While the majority of seniors spent time relaxing with friends and reflect on their time at Dartmouth, many also took time to explore passions and think about the future. Here are a few stories of seniors who used their springs in quirky and creative ways.
ALEXIS JOLLY
While other seniors logged hours at the library working on their theses, Alexis Jolly '05 spent his afternoons at the Rosey Jekes cafe working on his third screenplay.
Jolly started screenwriting when, after watching "The Royal Tenenbaums" one evening during his sophomore year, his girlfriend asked him if he thought he could write a script. An English major and fiction writer, Jolly rose to the challenge and began working on his first script, a dark romantic comedy tentatively titled "Greenville."
The incident sparked a passion that developed into what Jolly hopes will be his future career. "If it doesn't work out I don't know what I'm going to do," said Jolly, who plans to move to Los Angeles, this summer. "I've resigned myself to living in poverty if I have to."
Yet Jolly hopes to escape such dire straits. This fall, Jolly optioned, or sold the rights for a two-year period, his script "Greenville" to Quasiworld, a small production company based in Los Angeles. While Jolly is compensated for optioning his script, he will receive more money if Quasiworld chooses to produce the script in that period.
Ideally, Jolly eventually will sell the script outright, the most lucrative option for a screenwriter. In order to market scripts more successfully, Jolly spent time this spring looking into hiring an agent. He also worked on selling his second script, "My Billionaire Friends," which is in a similar genre as his first script.
Breaking away from the lighthearted style of his first screenwriting efforts, Jolly's third script is also his first stab at a horror movie.
"It's fun writing the main character who can do the wrong this and kind of be punished for it," Jolly said. "It's kind of a morality tale."
Jolly said he finds much of his inspiration for his films from is own life. The material from his first two films stems from Jolly's experiences growing up in the affluent town of Greenville, Del. Jolly said he was particularly interested in the social structure that surrounds wealth, a theme in some of his scripts.
In addition to his personal life, Jolly, who is on the Directorate of the Film Society, finds inspiration in movies he watches. Some of his favorites are those written by screenwriter Wes Anderson.
"I've had to consciously not rip him off because I like his stuff so much," Jolly said.
CHERISSE KELLER
As the spring approached, the thought of graduation left Cherisse Keller '05 worried about her plans for the future. Deciding to take charge of her future, Keller began a career search that wound up engulfing the majority of her spring.
In total, Keller spent approximately five of her weekends this spring taking the seven-hour Vermont Transit bus to New York for job interviews.
"I feel like the stress is that coming out of Dartmouth people expect you to have your life together," Keller said. "You don't want your degree to not mean anything."
Keller looked for jobs in areas ranging from philanthropy to education, but found it difficult to find a job that made sense for her.
"I'm not pressed to be in a certain field right now," Keller said, adding that she felt campus recruiting was heavily concentrated in the legal and financial fields, making it harder to find direction in other areas.
Keller found balancing the job search with her academics and other activities stressful. In addition to taking two seminars to complete a double major in Government and African American studies, Keller held part-time jobs at Greencorps and Juliana and chaired the Dartmouth Alliance for Children of Color, an organization devoted to helping adopted African-American children in the Upper Valley area.
"I like that some students planned out their senior spring to be very relaxing, but I didn't have that liberty," Keller said. "A lot of my days went from ten in the morning to ten at night."
In the end, Keller decided to pursue her interest in government and work for Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz's campaign for Manhattan Borough President in Keller's hometown of New York City. In addition, Keller, who plans to go to law school, will take LSAT classes and is considering working at an independent day school in the city.
While in the end Keller was able to find options that satisfied her, she said the search definitely caused the spring to fly by.
"It's [been] kind of a blur," Keller said.
ERIN BINGHAM
While others stayed indoors to avoid the rainy weather, Erin Bingham '05 devoted her spring to getting in touch with the outdoors at Dartmouth's Organic Farm.
As the farm's only full-time intern, Bingham essentially managed the farm. Bingham completed her classes before the spring so that she could avoid juggling schoolwork with her extracurricular commitments.
Bingham began working at the farm during her sophomore summer.
"I hadn't even been to the farm before, but I wanted to do something outside, meet new people, and have fun," said Bingham, who majored in Spanish literature.
Working on the farm helped Bingham gain a new appreciation for the environment. While she said that at first she didn't see the practical application of her farming experience, she thinks the issues sur rounding organic farming methods such as sustainability and renewable energy resources have had a strong impact on her.
"[These issues] are central to the rest of my life," Bingham said.
Acting on those principles, Bingham co-founded and remained heavily involved with the Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health, a group which fosters discussion, awareness, and action in response to global health issues. Among the group's accomplishments was a fundraiser for the tsunami relief efforts this January which raised close to $7,000.
Next year, Bingham plans to work at an apiary for the Peace Corps in Latin America.
"I've adopted an entirely new outlook on life," Bingham said.
