The international approach to learning is multi-faceted, but at the core are Dartmouth’s faculty members, who encourage students to develop a global intellectual framework within a range of disciplines. Dartmouth's professors themselves are engaged in research in other countries or on other cultures, and students work closely with them. Sixty percent of Dartmouth students perform independent research studies with faculty member supervision.
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A participant in Language Study Abroad, and Dartmouth College President Carol Folt in Spain at the University of Barcelona. The student told Folt: “Here life itself is its own classroom. I can feel that I’ve grown and changed as a person.” (photo by Steve Smith) |
The strengths of Dartmouth programs are reinforced by centers such as The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, that facilitate the coordination of different disciplines in studying global problems. The Dickey Center brings expert speakers and visiting professors to campus and supports faculty research and student efforts to work or study in other parts of the world. Dickey’s Institute for Arctic Studies, Global Health Initiative, and War and Peace Studies offer specific themes around which researchers and students collaborate. “Ultimately, we strive to help students find profound experiences that might help them make a difference in the world,” says Ambassador Ken Yalowitz, Dickey Center director.
The College’s other centers, notably the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center and the William Jewett Tucker Foundation, provide additional significant opportunities for students to connect with the wider world.
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John Rassias, developer of the Rassias Method of language instruction. (photo by Joseph Mehling '69) |
Students minoring in International Studies can pay special attention to the interplay between local and global processes; human and environmental interactions; and places, identities, and culture. Students can also tailor majors such as economics, geography, government, or history to have a global focus.
Every undergraduate must take at least one class each in Non-Western Cultures, Culture and Identity, and International or Comparative Studies. Courses meeting these requirements span the curriculum and include, for example:
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Assistant Professor Meredith Kelly prepares to gather rock samples in Greenland. Lab analysis of the material she collects in the Arctic offers insight into climate variation. (photo courtesy Meredith Kelly) |
Studying a language offers further opportunity to provide in-depth knowledge of another culture, and the Dartmouth College Rassias Center has long been a leader in the field of language acquisition. Dartmouth offers language training in:
Geisel School of Medicine, Thayer School of Engineering, and Tuck School of Business all offer undergraduates further opportunities to conduct research and collaborate with graduate students. The Global Health Initiative, for example, is a project involving students and faculty from across the campus as well as faculty from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Many professors teaching undergraduate courses have joint appointments at a professional school.
