The Ninth Annual Academic Gala held at the Top of the Hop Tuesday afternoon brought undergraduates, faculty and administrators together to celebrate the achievements of the College's 200 plus senior fellows, thesis writers and students completing major projects in the creative arts.
College President James Wright praised the students who choose to take on a senior project.
"This is the creativity, imagination and artwork that sustains and symbolizes the intellectual life that sustains this community," Wright said in a speech. Wright also thanked the deans and professors for their passion and commitment to undergraduate research.
Tuesday's event offered underclassmen a glimpse into the range of possibilities available to them, such as the senior fellowship program, which awards ten students a $10,000 budget for an independent research project spanning their entire senior year.
Instead of attending classes, Senior fellow Nicholas Taranto '06 traveled to Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Mississippi and Chicago to do research for his thesis, "State of Emergency: The Promise of Cooperative Realism," which investigated the role of nongovernmental relief organizations in influencing foreign policy and civil society.
"This fellowship has been wonderful because I've been able to follow academic tangents as far as they'll go," Taranto told The Dartmouth. "You can go and do something that is nontraditional and go on to be successful."
Stacy Kourlis '06, who is majoring in English with a creative writing focus, worked with professor Ernest Hebert to rework the first draft of "Untitled," a novel she wrote in her junior year. According to the booklet handed out to attendees, which detailed the topics of each project, the novel "tells the story of the way the protagonist loves the men in her life -- her friend, her father and a few slightly less pleasant visitors."
When Kourlis was visiting Dartmouth during her senior year in high school, an English major told her that the department allowed seniors to work on their fiction as an Honors Thesis.
"I really do see it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to have the undivided attention of a more experienced writer," Kourlis said. "That program was one of the main reasons I chose Dartmouth."
Manya Whitaker '06 explored the influence of temperament, peer group beliefs and previous interracial exposure on the development of interracial interaction in her thesis, "Crossing Lines: Learning to Navigate Interracial Interactions."
"I got to be able to see an idea that I had two years ago evolve into a project that actually affects change," Whitaker said. "Most people don't think that an undergraduate thesis is a big deal, but because of the nature of my topic, I actually did something that affects society."
Annie Bellows '06's thesis, "Women's Advocacy and Democratic Political Development in Benin," argued that activism is beneficial for democracy. She drew parallels between women's social advocacy in Benin and the efforts of the Rainbow Alliance to raise awareness on campus.
Gala organizers Echo Brown '06 and Kate McManus '06 emphasized the importance of the Academic Gala in promoting independent research among underclassmen.
"Often students want to do independent research, but they don't know where to go to find the resources available to them," Brown said. Gala attendees were provided with a booklet detailing not only the topics of each project but also the researcher's source of funding and academic advisor. The booklet also listed many of the research grants available to Dartmouth undergraduates.
"This gathering offers all of us the best of Dartmouth's pleasures, the chance to learn from one another, to look at beautiful art, and to hear fine music," Wright said.
