Coffee with a Professor

I'm pretty sure I've written about this before, but one of the best parts about Dartmouth is the relationships students are able to develop with professors. This ability is the result of a number of factors, most especially Dartmouth's size and, more importantly, its commitment to undergraduate education. We're called Dartmouth College for a reason, and the result is that professors are here, yes to do research and publish literature in their respective fields, but mostly because they want to teach undergraduates. Actually, the word "teach" doesn't quite capture it, because they're also interested in working with and learning from their undergraduate students.

Still, even with that in mind, actually developing relationships with professors here can seem like a daunting task. All professors hold open office hours every week, but there's this notion that in order to go talk to them, you've gotta have a very specific question about the class or the professor's field of research. Here's the thing though: while they're happy to talk to you about matters that relate to their class, one of the greatest hidden secrets about profs is that they actually love talking to students about other things!

Last Wednesday, I went to my government professor Daryl Press' office hours with a question that was rather philosphical. I'm taking his class called War and Peace in the Modern Age, and basically what we've been doing is reading and discussing first person accounts of warfare written by soldiers, civilians, and journalists. Meanwhile, professor Press gives lectures on such subjects as military spending, logistics, and the function of military statecraft in international relations. What I wanted to know, though, is whether or not there's intrinsic value in people - not as citizens of a democracy or as policymakers, but just as members of human society - having an understanding of wars, who fights them, how they're fought, and what it means to approach, as David Loyd writes in My War Gone by, I Miss it So, the "frontier of human experience." So while my question was inspired by what we were covering in class, it really didn't have much to do with what the syllabus says the course is about (as it turns out, though, he used our conversation as the basis for 2 questions on the next day's take home midterm; we ended up having to answer 2 of 4 possible questions and ironically, I didn't touch the ones related to what we'd talked about). Professor Press had to run to a meeting before we could really delve deeply into the question, though, so we made an appointment to get coffee today.

I met him after his afternoon class on nuclear weapons, and we went over to Novack Café in the library before heading for a table on the patio outside Kemeny, the newest academic building on campus and home to the Dickey Center for International Understanding, among other things. I wasn't sure what we were going to talk about, because even after thinking about it for a while I felt like I was actually less prepared to talk about my question from last Wednesday than I was during that first conversation. But we bounced some ideas off each other and decided that we'd meet again at the end of this course to discuss what the class was actually was all about. Sure, we're going to learn about everything I outlined above (military logistics, etc.), but will we have also gotten something less tangible but fundamentally more important out of it? We'll see.

That stuff out of the way, the conversation actually - no joke - turned to admissions. One of the things that's been really neat about this internship for me is that the world of admissions is really interesting, and to a lot of people. There are so many questions people have, and I really enjoy talking about how the process works (that's your cue to send me emails or ask questions through the comments part of this blog). So there we were - government professor (and realism/nuclear weapons expert) and senior government major, talking about collegiate admissions while sipping coffee on the Kemeny patio. The coolest part for you all: this sort of thing happens all the time at Dartmouth. And so we talked about admissions for a while and then had a discussion on social mobility in this country (questions actually inspired by something I learned in international political economy, another international relations class), before he had to leave to pick up his kids from daycare.

Will this help me in his class? It's an interesting question. If a professor gave students grades based on how well he knew them, he'd be a terrible professor. So no, office hours visits don't give you automatic points. However, it never hurts to demonstrate to professors that you're thinking critically about their course material. And even if you don't talk about the class itself, you never know when you might need a reference or a recommendation. So when you all begin your college careers, remember this: you don't need to have a million dollar question in order to strike up a conversation with a prof. At a school like Dartmouth, all you need to do is show up and say, "Hey, I'm in your class, and I'd just like to introduce myself." The conversation will take care of itself.

(Almost) As Good as Being at Home...

Well, I guess I lied in my last post - the blog wasn't really back. But I promise that with this entry I'm going to be writing regularly once again. About what I'm not yet sure, but I can tell you that there will be something new here every few days. So keep checking back!

Part of the problem (or at least an excuse I've been using) is that I've been pretty sick this term. And that's what I'm going to write about today. Not for your sympathy (I'm doing much better!) but I think my little ordeal highlights one of the great things about going to school at a place with such a strong sense of community.

A couple of weeks ago I came down with a pretty high fever (around 102.6). It sort of went away, but when it came back a few days later I decided I really needed to do something about it. Problem was, it spiked in the middle of the night, waking me up at 2am on a Monday morning. Not to worry! Dick's House (our campus clinic) has a 24-hour infirmary, where students can go anytime they're really struggling (and I was). I called the clinician, set things up, and she told me to call Safety and Security to have them come pick me up. Wow! Dick's House is only about a 10 minute walk from my room, but getting valet service made things a whole lot easier. The officer was there in a few minutes, and about 15 minutes after making the phone call I was sitting on a bed having my vitals taken. Long story short, it looked like the flu (it was going around, even before the H1N1 hoopla), the nurse gave me some ibuprofen, and I was put to bed in a nice little room. Through the night the nurses checked up on me, and I woke up in the morning to a visit from the doctor and an order form for breakfast in bed! He checked me out - my tonsils were swollen but otherwise things looked fine, and I went back to sleep until breakfast came. I stayed at Dick's House until about 2 in the afternoon, receiving lunch and getting to take a shower there before I left. But leaving didn't mean I had to give up my bed - I just went out on pass, and they reserved it for me in case I wanted to come back. All of this, I should mention, was completely free! (Except for breakfast and lunch, which came off of my normal meal plan). What a deal. I felt fine the rest of the day, though, so I called them at 8 and emancipated myself from their care.

Unfortunately, a few days later I was struck with the worst sore throat of my life. I was able to get an early appointment (at Dick's House, again), and went in the next day. Turns out I have mono, which is a pretty huge bummer considering it's my senior spring. But actually I've been doing well and that's not the point of the story anyway. The real point is that the physician's assistant was incredibly thorough and caring, and she sent me 2 emails later that day with instructions on how to take care of myself, and another one a week later just to check up on me and ask how I'm doing.

Meanwhile, my professors, employers, fellows program leaders, etc. have all been incredibly understanding. I had been getting behind on my readings journals for my journalism class, and when I told the professor I was going to try to catch up over the weekend, she said not to worry about it and just do what's current. She also gave me an extension on the assignment we're currently working on. That's made things a lot easier.

Maybe this post isn't interesting or important at all, but you know, when you're feeling sick, it's nice to feel that there are people who really care about you. When I was at Dick's House, I felt like I had 3 new moms who were taking care of me. My professors and bosses have been sending me emails asking how I'm doing. And that, for me, is just another reason I'm happy I'm part of the Dartmouth community.