Class Note 1996
Issue
May - Jun 2017
With the debate surrounding last fall’s divisive U.S. presidential election still ongoing in protest, in our media, in our homes and even within our class, it’s indeed a pleasure to highlight a few of our classmates who have truly become citizens of the world. There are many of us within the class of ’96 who are working beyond political borders and for the betterment of all of humankind.
Our first such person is our own Fiona Danks. After moving back and forth between Svalbard, Norway, and Cambridge, United Kingdom, Fiona appears to have finally landed in Cambridge for a while! After obtaining her master’s in conservation leadership (something “akin to an M.B.A. for biodiversity scientists and practitioners,” she relays) at the University of Cambridge in 2013, she began work as senior officer in the science program at the UN Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the UN’s specialist biodiversity arm. In September of this past year she was thrilled to receive a teaching fellowship in geography at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, allowing her to set up roots and educate the next generation of environmental scientists. She said she is currently adjusting her work hours to accommodate undergraduate teaching. “I am hoping that I can recall much of the knowledge and wisdom gained in the basement of Fairweather—thinking of my wonderful professors all those years ago! If anyone is in or passing through Cambridge feel free to say ‘hello’!”
In a similar vein but on a completely distinct continent, one can find Ed Chu. As of the time of this printing, Ed will have entered his sixth month based in the Central African Republic with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF); those non-Francophiles among us know it as Doctors Without Borders. The MSF is working in the Central African Republic to provide assistance across the region after political crisis earlier this decade and the armed violence that has ensued have caused a massive refugee and humanitarian crisis; nearly 500,000 people are internally displaced and many living in temporary shelters without the food, water, sanitation or healthcare needed to sustain their populations. Ed is based out of the capital in Bangui, where he extends the invitation to any Dartmouth grads venturing to that part of the world to meet up before he relocates to the States. Later this spring he will be heading back to the Navajo reservation where he has been working for the past few years.
Please keep those updates coming! While we can’t all change the world, we can certainly live our lives to the fullest in what time we do have here; every moment, every event, every story does count! Well wishes to all our classmates roaming this girdled earth of ours!
—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org
Our first such person is our own Fiona Danks. After moving back and forth between Svalbard, Norway, and Cambridge, United Kingdom, Fiona appears to have finally landed in Cambridge for a while! After obtaining her master’s in conservation leadership (something “akin to an M.B.A. for biodiversity scientists and practitioners,” she relays) at the University of Cambridge in 2013, she began work as senior officer in the science program at the UN Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the UN’s specialist biodiversity arm. In September of this past year she was thrilled to receive a teaching fellowship in geography at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, allowing her to set up roots and educate the next generation of environmental scientists. She said she is currently adjusting her work hours to accommodate undergraduate teaching. “I am hoping that I can recall much of the knowledge and wisdom gained in the basement of Fairweather—thinking of my wonderful professors all those years ago! If anyone is in or passing through Cambridge feel free to say ‘hello’!”
In a similar vein but on a completely distinct continent, one can find Ed Chu. As of the time of this printing, Ed will have entered his sixth month based in the Central African Republic with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF); those non-Francophiles among us know it as Doctors Without Borders. The MSF is working in the Central African Republic to provide assistance across the region after political crisis earlier this decade and the armed violence that has ensued have caused a massive refugee and humanitarian crisis; nearly 500,000 people are internally displaced and many living in temporary shelters without the food, water, sanitation or healthcare needed to sustain their populations. Ed is based out of the capital in Bangui, where he extends the invitation to any Dartmouth grads venturing to that part of the world to meet up before he relocates to the States. Later this spring he will be heading back to the Navajo reservation where he has been working for the past few years.
Please keep those updates coming! While we can’t all change the world, we can certainly live our lives to the fullest in what time we do have here; every moment, every event, every story does count! Well wishes to all our classmates roaming this girdled earth of ours!
—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org