This past weekend, the 2007 Class Council hosted some 25 alumni from the Class of 1957 for dinner Friday and a panel discussion Saturday morning, enabling a small crowd of students and alumni to mutually exchange perspectives on the Dartmouth experience.
The event was organized as a part of ongoing efforts by the Class Council to engage with their parent class. According to Class Council Vice President Will Stork '07, the Council hoped to attract a specific group of students.
"Basically what we wanted were people that hadn't made up their minds or were still a little confused about they wanted to do with their lives during college, because that's the general sense that we get [from the class]," Stork said.
The speakers focused on how their experiences at Dartmouth affected their lives and careers, and whether or not they ended up doing what they had planned in college.
"I had absolutely no idea what the hell I wanted to do," architect Charles Tseckares '57 said.
Alan Dessoff '57, who worked as a reporter and editor for The Washington Post and later in public relations, shared a similar story.
"I came in as one of those pre-meds, but after flunking my basic chemistry course, I decided differently," Dessoff said. "It was 8 a.m. in the middle of winter, there was no way I could handle that."
From wildly divergent experiences, the speakers distilled common advice.
"I believe that if there is any message we, as older folks, can give you, it's that there is a time when you have to give back to a community," Tseckares said.
Unlike today, an overwhelming majority of the Class of 1957's college experiences and conceptions of service were tied to military service.
"The sense in our generation was that you really should go out and meet your national obligation," Chris Wren '57 said.
"The military was one of the best things that happened to me," he said. "It was like the Dartmouth Outing Club except you get paid to jump out of planes and blow up things."
Tseckares, who served in the army for two years, explained, "in our era, it ended up being a great opportunity to think of what you wanted to do."
The alumni also emphasized the ways in which a liberal education at Dartmouth became the foundation for their careers.
"I thought I would be a geologist and when I messed that up, I took economics but fell asleep in the first row. I took Russian and I loved the Russian language. I could have majored in Russian but instead I did an English major," Wren said, adding that his language skills enabled him to serve as a New York Times correspondent in Russia for 4 years.
Students were affected by the enthusiasm of the 1957 alumni.
"It was great that they were so happy to be here, and had so many things to say," Abby DeBellis '07 said.
Maia Fedyszyn '07 called the event "definitely worthwhile."
"It was great to see that the Dartmouth sense of community extends that far, [and] it's too bad more people didn't show up," she added.
At a Friday evening dinner before the panel, the alumni were given the same chance to ask questions of students.Of the 50 students to attend the dinner, four students sat on a panel and provided candid responses to alumni queries.
When asked about academics, panelists Anoop Rathod '07 and Minkun Zhang '07 were not afraid to express disappointment with large class sizes in the economics department and the recent departure of economics professor Amitabh Chandra, who now teaches at Harvard University.
Similarly, panelists addressed issues such as the administrative policy towards student drinking on the Dartmouth campus, sparking discussion with concerned alumni.
The Class of 1957 will celebrate its 50th reunion during the Commencement of the Class of 2007 in Hanover. Stork said the Class Council "wanted to set up something where we could get to know each other, so that the day of commencement wouldn't be the first time we were meeting."
