Along with the crowd of future lawyers, doctors, consultants and investment bankers, there are a few graduates who have decided to take the road less traveled by.
While their classmates go to graduate school or work for a corporation, these graduates will be around the globe, fighting disease, injustice or even whitewater.
Semper fidelis
Although many graduates are preparing for professionalism, few say they want to become a general someday.
But April Whitescarver '96 is aiming high.
As soon as she gets her Dartmouth diploma, Whitescarver will report directly to the United States Marine Corps' Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Va. Later, she will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.
Whitescarver, an engineering major, said she decided to join the marines during a journalism internship with Cable News Network in Washington, D.C. The internship taught her what she did not want to do with her life.
"At CNN, I determined that I did not want to be a media producer," she said.
During the internship, Whitescarver lived at Fort McNair Army base, and the exposure to military life heightened her preexisting interest.
"I had always been fascinated by" the military, she said. Living on a base "really perked my interest to talk to recruiters here at Dartmouth."
But Whitescarver's plan almost evaded her grasp, when she was disqualified from joining the marines by the discovery of some previously unknown hearing loss.
"That's when I realized how much the Corps meant to me," she said.
With the help of a doctor at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the support of her recruiters, Whitescarver fought the marines' preliminary decision. And she won.
"On April 16, my birthday, I got a phone call at 8 a.m. from my recruiters, waking me up to say happy birthday and welcome to the United States Marine Corps," she said.
Whitescarver, a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority and general manager of Dartmouth Broadcasting, said she is a little nervous about her future.
"I think it's going to take a lot of courage because I have to develop more discipline than I have now, and accept being told what to do," she said.
Whitescarver is determined to find her niche in the military.
"I am going in to serve my nation with the hopes of making a career out of it in intelligence and counterintelligence," she said.
"I feel that there needs to be another [female general]" in the marines, she said with a smile.
Lady sings the blues
While Whitescarver works to earn stars for her uniform, one Dartmouth student will be trying to become a star herself.
Tanielle McBain '96 loves to sing the blues, and she will spend next year trying to impress the recording industry.
McBain, an English major from Decatur, Ga. will produce some demonstration tapes of her vocals and try to market herself to record companies in New York City.
McBain said singing and performing are important to her, so she decided to try to make a career of it.
"It's been a hobby," McBain said. "It's definitely something that lies close to my heart, and it's something that I've put a lot of energy into, so I thought I'd at least try to do it professionally."
Despite the competition in the record industry, McBain said she doubts she will become a starving artist.
"My first goal is to get a well-paying job," she said.
"The only thing I'm worried about is working 24-hour days, because I want to take time to polish my vocal skills and market my demo and myself," she said. "I may not be getting much sleep."
McBain did admit that she is a little nervous.
"I'm very apprehensive in the sense that I hope I'm doing the right thing for myself," she said.
"It was not a spur of the moment decision," she said. "It was more like fate. I felt that this was the path that I should take."
McBain said her three-years in Dartmouth's Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble "increased my interest as well as developed my voice, and enabled me to do different things with my voice as far as R and B is concerned."
She said she doesn't think her career choice is any more interesting or dangerous than a career in the corporate world.
"It's just a different way of going about it," she said. "There's different expectations for becoming a performance artist than for going into the corporate world."
There might even be important similarities, McBain said.
"You've got to be able to take rejection," she said.
McBain said she hopes someday to run a talent agency in Atlanta.
"Atlanta needs a strong talent agency," she said. "I've done a lot of research on that."
The river wild
Darryl Knudsen '96 is in no hurry to make up his mind about a career. He will spend the next few years kayaking. And then he might decide to just do more kayaking.
Knudsen will start work as a river guide with the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina after graduation, and he hopes to go to places even more exotic than the rural South later in the year.
Knudsen, who first learned of the sport of kayaking during his Dartmouth freshman trip, said he hopes to take his kayak to Ecuador next winter.
"I'd always had a passion for travel and adventure," he said.
Knudsen said he is unsure about his long-term career plans.
"If I enjoy it, I have some broad plans for the future," he said. "I have some ideas of starting my own place ... to combine some of the things I studied here with some adventure travel."
Although he was initially apprehensive, Knudsen says he now feels "incredibly at peace with" the decision.
"I guess what I've come to realize that if I'm doing something I enjoy, how can I go wrong?" he said.
Knudsen said his will not be the most secure career path.
"It probably would feel pretty comfortable to have a steady income and career path," he said .
Yet he said he doesn't feel unique or courageous for his employment choice.
"I wouldn't want to paint what I'm doing as somehow nobler," he said. "It's just what I need to do."
"I've always felt like I was going to see amazing things, explore, and have a great adventure," he said. "If I don't that now, I'll probably never do it."
Even if Knudsen decides he is no longer interested in the outdoor industry, he said he will not regret the time spent.
"I will have seen some exciting parts of the world, and it will have been five years well spent," he said.
Healing the sick
Sarah McAlister '96 has always been interested in health care, but she is not going to medical school.
McAlister will work in Norfolk, Va. and around the world as Medical Mission Coordinator for Operation Smile, a nonprofit health care group.
Operation Smile brings American doctors to Third World countries to perform surgery on children.
"They go in with the goal of educating doctors in the countries on the procedures and surgeries," she said.
"It's an emotional setting because you're either turning away children and parents, or you're giving the child a new face, one that isn't deformed for the first time in their life," she said.
As coordinator, McAlister will be planning the mission logistics of a team of about 45 people.
"I've always had a huge interest in health care," she said. "I was premed, and I'm still thinking about medical school ... but I'm leaning more towards health administration and public health."
McAlister said she is very excited about the opportunities this job offers.
"It will be an intense two years, traveling all over the world, and an opportunity I'll never have again," she said "It will give me a lot of insight into the medical field, and everyday I'll be learning something new about health care, organizations and how non-profit [organizations] work."
"It will definitely help me with my future goals," she said. McAlister said she hopes to someday run a non-profit, women's health clinic.
She said volunteering at the Good Neighbor Health Clinic, which offers health care to Upper Valley residents without insurance, steered her toward work with non-profit organizations.
"The experience helped me realize that non-profits need to regain a place in health care, and it boosted my interest in non-profit health care," she said.
McAlister said her experience organizing more than 400 volunteers as this year's Alumni Fund intern proved she can successfully run a large operation.
"The work [at Operation Smile] doesn't intimidate me and the intense nature entices me," she said.
McAlister said she worries only about her ability to command respect as a woman in Third World countries, where different ideas about women prevail.
"I need to command a lot of respect from a lot of different people," she said. "That will be one of the most intimidating challenges."
Tending bar in Barcelona
McAlister is not the only one who is planning for missions abroad.
David Puritz '96 and Brice Rowan '96 are planning to open a bar in Barcelona by fall. This summer they will try to secure loans from American banks.
Rowan said they envision an upscale bar with an American theme to attract the locals.
"We're going to try and gear it towards Spanish natives with an American theme, since they seem to love everything American," he said.
Rowan and Puritz said they are a little worried about the venture.
"It takes some courage," Puritz said. "You have to take a risk to go abroad and try and start something."
"I'll be investing a lot of my money, so obviously it will be a risk," Rowan said.
"It's what I really want to do, though," he said.
Despite the risks involved, both seniors said they think they will succeed.
"I'm confident about our abilities, but there are a lot of challenges," Puritz said.
The idea for the venture came when Puritz and Rowan were on a Dartmouth Language Study Abroad program in Barcelona. Disillusioned by the prospect of life in the corporate world, the two seniors began discussing the idea.
"I was sort of disillusioned with corporate recruiting," Puritz said. "We were thinking it would definitely be great to be young and in Barcelona for a while."
Rowan said his work at Merill Lynch Financial Services during a leave term made him realize corporate recruiting was not for him.
"I tried to make myself like it, and couldn't," he said. "Then I realized that this was not what I wanted to do with myself and my life."
Rowan said he has already met with Spanish officials to discuss permits and work visas.
Rowan said he will give Dartmouth graduates a special deal when they are in Barcelona.
"If anyone's ever in Barcelona, stop by for free drinks," he said.
