3D Magazine :: 2018 August

DARTMOUTH IN ALL ITS DIMENSIONS NO. 3 | AUG 2018

ADMISSIONS.DARTMOUTH.EDU

Defying the Political Divide

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.

On the cover: Jennifer West ’20 and Abraham Herrera ’18 Cover photograph by Don Hamerman

Admissions Editorial Board

Student Writers

Hayden Lizotte Editor

Caroline Cook ‘21 Newark, DE

Topher Bordeau Contributing Editor

Brian Drisdelle ‘21 Burlington, CT

Sara D. Morin Production Editor

Jimmy Nguyen ‘21 Mesa, AZ

Isabel Bober ‘04 Senior Associate Director of Admissions

Sofía Carbonell Realme ‘20 Mexico City, Mexico

PHOTOGRAPH BY ELI BURAKIAN ’00

AUGUST 2018 // ISSUE 03

02

10

24

38

First Hand

LIVE @ Dartmouth

Living the Green Life

Onward & Upward

03

12

28

44

It’s a Fact

Policy Insights Yield Global Benefits

First in the Nation for Political Discourse

On Course

18

30

Walking the Walk

Oh, the places you’ll go!

20

37

Rules of Engagement

Points of Departure

06 Hanover Hot Spots

07 Humans of Hanover

45 Courses of Study

48 Threads

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

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

“This edition of 3D celebrates the civic immediacy of Dartmouth.”

Politics is to New Hampshire what vacations are to Florida and food is to Italy: an indelible dimension of its identity. New Hampshire makes presidents. Our first-in-the-nation presidential primary is the gateway to the White House, and that represents a remarkable opportunity for a college committed to educating the most promising students and preparing them for a lifetime of responsible leadership.

The balance of power in Washington, DC runs through the woods of New Hampshire and we at Dartmouth have more than a ringside seat. Future presidents appear on our porches, town squares, and in our diners, canvassing for votes in a remarkably old-fashioned, up-close-and-personal way when the lease on the White House comes due. Our campus is, quite literally, a perennial stage for elections, local and national. Candidates are here.

The media is here. Pollsters are calling. We are in the thick of the conversation. For anyone with an interest in politics and public policy, few places in the world match New Hampshire for its centrality and relevance. And whether you’re an American citizen or a citizen of the world, a political junkie or an astronomer, the political vibe of this campus is invigorating—and defining.

So when we celebrate Dartmouth’s profound sense of place, it’s more than just the vivid physical beauty of the campus, the lively college town that surrounds us, and the forests and mountains that frame our vistas. Dartmouth’s sense of place encompasses a sense of history, too—a palpable sense of purpose framed by a longstanding tradition of political engagement, of being close enough to a candidate seeking high office to ask a hard question or two. Those who pursue careers in the political realm apply what they’re studying in political science, statistics, sociology, religion, economics, education, and a host of other disciplines in a firsthand, real-world context. And all students learn how to be engaged citizens, how to think critically about the new and emerging issues of our time, within the US and around the world.

Imagine that political scene as the backdrop for your undergraduate experience. Whether you’re pre-law or an aspiring chemist, whatever your political views or citizenship might be, the global impact of what happens in New Hampshire matters.

And if you’re with us in Hanover, you can be a direct participant in that process. As the 2018 midterm elections approach, this edition of 3D celebrates the civic immediacy of Dartmouth. Even if you don’t anticipate majoring in government or public policy, you’ll discover how students here engage peers and professors in civil discourse across the liberal arts with lively opinions that run the gamut of ideas and perspectives. It’s an opportunity to test and refine your point of view, to become more informed, to listen, to collaborate on solutions. That’s the opportunity of Dartmouth.

It’s a fact.

DARTMOUTH ALUMNI IN POLITICS

BASIC FACTS

4,410 % 96 % 100

5 381

Number of Undergraduate Students

One alumnus and US State Governor

6-Year Graduation Rate

25

164

3

5

have served as US State Governors

Demonstrated Financial Need Met

have served in the US Congress

currently serve as US State Governors

currently serve in the US Senate

189

Fall Term Classes with More Than 100 Students

vs.

7:1

became Vice President of the United States

Fall Term Classes with Fewer Than 20 Students

DARTMOUTH ALUMNI HAVE HELD MAJOR OFFICE

4

th

Student-toFaculty Ratio

among American colleges for US congressional alumni

22

politically-oriented clubs and organizations at Dartmouth

RESEARCH IN THE SCIENCES AT DARTMOUTH

15M

$

+

EXTERNAL RESEARCH FUNDING FOR DARTMOUTH’S SCIENCE DEPARTMENTS LAST YEAR

281,858 sq ft

Equipment in Dartmouth’s research labs include:

NMR spectrophotometers, Scanning Electron microscopes, a scanned probe microscope, a Nikon SMZ1500 stereomicroscope with epifluorescence

Total square footage of labs on the main campus and at Thayer School of Engineering (both classroom and research)

1

ST

= ALMOST FIVE AMERICAN FOOTBALL FIELDS

US school to own and operate an fMRI scanner strictly for research purposes

admissions.dartmouth.edu | 3

In Her Own

STEPHANIE EVERETT ’19 MAJOR: THEATER MODIFIED WITH AFRICAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES, MINOR IN SOCIOLOGY HOMETOWN: SILVER SPRING, MD

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON NAMEHAMERMAN

Voice Pictured: At Northern Stage just across the river in White River Junction, VT

Stephanie Everett ’19 is juggling a dizzying number of identities and affiliations: singer, athlete, theater major, sorority president, and queer black woman. But when senior lecturer Carol Dunne suggested that she write a one-woman show, she was taken aback. “We laughed, but then it actually happened!”

Stephanie arrived at Dartmouth without much space for theater. She played Division I soccer and planned to major in sociology. Never defined solely by her sport, she joined the Decibelles a cappella group and became president of her sorority. “I rushed not knowing anyone in Chi Delta,” she says. “I just walked up to this cute little yellow house on the corner of Occom Pond, and I was like, ‘Oh, yes.’ I walked in, and it was just good vibes.”

After a serious concussion, Stephanie reconsidered her path at Dartmouth. She left the soccer team and decided to take a musical theater class to reconnect with a high school passion. That class was taught by Carol Dunne, who, besides being described

by Stephanie as “a wizard,” is the artistic director at Northern Stage, a professional theater company nearby in Vermont. That connection led Stephanie to apply for an internship at Northern Stage. Today, she’s a theater major and budding playwright.

With Carol’s encouragement, Stephanie presented a first draft of her one-woman show on the last day of her internship. To her surprise, she was asked to include the piece in the prestigious annual New Works Now Festival. “I lengthened it and really put my life out there. It’s not just me saying, ‘hi, I have a headache.’

It’s me saying I’m gay and I’m black, and whether I’m in this rural place or back home in DC, these identities aren’t easily navigable.

It’s really about intersectionality and modern-day adolescence.”

Her journey has taught her the power of her own voice.

“You are the only person who knows what you’ll get out of college,” Stephanie says. “As hard as it can be, just follow your own voice, and don’t care what people think about it.” Not only does Stephanie live that advice, she has the courage to do it live on stage.

—Caroline Cook ’21

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HOT SPOTS

Hanover Farmers’ Market On warm Wednesday afternoons in summer and fall, the Farmers’ Market comes to the Green. Just a stone’s throw from Baker-Berry Library, you’ll find tents brimming with fresh, locally-grown produce, flowers, and herbs, as well as baked goods, cheese, meats, and more. Students wander through between classes, snacking, stocking up, and listening to live music. From yarn skeins to legendary kettle corn and lemonade, the Farmers’ Market satisfies the Dartmouth community’s cravings and craft needs (look out for pumpkins come October), all the while supporting local farms.

—Sofía Carbonell Realme ’20

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT C. STRONG II ’04

HANOVER

HUMANS OF HANOVER ^ DARTMOUTH IS DEFINED BY ITS PEOPLE, AND WE’RE CELEBRATING THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY. MEET SIX ‘22S VIA EXCERPTS FROM THEIR “WHY DARTMOUTH” ESSAYS AND SEE WHY THEY’RE SO EXCITED TO DON THEIR DARTMOUTH GEAR.

Michael Moyo, Lusaka, Zambia

Kayleigh Paddock, Tuba City, AZ

Jacob Willem Hanssen, Tiburon, CA

My compass pointed to Dartmouth, where I can engineer my academic calendar through the D-Plan and make a positive impact in developing countries through the Global Health Initiative Program. I can gain a deep understanding of vaccines by joining Professor Margie Ackerman’s research, and the close-knit community will allow me to create unforgettable bonds with individuals who are as passionate as I am.

I know I can thrive. I want to fight the stereotype that Native Americans are poorly educated and show the world who the Navajo truly are. I will pursue both chemistry and environmental studies majors to study the life-threatening health and pollution effects of the defunct uranium mines that surround my hometown. I want to be a voice for my nation.

There’s a feeling in the air. I felt it first standing outside of the Hanover Inn. Then I felt it again, hearing about the Dartmouth CoFIRED group (that’s Dartmouth Coalition for Immigration Reform, Equality, and DREAMers).

Perhaps it’s part of the “Dartmouth difference.” It’s the essence on campus, one that calls to me even now.

Eli Boardman, Boulder, CO

Lidia Balanovich, Nashua, NH

Reva Dixit, Miami, FL

Dartmouth’s superb physics program will help me become a leader in science, while a minor in film will let me grow creatively. Dartmouth’s research opportunities in polar and climate science through the Dickey Center further set the College apart, as I hope to have a career in arctic and alpine research. The commitment to synthesizing liberal arts with scientific research matches my enthusiasm for pursuing truth across all disciplines.

When I lived on campus for the Health Careers Institute summer camp, I found that Dartmouth holds opportunities for endless adventures. My friends and I had the chance to go vegan for a day at FoCo, venture into the shops of Hanover, and sample jalapeño jam at the Farmers’ Market on the Green. Dartmouth is a supportive place for me to push my limits and grow beyond my chosen major.

Dartmouth is dreamy. On my drive here I was stunned by the idyllic landscape. I‘m excited to join organizations like the Women of Color Collective and the Waveform and make my own dream of doing research in microbiology or immunology more achievable. Above all, Dartmouth’s students are brilliant—just walking through Baker-Berry Library, I overheard conversations about chemistry and politics without any pretension, only passion.

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MICHAEL EVERETT ’19 MAJOR: ANTHROPOLOGY, MINOR IN PUBLIC POLICY HOMETOWN: LOS ANGELES, CA

It’s hard to imagine that anybody could fit drones, scorpions, and baboon phalanges into a single resumé, but Michael Everett ’19 has an expansive imagination. “It’s about allowing students to be weird,” he says.

“I want to do projects that interest me, to combine interdisciplinary studies into things that actually happen,” he adds, “so I do a lot of research.” Interdisciplinary is an understatement; from starting a lab to study the metabolic costs of scorpion venom to investigating the sociopolitical impacts of drone technology, the range of his work is staggering. He’s also worked side-by-side with National Geographic Explorers. “I’m kind of everywhere,” he says.

Michael is “kind of everywhere” back on campus as well.

He mentors local kids through the DREAM program (Directing through Recreation, Education, Adventure, and Mentoring), holds a leadership role in his fraternity, and formerly chaired the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club.

After an anthropology class brought him to South Africa, Michael became fascinated with Homo Naledi, a recently discovered cave-dwelling human ancestor. Fossil records show that these early hominids had curved fingers, a feature usually associated with tree climbing—but in a region with virtually no trees.

“I said to my professors: ‘what if those functional adaptations are not related to tree climbing? Could they be related instead to rock climbing within the caves? Could rock climbing play a more important role in human evolution than we thought?’”

Flash forward a couple months. With funding from a Stamps Scholarship, Michael arrived in South Africa to work with researchers from around the world to put his theory to the test. He needed a model to use as a comparison—an animal that exhibited similar behavior. He found a troop of cave-dwelling baboons and began assembling a research team to crawl through caverns and extract baboon carcasses. “It was like pulling off the band-aid,” he says.

“You’re an adult now. You’re going to manage. You’re going to bring together these researchers to make something happen.”

Today, he’s still busy analyzing project data. His greatest hope is to see others get involved. “One of the most important things I’ve learned as a Dartmouth student is not to be afraid to do things that other people aren’t doing—to feel free to be weird.”

—Brian Drisdelle ’21

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Free to

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

be Weird Pictured: At Velvet Rocks just off the Appalachian Trail, which runs through campus

PHOTOGRAPH OF YO -YO MA: ROB STRONG, FOR THE HOPKINS CENTER FOR THE ARTS, ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: HOPKINS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

LIVE @ DARTMOUTH

Yo-Yo Ma Takes the Silkroad to Dartmouth

Last spring, acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma visited Dartmouth with the Silkroad Ensemble to introduce a work by leading Chinese composer Jia Daqun in front of a capacity crowd at the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts. And, in an impromptu moment backstage in front of Ma and a smaller audience, student cellist Matthew Goff ’18 made his own debut on Ma’s cello.

Both performances were part of a series of events made possible by the Hop and the Montgomery endowment, a gift from Kenneth ’25 and Harle Montgomery that has brought distinguished guests to campus to stay at the Montgomery House and engage with the Dartmouth community. Other guests of the program have included Cornel West, Sir Salman Rushdie, and André Aciman.

Ma’s own connection to Dartmouth is deep, and his engagement during his campus visit was personal. Nearly twenty years ago, Dartmouth music professor Theodore Levin helped Ma form the Silkroad Ensemble, a group of musicians from Central and East Asia. Convened and led by Ma, the group composes contemporary music with traditional roots. In addition to his performance, Ma gave a public talk on the intersection of culture, economics, and politics, shared dinner with a small group of students and Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon at the president’s home, and visited classes with the rest of the ensemble.

During a class visit to The Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas (ANTH 32), Ma and other members of the ensemble used the migration of a Bedouin dance song from Morocco to Europe to illustrate how the spread of musical ideas mimicked the spread of commodities on the Silk Road. He then treated the class to a spontaneous performance of a Bach cello suite.

Ma has borrowed a phrase from fellow cellist Pablo Casals in saying that he lives and works as “a human being first, a musician second, and a cellist third.” His engagement with the entirety of the Dartmouth community— from concert performer to class participant—reflects the connection between his own approach to life and work and Dartmouth’s emphasis on the interpersonal connections that foster a community of scholarship.

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Learning to Lead

by Thinking and Doing

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ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES STEINBERG

POLICY INSIGHTS YIELD GLOBAL BENEFITS

In January 2017, 12 Dartmouth undergraduates and a postdoctoral fellow issued a 65-page policy brief that prevented the US government from making up to $22 million worth of potentially risky investments. The locale was Ukraine, the client was the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the topic was the state of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Ukraine’s fragile public sphere.

“Nothing compares to being on the ground in a country that overthrew its government just three years earlier,” says Priya Ramaiah ’17. “The entire project was up to us. We defined the scope of investigations, scheduled and conducted the interviews, and collaborated among four subteams to write up the salient takeaways for USAID. The experience was formative for me and, ultimately, had a huge influence on the job I decided to take after graduation.” Priya is now a strategy analyst at The Advisory Board Company, a Washington think tank and consultancy for health care organizations around the globe.

Priya’s subteam of three students was responsible for evaluating the extent to which Ukrainian CSOs are on a path toward developmental sustainability.

“These CSOs are heavily dependent on international organizations and governments,” she says. “As a result, the projects USAID supports and the metrics they use to define success can have a huge influence on whether Ukrainian CSOs develop a strong culture of mission-driven leadership and governance.”

Priya’s group found that the donor community generally lacked long-term vision and inter-donor coordination. “We felt that the US investment could yield better long-term results with a more global and collaborative strategy.”

A proving ground for fake news Clara Wang ’17, now an applied data scientist in the healthcare and political sectors at Civis Analytics, was one of three students analyzing the relationship between the media and civil society in Ukraine. “Most people who are paying attention in the US know by now that Ukraine was a testing ground for Russian fake news operations,” says Clara. “Ukraine’s been dealing with it for a while, and we can learn a lot from the effect Russia’s interventions have had on Ukrainian civil society.”

Clara’s group delivered several recommendations that USAID took into account before issuing its next round of grants to Ukrainian organizations working in the media sector. “Given that Ukraine’s media system is dominated by oligarchs, we felt strongly that future USAID programs should focus on developing more autonomous regional media outlets. It was very gratifying to add immediate value to US policymaking. The project also proved to be the ideal preparation for work I’m doing now for The Gambia.”

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Rocky runs toward the problem A can-do mindset permeates classrooms and residence halls, research laboratories and real-world projects across Dartmouth. And few places on campus channel this spirit into productive action and transformational learning like Rocky—aka The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth.

“In and out of the classroom, on and off campus, our goal is to engage Dartmouth undergraduates in a multidisciplinary search for solutions to complex and pressing problems,” explains Rocky’s Director Andrew Samwick, the Sandra L. and Arthur L. Irving ’72a, P’10 Professor of Economics. “When we identify a challenge in the public policy realm, we try to build a curriculum around solving it. Then we pair the coursework with an experiential learning project that turns students’ findings and insights into useful tools for decision makers.”

That’s why Dartmouth students can be found testifying before Vermont and New Hampshire legislative committees on public policy matters. Or writing grant proposals for regional nonprofits. Or interning under the mentorship of alumni such as Judge John Mott ’81 at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. “These activities are central to our notion of leadership at Dartmouth,” Samwick says. “You’ll find smart people everywhere, but it takes a good leader to translate knowledge into a public benefit.”

The Policy Research Shop

ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES STEINBERG

The undergraduate team for the Ukraine project was convened by The Class of 1964 Policy Research Shop at Rocky. Under the mentorship of Professor Ron Shaiko, Associate Director for Curricular and Research Programs at Rocky, the team spent fall term preparing for the project in Global Policy Leadership (PBPL 85).

The course covered the fundamentals of public policy research as well as the current state of civil society in Ukraine. Before leaving the country, the team visited Washington, DC to meet with officials at the Ukrainian embassy and key USAID personnel. In Ukraine, the students interviewed 92 CSO leaders, government officials, and media representatives during a two-week stay. Their research took them to Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, and Odessa.

Solve early and often “You don’t get do-overs in the real world of public policy,” says Professor Ron Shaiko, Associate Director for Curricular and Research Programs at Rocky. “That’s why we’ve created a series of experiential learning and leadership development opportunities that take students from first year through graduation.”

• •

•

• • • • • • •

First-Year Fellows Program Dartmouth Leadership Attitudes and Behaviors (D-LAB) Management and Leadership Development Program Student Mini-Grants Rockefeller Global Leadership Program Rockefeller Leadership Fellows Dartmouth-Oxford Exchange Program Public Policy Internships Class of 1964 Policy Research Shop Public Policy Minor

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LINDA XIAO ’20 MAJOR: COMPUTER SCIENCE HOMETOWN: SAN JOSE, CA

& THOMAS CORMEN PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

A CONVERSATION WITH POPULAR COMPUTER SCIENCE PROFESSOR AND TEXTBOOK AUTHOR THOMAS CORMEN AND HIS COLLABORATOR, COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJOR LINDA XIAO ’20. CORMEN IS ALSO A REVERED BARBECUE PITMASTER AND MARATHON INLINE SKATER, AND LINDA IS AN ACCOMPLISHED MEMBER OF THE DARTMOUTH FENCING CLUB.

Tom: It’s a whopping 1,312-page textbook going into its fourth edition. I was Linda’s first-year advisor and knew she was wicked smart, intellectually curious, and super easy to work with. When I needed someone to implement the algorithms in the computing language Python, I asked her if she’d take it on as a summer job. I’d hoped that she might get a little over halfway through by the end of the summer, but she finished the book—FINISHED—with a week to spare.

Linda: The project was a little overwhelming at first. I had to get up to speed on the Python library and modules. Actually, I came to really appreciate Python—it’s pretty slick. And Professor Cormen met with me every day to make sure the code was good. Once I was confident I was on the right track, I got into a rhythm.

Tom: Linda didn’t need a lot of advice. I am very proud to release the code that she prepared.

Linda, you’ve worked with Tom in another capacity?

Linda: Yes, as an undergraduate teaching assistant.

Tom: Of all the student section leaders I hired last year for my Computer Science 1 staff, Linda was the only first-year student. She got rave reviews. In fact, I think her evaluations were better than mine.

Tom, you have made it your mission to encourage women in STEM fields.

Tom: It goes back to my graduate student days at MIT. I’ll always remember another student sharing her struggles as a woman in computing. When I arrived at Dartmouth, I wanted to make sure that women had ample opportunities to thrive in computer science. I was excited to take 31 Dartmouth undergraduates to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in Orlando, FL in October to hear leaders in the field like Melinda Gates. It’s the world’s largest technical conference for women in computing, and Dartmouth Computer Science is a platinum academic sponsor.

Linda: I missed it because I was studying in Peru, but I will go this year. I want to underline that Tom is one of the biggest proponents of women in computing. Of the 21 student section leaders he hired for the fall, 13 were women.

Tom: I just followed Fibonacci’s “golden ratio.”

Linda, what has Professor Cormen’s mentorship meant to you?

Linda: It’s funny, my mom knew all about Professor Cormen before I started at Dartmouth. She said he was a big deal in computer science but, to be honest, he never acted like a big deal. Maybe the best kind of mentorship doesn’t feel hierarchical. Professor Cormen has a way of making you feel like a colleague—there’s no power dynamic going on. Even though he’s on sabbatical, he’s still advising his students because he cares about them. In large part because he trusted me with this book project, Microsoft has hired me for a very competitive internship this summer.

Tom: I think they should count themselves lucky to have landed you!

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PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

Tom, you are one of the authors of the iconic computer science textbook Introduction to Algorithms—the industry standard for computer science textbooks. Tell us about the book and how you pulled Linda into the project.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

ADINA HARRI

Walking the Walk ADINA HARRI ’18 IS AN ENGLISH MAJOR WITH ROOTS IN BOTH ALBANIA AND MISSISSIPPI. SHE’S PRE-MED AND IS AIMING FOR MEDICAL SCHOOL, BUT WILL BE SPENDING HER FIRST YEAR AFTER GRADUATION WORKING IN THE ADMISSIONS OFFICE AT DARTMOUTH. HERE, IN AN EXCERPT OF A SPEECH SHE GAVE TO PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS, SHE REFLECTS ON HER LIBERAL ARTS JOURNEY.

Four years ago, I left Mississippi for my first year at Dartmouth College with two suitcases, a large backpack, and a fierce determination to succeed. At the time, success for me meant graduating as a top science student and future physician. Thinking back on it makes me laugh. Not that those goals are bad or wrong. They just weren’t my own. I had a preconceived idea of what success, in Broadway lights, looked like: Becoming a Doctor.

On the last day of my First-Year Trip, I sat on the grassy hill at Moosilauke Lodge in a circle of first-year students and upperclass leaders. We took turns asking for their advice. They told us one thing that particularly struck me: “Don’t be afraid to do something you’ve never done before.”

When I landed on campus, I took that advice to heart. I joined the women’s water polo team. I hiked Mt. Cube with the Dartmouth Outing Club. I took a philosophy class. I realized it wasn’t for me. I took an English class. I loved it.

My freshman spring, I walked into my dean’s office, looking for advice on my upcoming off-term. She told me, “Don’t ask what you should do. What do you want to do?”

After thinking about it for a moment, I told her, “My family is originally from Albania, and I would love to go back and volunteer there in some way.”

She helped me reach out to nonprofits and find funding from the Center for Social Impact. Within three months, I was interning in the Albanian Alps, teaching kids about health and nutrition.

After returning to campus, I decided to take an English class with professor and poet Cynthia Huntington. I loved it so much it scared me. We rewrote my final portfolio, poet to poet, three times before I felt satisfied. My experience with Professor Huntington inspired me to take another English class—Native American Oral Traditions—where I learned about words, their power to hurt and to heal, and about the importance of stories. That winter, I listened to what I wanted and declared my English major. That was the moment I became a Dartmouth student in spirit, someone who knows they don’t have to sacrifice a dream to study poetry, someone who believes that studying poetry will make them a better doctor.

I can go on about the opportunities Dartmouth has given me—working on global health policy in Kosovo this summer, playing at the water polo nationals in Pittsburgh, shadowing talented, caring physicians at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center—but I don’t think that mattered most in my Dartmouth experience. Dartmouth taught me to look at the hand I was dealt and ask, “What do I want to do?” then summon the courage to pursue it. I leave here with a determination not to meet some predefined idea of success, but to chase the things that I love and care about. I know that success will follow.

Indicates location on the Dartmouth Green where Adina is standing. admissions.dartmouth.edu | 19

Rules of Engagement

At Dartmouth, everything’s up for debate

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PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

What parts of the statement resonated with or against your views?

AH: The statement takes an establishment view of the way the US has engaged in the world. While I do think it’s always important to stay engaged, it’s also important that the US leverage its ability to act unilaterally and take a muscular approach. Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us that it’s not so much about being engaged, it’s about how. So, how does that look in the Middle East?

The conversation we had in 2016 was almost a referendum: do we continue this idea of expanding democracy in the Middle East or do we use some of those resources to focus on our own infrastructure and social issues? The statement talks about diplomacy and peace-building not being shortchanged as we increase expenditures on defense. I’d like detail on what that means: seeing how much money we’re putting into USAID and other organizations and means-testing their results. We can’t continue to invest billions of dollars we don’t have to rebuild other countries if our efforts aren’t working.

JW: When we talk about US involvement in other countries, we typically mean military. But that mindset shortchanges the ability of soft power to do a lot of the work that our military does. There’s consensus about the efforts of organizations like USAID that a lot of those efforts are working well, and

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I love to talk about religion and politics—two things you should never talk about, right? a lot aren’t. People take two approaches with the efforts that aren’t working well: they advocate for putting more money into them, or for backing away.

If something isn’t working, the answer isn’t to abandon it. The answer is to look critically and ask, “why isn’t this working?” Maybe we’re not putting enough resources into it or maybe we’re not consulting with the people who best know the issue. International organizations can do a lot of work engaging citizens of countries who don’t feel engaged by their own governments.

It’s important to give full credence to that ability to change hearts and minds.

This doesn’t necessarily mean democracy promotion, but helping other countries—with an understanding of their cultures and values—is something that should be given more attention.

How does this conversation happen across campus? Is there a difference in how ideas are shared in and out of class?

JW: There’s a lot of spillover. I find myself discussing topics from class while getting lunch or sitting on the Green. Last term, I wrote a paper that took over my life. It was about how the legacies of the Holocaust inform US decision-making about whether or not to intervene in humanitarian crises. It was so interesting to talk to my friends to see what they thought. The topics that my professors bring up resonate with me, and I find myself thinking about them days, weeks, or even months afterwards.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON HAMERMAN

Last spring, Jennifer West ’20, a member of the College Democrats, shared lunch with Abraham Herrera ’18 of the College Republicans. They had been invited to discuss their views on a statement to Congress submitted by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. It advocated for a specific approach to Middle Eastern policy that balanced investment in aid and the military.

While it’s no surprise that the future Marine (Abraham) and the international development advocate (Jennifer) didn’t agree on everything, they did find consensus in their observations on Dartmouth’s atypical political climate.

It’s funny. I didn’t even consider myself interested in foreign policy when I came to Dartmouth, but I took International Politics (GOV 5) my first fall. It changed my life, and the professor who taught it, Jennifer Lind, asked a lot of big questions I’d never considered. She’s still a guiding force in my life at Dartmouth.

AH: I’ve come at this the opposite way. I’ve always found myself having conversations with people outside of the classroom, and I didn’t take any foreign policy classes until my third year. I actually took Gov 5 just this past term.

JW: No way! What did you think?

AH: [Laughing] I had my disagreements with the professor, but she did a great job covering the topic and was fair.

My opinions on foreign policy before that class had been informed by history and by what prominent conservative writers tell us. In class, I was surprised by how politically literate and engaged students are here. That’s one of the most positive things I see being part of this campus.

New Hampshire is a swing state. Other places like this often become polarized, but you’re talking about inclusion. How does that happen?

AH: It has to do with the Dartmouth culture. People here are open to being challenged. I haven’t had a classroom discussion that ended in a shouting match or with anything getting personal. That’s helpful for people who really want to get to the heart of the issues. We get there by talking about uncomfortable things, about opinions that we may not share. We can do that because when we come here, we don’t just become Dartmouth students. We become part of a greater community.

JW: It’s also about the fact that you don’t have to have all the answers at Dartmouth. No one expects you to stand on a stage and defend everything you believe. That’s been really important in my political development. When I talk about an issue, I never feel like I have to defend myself. Having to defend themselves is what makes people retreat into their partisan, polarized shells. We don’t have to go head to head against other people. We can grow from them.

Jennifer mentioned earlier that political activism isn’t a separate part of students’ identities here: it’s interwoven into every aspect of campus life.

AH: True. It helps that I love to talk about religion and politics—two things you should never talk about, right? I just found myself entering the campus conversation, and it’s actually one that’s really easy to broach. There’s a real impetus on campus for us to exchange ideas and for people to have intellectual discursion.

JW: People here really want to develop their ideas; I know I’m never satisfied with my own. My friends laugh at me for my disclaimer every time I talk about politics: “this is just an opinion, but …” I always want to be shaped and informed by new ideas and discussions with friends.

We don’t have to go head to head against other people. We can grow from them. admissions.dartmouth.edu | 23

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

Living the Green

Who they are Hana Warmflash ’20 and Kayleigh Abbott ’20 have been roommates since their first day at Dartmouth.

Hana: Major: Biology • Hometown: Portland, OR • Interests: Undergraduate advisor; Taekwondo Club; chemistry tutor; campus tour guide; design staff for The Dartmouth •

Kayleigh: • Major: Engineering sciences, minor in human-centered design • Hometown: Bozeman, MT • Interests: Undergraduate advisor; Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineering (a branch of Engineers without Borders); hydroponics program in Ecuador

How they met “Kayleigh arrived at our room in Mid-Massachusetts Hall a few days earlier than I did our first year,” Hana says. “She welcomed me with open arms—literally. The only problem: I was just returning from my first-year trip hiking in the mountains around Dartmouth, and let’s just say I was pretty gritty.” But a few days of grit didn’t put off Kayleigh. The two have been BFFs ever since.

Why it works Superficially, Hana and Kayleigh couldn’t be more different. Hana is forging a career in medicine.

Kayleigh is building professional cred in her chosen field of human-centered engineering. But as roommates, they say, they couldn’t be more compatible. During an emergency visit to the hospital in response to an injury Kayleigh suffered, both were more enthralled by the experience than worried about the injury. Hana, who had twice shadowed a cardiac surgeon in the operating room as part of her pre-med studies, wanted to absorb every process she encountered, while Kayleigh was swooning over the gadgetry of health. Happily, the doctors and nurses they met at DartmouthHitchcock Medical Center, Dartmouth’s own teaching hospital, indulged their inquisitiveness.

What they call fun Right from the start, one shared interest stood out for its sheer oddity. Both Hana and Kayleigh hail from the western United States, yet each was passionate about the same two teams: the New York Mets and the New York Jets. The roommates also are equally outdoorsy, and when they’re not hiking or skiing, you’re apt to find them picnicking on the Green. “The sunset casts an amazing light on Dartmouth Hall,” says Hana. “You have to see it.”

The two have prodigious reputations as pranksters and one morning woke up to payback. The common room of their suite was filled waist-high with balloons—about 800 of them. They know because they had to pop each one and clean up the remains. “It was fun, actually,” Hana says. “We armed ourselves with sharp points, blasted Soulja Boy, and popped away.”

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A Lively En

KATHRYN LIVELY PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, INTERIM DEAN OF THE COLLEGE

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON NAMEHAMERMAN

gagement

Pictured: In her living room, where Professor Lively hosts South House gatherings

I rang the doorbell of Professor Kathryn Lively’s big blue house feeling like a trick-or-treater, but it was insights I was after, not Kit Kats. Professor Lively’s life’s work is people, and talking with her about her research, her experiences, and her ideas made for an inspiring afternoon.

Professor Lively’s research has ranged from emotion management to the impact of Alzheimer’s on self-identity. Her current project focuses on social factors that underlie long-term sustainable weight loss. “The number of people who can get from an obese category to a normal BMI is about one percent,” she says.

“Only one percent of those are able to keep the weight off for more than a year.” She’s designing extensive surveys to determine how changing self-perceptions of food, exercise, and dieting impact weight loss, but her work is also influenced by everyday observations. Seeing family members encourage her diabetic father-in-law to eat cake on his birthday helped Lively realize that “we use food as love, so when people say, ‘I don’t want your homemade brownies,’ it can come across as a huge rejection.”

Lively brings these findings into the classroom through her life-changing sociology class Self and Society (SOCY 33). “The last time I taught this class, one of my students lost 50 pounds,” she says. By devoting the class to theories of self-change and assigning a project where students attempt to shift an aspect of their identity, she helps them understand the social forces involved.

Essentially, Lively is a data-driven life coach.

She sometimes mentors through collaboration. “I’ve published three peer-reviewed papers with undergraduate students, and I love working with them,” she says. She gets to know students on an even more personal level as the house professor of South House, one of Dartmouth’s residential communities.

A week after our conversation, I returned to South House for a meal. Students shared that last year, Professor Lively had taken a group from their house on a camping trip. “There was snowshoeing, songs around the fire, stargazing, the whole nine yards,” Lively remembers.“It was a real bonding experience for all of us.”

Such experiences have helped Lively see the complete lives of her students. “I have a better understanding of just how interesting and creative Dartmouth students are,” she says. “I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for being able to work with them.”

—Jimmy Nguyen ‘21

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Lawrence Abu-Hammour ’19 made it his mission to capture selfies with all of the 2016 Presidential candidates—many of whom he met right on campus.

First in the Nation for Political Discourse

ILLUSTRATION BY LINCOLN AGNEW

If national political discourse is your thing, you can’t do better than Hanover in 2020. When you come to Dartmouth, you’re very likely to be drawn in by the consequential whirlwind of the US presidential election cycle that passes through the campus every four years.

Consider the case of Yadira Torres ’19, from Santa Ana, CA, who described her high school self as politically curious but not really engaged outside of quadrennial general elections. “Everything changed when I arrived at Dartmouth,” she says. Her breakout moment, as she remembers it, came in May 2015 courtesy of soon-to-be Republican primary candidate John Kasich and a live on-campus filming of the MSNBC news show Morning Joe. Before the cameras started rolling, Yadira and the friend who’d dragged her to the event were recruited to sit with a small subset of audience members at the back of the stage—in full view of the cameras. “I tried to maintain a serious and thoughtful expression,” Yadira says with a wink and a smile. She was hooked by the sheer significance of the experience. When primary season was in full swing, she embraced opportunities to be face-to-face with the candidates who visited campus.

Close enough for selfies As Yadira recounted in one of her Dartmouth admissions blog posts, “The two main political organizations on campus—College Democrats and College Republicans—also hosted a variety of events and trips to see candidates give town halls and rallies. No matter your affiliation, there is bound to be an event or twenty that will let you be up close and personal with the future leaders of our nation.”

It’s true that selfies with candidates are a part of the appeal—Martin O’Malley even used a photo with a Dartmouth undergrad as his campaign’s Facebook photo—but the intimacy of New Hampshire campaigning delivers more substantive benefits, too. Dartmouth students and professors routinely engage in significant policy discussions with the most influential public figures in the nation.

A history of this kind of thing For more than a quarter century, Dartmouth has hosted nationally-televised presidential debates, including the groundbreaking 1984 “talk show” debate co-moderated by television host Phil Donahue.

Also on the list are the: 1988 Republican debate built around eight scholarly policy papers commissioned by Rocky, aka The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth • 1999 back-to-back Democratic and Republican town meeting-style forums in the 500-seat Moore Theater • 2004 “Every Woman Counts” Democratic candidates forum two days before the New Hampshire primary • 2007 Democratic debate attended by all major candidates, including the eventual President Barack Obama • 2011 Republican debate centering on the economy and jobs •

In 2016, the major party candidates made dozens of visits to Hanover and nearby towns in pursuit of the presidency. They opened themselves up to scrutiny and in-depth Q&As at venues with capacities that ranged from 75 to 1,000 people. A marquee event at Dartmouth was the “America’s Economic Future” lecture series cosponsored by Rocky and the Tuck School of Business.

At three separate events over five weeks, professors and students engaged individually with George Pataki, Lindsey Graham, and Hillary Clinton on topics ranging from funding scientific endeavors and the Trans-Pacific Partnership to women’s rights and the plight of global refugees.

Hints of 2020 in 2018 This spring, Dartmouth political mavens have started looking ahead to 2020.

Tyler Baum ’20, vice president of the Dartmouth College Republicans, says his organization is hard at work to bring each Republican primary candidate to campus for the New Hampshire primary season. On the Democratic side, Dartmouth has already seen Martin O’Malley and Jason Kander, the former Missouri secretary of state and founder of Let America Vote. Dartmouth College Democrats President Jennifer West ’20 notes that while neither has declared, Kander’s nine trips to New Hampshire in the last twelve months are fueling speculation about his intentions.

Regardless of who stands in the spotlight in 2020, it’s clear that the Dartmouth community will play a pivotal role in the election. In races for national office in 2016, key New Hampshire contests were decided by close margins. It may well be that, as President Obama noted on the eve of the last election, New Hampshire’s results could tip both the US Senate majority and the race for the White House.

admissions.dartmouth.edu | 29

oh,

Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was a Dartmouth alum and helps inspire our adventuresome spirit.

go!

SKYLINE PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES, LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHY: XIAORAN (SEAMORE) ZHU

the places you’ll

Experiential learning and off-campus study are integral parts of the Dartmouth experience: 55% of students study away from Hanover during their time at the College and almost a third embark on more than one off-campus adventure. Dartmouth’s extensive array of options include Language Study Abroad programs that work towards language fluency, Foreign Study Programs that explore a subject through a place, and co-curricular opportunities that link professional and academic growth in a new location.

When Sunpreet Singh ’20 headed to Washington, DC to work for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ’88 the summer after his first year at Dartmouth, he brought a lot of experience with him as a Rockefeller Center First-Year Fellow. Barely a year out of high school, Fellows arrive in Washington, DC well prepared to rub elbows with the political elite. Coursework in public policy and applied statistics prepares them academically and extensive on-campus extracurricular training in leadership and civic skills allows them to develop the public speaking, networking, and media relations capabilities that they’ll apply during their eight-week fellowships in DC. All three experiences combine to give students vital academic, extracurricular, and experiential training.

The experience isn’t just about resumé-building. The personal connections formed with major political players are invaluable. “I even got to play squash with Kirsten Gillibrand!” Sunpreet recalls.

All 24 of the fellows are housed in DC together,

with a stipend that covers living expenses. The Rockefeller Center goes to great lengths to ensure that when students head to DC, they’re arriving with a supportive community already in place. And each fellow is connected with an alumni mentor at their fellowship’s organization, providing help, advice, and encouragement.

The First-Year Fellows Program is designed to help passionate public policy students learn more about what careers in the field are really about and to help them get a foot in the door of professional politics. It transforms first year college students into budding political professionals, ready to tackle broad challenges. Those intentions were reflected in Sunpreet’s own experience. “Working for a senator got me involved in politics and learning about what being in DC and working in the Senate is all about,” he says. “2020 is an election year, and I will definitely be hopping on a campaign.”

—Jimmy Nguyen ‘21

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AMANDA HERZ ’18 MAJOR: FILM & MEDIA STUDIES MODIFIED WITH DIGITAL ARTS HOMETOWN: NEW YORK, NY

& JEFFREY RUOFF ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES

A CONVERSATION WITH DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AND DARTMOUTH PROFESSOR OF FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES JEFFREY RUOFF AND FILM STUDENT AND DARTMOUTH SOCIAL IMPACT FELLOW AMANDA HERZ ’18.

Is it true that working with Professor Ruoff inspired you to major in film?

Amanda: Yes! The first class I took with Professor Ruoff was a found footage class that convinced me to become a film major. It wasn’t actually a conventional class at all but an open, free, creative space. We’ve now worked together for four years, and I’ve always known I could bounce any idea off him and get valuable feedback. He’s always offered practical support but never squelched my vision.

By the way, what is that found footage class?

Jeff: We look at films like Night and Fog or Forrest Gump that recontextualize footage from other movies. Students study the genre then edit their own short films, making digital mashups of movies, adding their own dialogue, and creating parodies or social critiques.

Amanda: I remember my partner John and I made a trailer mashup that turned American Hustle into a rom-com. I began to see the full creative possibility of film.

What are you working on now?

Jeff: I’m advising Amanda and another student, John Sinclair ’18, on their joint honors thesis, a short film. I always try to stress to my students that film is a collaborative medium and that learning to work together is fundamental, so I was thrilled when they decided to merge their efforts. It’s great preparation for a career in film … great preparation for any career.

Amanda: Our thesis is a film called Take One. It’s a work of fiction based on a linguistics phenomenon called the McGurk effect, an illusion that happens when the auditory component of a sound is paired with the visual component of another sound. It was inspired by something I learned in a linguistics class.

The main character is dismayed by the disconnect of the sounds around him and thinks he’s losing his mind. We were heavily influenced by the work of Hugo Münsterberg and Gilles Deleuze. Professor Ruoff has been a great sounding board throughout. He even has a walk-on as an engineering professor!

Will you be submitting the film to festivals?

Amanda: Yes, with Dartmouth’s support. I’m grateful. The entrance fees add up.

You’ve worked on two very different documentaries together.

Jeff: Dartmouth’s Social Impact Fellowships give students a chance to form community partnerships around experiential projects that they integrate into their coursework. Amanda served as a Social Impact Fellow for two consecutive terms, working with less experienced film students at Dartmouth— first on a film about recovering substance abusers, then on a documentary about advancing education in Africa. She was a pretty experienced filmmaker at this point and had a lot to offer the younger students.

Amanda: I worked closely with Professor Ruoff the whole time, so it never felt like I was out there without support. He doesn’t take over situations, but he was always there when I needed him. I knew he trusted me and took me seriously.

32 | admissions.dartmouth.edu

Amanda, you’ve won a Fulbright Scholarship … but first you’re headed to Cannes?

Amanda: My Fulbright is for a teaching project in South Korea … but first, I fly to Nice to attend the Cannes Film Festival—thanks to another grant.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

Life at

EBONY SMITH ’18 MAJOR: ENGINEERING SCIENCES HOMETOWN: MIAMI, FL

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON NAMEHAMERMAN

Full Tilt Pictured: In the main hall of Thayer School of Engineering

“When I was applying to schools, I made a list. The school had to have an engineering major. It had to have a good arts atmosphere. It had to be small, and the professors had to be accessible.

I prayed about that list,” Ebony Smith ’18 says. Once she knew what she wanted in a school, all indicators pointed to Dartmouth.

Ebony grew up in Miami without many role models who had gone to college or even finished high school, so she became very close to the teachers at her school. One helped her pay for ballet classes, while another got her reading the New York Times.

Ebony’s gratitude for those who saw something in her helped her realize that education is fundamentally shaped by the relationships students have with their teachers.

That’s how Ebony approached Dartmouth. Her goal in every class was to get to know the professor. When she took a class with Thayer School of Engineering Professor Tillman Gerngross, “people all around me were saying, ‘Don’t you know who he is?’

I didn’t know—I was really just concerned with getting to know him as a person,” she says. Little did Ebony realize that in addition to his multifaceted roles at Dartmouth, Professor Gerngross co-founded five companies.

Professor Gerngross wanted to get to know her too. “He would always comment on my facial expressions in lectures,” she notes. “If I was confused, he would ask, ‘Do you have a question?’

And I’d say, ‘Not yet, I’m getting there.’ That’s the relationship I believe students and professors should have. I wouldn’t have known that I was interested in biotechnologies without him.”

Ebony’s senior thesis researched ways to engineer gene expression in bacteria to produce biofuels, and now she spends much of her time working at Adimab, one of Professor Gerngross’ companies, which engineers yeast to produce antibodies for pharmaceutical drug therapy. Ebony’s life flourishes outside the lab, too. She’s involved at a local church where she leads worship with song and dance and always makes time for a Zumba class.

“The way I describe it, I’m not just a scientist. I’m an artist. I sing, I dance, I am who I am,” she says. And she can be just that, with the help of a whole community cheering her on.

—Caroline Cook ’21

admissions.dartmouth.edu | 35

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

POINTS

OF

MUSINGS ON THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS

DEPARTURE

Lee A. Coffin (Photographed during his freshman year of high school) Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid

My unlikely journey from Shelton, Connecticut to Hanover, New Hampshire defines my professional outlook: being a first-gen, aid-dependent, working class kid is in my DNA. My long, fancy-sounding title (according to my mom) belies my true identity. I was—and am—a first-gen college student whose undergraduate education was made possible by need-based financial aid. For me, financial aid is more than just a part of my professional title and responsibilities.

Financial aid made my education possible. Financial aid made my career possible. Financial aid changed the arc of my life.

Raised in a blue-collar family that was verbal if not especially literary, I was a somewhat nerdy kid who loved words. I attended a public high school near Bridgeport, CT where college expectations were modest. In fact, the sum total of advice I received from my guidance counselor was, “go back to class, I don’t have time for the smart ones.”

In my small town, it was not particularly cool to be smart.

Inexplicably, college was always my clear, unequivocal goal even as I wandered a path untraveled by anyone in my extended family. I am the eldest of five children. My dad worked at a car dealership; Mom stayed home and refereed all the things a mother of five must referee. I did my homework and earned As. I edited the newspaper

and was voted “Best Actor” by my classmates when it was time for senior superlatives. When I was old enough to contribute, I worked a variety of part-time jobs: I was crew chief at McDonald’s, I drove a parts truck for a Buick dealership, I mowed lawns. Sometimes I babysat. I saved those dollars because I wondered how I would pay for college.

If I was going somewhere—and by somewhere I mean a college like this one—I knew I was on my own. A scholarship was the only ticket I could get to the adventure called college.

Setting the future in motion My unlikely journey from Shelton, CT to Hanover, NH defines my professional outlook: being a firstgen, aid-dependent, working class kid is in my DNA. It defines me, and it has shaped my work as an admissions officer for the last 30 years.

The “first-gen kid” inside me saw an unusual, remarkable opportunity when Dartmouth invited me to join its administration. It was a chance to lead the enrollment effort at an institution blessed with the reputation and the resources to act on its aspirations, to build and shape an inclusive, heterogeneous, lively community of smart peers

because it has the resources and the will to do so.

In Dartmouth, I saw a venerable old college in the mountains of New Hampshire with the tradition and integrity to support need-blind admissions and meet the full, demonstrated need of every student admitted. And in the seat I am now honored to occupy, I have a chance to make a real difference in people’s lives, a rare opportunity to set the future in motion.

The perspectives and talents each student contributes to Dartmouth’s classrooms, residence halls, and organizations are rich, varied, and multifaceted. Conversations and debates on a campus like this one are enriched by heterogeneous voices sharing perspectives framed by diverse backgrounds. Their imaginations bubble across the dynamic curriculum and lead to new solutions, new ideas that honor Dartmouth’s mission to educate students for a life of responsible leadership.

It is precisely our commitment to financial aid that brings these voices together and makes this community possible, just as it made my journey possible.

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ALUMNI WHO CARRY DARTMOUTH INTO THE WORLD

upward

onward &

38 | admissions.dartmouth.edu

JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR JAKE TAPPER ’91 RETURNED TO DARTMOUTH TO DELIVER THE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS IN 2017. HERE’S AN EXCERPT FROM HIS ADVICE TO THE GRADUATING CLASS.

On October 3, 2009, I was sitting in my wife’s recovery room holding our newborn son. On TV I saw a news story: that day, an outpost containing 50-odd US troops had been attacked by insurgents. Combat Outpost Keating was built at the bottom of three steep mountains, the reporter said, in a particularly rough corner of Afghanistan just 14 miles from the Pakistan border. It was an ugly and brutal battle. Eight American soldiers were killed.

So, against the advice of a lot of people I knew, I decided to write a book about the men who fought and suffered and prevailed and died in that battle, about Combat Outpost Keating.

Writing that book was a long slog. Yet I felt compelled to tell the story of these troops and their families, people part of a world unfamiliar to me at the time, the world of the US military, of duty and sacrifice.

Hearing the stories firsthand of these men and women made me realize how little I had accomplished in the service of anyone other than myself.

“My God,” I told my wife one afternoon.

“These guys are amazing, and I am nothing. I have risked nothing and sacrificed nothing compared with these men.”

“But honey,” she said, “you can tell their stories.”

The book I wrote, The Outpost, remains the professional work I am proudest of. It is not what has resulted in the most Twitter memes, but it is the

most meaningful. It was the one least about me; and it may be one professional achievement, maybe, perhaps, that has a chance of outlasting me.

That which you end up doing in the service of something greater than you—even if it means that you feel lesser, humbler, even worthless by comparison—by honoring the humanity of others, will allow you to get in closer touch with your own.

And this is the most important thing I can tell you today, Class of 2017. Don’t just work hard at your job; work hard at everything. Work hard at being a friend. Work hard at being a partner, at being a son or a daughter, at being a grandchild, at being a steward in your community, at caring about people who have never had a day like the one you’re having today. At being the best you that you can be, Class of 2017, all of you.

There are going to be moments like this one—a celebration of hard work well done, surrounded by family and friends. And then there are going to be moments when you feel alone and adrift, misunderstood, and hopeless.

Maybe right now it looks to you like someone like me effortlessly went from your seat to this stage. Let me assure you, there was effort. There was effort and pain and embarrassment and rejection and humiliation. False starts and false turns and mistake after mistake after mistake. But that’s okay. That’s all part of the adventure, and yours starts now.

PHOTOGRAPH BY GETTY IMAGES

SUNGLIM KIM ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY

40 | admissions.dartmouth.edu

Object

PHOTOGRAPH

BY NAME PHOTOGRAPH

BY DON HAMERMAN

To best wrap your head around the intriguing work of Professor Sunglim Kim, think of her as a detective. Yes, she’s an art historian, but her work demands no small amount of historical, cross-cultural sleuthing. Right now, Professor Kim is investigating the appearance of Western objects and techniques in chaekgeori (the name means, literally, “books and things”), Korean still life paintings that originated in the 18th-century. There’s just one conundrum: Korea had no contact with the West until the 19th century—or so we thought. Professor Kim has traced the source of the paintings’ Western features to meetings between Jesuit missionaries and Korean political envoys in Beijing, one of many overlooked cross-cultural interactions.

Professor Kim’s research also connects to contemporary themes. Chaekgeori, she points out, are a lot like Facebook.

Chaekgeori showcased people’s interests and personalities. Those lucky enough to have precious objects used chaekgeori to show them off, while the less fortunate displayed objects they wished to have. Part of Professor Kim’s detective work is distinguishing real objects from imagined ones. “Some of them are very realistic,” she tells me, “and you can tell that the objects were present when they painted them, but others are clearly copies of copies of copies.”

Western clocks are a perfect example. Without access to a model, painters unfamiliar with the contraptions placed the numbers awkwardly on the face, and even added a thirteenth hour.

Professor Kim’s experience as a curator at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, where she first encountered the chaekgeori, shapes her approach to teaching. “Students are very object-oriented,” she tells me. “You don’t learn art history from books. You go to museums. If possible, you talk to artists.”

Most recently, Professor Kim took a class to meet Chinese potter Sin-Ying Ho, whose work was on display at The Hood Downtown.

She emphasizes the importance of spending time with the objects, but also insists on their role in connecting people—her students, for starters. “My students are incredibly open-minded,” she reflects. “Listening to one another enriches the learning experience, for them as well as for me.”

Art facilitates communication and bridges divides. Even the K-wave has changed Americans’ perception of Korea, says Professor Kim, and has been instrumental in bettering political relations between the North and South. “I believe in the power of art. The humanities are the very backbone of human history,” she reflects, “and if history is the root of the humanities, then art history is the flower.”

—Sofía Carbonell Realme ’20

Lesson Pictured: In the Hood Downtown gallery with Sin-Ying Ho’s exhibit

RAFAEL NUÑEZ ’18 MAJOR: ROMANCE STUDIES, MINOR IN GOVERNMENT HOMETOWN: IRVINGTON, NJ

To Rafael Nuñez ’18, tango is revolutionary. Since he joined the Dartmouth Argentine Tango Society during his first weeks on campus, this unexpected passion has shaped his entire undergraduate experience. In fact, Rafael’s interest in the art led him to a Foreign Study Program (FSP) in Buenos Aires, where Professor Sol Cirnigliario introduced him to dancers and musicians who are reinventing the art form. “Many of them were in rock bands,” Rafael says. “They had long hair and piercings, smoked cigarettes on stage, and wore motorcycle helmets and leather jackets.”

These artists stopped observing the dance’s gender norms and started writing their own lyrics, breaking, on both accounts, taboos of traditional tango. Moreover, they turned it into a form of social protest that responds to neoliberal policies and the repercussions of the political instability and economic crisis that Argentina has undergone in recent decades.

“Tango’s power to create change and fight oppression motivated me,” says Rafael. He has studied the global ramifications of Argentine tango through an FSP in Paris and its often overlooked African influences in Havana through a Dartmouth exchange to Cuba, experiences that he places among the most memorable of his Dartmouth career. “It opened up new worlds for me,” says Rafael. One was music theory. As a romance languages major, he was used to textual analysis, but understanding the technical elements of musical expression was a challenge. “That was the hardest part,” he says, “but also the most rewarding.”

Rafael has consolidated his work on tango in a senior thesis.

What he has learned in writing it will stay with him and inform his career. “I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer,” he says, “and in my thesis, I’m striving to understand the motivations of oppressed people so that I can serve them better.” In the long term, Rafael wants to become a politician and to inspire the kind of change he’s seen Argentinian tango provoke.

“Looking back on everything I’ve done, I could never have imagined all the things I’ve accomplished,” says Rafael. His transition into college was, as he puts it, tough. Rafael often felt different from his peers, but as he adapted and pursued his passions, this sense of difference became a strength. From experiencing a new lifestyle in Cuba to contending with a variety of world views in the classroom, “being at Dartmouth has gotten me thinking,” says Rafael, “and it’s made me passionate about changing the situation and circumstances of others.”

—Sofía Carbonell Realme ’20

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The Tao

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN

of Tango Pictured: On the Collis front porch overlooking the Green

ON

COURSE

What are Dartmouth students studying?

In every issue, we feature a class plucked somewhat randomly from a deep reservoir of fascinating courses.

PSYC 6 Introduction to Neuroscience

I opened up Snapchat to see my friend Mia Iqbal ’21 holding a human brain.

I assumed that holding a brain isn’t an activity that first year students just “do” and asked her if the Snap was from her recently acquired research assistant position. Actually, she told me, it was for her Introduction to Neuroscience (PSYC 6) course.

In high school, I did a fair amount of memorization when it came to locating regions of the brain—tests with those horrendous fill-in-the-blank questions and a sketch of the brain with a multitude of lines pointing all over the diagram. It’s not like that at Dartmouth. The only lines to be found are the deep wrinkles that make the brain look all squishy.

Later, my friend told me that probing the brain was preparation for an upcoming midterm. Rather than scroll through Quizlet, students learn about different ways to cut open the brain—and they get the chance to compare human brains with brains of all kinds of animals. With 78 students, Intro to Neuro is one of the few large classes on campus, but it still offers students rich hands-on experiences.

The students in the classroom include future medical school students as well as many students whose futures don’t involve brains. They get to take part in a rare opportunity that most students in English, engineering, economics and other disciplines won’t experience. As Mia puts it, “Knowing that I could hold a human brain as an undergrad was a powerful moment. It was like, ‘Wow, how many other people my age can do this?’”

—Jimmy Nguyen ‘21

Courses of Study The Liberal Arts shape the Dartmouth experience, creating an academic culture imbued with critical thinking and creativity. One that promotes experimentation, reflection, learning and leadership.

A curriculum where poetry and neuroscience are natural partners and collaboration across disciplines happens organically. A course of study without boundaries. Forget the intellectual lines people draw. You won’t find them here.

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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 Biology 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 Computational Methods m Computer Science Digital Arts m

The minor in public policy is open to all Dartmouth students, regardless of major, who hope to make a difference in the world. Intentionally flexible and broad in scope, it’s the perfect way to understand how policy affects all aspects of society—from urban development to health care to education.

Earth Sciences Economics Education m Engineering Physics M 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 Renassiance Studies m Middle Eastern Studies Music Native American Studies Neuroscience Operations Research m

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 = minor only M = major only

Can’t decide what to study? It’s not uncommon for Dartmouth students to double major or modify their major.

A modified major consists of 10 courses, six in one field and four in a second—or even third—field. For example, you could modify your computer science major with philosophy, film studies, or physics, among others.

Financial aid can be confusing.

We’re working to make it less so.

The MyinTuition Quick College Cost Estimator asks only six questions to provide an early estimate of what a year at Dartmouth could cost for your family. Go to dartgo.org/quickcost to get help anticipating your college costs.

admissions.dartmouth.edu | 45

And So the Sto

SAM LEFKOFSKY ’21 MAJOR: ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND FRENCH HOMETOWN: GLENCOE, IL

PHOTOGRAPH BY DON NAMEHAMERMAN

ry Goes Pictured: Leaning against an iconic building on campus, Dartmouth Hall

As an admissions tour guide, Sam Lefkofsky ’21 spends his time introducing prospective students to campus. “I love the storytelling aspect of it,” he says. “It’s about sharing the narrative of your life.”

Early in the college process, Sam thought that he had his plans all figured out. He wanted to live in the city and maybe major in business or aerospace engineering. Studying the liberal arts in New Hampshire wasn’t his first instinct. All it took, however, was a casual visit to campus for him to fall in love with the community. “Students didn’t just talk about themselves, they were actually curious about what I was interested in,” he remembers. “And it didn’t feel like there was any particular mold for a Dartmouth student.”

Sam hasn’t been disappointed. “I came to Dartmouth for the larger community,” he says, “but I found that the small communities are even more rewarding.” It all started with the students on his first-year floor, now among his closest friends on campus. And the case was very similar with Jewish life. Though he never expected even to join Hillel, today he serves on the executive board, sending Kanye West-themed emails for Shabbat and spending so much time at the Roth Jewish Center that he practically lives there.

It was more than people that attracted Sam to Dartmouth. As a prospective engineering and French major, he wanted a place where he could integrate a diverse array of studies. “Even though engineering is my academic priority,” he says, “I wanted to pursue French, take other classes, and explore other interests. So, the liberal arts part was really important.” His explorations don’t stop there. Outside of class, he’s putting his business interests to use by handling logistics for his friend’s cold brew coffee company, an opportunity that he insists “just sort of happened.”

Sam’s summer plans are somewhat interdisciplinary as well. He and a friend applied for adventure funding from the Dartmouth Outing Club, which is money designated to send students on awesome outdoor trips. “We’re doing a 15-day hike across the entire island of Corsica,” he says. “We’re both pretty into French, we’re both studying abroad in Lyon next winter, and we’re planning to use our French skills to talk to hikers.”

Experiences that will lead, no doubt, to Sam’s continual evolution as an inspired storyteller and a tour guide with rich tales to tell.

—Brian Drisdelle ’21

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: How to Start a Family

PHOTOGRAPH BY ELI BURAKIAN ‘00

Let me say it up front: I’m not an outdoorsy person.

Dartmouth’s rural location and gorgeous scenery were part of what drew me to the College, but the beloved tradition of First-Year Trips was not.

Trips, as the program is called, sends groups of first-year students into the wilderness for a five-day adventure with upperclass leaders. Each trip has a focus—hiking, climbing, and nature photography are just a few—all united by traditions kept secret by generations of Trippees. In essence, Trips are a safe space for a crash course in everything you need to know about Dartmouth and an opportunity to connect with a group of people you might never have met otherwise.

I signed up for the Organic Farming Trip, an amazing adventure to Luna Bleu Farm in Vermont, owned by Dartmouth alums and home to a few hundred chickens, a pack of pigs, and one rambunctious dog. I made one of my best friends, Srishti Bagchi ’21, playing fetch with that dog at dawn. Later, knee-deep in kale, we all learned that Srishti’s birthday would fall during orientation and immediately set about planning a party. Two weeks later, we were picnicking on the Green with pastries from Lou’s. We’d become a family before classes had even begun.

Srishti loved our Trips experience so much that she felt compelled to go back and lead the exact same trip herself.

That connection—relationships forged in nature—is the true magic of Trips. There’s something about escaping the real world together, leaving behind our plugged-in lives, that builds enduring friendships and converts even the indoorsy like me into avid Trippees.

—Caroline Cook ‘21

48 | admissions.dartmouth.edu

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.

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