dartmouth is a
place of big ideas

#DartmouthBigIdeas

The questions waft like woodsmoke

across the Dartmouth campus, sharpening the senses, quickening the step of students and faculty alike. Scholarly brains bend to the quest for real answers. Discovery, they know, takes boldness, risk—big thinking. And the effort, though fraught with the possibility of failure can lead to lovely illuminations: big ideas.

Why choose Us?

Can we end global poverty?

Through the King Scholar Leadership Program, Faith Rotich ’18 is pursuing a dream: to open a school and shelter for disadvantaged girls in her hometown in western Kenya. King Scholars, who come from developing nations, receive full scholarships, experiential learning opportunities, and intensive academic guidance emphasizing leadership and international development. After graduation, they return to their home countries to work on domestic poverty issues.

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Leaders

Are leaders born or made?

“We develop leaders with a strong sense of self and confidence in their own vision for their future,” says Andrew Samwick, director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. One way it does this is to support students like Logan Brog ’15 in transformative internships. Brog recently worked at the Institute for the Study of War, perfecting his Arabic and accelerating his foreign affairs expertise.

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world peace?

Is world peace possible?

“Working with young people is critical in rebuilding from ethnic struggles,” says Bryan Thomson ’16, who participated in a conflict transformation program in Kosovo with the help of the Dickey Center. Through language and study abroad programs, partnerships with international universities, and programs such as the War and Peace Fellows, World Affairs Council, and Davis Projects for Peace, Dartmouth has a strong and abiding commitment to fostering world peace through student experience.

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WHERE DO GALAXIES COME FROM?

Dartmouth astrophysicist Ryan Hickox has shown that stars around a black hole blow out gas and play a key role in forming new galaxies. He and Thomas Whalen ’14 are learning more by studying nearby galaxy
Henize 2–10, where they have proven a supermassive black hole exists. Says Whalen: “It’s one of the closest analogs we have to the first galaxies early in the universe.”

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How can games make us better people?

Tiltfactor, Dartmouth’s digital lab dedicated to designing and studying games for social impact, creates with one principal goal: to change the world. Based on founder Mary Flanagan’s research on social activism and play, Tiltfactor incorporates systems thinking, human values such as empathy, and the power of storytelling to promote learning and change behavior through online, board, and role-playing games.

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Can we fix healthcare?

Dartmouth thinks so. Its health care model, the accountable care organization, or ACO, is improving health delivery quality while cutting costs in over 700 communities across the U.S. And its InSHAPE program for patients with serious mental illness has become a national model. Says President Phil Hanlon: “Dartmouth is a pioneer in health care research and delivery, and the world has taken notice.”

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CAN EARTH BE SAVED?

When Leehi Yona ’16, an environmental studies-biology double major, began attending international climate change meetings, she noticed “voices that weren’t being heard,” particularly women and young people in northern indigenous communities. As a Stamps Leadership Scholar, Yona has spent part of her senior year in Canada’s Nunavut territory, capturing the stories of people worried how climate change may undermine their way of life.

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Why choose Us?

How do you maximize human potential?

Dartmouth sports teams are learning that one answer is Dartmouth Peak Performance (DP2), launched in 2011 to maximize Big Green athletes’ physical, intellectual, and personal growth and competitive performance. It’s working: In 2014–2015, Dartmouth athletes placed first or second in nine Ivy League team sports, the most in 12 years; reduced high-risk drinking by 30 percent; and topped the NCAA Division I standings nationwide for graduation rates and academic achievement.

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Leaders

Is art relevant?

“All art has the power to broaden minds, and the Hood Museum of Art has been a bastion for teaching and interactive learning for more than 20 years,” says Senior Curator of Collections and Curator of Academic Programming Kathy Hart. One example: Arsenic and Water, by J. Henry Fair, a photograph in the Hood’s collection. Eight Dartmouth departments, including environmental studies, Native American studies, anthropology, and geography, have used it as “an astonishing touchstone for learning,” says Hart.

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world peace?

Who will come up with the Next Big Thing?

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and thriving at Dartmouth through The Pitch, an annual event presented by the Digital Arts, Leadership, & Innovation Lab (DALI) and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network (DEN). Teams have two minutes to pitch their start-up concepts—from online traffic apps to portable water filters—to audience members and judges. Winners receive seed funding, and DALI and DEN offer support to help teams bring their pitched ideas to life.

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WHAT CAN BIG DATA TELL US?

Dartmouth faculty and students harness big data to make new discoveries across many fields—from health care to art, physics to economics. Geisel neonatologists use big data to understand how bacteria help newborns. Through Dartmouth’s Neukom Institute, Dylan Scandinaro ’17 taught Middle Eastern entrepreneurs how to use data analysis to make strategic business decisions. “The applications are endless and exciting,” he says.

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