Class of 2017

At the time that I was writing this edition of the Class Notes, the College was considering cutting funding for off-campus programs by roughly 45 percent. I have been thinking about my foreign study program (FSP) experience a lot recently (mainly because I have been cooped up in my childhood room for a year and am yearning for human interaction) because the 10 weeks of my FSP were such a formative time for me. I want all future Dartmouth students to have opportunities to go on off-campus programs and bond with their peers for decades and centuries to come. So I asked a few ’17s to share a few words about their experiences during their off-campus programs. Here is what they had to say.

“I basically learned French there fluently. I had taken it for six to seven years in a classroom setting up to that point and was still very shy about speaking. The sink-or-swim environment of a foreign country really helped with this and the program itself was amazing—I learned so much about Paris and food and culture. The professors did a great job taking us out on excursions and introducing us to locals (I still keep up with a friend I made this way). And it was academically rigorous, we had to spend hours in the Louvre for a project, there were presentations every week, it was a great mix of work and play,” says Ksenia Ryzhova, FSP Paris.

“The FSP I participated in was my first time to Europe. To say it was a life-changing experience would be an understatement. I learned so much about myself, my peers, and, of course, cultures different from my own. You can only learn so much at your desk in Dartmouth Hall and through your computer screens. When I studied in Paris, my French skills grew exponentially because I had to live and breathe French culture every day. My knowledge of history and art history deepened because I could see, touch, and feel the historic sites right in front of me. Ironically, when I was away from Hanover and lived in the bustling city of Paris, I had the opportunity to get to know my classmates in a smaller setting. All of us were embarking on an uncomfortable, enlightening, and beautiful journey together, allowing us to form unbreakable bonds and unforgettable memories,” says a classmate who asked to remain anonymous, FSP Paris.

—Dorian J. Allen, 33 Tuckernuck Ave., Oak Bluffs, MA 02557; (973) 986-5988; dorallen@comcast.net