The event was organized by Greg LaMontagne '07, intern to College President James Wright, and Alyssa Scott '07, intern to Susan Wright.
"The point of the event is really to showcase the final work of senior thesis writers, studio art majors and presidential fellows," LaMontagne said. "It serves a dual purpose. The first is to just give them that additional honor and the opportunity to speak in public about their work, but also to serve as an inspiration to people at the College who might be interested in writing theses later on."
The showcase began with a reception that gave current freshmen, sophomores and juniors the opportunity to meet seniors who were either in the process of completing or had already finished a research project. In addition, posters hung around the Top of the Hop that displayed some of this year's completed projects.
Naomi Heindel '07 conducted one such project, writing an environmental studies thesis about the impact of logging in northern Quebec. Heindel said she appreciated the opportunity to view her classmates' projects.
"It's exciting to see what everyone else is doing because sometimes I think when you're working on your thesis, you can feel like you're in this world alone and you're the only person doing research and having these high highs and extremely low lows," Heindel said. "So it's good to see all these other people having the same kind of academic roller coaster."
After the initial reception, Wright addressed the audience, applauding the seniors for their academic accomplishments and extending thanks to the faculty and administration that assisted the students in their research endeavors.
"[Looking at] the booklet of abstracts, I am amazed by the quality and sophistication of the work of our students," Wright said. "There is nothing in the world that our students cannot do once they set out to do it."
The first of four students to speak about their projects was Samantha Sheppard '07, who conducted her research in film and television studies and wrote a thesis that focused on the representation of African Americans in the show "Living Single."
"In doing a thesis I found out what I was made of," Sheppard said. "Writing one is a journey and you end up finding out a little bit more about yourself and your patience."
Other thesis-writers also attended the gala. Kale Bongers '07 traced the history of the bacteria vibrio cholerae, Jessica Chervin '07 examined the childhoods of French writers Duras, Sarraute and Sartre, and Laura Sheinkopf '07 analyzed the effects of health advertising messages on New York City's Latino community .
After outlining their research endeavors, each speaker encouraged younger students to consider conducting research projects during their senior year.
"This thesis has done more than anything else that Dartmouth has thrown at me to make me an independent thinker and a scholar in my own right," Bongers said. "And that's why I encourage all the underclassmen here to write a thesis of their own."
This encouragement persuaded Jeraime Tapaha '09 to consider conducting a research project his senior year.
"I never really gave thought to writing a thesis before, but [the event] sparked an interest of writing a thesis for me," Tapaha said. "A lot of ideas are flying through my head now."
