Orgo . . .O Yes!

Whenever people ask me what classes I’m taking this summer, the reaction is always the same. “Oh my goodness, why would you do that to yourself?” “Wow, that sounds brutal. I can’t believe you’re taking such hard classes.” “How do you have time to sunbathe at the river/hang out with your friends/keep up with Suits aka the Best Show Of All Time?!” Rose Dicovitsky and I are both taking Organic Chemistry II and Physiology this term. The two terms of “orgo” are notorious for being two of the hardest courses at Dartmouth, and Rose and I are SO close to being done with it! Both Physiology and Orgo have 6 and 4 hour labs, respectively, that we go to twice a week in the evenings. So, classes combined with morning workouts for volleyball definitely keeps us busy!

This might sound like a lot, but at Dartmouth, everything is about finding your passion. Rose loves animals. Like a lot. It’s shocking. She’s passionate about becoming a vet. I’ve wanted to be a physician like my dad for as long as I can remember. Since we’re both passionate about going into medicine, we don’t really notice the long hours in the library or, at least, we learn not to complain about the things that will be beneficial to us in the near future. We’re also passionate about volleyball, so when the alarm clock goes off at 6:30 AM every Tuesday and Friday morning, we head over to Leverone Field House for some morning plyometrics with all the other athletes on campus. I can’t lie, there are certainly days where my head doesn’t pop right up off the pillow, but the knowledge that the rest of my team is putting in the same amount of effort to prepare ourselves for our 2012 season gives me that extra burst of energy to heave myself out of bed.

I’m so grateful to Dartmouth for providing me with not only great friends and wonderful memories, but also the opportunity of a lifetime to pursue two of my greatest passions.

Vivian Snider '14

Viva Italia!

Once upon a time, a girl travels to Italy. She sees ancient Rome, walks romantic streets at night, eats delicious and breath taking food, meets a lovely Italian boy, meets amazing friends from around the world.

I don’t know how I got so lucky, to be that girl, but somehow it happened. This summer I am in Italy, wwoofing (a program that connects volunteers with organic farms), sightseeing, traveling, and otherwise gallivanting around. I went straight from freshman spring finals to Milan, where I traveled to Venice (Venezia in Italian), and Umbria with my mother. I then worked on my first organic farm, which was a fruit jam and juice farm. I spent my days weeding lampone (raspberry) plants, pitting apricots, and attempting to substitute our gigantic summer workout by sprints up the hill. After meeting some amazing fellow wwoofers and the host family, I went to Rome for a week for some quality sight seeing. I was lucky enough to be able to stay somewhere for free in exchange for teaching English for two hours a day. The mother of the family that I stayed with was a communications director for swanky clubs in Rome, and she was incredibly generous and took me out with her every night. I must admit, amongst the ancient ruins and late night disco’s I slacked on my work out routine. Now, however, I am at my second farm and am starting to pick it up again. I have no choice, preseason starts in just 1 month! The second farm’s name is Podere Amarti. Amarti means ‘to love you’. It is a perfect place. They host vision quests, meditation and yoga retreats. I think that it was fate that I showed up here, it is made for me. I’ve been starting my day with homemade yogurt and the lemon-apricot jam we made the day after we arrived. I’m going to be here till the end of July. After that, I have 10 free days, the first week and a half of August completely free. Hopefully I find something spectacular to do, I’m sure something will pop up out of the blue and become another integral part of this adventure. And after that, preseason starts on the 15th! If I didn’t miss the team and volleyball so much, I don’t know if anyone could get me to leave.

Viva Italia!

Lucia

Class of '14 Sophomore Summer

Sophomore Summer! What every Dartmouth student looks forward to. I was somewhat hesitant going into this term- simply because I love summers at my house in California. However my reservations have already been put to rest. Though we have only been here for about a week, I can already tell that this summer is going to be a blast. Tanning by the river… Reading some casual novels and essays on the Green… Getting destroyed in workouts… Watching White Collar with Rose in our room… All wonderful activities. However, my favorite aspect of the term so far has been seeing almost exclusively my classmates on campus. Most of the people on campus right now are sophomores (obviously) and knowing people wherever I go has been really fun and comforting. Whenever I go to a dining hall or to the library, there is some friend or acquaintance around that I can talk to. Always someone to hug, share fun story with, complain to about all the reading I have, etc. Though this exclusivity may not lead to the most diverse social interactions, it has already lent itself to incredible bonding within my class. I have already started to get closer to classmates I did not really know before. Think a forced closeness that you actually enjoy. It feels as if everyone has decided that since we are the only ones here, we might as well all become friends! Everyone seems to be more outgoing, friendlier, more willing to put themselves out there and form new bonds. It’s the infamous Dartmouth community at its best- everyone being easygoing, having fun outside, and making new friendships every day.

- Meghan Cooney '14

While the rest of the campus may be relaxing in the summer sun, the four of us (Cooney, Viv, Rose, and me) have a different focus in mind – preseason. With preseason just seven short weeks away, it’s time for us to get into serious shape. Luckily that’s not too hard when you are on for the summer and have the Dartmouth athletic facilities and staff at your disposal. Our preseason training began this Monday at 9 am. In addition to this being our first workout of the summer, it was also our first workout with Jeff, who joined the Dartmouth Athletic staff at the end of the spring. Needless to say, none of us knew exactly what we were in for. Getting used to a different style of lifting definitely has its negative sides, mainly the whole ‘can barely walk down stairs I’m so sore’ side. After surviving the first week, it’s clear what the positive side is – preseason will be a breeze after training up here all summer. While Cooney Viv and Rose are participating in the athlete runs – a sophomore summer tradition where all the athletes on campus do competition based sprint workouts, I’m off on my own doing my rehab training. Luckily for me, being on this summer has more plus sides than just getting to work out in nice gyms, it also means being able to use the Alter-G, Dartmouth’s new anti-gravity treadmill. The Alter-G lifts the runner up using air (after you get zipped into the tent-like covering on the treadmill) so that you are only running on a certain percentage of your body weight. It’s a great machine for people like me with chronic stress injuries, as it allows me to be able to get a sprint work out in while still keeping my rehab on track. After our cardio, we all join back together for lifting. We are currently focusing on developing technique and building muscle mass so that we can start training even harder as preseason gets closer. While it won’t be easy, with the long awaited season coming closer every week, we’ve got all the motivation we need.

- Elisa Scudder '14

Goodbye to the 12s

From the Bus from New York

As I make my way back up the East Coast from New York up to New Hampshire, I cannot help but reflect upon the amazing memories that have constituted my four years at Dartmouth College. Last weekend, I, along with 1100 of my classmates, graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. One week later I return my alma mater, for my summer job with the Dartmouth Outing Club, with four very distinct lessons that I will carry with me from my collegiate experience.

The first lesson is that you should always take a chance. When I committed to Dartmouth in the fall of my senior year at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, I was the first in my family to attend college outside of Texas. There was obviously something enticing about being close to friends from home and family, but also for me, the opportunity to attend Dartmouth presented enormous potential to expand upon my understanding of the world and become part of the incredible Dartmouth community. I loved the challenge of living in a new part of our nation that Dartmouth presented. I knew that attending Dartmouth would provide a vital sense of independence and the freedom to discover new passions and excel academically. Taking this risk to study at Dartmouth College is absolutely the best gamble I have taken thus far in my life.

Through time at Dartmouth I learned that: we are capable of achieving great things that have the power to change not only ourselves but also those around us through hard work, dedication and passion. This lesson I believe each of the seniors have learned over and over again through our time at Dartmouth. During our collegiate volleyball career, we spent thousands of hours preparing to be the absolute best players possible. Winning the last match of the season, against league-leading Yale, for each of us exemplified the pinnacle of this dedication to the team. The reality that we never were able to win the Ivy League, as we had dreamed since our first day of freshmen preseason, did not undermine the value of being a four-year member of the Dartmouth volleyball family. Through volleyball, I learned the true value of being a teammate. The grind of training and overcoming obstacles and difficulties together cultivated the unbreakable bond of the 2012 class, and established friendships that will indubitably last a lifetime. As much as I would love to say that our class changed Dartmouth volleyball, I think the program more effectively changed us by consistently, relentlessly training us to be selfless, dedicated and compassionate players. Ultimately, being four-year members of the Dartmouth women’s volleyball program emboldened me and my classmates to become mature women, who are now capable of navigating the world’s web of complexities and challenges.

From my travels around the world while at Dartmouth, I learned a vital third lesson: we have the capacity, anywhere, even amongst the greatest difficulties, to encounter peace in this world. Through my travels to Spain, while studying abroad at the Universidad de Salamanca with classmates Annie Villanueva and Kendall Houston, volunteering at the Rio Beni Health Foundation in Bolivia, and interning at the Pan American Health Organization in Washington, D.C., I had the opportunity to journey across the world. Through these experiences, I became immersed in new cultures and gained fluency in Spanish. Each new place presented new challenges and opportunities to learn to adapt and find a balance amongst the chaos of change. The flexibility of the D-Plan allowed me to venture to new continents and gain the independence that has given me sense of confidence to continue to investigate my cultural and linguistic curiosity in the future.

Lastly, the design of the Dartmouth curriculum has allowed me to not only pursue studies in international relations, Spanish & Portuguese, and be a Division I varsity athlete, but also has allowed me to explore my artistic interests. During my photography class this spring, I learned the final lesson that: there is beauty everywhere, if we focus our eyes on the light of the world. I believe that the multitude of challenges presented by the stress of balancing everything while at Dartmouth has developed an unparalleled sense of perseverance, inner strength and sense of optimism for the human capacity to innovate and triumph. From my years at Dartmouth, I have gained a distinct confidence in our ability to teach ourselves to be positive and to then captivate others through the beauty of this perspective. Each of these lessons have challenged me to become a more actualized individual and have inspired my deep confidence in not only myself but also the enormous potential of the brilliant minds of my generation.

During the senior banquet this spring, each senior received a scrapbook full of personal notes from each team member. In my book, Lucia Pohlman wrote to me “may your life be an artistic masterpiece, just like you.” I think her sentiment speaks to the opportunity that Dartmouth offers. Upon entering our freshmen year, Dartmouth symbolically presented each of member of the class of 2012 with a blank canvas. After our graduation, I truly believe that we each have made a masterpiece that represents the unique, dynamic and beautiful individuals that we have grown to become through the amazing opportunities presented during our four years at Dartmouth.

Check out the tribute video for our '12s.  Click here

Spring in Hanover

  One of the things I've learned since getting here is that people who are used to living somewhere with distinct seasons really love the spring. Coming from San Francisco, spring really didn't mean anything to me because it was basically the same weather as the rest of the year (with the exception of maybe a little more rain). So coming back from spring break, I was pretty interested to see what the fuss was all about, and all I can say is that I really had no idea how accurate all the raving was - the spring really is pretty amazing, and I can't believe there are only three weeks left until we go back home.
    It's been so much fun to have the rest of the team back, and it's felt a little bit more like being in season because we had a few team practices, two weekend tournaments, and we're lifting and conditioning with more people than I can count on one hand which is always nice. Getting to play our two tournaments in Boston at Northeastern and Boston College brought back so many fun memories of the bus rides, dancing in the locker room with the team, and getting to put all of our hard work to the test with getting to experience one of the best parts about playing a sport - the games. Being able to play together again definitely made it obvious how much everyone was missed during the winter, and it's definitely a different atmosphere in the gym with everyone back and ready to work. We are definitely missing the 12s on and off the court, but luckily Dartmouth is a small enough school that we get to see them around, and they even came to our game at BC to cheer us on! Now that the sun is out, we're getting to play some volleyball out on the Green as well, which is helping with the whole "Hanover winter tan" situation that us Irish folks get to deal with, although it appears to be starting with a few sunburns...oh well.
    The Ivy League is strict in terms of how often we can be in the gym with coaches, so our soon-to-be seniors Alissa and Kylie came up with the idea of Gold Star Competition Days, which happen on Sundays for an hour in the afternoon (preceded by an hour of open gym). Basically, we divide up randomly into two teams based on position every week and we play a match, and at the end the winning team gets a gold star to hammer into their backpacks. The girls with the most stars at the end of the spring are apparently getting a nice fancy badge to go on their backpacks so there's some fierce competition, as one could imagine. It's great just to get into the gym for a few extra hours this term given how limited our time is, and it's helped us adjust to playing together again.
    Because the spring is fewer hours of volleyball than the fall, it's a great time for us to get to take some more time-intensive classes as well as do some of the other activities we've been wanting to do but hadn't necessarily had the time for, especially trying to navigate everything freshman year. I've become involved with two programs this winter and spring, called Indian River Mentoring and ASPIRE (Assisting Special People through Integration, Recreation, and Education). Indian River Mentoring is actually led by Amber, one of our 12s, and matches Dartmouth athletes with middle school kids from Indian River Middle School to tutor, mentor, and just become friends with by going to see them at least once a week. It's an awesome program and it's been really interesting to travel back into the mindset of middle schoolers and try to help them navigate whatever situations are on their minds at the time. It's definitely nice to get off campus for a little bit each week and just get to hang out with some really sweet, great kids and help them out. The program that I've been the most involved with since the season ended, ASPIRE, is also one of the highlights of my week. It works with children anywhere on the Autism spectrum and helps them with social integration through a few hours of swim group on Fridays and play group on Saturdays. The kids range from 4 years old up to the girl I work with, who's 9. Not only are they adorable, but it's unbelievable to see the difference even just being in the water makes and how they come out of their shell and become little fish the instant they jump into the pool, and it makes such a difference building trust with them in a more comfortable environment for a sometimes more stressful one at playgroup the next day. Even just things like underwater tea parties and having breath-holding contests bring the biggest smiles to everyone's faces. Recently, swim group has been going on at the same time as an Aqua Zumba class, and the kids get so ridiculously excited for it that we talk about it pretty consistently for the hour and a half before it starts. Not only do they love getting to dance in the water, but it makes swim group even more entertaining for us, and we've been having a blast trying to teach them the Zumba moves (although sometimes they're the ones teaching us!). This part of ASPIRE has been such an amazing experience that we're looking into starting an Aqua Zumba class for the kids next year, but if nothing else we're hoping to continue to get to do that every week. After all, how often as a college student do you get to take and help lead a dance class in a pool with a giant water slide?
    Between the sunshine, team reunions, and the amazing other opportunities that Dartmouth offers that can be easy to overlook with everything being an athlete here throws at us, the spring has turned out to be better than I could ever have imagined - I'm even starting to get over the fact that the winter I'd been looking forward to for many years turned out to be unbelievably mild for Hanover. The whole term, and really the whole year, has really flown by faster than I expected. But as the term is coming to a close, we're getting closer to summer training and then fall season, when we get to welcome all of our '16s onto campus, and we're all so excited for what the next season and year has to offer!

Alexandra Schoenberger '15

Alissa's firsts in Carlsbad

  Although I’m spending this winter only an hour away from home, the common theme of my term seems to be new experiences and first-timers.  I realized this while I was locked in a sauna sitting thigh to thigh with my three roommates being blasted by waves of scorching air.  I remember thinking, “Hmmm….European sauna therapy, this is definitely a first.”  This had me thinking about all the new experiences that I have encountered this term, so I put together a short list:

  

1.                    First off, I managed to land in the business world, which inevitably means….NO sweat pants or tank tops/NIRTS! 

I am interning for the business development team at Isis Pharmaceuticals in Carlsbad, CA.  Isis is a small biotech company of about 300 employees with a remarkable pipeline of 26 drugs in clinical trials.  Isis leads the pharmaceutical industry in RNA-based technologies with their antisense platform.  I am working with some amazing and brilliant individuals at Isis and am learning so much about the biotech industry and the many facets of business.  Although everyone keep assuring me that as a member of the business team I only need to know the basic chemistry behind the drugs, I feel like I have gotten a four-week crash course on organic chemistry and human biology. 

2.                    I fit in with the 30 and older demographic quite nicely

Every single one of my friends is at least 8 years older than me.  From my roommates to my coworkers, I am by far the baby of the group.  Although this was terrifying to me at first, I have learned so much from all the people around me about life after college and some of the decisions that I will be making in the next couple of years.  I have also learned that just because I am 10 years younger does not mean I am more athletic or physically able.  I often work out with some of my coworkers at the end of the workday.  My boss asked me to spot him while he bench-pressed once.  (I don’t know why he trusted me with his safety when he was benching over 300 pounds.  No chance I’d be able to save him if it came down to it!)  Today we just found out that there will be a volleyball court set up at our work by the end of the week.  Honestly, I’m a little worried that some of these guys might school me on the vb court.

3.                    Yoga can be fun and green smoothies are delicious

My roommate Stefan has introduced me to yoga for athletes and the art of green smoothie making.  I have to admit; I was more than skeptical to try either of these practices in the beginning, but it turns out I have a knack for both.  I have been going to hot yoga cross fit classes a couple times a week and I love them.  It combines the practice of yoga with a little cardio and is a challenging workout.  And who would have ever thought that a smoothie primarily made of collard greens, chard, kale and wheatgrass would be tasty?  Well now, I actually crave these smoothies every day after I work out. 

4.                    I really miss the snow and Hanover winters

Just kidding! But after all is said about my new experiences, I do really miss my teammates and being on campus at Dartmouth!  I am definitely looking forward to getting back for the spring term.  In the meantime I am enjoying the 75 degree days in San Diego and spending time close to family. 

Alissa

Hello mates!

Meghan, Viv, and I are spending this term in Australia to study at the University of Sydney. We have an apartment with two other Dartmouth girls, and there are lots of other Dartmouth students staying in the same building. We are having a lot of fun exploring the city, taking frequent trips to the beach after classes and on weekends. Don’t worry, we will all be coming back multiple shades darker than when we left.

Some highlights of our trip so far include seeing David Hasselhoff at Bondi Beach, being crazy American tourists at the Sydney Aquarium, exploring the Olympic grounds, traveling to Melbourne to see the Australian Open, and journeying along the coast in the pouring rain. BUT our favorite night was our girls’ night out to the Sydney Harbor. We had a fancy dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge (this restaurant had the best chocolate dessert ever!!) Then we went to a show at the Opera House. We saw La Soiree, which was a cross between a circus and a comedy show. It was amazing! There were gymnasts, magicians, acrobats, a drag queen, and a contortionist. The gymnasts were hands down our favorites! They were incredibly strong and surprised us by doing balancing acts on top of each other.
Living in another country has taught us a lot about living on our own and being independent. We have successfully mastered cooking for ourselves and navigating the public transportation system.

We’re excited to see our teammates in the spring, but I’m not going to lie, whenever I’m lying on the beach, I think about being stuck in a Hanover winter, and I realize how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be here this term.

- Rose Dicovitsky '14