Class Note 1997. Here are more reasons ’97s love Dartmouth.
Fiona (Danks) Russo writes: “I love Dartmouth because from the very start—freshman trips—it combined exposure to the outdoors with academics. My freshman trip was eye opening because I found out ‘strenuous hiking and rock climbing’ meant more than reducing stops to admire salamanders on a moderate hike. Our group was diverse and met the challenge, and our student leader, a young woman who might have been 19, was unwaveringly confident. When I gave birth to my daughter, despite all the training in prenatal yoga, etc., what really got me through was visualizing my hiking boots on that freshman trip, each step seemingly three feet higher than the last, over and over. Dartmouth means a lot of things, and this summer bringing my now 11-year-old to Dartmouth and the White Mountains for her first time on campus and hiking into Zealand Falls hut, I felt I was home again even though much has changed.”
Amy Henry says: “I love the people. At Dartmouth and beyond, I find Dartmouth students and alums to be the most engaged, curious, and fun—equally interested in talking about a great book and building a snow sculpture on the Green (my personal favorite!).”
Courtenay (Barlow) Petersen says: “I guess it would be too easy to answer the question with ‘everything!’ I love our College on the Hill for the beauty and remote location. I remember the first time I visited, I felt, ‘This is college.’ What I love most are the close friendships that were fostered there. My friends from Dartmouth are some of my favorite people in the world!”
Juan-Carlos Martinez writes: “Dartmouth gave me a gift I had no idea I wanted when I was applying to colleges, one that I didn’t fully appreciate until my life rolled well past 1997. My naive 18-year-old mind couldn’t possibly appreciate what it would mean to be surrounded by the best and brightest minds. That treasure was the chance to constantly participate in late-night conversations with brilliant friends—where discussion wasn’t argument. It was learning and teaching, back and forth, trying on what I thought and felt, challenging it, and measuring it against someone else (someone invariably way smarter than me!). I attended intimate classes with devoted, caring, learned professors where just hearing the questions classmates asked was a mind-opening experience. Those taught me not what to think but how to think more deeply, hold a concept in my mind and roll it around, examine it from all angles, and see different perspectives. As a member of the lodge crew, I remember sitting with a pod of tripees, infected by their nervous excitement and ready to smash away any apprehension with a huge smile on my face. I told them about the whirlwind of intellectual stimulation they were about to enter. I described it as strings hanging from the sky, like a room full of ribboned balloons. Dartmouth filled the campus with these, and all you had to do was pull on them. The campus was ripe with opportunities to see classic films or avant-garde premieres, listen to world-class musicians, attend lectures by our own professors and respected visiting scholars, and, perhaps most importantly, participate fully in this intellectually stimulating haven nestled in the tiny, nearly perfect town of Hanover and surrounded by an institution richly adorned with its own history of staunch dedication to her students. The College puts it all in front of you, and all you have to do is choose to take in as much as you can. I’m forever grateful, honored, and proud.”
—Jason Casell, 11730 Mission Trace St., San Antonio, TX 78230; jhcasell@gmail.com