more about serving the needs of people through the lens of weather and climate.”

’25 from Missouri

“Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Global Leadership Program (RGLP) is a free one-term commitment that allows Dartmouth students to engage in discussions about cultural identity, self-awareness, and cross-cultural communication. On an RGLP-sponsored weekend trip to Boston, we explored culturally and historically significant neighborhoods and sites, toured the Institute for Contemporary Art, and enjoyed Once On This Island, a musical about Haitian culture that challenges stereotypes related to class, race, and gender. Dartmouth paid for all our tickets, hotel rooms, and gave each of us $60 in spending money.”

’24 from California

“During my first-year spring, I received a Lovelace Research Scholarship to fund my research with Assistant Professor of Computer Science Temi Prioleau in Dartmouth’s Augmented Health Lab. We’re analyzing data from wearables like FitBit trackers to study the relationship between glucose levels and sleep duration or activity. Our goal is to use that analysis to develop a mobile application for diabetic patients that provides personalized health recommendations. Professor Prioleau has helped me understand how to apply concepts I’ve learned in my computer science classes to my future career.”

’25 from Ethiopia

“This past summer, I traveled to Morocco to study Arabic and Moroccan culture through a Dartmouth Language Study Abroad (LSA) program. There, I lived with a Moroccan host family in the old city of Rabat, improved my knowledge of the Arabic language, and enjoyed a Middle Eastern Studies seminar on Moroccan history and culture with Tarek El-Ariss, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Dartmouth. Thanks to Dartmouth's great financial support, my classmates and I were able to visit more than ten major Moroccan cities throughout the term, including Marrakech, Casablanca, and Tangier!”

’25 from Illinois

“Over my spring break, I joined the Ledyard Canoe Club for a white water kayaking trip in North Carolina. Most of us on the trip started out with no experience, so we hired guides while experienced club leaders taught intermediate kayakers how to improve. By the end of the trip, we were cutting through Class 3 rapids! After paddling every day, we returned to our cozy cabin where we cooked dinner, played tons of Bananagrams, and even held our own talent show. The best part of the trip, though? It was mostly cost-covered by the Dartmouth Outing Club.”

’25 from Louisiana

ILLUSTRATION BY JAN KALLWEJT

TANAKA CHIKATI ’25

she / her / hers

HOMETOWN: HARARE, ZIMBABWE

MAJORS: MUSIC AND AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

On autumn days, Tanaka Chikati ’25 often brings her picnic blanket and journal to Bema, a grassy amphitheater on the eastern edge of campus. “There, I spread out my blanket, listen to Mbira DzeNharira’s music, and just write,” Tanaka shares. The musical ensemble, which is from Zimbabwe, is known for its arrangements that use the sound of the mbira, a family of African instruments traditional to the Shona people.

An African musician herself, Tanaka became interested in the study of music during her upbringing in Zimbabwe. “African culture has gone through many periods of erasure. I’ve always been very curious about and drawn to those parts that we lost,” she says. “Many students learn to play mbira in primary school, but later drop it because they don’t find meaning or purpose in it anymore.”

And so, last spring, Tanaka applied for a grant from the Department of Music’s Erich Kunzel Class of 1957 Fund, which helps undergraduates fund musical research, projects, and performances. The grant made it possible for her to travel home to study mbira music and traditional dance with Zimbabwean musician Irene Chigamba. “Learning to play mbira from someone of my culture that was just beautiful,” Tanaka says.

Now, Tanaka performs the mbira and the marimba a percussion instrument similar to a xylophone in Dartmouth’s Coast Jazz Ensemble. Last year, Google Arts and Culture featured her solo mbira recordings in a multimedia show representing work of African women artists. “That helped put mbira music on a big map,” Tanaka recalls, adding that the support of the music department has made her even more eager to integrate her knowledge of traditional Zimbabwean music into her studies. She counts Assistant Professor of Music César Alvarez among her most impactful mentors. “César,” she says, “helped me to think deeply about how I can grow as an artist.”

Outside the classroom, Tanaka is a member of the Dartmouth African Students Association and serves as one of Dartmouth’s Undergraduate Advisors, student mentors who support their peers’ intellectual, cultural, and social development in residential settings. “I'm a person who wants to help others through change,” she says, “and, in particular, I want to help other African students in their transition to life at the College. I strive to make community for other people.”

The community she’s forged at Dartmouth is just the start. Tanaka hopes to one day open a school in Africa for students who are gifted in the arts, a goal that Professor Alvarez has encouraged her to see as within her reach. But her first priority, she says, is to build on her musical transformation that has taken root at Dartmouth, adding: “I'm here first and foremost to grow as Tanaka, as an artist.”

Chase Harvey ’25

A Musician from Zimbabwe Hones Her Craft in Hanover

Pictured: In Spaulding Auditorium at the Hopkins Center for the Arts

A Grassroots Effort, Led by Women, Restores a Dartmouth Jewel

In fall 2022, Dartmouth Hall, one of the most iconic and recognizable buildings on campus, celebrated a top-to-bottom renovation thanks to the largest alumnae-led fundraising effort in the College’s history. The effort to spruce up a building that was first completed in 1791, and rebuilt after a fire in 1904, began in 2018. That’s when a core group of alumnae challenged Dartmouth women to raise $25 million to support the renovation. Of the more than 3,200 donors who answered that call, 2,712 were alumnae, joined by parents, friends, and families. All told, they raised more than $26 million. The building, which once hosted a lecture by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is now home to the Leslie Center for the Humanities and the departments of German Studies, French and Italian, and Spanish and Portuguese.

Admissions Editorial

Board

Erin Burnett, Editor

Isabel Bober ’04

Jacques Steinberg ’88, Editorial Advisor

Produced by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions of Dartmouth College

Design: Hecht/Horton Partners

Copyediting: Thurston-Lighty, Ltd.

Special thanks to Sara D. Morin

Student Contributors

Clara Goulding ’25

Chase Harvey ’25

Selin Hos ’25

Shuyi Jin ’23

Julia Levine ’23

Chukwuka V. Odigbo ’25

Estelle Stedman ’23

Sydney Wuu ’24

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.

Equal Opportunity: Dartmouth is committed to the principle of equal opportunity for all its students, faculty, staff, and applicants for admission and employment. 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, citizenship, disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other legally protected status in the administration of and access to the College’s programs and activities, and in conditions of admission and employment. Dartmouth adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations.

Dartmouth College

Office of Undergraduate Admissions

6016 McNutt Hall

Hanover, NH 03755

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On the Admissions

Beat, veteran Dean of Admissions and Financial

Aid Lee Coffin provides high school juniors, seniors and parents, as well as their counselors and other mentors, with “news you can use” at each step on the pathway to college. With a welcoming, reassuring perspective and an approach intended to build confidence in prospective applicants, Dean Coffin offers credible information, insights, and guidance from the earliest days of the college search, to applications, decision-making, and arrival on campus. He does so by drawing on nearly 30 years of experience as an admissions leader at some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions. Listen at dartgo.org/3Dpodcast.