My Experience

Someone recently asked me to describe my Dartmouth experience in four words. I thought it was a great question. Here's what first came to mind:

Exciting
Free (as in having freedom)
Intimate
Empowering

I guess I would also add formative and challenging and of course fun. This is actually an interesting exercise. How would you describe your most significant experience in four or five words?

"Normal" people

On the ride back from a Cords show in Wayland, Massachusetts yesterday, the guys I was riding with had a conversation about the kinds of students that are here at Dartmouth. I didn't say too much because I've already drawn my own basic conclusions that I've shared with many prospective students in forums and through email, and I was interested to hear some new thoughts. On top of that, as a senior I've more or less forgotten my first impressions and I kind of just take things for granted. Two of the other Cords in the car were a freshman and a sophomore, so from the perspective of someone who shares information with prospective students, their opinions are probably more useful than my own.

The conversation ended up focusing on the seeming contradiction between the great minds that come to Dartmouth and how not-obvious it is that they're here. In other words, it is actually strange how normal it is here. Or maybe it just feels normal. Outside of the context of Dartmouth, its students' experiences and accomplishments would seem nothing short of remarkable. But here, you'd be hard pressed to find a Dartmouth student making a show of his/her credentials and accolades. I think that in general, Dartmouth students are very humble about their abilities and are way more down-to-earth than you might expect. At the same time, we maintain very high standards for ourselves and for each other, which leaves little room for complacency. All of this has combined to make a very enjoyable undergraduate experience for me. I'm friends with people who are going to be exceptionally successful at whatever it is they choose to do, but to me, they're just my friends - people I'll hang out at Lone Pine or work on an Arabic project with. And you know when you think about it, that's pretty cool.

A Day in the Life...

Hey everyone,

It seems that no matter how much we talk about what students do at Dartmouth, it's still hard to convey a sense of what life us actually like here. So I've decided that for this post, I'm just going to walk you through my day today.

The alarm went off this morning at about 7:05, but it took me until about 7:20 to get out of bed. Seriously every morning this term I ask myself why on Earth I decided to start taking Arabic (and its corresponding 7:45am drill) my senior year. I mean, seriously.

But to drill I went, about 5 minutes late. You can read about what drill is in this post I wrote a couple of weeks ago. That ended at 8:35 and with my actual Arabic class starting at 9, I used that bit of time to finish my homework.

We finished learning the Arabic alphabet last week and have moved onto learning some basic grammar and sentence structure. Because I didn't put enough work into learning some of our early vocab in the past couple weeks, I'm struggling a bit now. But don't worry (la'a batz!), I'm catching up. It really is amazing how quickly you can fall behind when learning a new language! Still, breaking into small groups to make some basic sentences like "I'm a student at Dartmouth and I study Arabic" and "Do you like the United Nations?" (is it me, or is the vocab you learn when you're just starting to learn a new language really random?) was really fun. Like I mentioned in my last post about Arabic, it's cool to be able to be so cognizant of your own learning.

Arabic ends at 9:50, giving me almost an hour and a half until Astronomy starts at 11:15. I stopped by Novack - the café in Baker-Berry Library - on the way back to my room to get a coffee, bagel, and today's copy of the D (the Dartmouth - our daily paper). I still find it difficult to make efficient use of hour-long chunks of time, but I did manage to get a start on tomorrow's Arabic homework before heading over to Wilder for Astro.

I'm taking Astro 3 - Exploring the Universe - because I need a science lab credit (look for a post in the near-future about Dartmouth's distributive requirements). Though my major and minor are in the social sciences, I used to be a huge space nerd in middle/high school and I'm having a lot of fun in this class. And I mean, what's more college than taking about Newton, Einstein, and special/general relativity? We had a quiz today (short weekly quizzes on Wednesday make up a good chunk of our grade for this class) and I'm pretty sure I aced it, so that was good.

Lunch at Collis Café - one of my favorite places to eat - came next. I didn't have plans to meet anyone but ended up running into some friends. I really think Dartmouth, with 4100 undergraduates, is the perfect size. You can usually bet on running into people you know at places like Collis and the library, but there's no way you'll ever end up meeting everyone in your class, let alone the whole school. Anyway, it was good to run into them because I'm really busy this term and have had a lot of trouble making time to actually see people, unless we work together or are in the same organization. So it goes, senior year.

And now here I am at the admissions office, working on this post. I'm going to leave at 3 today (I'm usually here until 4) because I'm actually working for an admissions event tonight. We're hosting a bunch of high school guidance counselors from all over New England and the full-time interns from the summer are going to do a D-Plan presentation for them, followed by dinner. Never one to turn down a free dinner from the Hanover Inn, I'm definitely looking forward to the event. Still, with everything that's going on this term it's tough to give up extra time, so I figured I'd compensate a bit and leave work early. Plus, I've got my senior portrait at 4:24 (yeah, really), and could use some extra time to get ready for that and hopefully even make some progress on that Arabic homework. ARABIC, WHY MUST YOU REQUIRE SO MUCH TIME!?!?

Ahem, excuse me. The dinner ends at 6:30, giving me an hour before my UGA staff meeting starts at 7:30. Hopefully that won't go more than an hour, because I've got a government midterm tomorrow morning that I'd really like to study for. And in the meantime, I'm trying to put the finishing touches on the new Cords CD album art and info so that we can get that to DiscMakers tomorrow. I will be so glad when that whole project is finished (and it almost is!) but that's an entirely different story.

If this sounds like a really crazy day, well, it is. My freshman fall didn't really look anything like this term, and today is busy by even the current standards. Tomorrow's not much better with a midterm in the morning and a presentation (which I've barely started) for Rocky Leadership Fellows tomorrow night, but Friday and Saturday are really looking good right now. And I'm sure you can all relate to that.

Cheers,
John

Autumn in Hanover

It's getting to be one of my favorite times of the year, and once again I'm thrilled to be able to experience the fall in New Hampshire. The air is cool and dry, the sky is bright and clear, and Homecoming is just around the corner. But the best part - and that part you'll hear about from many of the tourists that come through the area every fall - is the spectacular vistas afforded by the Upper Valley's miraculous combination of knolls, vales, and stunning foliage. I'm hoping I have some time this weekend to get on my bike and ride out of the valley for some breathtaking panoramic views, but you know, the view from the campus Green isn't that bad either... Here are some pictures I took here last year.

Arabic at Dartmouth

Though I feel that most of my time at Dartmouth is devoted to the extracurriculars I'm involved in and social development, there's no escaping the fact that academics are way up there when it comes to important aspects of my education. And so, at the beginning of the fall term, it seems appropriate for me to talk about the classes I'm taking.

If you read my entry about the D-Plan, you know that Dartmouth students typically take three classes per term. This term, I am taking Arabic 1, Government 58 (International Political Economy), and Astronomy 3 (exploring the Universe, with lab). In this entry I'm going to talk a bit about Arabic.

First of all, I guess I should explain why I've decided to take Arabic my senior year. Basically, it's the result of a small chain of decisions. After having studied in France, I really wanted to take another language here. But I figured that if I really wanted to learn a romance language like Spanish or Italian (or even continue with French), I could pretty much do that on my own (provided, of course, I put the time in). If I were to devote three courses my senior year to a new language, it should probably be one that didn't use the Latin alphabet and thus, I assume, would be harder to learn on one's own. So that left Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Of those, Chinese and Arabic seemed the most attractive to me, and since I've taken a few classes on the Middle East and may in the near future end up working in that region for the State Department, I figured that I'm more likely to use Arabic in the next few years than Chinese. So that was that.

The language instruction program at Dartmouth is remarkably strong. Decades ago, Professor John Rassias invented a language teaching method (called - go figure - the Rassias method) that uses a unique combination of classroom instruction and language drill. The classroom portion is pretty straightforward; we meet from 9:00-9:50 am 5 days a week and it's pretty much what you'd expect from a language class. Drill, however, is pretty unique. It's led by a student who's fluent in the target language, and is based on a rapid-fire system of exchanges between the instructor and students. Right now we're just learning the alphabet and a few basic words, so it's pretty straightforward: the instructor says a word, we repeat it, and then she snaps and points at us individually to have us repeat the word by ourselves. As we begin to learn verb conjugations and things like that, it will become a bit more complicated. For example, when I took French, my instructor might say "être" (to be), then "je" (I), snap and point at himself, and say "J'ai été" (I was), indicating that he wanted us to conjugate the verb and put it in the passé composé. Then he might say "nous," snap and point at someone, and the student would have to respond "Nous avons été" (We were). (That's about what we did for the first couple days of French 2 - it got a lot more difficult after that). Importantly, the target language is spoken throughout the entire drill session; English is completely avoided.

What's nice about beginning a new language is that there's instant gratification built in and you can be very conscious of your own learning. Last week, something written in Arabic was a scribble. Today it is a sound. Next week it will be a word. It's really neat to have someone say a word and actually know how to write it in Arabic. Sure it's a lot of work, but being aware of your own progress is very encouraging.

My plan is to take Arabic 2 in the winter and 3 in the spring. Because it's such a difficult language, I know that I'll be somewhere between proficient and mildly conversational when I'm finished and will still have a lot of work in front of me if I really want to be able to use Arabic socially or professionally. But I'm confident that with the Rassias method, drill, and the quality of classroom instruction here, I'll be well on my way to having learned a whole new language. And to me, there are few things more exciting than that.

Back in the Saddle Again

Hey everybody,

After a long break, I'm happy to report that the fall term has finally begun and I'm back answering your emails and blogging away for the admissions office. Now that I'm actually taking classes again and my extra-curriculars have recommenced, I ought to be able to write (somewhat) interesting entries twice a week or so. So keep coming back for new posts!

One of the things I'm most excited about for this year is my participation in the Rockefeller Center's Senior Leadership Fellows Program (or RLF). The Fellows are a select group of student leaders from all over campus who meet once a week to discuss our personal philosophies on leadership, political engagement, social responsibility, and other topics with leaders from various industries. We also participate in workshops on facilitation, public speaking, and risk taking. In other words, it's a great transition program from the life as an undergrad to life outside of College.

We had our first session this past Thursday and our guest was Nathanial Fick, a Dartmouth '99. Nate entered Officer Candidate School for the Marines right out of Dartmouth, was commissioned as a 2nd Luitenant, and reached the rank of Captain before retiring after 5 years of service. The best-selling book Generation Kill by Rolling Stone embedded reporter Evan Wright was about Nate's unit and its experience in Iraq. This book was eventually made into a miniseries on HBO with the same name. Meanwhile, Nate wrote his own book because he felt that the perspective of the soldiers was not being told enough. Called One Bullet Away: the Making of a Marine Officer, it was itself a New York Times Bestseller back in 2005.

Anyway, over dinner from Mai Thai, Nate gave a presentation about his leadership experience and talked a great deal about decision-making processes. As undergrads, it was a really great opportunity for us to hear from someone who's been so well accomplished out in the real world. After all, that's where we'll be next year. In theory, anyway.

The RLF schedule this year is filled with amazing presenters, and I'm really excited to continue to work with and get to know my fellow... Fellows. This weekend we're going on a retreat to the Lake Morey Resort over in Vermont. I'm know I'm going to learn a lot about leadership and even get to practice my skills, but mostly I think it's just going to be a great time.

'Til the next time,
John

Interim!

Hey everyone! I just want to apologize for not having written a blog entry recently. We're in the interim period between the summer and fall terms right now, and I've been busy with UGA training and rehearsing and taking care of some business to get the Cords ready for Orientation and auditions, which are coming up next Tuesday. Once all this craziness is over (and the REAL craziness begins with the start of the term), I'll be back in the office and will resume posting. Until then, I hope all is well!

John

First-Year Trips

After going home this past weekend to spend some time with my parents, I returned to campus last night and am back working in McNutt - just in time to hear H-Croo begin to welcome the first arrivals for the DOC's First-Year Trips in front of Robo, the building next door.

"Woah, woah, woah," you say. "Back up. H-Croo? DOC? Robo? What is all this?"

Funny thing is, that's pretty much exactly how the freshmen feel when they arrive here. But I've decided to give you all a bit of an inside scoop into how trips go down. Don't worry though - I won't spoil any of the surprises.

First of all, DOC stands for the Dartmouth Outing Club, the oldest and largest collegiate outing club in the country. You can read all about it here, but basically it's the umbrella organization for about a dozen smaller clubs that each have developed their own ways to take advantage of the incredible environment in which Dartmouth exists. It's run out of Robinson Hall (Robo), the building next door to McNutt, home of the Admissions Office. You can't miss it - there's a giant wooden "DOC" sign right out front.

So now all that's left is to explain what First-Year Trips are. And who better to do that than the DOC itself?

"'Trips', as we call it, is a totally fun five-day outdoor pre-orientation program designed to welcome you to Dartmouth in style! Trips is a unique and incredible opportunity for you to bond with other incoming students, spend a few days in the beautiful area surrounding your new home, and meet upperclass leaders who can answer all your questions. Trips will smooth your transition to college by immediately connecting you to a whole host of new friends, and helping you find your place and your passion here."

Each year, about 91% of the incoming class participates on one of these trips, of which there is a wide variety. For example, students can go: whitewater or flat water canoeing or kayaking; climbing; road cycling or mountain biking; fishing; horseback riding; one of five different levels of hiking; and even nature painting, photography, or writing or organic farming for those less inclined to brave the wilderness. There are usually about 8 or 9 freshmen on each trip along with two upperclass leaders who come from all corners of the campus. After a night in Hanover organized by the Hanover Croo (the aforementioned H-Croo), trippees, as we call them, spend two nights sleeping in cabins, shelters, or, on some trips, lodging they've constructed themselves. On the last night, the entire trip section - about 100 students in all - meets at Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, an old ski lodge the College owns about 50 minutes from campus. There, the trippees are greeted by Lodj Croo, who put on a spectacular dinner-theater type performance for the weary travelers while serving them probably the best food they'd ever tasted (seriously, after 3 days of Annie's Mac and Cheese, GORP, and peanut butter wrapped up in pitas, the Lodj dinner is amazing!)

Trips are a really great way to acclimate our incoming students into the Dartmouth environment and for them to meet a lot of their fellow classmates. After making some great memories hiking through the woods on C-34, moderate hiking, I ended up meeting Bill Lundin, who's still one of my best friends, at the Lodge. And before departing for campus the next morning, we all broke up into small sections for question and answer sessions with upperclassmen. I remember talking with Andrew, an '05 who'd worked at the Lodge that summer and stayed on through Trips. His insight was incredibly helpful, and I think it was at about that point that I thought "Man, Dartmouth really is a special place. I mean, everyone totally goes all-out to welcome new people to campus." And it's true - over the last three years, I've continued to be amazed (though no longer surprised) at how passionate Dartmouth students are about our school, and how excited we get about welcoming freshmen to it.

As I finish writing this, another bus filled with '12s has pulled up in front of Robo next door. There's music blasting from the front porch, and H-Croo is shouting hysterically as our bewildered travelers step off onto the lawn. I can't help but smile at the fact that they have no idea what is ahead of them.

80% of learning...

There's an old axiom that says most of learning at college takes place outside the classroom. It doesn't take very long to figure out how true that is, and we're fortunate at Dartmouth to have a lot of really great opportunities for extending our education beyond the classroom walls.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about the crisis in Georgia with my fellow blogger and intern Jeff. I remember saying to him "Man, I wish I were taking classes now so I could actually have a discussion about what is going on." Sure enough, about a week later I got an email from the government department administrative assistant about a panel discussion that was taking place on that very subject. Turns out that Dartmouth has three of the most qualified people in the country to have this discussion.

The panel was led and organized by Ken Yalowitz, the Director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding here at Dartmouth. Now, I'd always known that Mr. Yalowitz was a former US Ambassador. I'd no idea that his assignment happened to be Georgia (1998-2001). The next panelist was Professor William Wohlforth, chair of the Government Department here at Dartmouth. Again, I knew that Prof Wohlforth was one of the top international relations scholars - particularly concerning big-power politics - in the country; I didn't know he's also an expert on Russian foreign policy. Finally, the last panelist was Professor Bridget Coggins, a heavy hitter when it comes to state creation and succession. So between the three of them, we had pretty much every perspective covered.

The discussion began at 4 last Thursday and the panelists spoke for about half an hour before opening it up for questions. Their perspectives were fascinating. Professor Wohlforth basically said that there wasn't anything particularly "Russian" about Russia's response to Georgia's action in South Ossetia. He said that it was responding like any other great power would. For example, he said, if 16 American peacekeepers were killed in a state in Mexico, one wouldn't have to look back to Manifest Destiny to explain how and why America would react. Similarly, Russia doesn't want Ukraine, Georgia, and the other Caucasian states to join NATO for the same reasons that the U.S. wouldn't want Canada or Mexico to join a hostile alliance: basically, and for a lot of reasons, it wouldn't be prudent. Since NATO denied Russia's request to join the organization twice in the 1990s, the Kremlin has every reason to treat NATO as a hostile alliance. The final important point I took away from Wohlforth is that the only difference between Yeltsin and Putin/Medvedev is Russia's capability to achieve their goals - that is, their foreign policy goals were and are largely the same; the only difference is that Russia was broke in the early 90s, and that's no longer the case today.

Meanwhile, Yalowitz seemed to imply that Georgia was baited here - that it was provoked by South Ossetian rebels (who would have had tacit Russian support) - and Russia actually wanted it to attack Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. If Russia was indeed the provocateur, then Wohlforth's argument is essentially irrelevant. At any rate, Yalowitz's familiarity with Georgian history and insight into its government was incredibly helpful and informative.

Finally, Coggins used her knowledge of separatist movements around the world to put South Ossetia and Abkhazia into context for the rest of us. By comparison (to the Tamil Tiger Rebels in Sri Lanka, for example) the movements in these two Georgian enclaves are relatively small and non-violent. She also explained the number of ways that Ossetia and Abkhazia are different from Kosovo.

Then it was time for questions, and lo and behold the audience members turned out to be as impressive as the panelists. More than a few people had very intimate knowledge or, barring that, were very passionate about the situation. One man, for example, had just come back after spending ten years in Georgia living with friends and was obviously very emotional as he asked, toward the end of the session, "How is this going to end?" Another woman who, it should be noted, had an Eastern-European accent, had a different opinion, lambasting President of Georgia Saakashvili's administration and stopping just short of calling him a criminal. Once again, one got the feeling that Hanover is much larger and more cosmopolitan than the almanac would suggest.

As for me, I'm not sure where this is heading. As Wohlforth pointed out, I like we're likely to see the majority of players (including the NATO nations and NATO hopefuls) in this conflict break into two camps once the conflict ends. On one hand, there will be countries (France and Germany, probably), that will be reluctant to let states like Ukraine and Georgia join NATO because they will fear being pulled into another conflict with Russia. 40% of natural gas in Europe comes from Russia, and our European NATO allies will have very little room to negotiate when it comes to an issue that Russia sees as a direct threat to its security. On the other hand, the United States will feel a strong need to protect the fragile (and relatively successful) Georgian democracy, not to mention its oil pipeline - the only one in the Causasus that does not go through Russia. The Causasian states themselves seem to be torn - the silence of Azerbaijan and Armenia has been deafening, but Viktor Yushchenko, the western-leaning President of Ukraine, has pledged his staunch support to Georgia and is trying to use his leverage over Russia's Black Sea fleet, which is stationed at the Ukrainian port at Sevastopol, to put pressure on the Kremlin. Meanwhile, he's reiterated his country's need to join NATO, even while the tensions in Georgia show no signs of easing.

And in fact, they keep getting worse. Today, Russia announced its official recognition of South Ossetia and Abhkazia as free independent states and in doing so has upped the ante considerably. I really don't know what the next move is. But I'm definitely looking forward to the start of the fall term when the '09s will be back and classes will be in session and I can try to figure this all out with some of the best international relations scholars in the country.

Did you hear?

A few days ago, Dominic Seiterle, Dartmouth '98 took home a gold medal for Canada in the Men's Eight in Beijing. While most Dartmouth Olympians compete in the Winter Games, we've got four representatives this summer, now including a gold medalist. Go Big Green!

P.S. Here's an article about Dartmouth's representatives in this summer's Olympics.

The Cords

As summer draws to a close, I find myself more and more looking forward to the fall term and all that it entails. My fellow '09's will once again descend on campus from all around the world as a class - this time as seniors - while on the other end of the collegiate spectrum, the Dartmouth campus will welcome more than 1,000 new faces representing the Class of 2012. I'll be taking classes again for the first time in more than 6 months. The Giants will begin their quest to defend their Superbowl Championship. And of course, I will start singing again.

One of my most important extra-curricular activities over the past three years has been my involvement in the Cords, one of Dartmouth's three all-male a cappella ensembles. I auditioned for the Cords at the end of my Freshman Orientation, and it was really the first group or activity that I joined on campus. It was really one of the best things I could have done for myself. Not only did I have a cool group of guys to hang out with, but it was a great opportunity to meet and get to know upperclassmen. Ultimately, the Cords is one of the reasons I didn't feel I needed to join a fraternity: I already had my brotherhood.

The Cords usually consist of about 16 guys. Because of the D-Plan and the fact that our members are always coming and going, our repertoire varies term by term and we'll often have to learn new parts to cover missing ones. We rehearse about 6 hours of week, and do somewhere between 4 and 7 on-campus shows per term, with a few off-campus shows in the mix as well. While traveling during the term can be fun, our favorite shows are the ones we perform here in Hanover for Dartmouth students, usually in a fraternity or sorority living room or a common room in a residence hall. A cappella is (strangely) popular at Dartmouth, and people really turn out for our shows. It's a great feeling to have so much support from our fellow students.

The Cords rehearse on the National Mall in D.C. while on tour in '06

Each winter break, the Cords go on a ~10 day collegiate tour to colleges all along the Eastern Seaboard. While there are usually some other venues mixed in, we try to maximize the number of college shows we do because they are the most fun. A couple of years ago, for instance, we got a gig at a pretty posh resort in Orlando. They hooked us up with 4 suites (for 14 guys; it was amazing), and we did one or two shows a day in the lobby and restaurants for the guests. It was pretty much a paid vacation for us, but the best times we had that tour were still at the colleges we performed at along the way. The routine is usually something like this: leave Dartmouth on the last day of finals, go to a school, do a show with an a cappella group there, party, sleep, wake up, travel to another college, repeat. For 10 days. It's exhausting. By the end of tour there are usually only about 9 or 10 songs we can sing because people's voices are completely shot. But it's probably my favorite week of the year, and I'm really looking forward to this December and my last Cords tour. And maybe some more baseball games: in the past two years, we've sung the National Anthem at Fenway Park in Boston and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for the Red Sox and Phillies, respectively.

The Cords prepare to sing the National Anthem at Fenway Park

The Cords has also provided me with some truly unique leadership experience. I managed our tour my sophomore year and was president of the group last year. I'm currently serving as our business manager. Because the Cords are entirely student run, the president of the group is truly the executive of the organization - there is no faculty or Council on Student Organizations (COSO) advisor. Even in the corporate world, CEOs have boards and investors to report to; for most student organizations at Dartmouth, the buck stops at the student leaders. Thus, for a year, I got to play the role of chief executive of an organization that's not only an extra-curricular activity, but a semi-professional performing ensemble and a small business as well. It's hard to get that experience anywhere else, and I'm really appreciative for the opportunity that I had and for the friends I've made along the way.

Animal House and the Real World

Like its peer schools, Dartmouth is famous for a number of different things, and in particular: its liberal arts tradition and undergraduate focus; its active alumni body (and their financial success - tops in the country); its idyllic location; its unique academic calendar; its championship ski teams; and, as I've discovered through conducting a number of student forums, Animal House.

For those of you unfamiliar with the film, it's a 1978 National Lampoon's Comedy co-written by Chris Miller, class of 1963, and is based on his experiences as a brother of Alpha Delta Phi (now Alpha Delta, or AD). Starring John Belushi and Tim Matheson (and featuring Kevin Bacon in his cinematic debut), the film centers around the antics and degenerate members of Delta Tau Chi at a fictional college in Pennsylvania. You can check out a plot summary here.

For better or for worse (I and most others would argue for better), the Dartmouth Greek system no longer resembles (if in fact it ever did), the system portrayed in Animal House. But before I offer my take on it, some facts about the Dartmouth Fraternity, Sorority, and Coed (Greek) system.

Dartmouth currently recognizes 16 fraternities, 9 sororities, and 3 coed houses. There are also two undergraduate societies that are not a part of the Greek system. About 60% of eligible students do join a house. Eligible students are sophomores, juniors and seniors; freshmen cannot pledge, or join, a house. There are a number of implications of this policy, all of them positive. First, it gives Dartmouth students who think they may join a house their entire freshman year to scope out the organizations and see where they feel the most comfortable. More importantly, it means that students' social networks here are determined more by the friends they make during freshman year and through the organizations they're in more than the house they're in. If a student decides to pledge, his affiliation is usually just one more thing that he does on campus. Both of my fellow full-time interns are affiliated, but you'll never hear Madhavi introduce herself as a KDE or Jeff as an Alpha-Theta. Jeff, in fact, had thought I was in a fraternity until we did a forum together and the question came up. And while organizations' memberships may be as high as 150, each house only has about 20-25 beds and no dining facilities. Thus, most affiliated students live and eat on campus like everyone else, and there's little delineation between those who are in houses and those who are not.

One more reason for this lack of clear distinction is that the Greek system at Dartmouth is really inclusive: parties are usually open to the entire campus regardless of students' affiliations, and they're usually pretty fun. Most houses on campus are known for one particular party they'll throw about once a term. My favorite is the early 80's party at Sigma Nu, but I went for the first time to Sig Ep's Foam Party this past weekend and had a really fun time. Not sure I'll do that one again, but it was definitely worth the experience of standing waste-deep (or higher) in bubbles.

All that said, I am, as I mentioned, unaffiliated. For me, there just didn't seem to be a compelling enough reason to join a house. I'd already found my "fraternity" in my a cappella group, and I've been involved in so many different activities with such a wide range of students that I didn't really need to add another social network (or the accompanying time commitment). And while a majority of students do pledge, there's a large minority (40%) of eligible students who do not. While the Greek system does provide a lot of entertainment here, it is not the be all and end all of the social scene at Dartmouth, and while the College would be a lot different without it, there are students who go 4 years here without setting foot in a Greek house and are no worse off for it. But because of the large number of organizations, we're lucky to have a lot of variation between our houses, and there are a number of students who come to Dartmouth thinking there's no way they'd ever want to be a part of the Greek system (perhaps they'd seen Animal House?) but end up pledging sophomore fall. For me, with everything else there is to do here, I just didn't think it was necessary. But when you visit colleges, and wherever you end up going, I encourage you all to keep an open mind about all the options available to you. College can be a bit (or a lot) overwhelming at first, but in time, everyone finds his/her place. If you have any questions about the place that I've found, I'd be happy to answer them.

Dartmouth Abroad

When I was a prospective student looking at colleges, one of Dartmouth's biggest draws for me was the number and availability of foreign study programs for Dartmouth students. Indeed, I cannot imagine Dartmouth without its LSAs (Language Study Abroad Programs) and FSPs (Foreign Study Abroad Programs). And these programs are as pervasive as they are ubiquitous: Dartmouth has the highest participation rate in foreign study programs among all doctoral-granting institutions in the United States. Most students go on at least one; about 1 in 10 students go on three.

Dartmouth has about 44 Dartmouth-only programs available to its students. Many are for foreign languages. French, for example, has programs in Lyon, Toulouse, and Paris. Spanish has programs in Puebla, Mexico; Barcelona and Madrid, Spain; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. There are two German programs in Berlin; Chinese in Beijing; Arabic in Fez, Morocco (that program is soon moving to Tunisia, I think); Japanese in Tokyo; Portuguese in Salvador, Brazil; Russian in St. Petersburg; and a few programs in Rome.

There are three types of language programs. The first are LSAs (Language Study Abroad). The prerequisite for these programs is the level 2 course of a language at Dartmouth (e.g. for the French LSA in Lyon, students must have taken or passed out of French 2). The LSA+ is a little more advanced; its prerequisite is level 3 (and in some cases 10, which follows 3 in the sequence.) The most demanding program is the FSP, or Foreign Study Program, which has a higher prerequisite.

In addition to the language programs, most majors have their own FSPs. These programs are taught in English and occur all around the world. For example, there's engineering in Thailand; Biology in Costa Rica; Geography in Prague; Environmental Studies in South Africa; London has Government, Music, Theater, and History; there's Linguistics and Anthropology in New Zealand; Art History in Rome; and others.

Dartmouth's off-campus programs function as if you were here at Dartmouth taking classes. Your course credit is given the same way, and tuition and financial aid are also exactly the same. But enough with the details. Let me tell you a bit about my experience on the French LSA+ in Toulouse.

Getting to Toulouse was an adventure in itself. I flew from New York to Paris via Detroit (wasteful economy, anyone?) where I met a friend from high school who was in France for the year on a Rotary exchange. We hung out in the city for a little while before heading to Bourges where he was living. His host dad met us at the train station and drove us home, where I was given dinner and my own room to sleep in. In the morning, Jim's host dad drove me back to the station to catch my train to Toulouse. Definitely a great start to the trip.

I think the best way to describe my early impressions of being in Toulouse is to actually copy a blog post I wrote for my friends after being in France for about a week. I'm a little far removed from the experience now, and I think this does a better job of capturing my feelings at the time:

"The train got into Paris at 10 to 5 on Saturday, just in time for me to meet my host family. They’re really great people, and I feel pretty lucky since the family is probably the most important part of the LSA experience. My parents, Miki and Hervé, are a retired couple, and they live in a house pretty close to downtown (Centre Ville) Toulouse. Miki is always worried about whether I’ve eaten enough and if I’ve liked what she cooks, which is great because French cuisine is, well, you know, different. Turns out though I’ve happened to like just about everything she’s mentioned, and she’s convinced I’m lying to her. Having wine at every meal is a great backup though, because it can drown out the taste of just about anything, so I have no fear of trying new things. It makes me kind of sleepy though.

My host mom, Miki, telling me to try *this much* foie gras.

"Hervé is a really cool guy. At first I thought he wouldn’t take much of an interest in me, but it turns out we have a lot in common (at least when it comes to what to watch on TV), so it’s been fun so far. He used to jump horses and he’s interested in most sports, so between those and game shows, that’s pretty much what we watch. We also showed each other card tricks the other day, and he was mad cause he thought he’d figured mine out but in the end he hadn’t. The Dakar Rally is going on now, and so there’s coverage of that every night. I guess it’s interesting… And the French are really into American basketball. I swear I know more about how the Nuggets are doing now than I ever have in my life before.

"Mami, Miki’s mom lives upstairs, but is here for lunch and dinner every day. She’s 87 and of course smokes (everyone does), but is in excellent health. She’s just like a grandma – she corrects my French when I mess up, and than passes me chocolate under the table. Since my only grandparent (mother) that I knew passed away when I was 9, it’s really cool for me to have someone like Mami around.

"Miki and Hervé’s granddaughters, Jeanne and Ninon, who are 2 ½ and 7, have also been around a lot, along with their dad, Laurent. Both of the girls are fascinated by me because I’m American. It’s really funny. And for me, coming from such a small family, it’s awesome to have 4 generations coming in and out of the house."

La Garonne at night - Toulouse

I went on to describe the early social scene, which mainly involved going to clubs and discotheques with most of the other Dartmouth students from the group and some French friends we'd picked up along the way before getting to the heart of what going abroad really meant for me:

"There’s a lot more I could write about, given that there have been so many ‘firsts’ in the last week and half, but I’ll stop here and end with an early observation. Globalization is made very obvious when you travel abroad. My Bourges friend’s host dad drove a Ford, and everywhere you look you see foreign cars. Nissan is popular, as is Suzuki. I was watching a show before that featured a Honda Accord and a Chrysler Sebring. I saw a sticker on the back of car before that said "J'aime ma Toyota" (I love my Toyota). The music here is mostly American, and you hear it a lot in commercials or as background music during some television shows. It's funny. I’ll be like "Ah, the theme from American Beauty," and I look at the TV and it's a commercial for dog food or something. It's also interesting to realize that so many of the goods advertised in America are not really American at all. It was strange at first to see a Volkswagen commercial in French, but really, France is a lot closer to Germany than we are. It’s just interesting, I think, that we (or at least I) think of a lot of things as inherently American, when they’re not at all. And the French do a lot of things right. It was so nice to go to the morning market my first day here and see everyone out buying fresh food for the day, and even though this is the 5^th largest city in France, my host mom met no fewer than 7 people that she knew in the short time we were there. Businesses are closed on Sunday, which is something I wish we’d see more of in the US. Most of the stores are small and locally owned. Banks don’t charge you for using their ATM’s. And eating dinner together as a family every night (not lunch for me during the week since I’m at the university) is something I look forward to every day."

Villefranche-sur-Mer: one of my vacation stops during our 10 day break

Over the following 9 weeks, I had many great adventures, built amazing relationships with not only the Dartmouth students but also a number of other French people, and learned a lot about myself. It would take me pages and pages to begin to relate these experiences, and maybe I'll make a mention of one or two of them in a later blog entry. But this post is getting rather long and, to be honest, no two individuals' off-campus programs are going to play out even remotely the same, so it's more or less inutile for me to relay specifics about mine. I recommend checking out this page to see a (almost) complete list of off-campus programs available. More than that, if you visit campus, I strongly encourage you to ask students you meet about their foreign study experiences. I can promise you won't hear the same story twice.

The D-Plan

Hey everybody,

This blog is of course all about life at Dartmouth, and I just realized that it's almost impossible to talk about Dartmouth much without first explaining something that makes it truly unique from most other schools in the country: the Dartmouth Plan. The Dartmouth Plan (or D-Plan, as everyone here calls it) is basically our academic schedule (though it's also used to denote individuals' schedules, as in "What's your D-Plan?") As it has a huge impact on students' lives, I want to give you all a brief rundown about what it's all about.

Unlike most schools, Dartmouth does not operate on a semester schedule. Rather, we use a quarter system of 4 ten-week terms per year that correspond roughly to the seasons (so there are fall, winter, spring, and summer terms). Each term, students usually take 3 classes. So while for each class we're doing 14-15 week's worth of work in just 10, we take only 3 classes as opposed to 4 or 5, so I think it balances out pretty well. At least it's easier to compartmentalize our courses, even if the terms are more intense than they'd be at a semester school.

The fun comes in when students plan their schedules. Here's how it works:

• 4 terms per year for 4 years is 16 terms.
  
• We don't really count senior summer because most students have graduated and moved on by then, so there are really 15 terms.
  
• Of those 15, students have to be taking classes either at Dartmouth, on a Dartmouth study abroad program, or though an exchange with another school for 12 terms.
  
• Of these 12, Dartmouth requires that students are on campus for 7 specific terms. In the diagram below, these terms are shaded in green. They are freshman fall, winter, and spring; the summer between the sophomore and junior year (sophomore summer); and senior fall, winter, and spring.
• How students do their last 5 terms (12 - 7 = 5) is pretty much completely up to them. Most students go on a foreign study program at least once, and we can do up to three. I'm going to write more about study abroad programs in my next post.
  

To illustrate this a little better, I'm going to show you my D-Plan and explain what I've done for the past three years here at Dartmouth. On the graph, "R" stands for residence term, as in on-campus at Dartmouth taking classes. "L's" are leave terms, and "O's" stand for off-campus programs. *You can also try setting up your own D-Plan and seeing how the whole thing works by clicking HERE.*

As you can see, I was on campus for freshman fall, winter, and spring, and took a leave term in the summer. Most first-year students follow the same plan, though some stay on in the summer and take classes or go on a foreign study program (the Russian and Arabic programs, for example, take place in the summer so there are a number of freshmen who take levels 1, 2, and 3 of those languages and then go on the off-campus program. As for me, that's the summer I biked across the country with Bike and Build, raising money and awareness for affordable housing. I came back to campus for my sophomore fall, and then went on the French LSA+ (Language Study Abroad+) program in Toulouse, France. I'll write about my experience there in my next entry. After Toulouse I came back to Dartmouth and did 4 on-campus terms in a row, including Sophomore Summer.

A lot of you may be thinking, "Really? School in the summer!?" Certainly a lot of my friends from home wondered why I "had" to do "summer school." As it turns out, Sophomore Summer is typically one of Dartmouth students' favorite terms. First of all, it's great because just about the entire sophomore class is on campus as the same time. Because people are always coming and going throughout their sophomore and junior years, Sophomore Summer is the only term in two years when one's entire class is on campus. The weather in Hanover is the best during the summer and it's a really great time to get out and explore the Upper Valley. And because the upperclassmen are away, sophomores get to take leadership positions in their clubs and organizations. I got really into kayaking during my sophomore summer last year, and it's something that I've kept doing since (when the river isn't frozen, that is.)

Finally, after a year and a half straight of classes (including my term in France,) I took this past spring off. I went home and took an internship at a local manufacturing facility, doing some marketing support and consulting for them. It was really nice to have a 8:00-4:30 kind of routine and get to see the parents for more than a week at a time. But I couldn't stay away from Hanover for long; I'm back up this summer working full-time for the Admissions Office.

There are a lot of advantages to the D-Plan. One is that it allows students to take leave terms in seasons other than the summer. When Dartmouth students apply for jobs or internships in the fall, winter, or spring, they're competing against a much smaller applicant pool than they would have if they'd applied for the summer, when just about every college student in the world is out of class and looking for internships. Dartmouth is actually known for having students available to intern throughout the year and they're actively sought after in both the government and the business world.

There are lots of other advantages as well, but I feel like this post is getting a little long so I'm going to cut myself off here. But if you have any questions, please ask in the comment section and I'll be happy to answer them.

It's the Little Things

Madhavi (another intern) and I got asked a great question in our student forum this morning: "What has been your best moment at Dartmouth?" Of course, there are really so many that it's impossible to say which is the absolute best, but I picked one of my favorites, and I just thought I'd take a minute to relate it to you all.

There's a pub on campus called Lone Pine Tavern. It's in the basement of Collis, our student center, and it's the only dining place on campus that serves beer (they definitely card), but it's also a really fun place for the under-21 crowd to hang out at. They've got really great shakes and bar food - the quesadillas are my favorite - and tons of board games, word games, and a poker set. There's also a performing space with a piano and a sound setup, so usually at some point there's a performance, whether it be karaoke (every Thursday night this summer, I believe), open-mic stand-up comedy, or, most often, a student solo act or maybe a small group of performers (guitar/voice, piano, keyboard kind of thing).

So back to my favorite moment. It was nearing the end of sophomore summer, and a lot of people on campus were feeling an urgency about spending time with their closest friends before the term was over. I hadn't seen my friends Ray and Sarah in a while, and we decided to get together to catch up with each other.

We go to Lone Pine and got some shakes and snacks, and then walk down to Dartmouth's golf course for a midnight picnic under the stars. The night skies here are absolutely breathtaking. I come from a rural area where there aren't a whole lot of lights around anyway, but the sky this night at the golf course is particularly remarkable. I throw down a blanket I brought and we sit down and start sharing stories from the past year. I tell them about some of my experiences in France on the Language Study Abroad+ Program, and Sarah and I reminisce a little about our previous summer's experience on Bike and Build. So anyway, we're hanging out having a pretty good time when pretty far away on the golf course we hear a sprinkler come on. "Uh-oh guys," I say. Ray says not to worry about it; we're pretty far away from the sprinkler. But then another one comes on, a little bit closer. I look around and in the moonlight can see that we've got our stuff spread out all over the place. "Guys, I think we should move." They're still not that concerned. Another sprinkler, closer. Another. "Alright, time to go!" We throw everything we have - shake cups, quesadilla containers, the blanket, our cameras - into our bags and start running, just as a sprinkler buried no more than 10 feet away comes to life, managing to spray us just once as we make our escape.

When people ask about things to do at Dartmouth, I usually don't mention events like the one above. Prospective students usually don't want to hear that hanging out at the golf course at night is one of the big things to do on campus. But when you get here, you start to realize that having fun isn't about the things you're doing, but about the people you're doing those things with. And Dartmouth has got some of the best people there are. Who wants to spend a night in the city with a bunch of random people? Not me. A midnight picnic on the golf course and a run-in with the hydration system with two of my closest friends? Anytime. Unless it's the winter.

I scream, you scream...

One of the things I love most about Dartmouth is the great cycling that's available around here. After doing Bike and Build my freshman summer, I've been absolutely addicted to road biking, and New Hampshire and Vermont offer no shortage of great roads to bike on. So when Colleen, one of the admissions officers, asked me and Mats (another AO) if we wanted to bike up to Fairlee, VT after work yesterday to get some ice cream at a place called Utter Delight, of course I jumped at the offer. Plus, I'd just gotten my bike back from a three-week stay at the bike repair shop, so I was really itching to hit the pavement again.

We left Hanover at about 5:15 for the ~20 mile trek up to Fairlee. The ride up was incredibly beautiful. We took River Road, and with cornfields on our right, the Connecticut River to the left, and rolling hills ahead, we enjoyed some really great New Hampshire scenery. We even passed through a covered bridge!

In what seemed like no time at all, we crossed the river and arrived at Utter Delight. I think it took longer to decide what kind of ice cream I wanted than it took to eat it, but I finally decided on one scoop each of Moosetracks and Peaches and Cream in a cone. There's really nothing like ice cream after a bike ride on a warm (hot) summer afternoon. We hung out in the shade for a while before heading back to campus via Route 5, on the VT side of the Connecticut.

Biking with other people is a lot more fun than biking alone, and on the less-traveled roads of Northern New England, you can really have a pretty good conversation. I can't say I remember what we talked about, but it made the time go by really quickly, and we were back in Hanover before I knew it. Colleen thought it would be a great idea to jump into the river before heading back up the hill to campus, and after a moment's hesitation, Mats and I agreed. We walked down to the swimming dock and jumped into the just-warm-enough water and swam around for long enough to cool down. It was definitely the perfect way to cap off a great afternoon.

Mats and I made plans to do a century (a 100 mile ride) on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I'm in bike-shape enough to pull it off, and after this week's prospective student fly-in program ends on Saturday, I might be too exhausted to do anything at all. But I think we'll go for it anyway and I'll just hope for the best!

Majors at Dartmouth

One of the things I do for the Admissions Office is answer emails, and I'm really surprised at how many students think they need to apply for a particular major or academic program at the same time that they apply to Dartmouth. It's not their fault for thinking this - a lot of universities require students to apply not just to the university but also to a specific college for admission. I just can't imagine going to a school where I'd have to decide on my major so early on in my college career and, once I've done that, actually apply for it and have a chance I could be rejected!

At Dartmouth, students don't have to declare their major until the middle or end of their sophomore year. This gives them ample opportunity to explore all the different academic departments that the college has to offer. Of course, some students know what they want to do right when they get here and follow that path all the way through to graduation. Many more think they know what they want to study, but after some time here find that they enjoy something else much more. As for me, I came to Dartmouth thinking that maybe I wanted to major in engineering, but I also knew that I had an affinity for the humanities. After my freshman fall, during which I took a calculus class (and found out I really didn't like it) and an introductory environmental studies class (and discovered I loved it), I knew I wasn't going to study engineering. I bounced some ideas around with my parents, friends, and first-year academic advisers, and considered environmental studies, sociology, and English, before finally settling on government (with a concentration in international relations). Since then I've added the environmental studies minor, mostly because I've taken so many ENVS courses as electives that I only needed one more to complete the minor.

Once students declare a major, they still have the option of changing or modifying it. And because we operate like a college (and not a multi-college university), changing one's major doesn't require the student to move to or take classes in an entirely different section of campus. After all, our campus isn't that big! But my main point is that here, we don't have "Engineering Students" or "Humanities Students" or "Economics Students." We only have "Dartmouth Students." And that's one of my favorite things about this place.

Dinner at Foley House

Another one of the things we get asked about a lot in our Student Forums is housing at Dartmouth. Once again, it's one of those questions that's somewhat difficult to answer, because 'housing' is really about more than simply what kind of room you live in. The short answer is that the rooms here are great, and there's a lot of variety in the types of residence halls, so there's really something for everyone. But while that's definitely a fair and honest description of housing here, it doesn't really capture the essence of what we mean by "variety." For instance, some of Dartmouth's greatest places to live are in what we call "Affinity Houses," or buildings with special themes that students may apply specifically to live in. They're kind of the undiscovered gems of on-campus housing, and so I just want to take a minute to tell you about one of them.

Last night I was invited to dinner at Foley House by my friend Delia. We've been friends since working on the same Undergraduate Adviser Cluster Staff last year, and she wanted me to come over since yesterday was her night to cook. Foley House residents cook for each other 5 nights a week, and it's really a great way to build a sense of community among the people that live there. Fortunately for me though, Foley is not a membership organization, so even though I don't live there I can still feel like I'm part of the community. This is especially great this summer because most of my '09 friends are off campus and it's great to have the opportunity to get to know some more '10's.

For dinner, Delia made grilled chicken and vegetable shish kabobs, scalloped potatoes, and a rice and bean dish she learned to make while volunteering in New Orleans last year. Let me tell you, if all Cajun food tastes that good, I might have to live in Louisiana for a while! We all sat out on the front porch eating and getting to know each other (well, that mostly just applied to me since most everybody there knew each other already). A lot of people were really interested to hear about what I do at Admissions since it's really a fascinating office. I have to say that Dartmouth students are the most passionate of any I've encountered about wanting prospective students to come to their school. That's what I feel so fortunate to work for Admissions, because I get to talk to "prospies" and their parents every day!

But back to dinner. It was really cool for me to get to meet so many chill people at once, and it was a great night to just hang out on a front porch. S'Mores (cooked on the grill, of course) for dessert were great (and insanely messy!) After a while it was time to clean up. I chipped in, of course, and honestly I was really surprised at how much fun doing dishes can be when you have 6 people in a kitchen all working together. We were done in almost no time and even managed not to break anything!

I hung out for a while before heading home, really glad for the experience. I'll definitely be heading back to Foley for dinner soon :)

VERMONSTER!

At every college, there's a series of things you simply have to do at some point before you graduate. Somewhere on Dartmouth's long and varied list is what Ben and Jerry's calls a Vermonster - an ice cream challenge of nearly barbaric proportions:

-20 Scoops of ice cream(4 1/2 pounds)
-10 scoops of chopped walnuts
-5 scoops of fresh whipped cream
-4 bananas
-4 scoops of hot fudge
-3 chocolate chip cookies
-2 scoops of m&ms
-2 scoops of reeses
-2 scoops of chocolate sprinkles
-2 scoops of gummi bears
-1 giant homemade brownie

So what better way to celebrate the interns' first week at Admissions than to tackle a Vermonster at the local Ben and Jerry's? Especially when you can do it on work-time! At 2:15 yesterday, the interns and some of the Admissions Officers took a break from the office and made the trek over to Lebanon Street where our new challenge was waiting for us in a two-gallon bucket. Not the kind of people to turn down a challenge, with spoons in hand we intrepidly dug in, determined to finished what we'd set out to do. For 45 minutes the conversation at our table centered around our singular goal: "Hey, I found the Cherry Garcia!" or, with apprehension, "Oh man, there's an entire brownie down here..." But by 3:00 the bucket was almost entirely empty, save for what I'll call the comingle of melted ice cream, chocolate chunks and some gummi bears who managed to escape unharmed. We'd conquered the Vermonster!

And so, a little worse for the wear, we trudged back to McNutt to finish out our day. I think it would be safe to say that no one was all that productive for those last couple of hours, but we were all certainly very satisfied with what we'd accomplished that afternoon!

Kayaking on the Connecticut

One of my favorite things do to during the summer is go boating on the Connecticut River. Just down the hill from campus, the Connecticut is wide, flat, meandering, and a perfect venue for the casual paddler. After work yesterday, my friend Bill (another '09 who's on campus for a couple of weeks teaching for the Rassias Summer Language Program) and I decided to go down to the river and rent a couple of kayaks. Students can rent canoes and kayaks from the Ledyard Canoe Club either by the hour or they can get a season pass which entitles the bearer to unlimited rentals for a full year. Best part: this pass is only $35 for students! And people say you can't find a good deal these days...

So anyway, it was great to be out on the river again. I think my last time out was at the end of summer term last year, so it had definitely been awhile. I didn't take any pictures yesterday, but here's one I took while canoeing last year:

Bill and I couldn't stay out for too long because he had to get back to work and I was planning on seeing a recruiting presentation by Bain and Company. I just wanted to get an idea of what consulting is like. Turns out I really don't think it's my thing, but it's still cool to know that these kinds of firms put a lot of effort into recruiting Dartmouth students into their internship and intro-level employment programs. But back to kayaking...

An hour gave us enough time for a loop around Gilman Island, which is about half a mile south of the canoe club. Gilman's a cool place to hang out, and there's even a cabin run by Ledyard that Dartmouth students can rent for a night ($10/person) and stay in. I've done this a few times - once with the Cords - and it's so much fun. There's a fire pit and enough wood around to roast marshmellows all through the night, and inside there's a little stove and bunks to sleep on. Definitely a great way to spend a night.

Getting back to the dock, I ran into some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in awhile. Jill, for instance, has been off campus for a year it seems, doing internships and study abroad programs. She's a '09, but she's taking classes this summer because she took an extra off term this past year. And one of my old UGA staff was there too. He's an '08 - just graduated - and he's up visiting for a few days, so it was nice to run into him. This reminds me of one of my favorite things about Dartmouth: it's size. With 4,000 undergraduates, Dartmouth has the critical mass necessary for the variety of programs its students demand and there are definitely enough people to keep you busy and interested here. But at the same time, you don't feel anonymous. You can walk though the library and recognize people you know. You'll never get to know everybody, but it's so nice to feel like wherever there is a group of people, you know someone in it.

I was talking to someone the other day about the setting of Dartmouth - in a small town in New Hampshire, as opposed to, say, metropolitan New York a suburb of Boston. And he said a very interesting thing: "In a city, you see more people. In Hanover, you get to know more people." I think that's a pretty accurate description, and it's something I've come to really appreciate. That of course, and kayaking on the Connecticut.

Last Night at the Hop

One of the questions we're often asked is "What is there to do in Hanover?" I've I always wanted to answer by saying, "What isn't there to do?" but I know that for most people (if not all people), that answer will not suffice. So over the next few months one of the themes of my posts will be about life in Hanover and all that that implies.

One of my favorite things to do at Dartmouth is go see shows and films at the Hopkins Center for the Arts or, more simply, the Hop. Having been designed by Wallace Harrison, the architect of Lincoln Center and New York's United Nations Building, the Hop is one of the most unique and prominent buildings on campus. It houses the 900-seat Spaulding Auditorium, the 480-seat Moore theater, and a small, flexible black-box space called the Warner Bentley Theater, with room for up to 180 seats. Also inside are the music and theater departments with their own rehearsal and recital spaces and myriad studios and workshops for studio art, woodworking, pottery, jewelry, photography, and more. The National Endowment for the Arts has named the Hop one of the nation's exemplary performing arts centers.

Over my three years here, I've had the opportunity to see a number of spectacular performances at the Hop. Even better, my job as a production assistant has put me behind the scenes for many of them; last year, I had the opportunity to meet Branford Marsalis, the world renowned saxophonist, and stage manage his show. It is one of my fondest Dartmouth memories. But I digress.

Last night, Senegal's Orchestra Baobab was in town. Once or twice a year, the Hop sponsors a show that is completely free for everyone, including students and people from the community. This was one of the shows, but I have a feeling it would have been sold out regardless. I'm really struggling to find the right words to describe the performance. I guess if you can imagine yourself transported back to a nightclub in 1970's Dakar, that might give you the beginning of an idea of what the show was like. It was originally scheduled to take place outside but had to be moved indoors because of the rain. This was most unfortunate, as this kind of music and energy is not supposed to be confined within the walls of a building, no matter its size. But many of Spaulding's 900 audience members couldn't care less where they were and took to the aisles dancing, feeling the music rather than just hearing it. Even I, surprisingly enough, found myself out of my seat after maybe the second song, dancing with my friend Carrie. I looked around the auditorium and was truly amazed to see so many different people going through the same experience together. I mean, there were little kids no more then 4 years old dancing with their parents, Dartmouth students from all over the world (I'm from a little town in upstate New York), people from the community (townies, we call them) who have been all over the world themselves, and a group of people I saw in the middle that looked like they never really left the '70's... all connected by the pervasive euphoria that emanated from the stage and radiated between us. I wouldn't say we watched the show or even experienced the show so much as we shared it. For an hour and a half on a Tuesday evening, 900 strangers were brought together, inextricably linked by the Afro-Cuban rhythms and explosion of energy that is Orchestra Baobab.

So here I am writing this post from my desk in the admissions office, and I just realized that what I experienced last night was an almost perfect microcosm of life at Dartmouth. Every fall, a new class of 1000 students arrives in Hanover as individuals, and, for the most part, complete strangers. But then they go on freshman trips. They spend a week in orientation, getting to know the campus and each other. And by the time they reach Convocation and are officially indoctrinated into a single unit — in my case, the Class of 2009 — they have already formed bonds with each other unlike any they had experienced before. And over the next 4 years, they will make more bonds, with more people, over more events - an Afro-Pop show at the Hop, perhaps - than they might ever have thought possible. Last night, I didn't expect to feel so connected with people in the audience, 98% of whom I didn't know and will likely never meet. But it happened. And there are still hundreds of people in my class year that I haven't met yet and probably never will. For some reason or another, we've just been on opposite sides of the auditorium. But know each other or not, we will forever be connected by this institution, by our shared experiences, and by a name - Dartmouth College Class of 2009.

So the next time someone asks me what there is to do in Hanover, I'll think of last night and this post. I'll want to say "Just be here," but I'll know that won't really suffice as an answer. So I'll bite my lip, clear my throat, and start talking about the hundreds of student organizations we have, all the athletic options there are, and so on. And he might be impressed - to be honest, I'm still amazed at the variety and sheer number of student organizations here - but he won't fully understand. Because you really won't know until you get here. But once you do, it doesn't take long to figure out that Dartmouth really is a special place.