All Dartmouth students work to balance classes with other activities, but these five seniors -- Paige Kambas, Jesse Kearney, Cristina Kuechmann, Caleb Scott and Sariya Sharp -- stand out as jugglers of many interesting, and at times unusual, committments.
Paige Kambas
It seems Paige Kambas '97 has devoted more of her time at Dartmouth to helping others than to helping herself. From her involvement with the Sexual Abuse Peer Advisor program, the Women's Resource Center and as an Area Coordinator, she has acted as a leader and volunteer in many different and important capacities.
As an AC in the Ripley-Woodward-Smith residence cluster, Kambas said becoming a mentor to others was an important goal she wished to achieve.
"It is a neat way to get involved -- we try to promote community and diversity and it is something I have thoroughly enjoyed," Kambas said.
In fact, that has become a main theme of her life -- coordinating what is important to her with the things she enjoys most.
All who meet her consider Kambas a people-person, easy-going and approachable. Her involvement as an AC has branched off to include other experiences that allow her to work socially with many different people.
She became a Dean's Office Consultant, one of only six, who deal with students who seek help with typical College problems. By providing her own strategies and models for how to deal with the often difficult task of making it through daily academic life, Kambas has helped many.
"You talk about what you have done and how you have prioritized you goals ... we help with how to go about studying and time management," Kambas said.
Kambas's involvement in the newly formed senior society Abaris has also found her in a role of helping others by example. The group put together a senior project that will aid younger students wade through the details of corporate recruiting, deal with stress and maximize their use of all the resources the campus has to offer.
"It is something people will enjoy," Kambas explained. It is "answers to questions like, 'where do you find the copiers?' Most of it is done in humor."
With regards to Dartmouth itself, Kambas is most impressed by the extensive resources the campus offers to its students -- she said it is just a question of finding them and using them to your advantage.
In addition, Kambas noted how lucky she was in getting to know "so many great administrators, professors and friends."
An economics major, Kambas will be putting her skills to use next year when she will start at Deloitte & Touche LLP., an accounting firm in New York.
Jesse Kearney
Walk into the Hopkins Center on any given day and you are bound to bump into Jesse Kearney '97. He might be practicing for an upcoming tap performance, composing an original opera or just hanging out with his friends. But no matter what he is doing, people are bound to take note.
Kearney came to Dartmouth with a rich background in the Performing Arts. From a young age he spent his summers in community theater programs, while taking everything from ballet to song writing instruction.
Kearney said Dartmouth has strengthened his study in these areas tremendously.
"I love Dartmouth because it gives me the opportunity to do anything academic that I want to," Kearney said.
Beginning in the fall of his freshman year, Kearney joined up with the Black Underground Theater Arts Association, giving him the opportunity to perform both his own works and classical pieces. He is currently the BUTA president and has aided in its growth throughout his four years here.
Writing has played a significant role in Kearney's Dartmouth experience, aswell.
For his Senior Fellowship he has undertaken an enormous project -- composing a musical based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment." This was a completely novel idea Kearney dreamt up when he read the book his sophomore year.
"The main character's journey was something I could relate to -- it really spoke to me. I felt that I could enhance some of the psychology of the piece through music," Kearney said.
English Professor William Cook, who has helped advise Kearney on his fellowship, remarked that what separates him from other students is his ability to revise and critique what he has created.
"He does not waste his time .. he is very professional in his constant revision and the questions he asks. He is going to be very proud of what he has done," Cook said.
Kearney is also very involved in Casque & Gauntlet, a senior society which draws its membership from a wide variety of campus leaders.
"It's a great society, it gives me a chance to meet with other people who are doing interesting things on campus," Kearney said.
Next year he will find himself in New York, where he has been accepted to the New York University's Musical Writing Program. A prestigious department, only 16 people are accepted to study under some of the major experts in this field. As Kearney put it, New York is really the only place to be in you want to break into the musical theater world. Needless to say, he was "elated" with his acceptance.
Cristina Kuechmann
As conductor of the Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra, president of the Glee Club, ROTC participant and president of the '97 Green Key Society, Cristina Kuechmann has spent her Dartmouth career acquiring leadership skills.
A double major in music and geography, Kuechmann has taken the helm of the Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra, begun by a friend only a year ago, and turned her experience into her honors project.
"It's definitely kept me busy," Kuechmann said. She has spent her weekends in three-hour rehearsals and coordinated the group in order to improve the orchestra. They performing twice this year.
"I hope I have brought the orchestra to a higher level and made it easier for student conductors and for musicians to have a venue to explore," Kuechmann said.
Kuechmann is used to being a leader. In addition to being Green Key president and helping to coordinate Green Key members during Homecoming and Commencement, she was an undergraduate advisor her sophomore year and has been a Big Sister for four years through the Tucker Foundation. "I've been with the same little sister all four years. I'm really going to miss her," Kuechmann said.
Kuechmann has also been involved in the ROTC program and will join the Army next year. She has spent six hours a week for four years in military science classes and physical training.
She said she had thought about attending West Point, but came to Dartmouth for a more "regular" college experience.
Kuechmann's leadership positions at Dartmouth have taught her how to deal with people in a lot of different circumstances, and she said she can draw parallels between leadership in the army and in the orchestra.
"There is a lot of common ground there," Kuechmann said of her two main interests. Her experiences have "constantly caused me to question so many facets of this place and of human nature that I might not have questioned before."
Kuechmann has also been involved in Casque and Gauntlet senior society and said the group of 40 people has become "like an extended family."
"I feel like I've made a difference," Kuechmann said of her Dartmouth career. "I've done a lot of little things that I think are important." But she said music has definitely been the most important part of her experience at the College.
As for the future, Kuechmann says that she will be in the army for four years and may stay long enough to get a captain's rank She may also go to graduate school for music or to business school. "I'm not ruling anything out," she said.
Caleb Scott
When Caleb Scott ran for Student Assembly president his freshman year, his was not a serious bid for the position but one of his many dramatic pursuits at Dartmouth.
Scott refers to his campaign as an "experiment in knavery," and said he just wanted to see how far he could go, improvising his speeches and running with "basically no experience."
"I was enjoying myself," Scott said.
This kind of humor and a flair for improvisational acting has been evident throughout Scott's Dartmouth career. In addition to his performances in Macbeth, Measure for Measure and this spring's production of Hamlet, Scott has worked with the improv comedy group the Dog Day Players for the last two years.
"I love physical comedy and going up there with no script, no lines," Scott said. He has also worked closely with a group of four other students at Dartmouth writing and performing original plays, including this fall's debut of Pulse.
"We all wrote, we all directed. It was a very good experience," Scott said. "Acting and writing for the theater has always really interested me."
Scott has also managed to combine his love of writing and his interest in medieval history into a senior fellowship that involved translating medieval Latin poetry from the Carmina Burana manuscript. Instead of taking classes, Scott has worked with the creative writing, Latin and history departments to translate and organize the medieval love poems into a 150-page thesis, arranging them into the form of a story and writing an introduction.
"I wanted to do a big piece of writing just to have and to be able to say this is what I did at Dartmouth," Scott said. He said he would still like to work on the project and "may want to get it published."
Scott's love of poetry led him and his friends to "belt out raunchy poetry" on the Green at midnight every night his freshman spring. "It was another of my freshman feats, sort of like a study break."
Scott said it is not the work he has done or any specific play that has been most important to him during his Dartmouth career, but the experiences he has had, especially with other people. "I don't like the concept of learning from reading -- although I read a lot -- but you should do what you read to really learn. My best experiences here have been of doing things with other people."
Next fall Scott would like to work in New York with his collaborators on Pulse to form their own theater company, or to teach drama.
Sariya Sharp
You may have seen Sariya Sharp on the women's rugby team. Or working at the Dartmouth College Child Care center. Or working as a tour guide, Sexual Abuse Peer Advisor or a Dining Services employee. Or working as secretary for the '97 Class Council and vice president of the Green Key Society. You may even remember her as the intramural sports chair for the Gold Coast residence hall cluster her freshman year, playing "every intramural sport there was, even bowling."
A Canadian by birth living in Indonesia, Sharp is a premed student with a double major in chemistry and studio art , and she has spent her Dartmouth career pursuing more interests and activities than she can remember.
Perhaps the most important event in Sharp's Dartmouth career was her junior summer fellowship through the Tucker Foundation. Working for Calcutta Rescue, a volunteer group providing medical care for the poor in Calcutta, India, Sharp helped to treat young patients for Vitamin A deficiencies, and said the "first time a kid came back and I could see he was better, it was the greatest feeling."
Living in Calcutta for the summer was not without its dangers. Sharp recalled being threatened by a taxi driver while walking back home one night. "I had to pull a knife on him, and we almost started fighting," Sharp said.
Nevertheless, Sharp counts her fellowship as one of the best experiences of her life. "It sounds strange, but I would love to go back to Calcutta," she said. "It was an incredible, incredible experience."
Sharp's experiences and training as a SAPA have also been very important to her. Training to deal with victims of sexual abuse or assault "teaches you how to deal with others emotionally," she says.
Sharp said being a SAPA is "useful for all areas, just in learning to deal with people and for going into medicine."
Sharp included her four years on the rugby team as one of "the most important things" she has done at Dartmouth. The many other activities Sharp has pursued include a year in the marching band, a Women in Science Program internship, and her involvement in the International House, speaking on panels and writing letters to welcome new students.
Sharp said she almost didn't come to Dartmouth. "I wouldn't have met certain people," she said. "Mostly the people here were important, and just getting to do a ton of things I wouldn't have otherwise."
Sharp will take her MCATs this summer and plans to apply to medical school.
