Nine students in the Class of 2004 received grants from the First Year Office's Summer Research program to work on projects this past summer.
The nine fellows are James Barbosa, Reid Miller Coggins, Michaella Frederick, Erik Jacobson, Kristina Mendicino, Tyra Olstad, William Raynolds, Savina Rizova and Raul Serrano.
The fellows, who are working on a wide range of projects, stressed how positive their experiences had been.
Mendicino vividly remembers the day that she began "jumping up and down in front of a public blitz terminal" when she received word that Philip Horne, a prominent Henry James scholar at University College London, would be willing to assist her with her research project.
The e-mail, sent from Mendicino's faculty advisor, Professor of English David Wykes, indicated that Wykes had finally reached Horne in London after several days of trying.
After eagerly rushing to Wykes' office, Mendicino remembers "running through the snow" toward Main Street, determined to start researching the prices of plane tickets to England.
Mendicino's research ultimately focused on changes in perspective and thematic treatment in James' five revisions to his novella "A Passionate Pilgrim."
Mendicino said that she hopes to be an English professor and that she may specialize in James.
J.P. Barbosa '04 repeatedly used the adjective "amazing" when describing his experience studying the geologic composition of soils taken from the Volcanic National Park in Hawaii.
Barbosa spoke especially favorably about the relationship he formed with a professor from Stanford, Peter Vitousek, who worked at the same site.
"He was amazing," Barbosa said. "We got to go to all these closed-off places, we looked at the flora, fauna, the soil, mountains together, everything."
He also spoke about the more informal connections he forged with Vitousek.
"One day, we were walking a couple miles between sites, and he stopped suddenly and yelled out, 'I smell pig!' And he just started booking it, and, a couple miles away, there was this pig. I couldn't believe that this guy could just smell pig from a few miles away," he said."
While Erik Jacobson '04 has never enrolled in an art history class at Dartmouth, he nonetheless spent much of last summer absorbed in studying the intricate Celtic scrollwork of the Lindisfarne Gospels.
Jacobson's project focused on analyzing mathematical patterns in Celtic artwork.
"It helped develop my interest in math in an unconventional, non-structured way," he said. "It was a good way of getting into what will probably be my major here."
Tyra Olstad '04 described her summer doing archaeological research in Belarus on the origins of the Slavs as "intensely multilayered."
In addition to learning about the Slavic archaelogical record for her proposed project, Olstad said that she learned plenty of recent history about the Soviet Union from people whom she met on her trip.
She rhapsodized about Belorussian delicacies like pinapple soda and the chocolate. "I could have written a whole other paper just on Belorussian chocolate," she said.
Reid Coggins '04 visited Costa Rica to study the symbiotic relationship between the Azteca pittieri ant and the Cordia alliodora plant.
"I learned about 20 words of Spanish, all of which I've forgotten by now," he said. "Also, I think that I really learned a lot about the culture of Costa Rica, especially the night that I spent in a seaside town near the biological station where I worked."
William Raynor '04 studied copies of the Qu'ran printed with moveable Arabic type.
While in Egypt, Raynor managed to track down and purchase a set of moveable Arabic type.
He is currently sorting the type in the Dartmouth Book Arts workshop.
All nine / fellows will present their research to the Dartmouth community during a symposium planned to last from Nov. 13 to Nov. 15.
