As the graduates of the Class of 1999 leave Dartmouth they enter the world with a diversity of goals, ideals, and experiences leading them to choose many different paths through life.
As some students elect to go directly from Dartmouth to jobs and graduate schools, many others choose to embark on programs and travels throughout the world. From Harvard Law School to the Peace Corps, this year's class will begin their post-Dartmouth years in a variety of ways.
With nearly seven percent of Dartmouth graduates going to law school directly out of college, as well as many more later on, this is one of the most popular post-graduate courses of study.
Many Dartmouth undergrads enter the College already planning to go to law school.
"It was always a possible plan," said Rahsaan Sales '99 who will attend Harvard Law School, "I was definitely going to get a post-graduate degree."
Sales said he is going to take a year off before Harvard. During this time "I am going to do a project and interview older members of my family," he said. He plans to compile the information into a collection of his family's history.
Many other students are also pursuing less common post-graduate plans.
Nell Shanahan '99 said she plans to spend the summer "working as an apprentice at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts."
She said she will be "performing in as many shows as possible," as well as meeting and learning from some of the most talented actors in theater today.
Shanahan said next year she is going to New York City to audition and take acting classes while she is applying to graduate schools for a Master's degree in drama.
Some students plan to teach abroad after graduation through programs like the Peace Corps and others.
Laura Lanwermeyer '99 will begin this summer "as a program director at an all-girls camp in Michigan," she said. "The women on my mother's side of the family have attended this camp for the last 70 years."
She will be the Environmental Education Program director, teaching marine biology, terrestrial ecology, bird watching and a class on wetlands.
Lanwermeyer is a Biophysical Chemistry major and said she has "wanted to be a teacher since middle school."
Lanwermeyer will continue teaching in the Peace Corps next in Africa, though she has not yet been told what country she will be living in.
"I have been interested in Peace Corps work since my sophomore year in high school," she said. "It gives me the opportunity to teach and travel to Africa ... both things I have always wanted to do."
History major Clancy Broxton '99 will be going to China for a year to teach English to Chinese students through the "Princeton in Asia" program.
Broxton said she decided to do the program because she "was interested in going abroad for a year and living in another culture," though she admits that her current plans "are pretty different from what [she] expected" when she came to Dartmouth.
"Although I had no concrete plans for after graduation, I figured I would go on to law school or grad school directly," she said.
Broxton said she still plans a career in international affairs, and also said she may have the opportunity to continue teaching in Asia after the year in China, though "I don't expect to stay longer right now," she said.
Mark Kutolowski '99 will be going to Malaysia to research QiGong, an ancient Chinese healing technique.
Kutolowski said he became interested in the technique following rugby injuries that resulted in surgery during his junior year.
An Anthropology major, Kutolowski plans to "focus on how QiGong is being employed alongside, and in place of, modern biomedical treatments for cancer."
He said he decided to study in Malaysia because the Chinese language would be too hard to learn soon enough to go after graduation. "Malay is a much easier language and I will be able to do my research in English."
While he began his studies at Dartmouth intending to eventually work with societal problems, he said his research is along the same lines as what he planned to do.
"I'm still involved with healing," he said, "this is simply social instead of physical."
"I never would have imagined this was possible,' he said.
While many students leave the College following many different paths, Lanwermeyer summed up her time as a student saying "I think I've gotten everything I wanted out of Dartmouth."
