Dartmouth Direct

Coffee with a Dartmouth Alum

Posted by Delos Chang at 3:00 pm No Responses »

Jul 312012

It’s always fascinating to take a breather and look back at just how far we’ve come. Even more compelling though is to see how much we’ve learned. Indeed, time flies. Looking forward, I believe there’s plenty of growth and development ahead of us. And personally, I believe it’s valuable to dig deep into the minds of those who have already ventured the beaten path for gems of insight. Luckily, Dartmouth’s tightly knit alumni community is perfect for this.

To that end, a week ago, I began reaching out to the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, asking for advice from Dartmouth entrepreneurs more experienced than me. Most were eager to help out our startup, Memeja. After a few phone calls and email exchanges, I met up with Dartmouth alumni, Nader Aknoukh, who graciously agreed to meet up at Dirt Cowboy for a cup of coffee. My objective was to dig his brain as much as possible. Questions like “What do you wish you had known while founding your startup” and “What was your biggest mistake” yielded insightful answers about the nature of venture capital and communicating with the market. We walk away thirty minutes later with pearls of wisdom rolling around in my mind.

What I’ve realized is that the Dartmouth alums really want to help you — especially when it’s obvious that you’re funneling tons of time and effort into something you love. They’re friendly, responsive, extend invaluable insights and love to reminisce about their adventures in the startup world. And hey, I don’t mind hearing what Dartmouth was like way back when, either! (apparently there were many more public computer terminals back then).

Mousse on moose on Moos(ilauke)

Posted by MGarcia at 2:28 pm No Responses »

Jul 272012

Dinner at The Lodge

A major facet of Sophomore Summer is taking advantage of all of the opportunities that Dartmouth has to offer. While special classes are offered only over the summer, certain community service activities take off during these ten weeks, and ample chances to meet classmates exist, certain outdoor experiences are unique to the summertime.

Last Thursday night, five friends and I went to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge for dinner. Every night of the summer student chefs prepare and serve a five-course homemade meal to Dartmouth students and locals. Our meal was inspired by an “Around the World” theme and thus we got to enjoy nann, egg drop soup, a garden salad, onion rings, chicken fajitas and chocolate mousse. Needless to say, we were all stuffed by the end! While the meal itself was truly enjoyable, my favorite part of the night was that I was doing something different than my usual Thursday evening with a group of great friends. After the meal, a local duo played guitar and sang songs that they had written. The one-hour car ride each way flew by as we shared stories of our summers and had a good time being together. The road back to Hanover from the Lodge is known to be home to many animals, including the moose! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), we did not see one on this road trip home.

The majority of Dartmouth students have their first Lodge experience during Dartmouth Outing Club’s freshmen pre-orientation trips. After five days hiking, canoeing, biking, rock climbing or doing community service with two upperclassmen and a group of 6-10 new classmates, students end the trip with dinner and an unforgettable night of fun at the Lodge (I don’t want to give away any of the awesome surprises!)

A Day in Sophomore Summer

Posted by Delos Chang at 4:16 pm No Responses »

Jul 262012

I’m sure you’ve heard it before but I’ll say it again: sophomore summer is flying. So many things happening all at once, it’s all so surreal.

First, I wake up to an invigorating all-marching band playing on the Green. I peek past my window curtains and see everything from a communal to a caterpillar-costumed puppeter. Ah yes, glorious Dartmouth life: people are celebrating HOPfest, a two-day festival of the Hopkin Center’s 50th anniversary. The grass on the lovely Dartmouth Green has never looked greener.

Because today I feel more alive than I’ve ever been. With all the ’14s on campus, the spirit of Dartmouth’s tight-knit community appears stronger to me than ever. On top of that, I love the Dartmouth classes I’m taking, in particular Econ 20: Econometrics. It is a class that so brilliantly deconstructs indeterminate systems into quantifiable ones (think economics and statistics marrying each other in a wonderful thought-provoking union). The great ambiance in the background doesn’t hurt, either.

What a great day — and it still hasn’t hit me that we’re already halfway through sophomore summer! Ready to go, I notice that this week is summer recruiting interviews week! Every summer, top firms come to Dartmouth to recruit students for the summer. And my spidey senses are tingling…

Today, I’m coordinating key developments in my startup, Memeja, which won $16,500 in seed funding from the Dartmouth Entrepreneurship competition. Key decisions today: my team and I are building rough prototypes to release to test the market and iterate upon. It’s interesting to witness first-hand just how much a Dartmouth education has helped me. Econ 26, the financial institutions and markets class (with awesome Professor Kohn), has prepared me to understand venture deals and capital markets more thoroughly. Social psychology taught me how to be a decisive team player. And astronomy, of course, reminds me how insignificant we all are in the grand scheme of things (a very humbling insight).

Ah, yes, sophomore summer, how I love thee. I’m trying my best to savor the experience moment-by-moment and remind myself just how lucky we all are to be on campus!

Week 5…What!?

Posted by Anoush Arakelian at 10:50 am No Responses »

Jul 232012

Wow, it is not week 5…is it? They said it would fly, and it really is. I don’t even know where to begin. I have been taking a class called Theater 65, Drama in Performance, with Prof. Peter Hackett, which has turned into quite the experience. We don’t generally meet during our normal class periods, but rather we meet with performers, groups, directors, and unconventional thespians outside of class. We met Paul Binder, the creator of the Big Apple Circus, workshopped a play with Vox Theater Company, and last weekend at HopFest performed with Paul Marino ’04, creator of PopUp Shakespeare. I got to perform the Romeo and Juliet death scene in the middle of the Green in front a large audience that just had finished watching a live band. I have done a lot of acting and that was by far one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of my life. I am also stage managing my first show called Higher Ground. This is a student written piece that was actually written by my good friend who is off campus this summer. It has been a great opportunity to not only see the inner workings of the theater department, but also to work with professors I never would have met!

Women’s Forum has also been going extremely well. We had our first meeting two weeks ago and the response was incredible. We had a good turnout of about 50 girls to listen to three alums talk about their experiences as the pioneering women of coeducation. Not only was it inspirational, but hanging around after and talking with the girls and realizing how much of an impact the program made was incredible. I am so proud of how far we have come as an organization! The next few weeks we are going to be hosting a forum with Mothers of ’14’s for Family Weekend and another two forums on communication and negotiation skills.

As far as adventuring goes, I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to try new things. Though, I did make a bucket list of fun things that I have been successfully checking off each week. Last week I ran my first 10K and this week I went to a Red Sox game with my best friend. Hopefully I will have time to finish my last few in the coming weeks!

My friends and I ran a 10K to support the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. The fundraiser is called the Prouty and this year it raised over $2 million.

Sophomore Summer Begins

Posted by Anoush Arakelian at 9:10 pm No Responses »

Jul 112012

Bunten Farm comes to the Farmer's market every Wednesday on the Green!

And Sophomore Summer started with a bang! Everyone told me not to get too involved and to spend more time at the River, the Farmer’s Market, with friends…and I intend to do just that (while taking classes of course). I did, however, get the incredible opportunity to be the Co-Director of a new organization on campus, Women’s Forum. Because it is only the second term this organization has been up and running, we have been given free reign to really design our own program. Even though sophomore summer is about having fun and bonding with classmates, I have found it to be the perfect opportunity to fall into leadership positions around campus. All the upperclassmen that I have watched and admired for the past two years are not here! It is now the ’14’s turn to run the show and I am so excited to see the changes we can institute this summer. As for the more “fun stuff,” I recently went off campus to a farm in Orford, NH called Bunten Farm. They bring their fresh produce to the farmers market every Wednesday on the green and they just opened their own restaurant. My friends and I tried it out and it was such a fun adventure up north! We’ve decided to make a little dinner club and try various restaurants in the Upper Valley and beyond. And this weekend I am getting prepared to lead a STRIP (sophomore trips). Essentially it is a re-do of Freshmen DOC Trips and I am SO pumped to meet some new ’14’s and lead my second outdoor adventure, as I lead a freshmen trip this past fall. The summer is going to be such an adventure and I can’t wait to see where it takes me next!

My friends and I decided to drive out to Orford, NH to try their new restaurant, Ariana's.

The French-inspired cuisine was such a nice change from campus dining and it was really cool to eat all locally grown and prepared foods! I will definitely be taking my parents up their for Sophomore Family Weekend.

Halfway There!?

Posted by Vanessa Trinh at 11:08 am No Responses »

Jul 062012

At the Ledyard Canoe Club on the Connecticut River. Photo courtesy the Dartmouth Flickr Photostream.

Greetings from Hanover! It came as a huge wake up call the other week when our entire class got a blitz from Dean Charlotte Johnson with the words, “Lodged halfway through your time at Dartmouth, this term provides a perfect occasion to reflect on where you have been, who you are now and where you are going.” WHAT?

I received it on my phone as I was casually lounging on the river docks and it was a very sobering message opposite to the sunshine and laughter around me. It still hasn’t really hit me that I’m in my sophomore summer, the term we’ve been waiting for since before we even came to campus. Every upperclassman had always said it was their favorite term at Dartmouth and I, along with every other ’14 have very high hopes.

It’s a very different atmosphere on campus, with only sophomores and so many people living in their Greek houses and having enough free time to stop and hear the guitar on Collis porch on a cool summer evening without rushing off to a meeting, or the library. Of course, I’m still taking two major classes and doing research at the Tuck School, so I wouldn’t say I’m carefree. However, there is a sense of calm around the campus as not only the students are relaxing a little more, so are the professors. I’m hoping to make the most of this summer before I head home to DC for an internship at the State Department. I’m looking forward to so much this term, from the Farmer’s Market, to BBQ’s outside my sorority to overnight cabin trips or runs around Occom Pond. Meanwhile, I already know the best part of this summer will be the many past and future friends that are finally back on campus!

End of freshman year and the start of summer!

Posted by Sasha Dudding at 10:58 pm No Responses »

Jun 222012

Hello from Washington, D.C.! I know I haven’t written in a while but I’d love to update you on the end of my freshman year and my summer so far. I can’t quite believe I’m done with my first year at Dartmouth – it goes so fast! I loved getting to meet a great group of friends, trying out lots of new activities, and taking some interesting classes. I’d particularly recommend Art History 2, a great intro to the past 5 centuries that will help you understand any art museum in the world, and English 60 (called Raising the Dead) which explores the genre of creative nonfiction and lets you try your hand at it by digging through archives and interviewing your subjects. This summer, I’m participating in one of the Rockefeller Center’s programs called First Year Fellows. It’s an amazing program that brings together 20 freshmen with an interest in public policy and connects them with internships in D.C. as well as training and housing. I’m spending this summer in the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand- a Dartmouth ’88! I highly recommend the program, and the opportunities it’s given us so far are great!

The End

Posted by Adria Brown at 9:17 pm 2 Responses »

Jun 152012

Isn’t that daunting? The end of freshmen year. No longer full of so much newness and excitement. No longer a time for firsts of everything. Like, the first time you walk around campus realizing you’re actually at Dartmouth? The first time you get disappointed, or feel inadequate at this place. Or the first time you discover you’re at home? I finished about two weeks ago, and as nostalgic as I am about everything, I’m glad I’m moving forward to sophomore year. Freshman year was filled with surprises, realizations about myself, and successes and failures. It was imagining I would love Government and actually loving Anthropology. It was finding that the friends I made were so different than my friends at home and deciding I was completely good with that. It was learning how to order Collis Pasta and not making a fool of myself. But, Sophomore year will give me a study abroad to Italy and leading an alternative spring break to D.C.. It will be trying new things so that I don’t feel comfortable, but always challenged. Getting to know new people, which leads to me the fact that I am so excited to meet you ’16s! You’re pretty awesome, I hear. I know that freshman year seems a bit scary, but thoroughly exciting and I hope to meet you during trips! (Maybe I’ll be leading some of you? ) People will be giving you advice, I don’t know how many people told me roommate horror stories or advice on how to spend my money wisely. I could give you a million pieces of advice, but really freshman year is about the unexpected. Advice will do you good, but the mistakes, the loss of expectations and the addition of new ones will be what makes Dartmouth wonderful for you. My advice then, however cliched it is, is be yourself. Never try and imitate another’s Dartmouth experience because it seems cooler than your own. Make sure your decisions are making you happy, and you’re set.

Wow. I actually did end up giving advice. Dang it.

Guest Welcome: Peter Hackett

Posted by Dartmouth Admissions at 11:49 am No Responses »

May 252012

Peter Hackett is a Professor of Theater and chair of Dartmouth’s theater department.

To the Class of 2016:

Every day as I walk to my office in the Hopkins Center for the Arts, I pass the portraits of the extraordinarily dynamic teachers who served in the theater department years ago. The gentleman with the impish smile and the irresistible twinkle in his eye is Professor Rod Alexander, the man who guided me to a life in the theater when I was, like you, an eager and energetic Dartmouth undergraduate.

A consummate comedian and master teacher, Rod not only knew exactly what to say to achieve the maximum impact on his students, he knew the perfect time to say it.

During one of the last rehearsals for my senior directing project, The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd, Rod and I watched with dismay as the chorus of urchins tripped and shuffled their way through their dance numbers. Several evenings of extra dance rehearsals had resulted in no noticeable improvements. After the final blackout, Rod leaned over to me and whispered, “Put glitter on their shoes.” I had learned by this time that it would be very wise to follow Rod’s advice even if I didn’t necessarily understand it. Sure enough, on opening night, with the stage lights sparkling on their rainbow colored feet, the chorus danced with a nimbleness and precision I had never seen before! As I watched the urchins fly through their numbers, I realized that Rod was a motivational genius.

In 2004, after thirty years in the professional theater, I came back to Dartmouth to join the faculty and follow in my mentor’s footsteps. Rod had always made us keenly aware of theatrical tradition and of our shared obligation to train the next generation of aspiring theater artists.

Rod Alexander and his remarkable colleagues in those portraits inspired me with their passion for the theater, challenged me with their standards of artistic excellence, and gave me the skills to create a life in the vocation that I love. For that, I will be forever grateful.

Guest Welcome: Professor Lisa Baldez

Posted by DartmouthDirect at 5:37 pm No Responses »

Apr 272012

Lisa Baldez is an Associate Professor of Government and LALACS

Last Thursday the temperature hit 70 degrees so I decided to hold class outside. The class is Gender Politics in Latin America, a class jointly offered by the departments of Government, Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies. We focus on the historical dynamics that have given rise to powerful women’s movements, surprising changes in public policy, a high percentage of women in legislative office, and several female presidents in the region. Last Thursday the 18 of us sat on the lawn outside Baker-Berry Library to discuss Rita Arditti’s Searching for Life, a book about the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an Argentine human rights organization. The Grandmothers mobilized to find their relatives who had “disappeared” at the hands of the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976-1982. The Grandmothers work specifically to find children who were born to pregnant women in concentration camps and illegally adopted by families that supported the military regime. This is an intense and emotionally difficult topic to talk about, but also a hopeful one because the Grandmothers have located 87 of the estimated 500 children identified as missing. Being outside allowed everyone to relax and speak openly and honestly about their responses to the text. It was a sublime class.

Older Entries Newer Entries