Although the College's varsity athletes must juggle practices, away games, classes and exams, several graduating Big Green athletes said their Dartmouth careers have gone far beyond grade point averages and individual scoring statistics.
Women's basketball captain Koren Schram '09 pairs intense dedication on the court with a commitment to her potential future career in medicine. Schram, a psychology major with a neuroscience minor who is also pre-med, spent last summer working doing research at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where her focus was helping pregnant women with infected fetuses.
"It was my greatest accomplishment because we were able to save the babies from the blood diseases they carried," she said.
Schram was also involved with research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and published an article highlighting her results.
During her four years playing basketball for Dartmouth, Schram led the team to three Ivy League Championships in the 2005-2006, 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 seasons, scoring over 1,000 career points ]and earning first team All-Ivy this year.
In May, Schram was inducted into the Wearers of the Green, a group which includes Dartmouth alumni and students who have excelled in athletics at the College and beyond.
Although she will continue playing basketball overseas next year, Schram said she anticipates eventually pursuing a career in medicine.
"I plan to play for as long as I can, within reason," she said. "I am going to try to get accepted [to medical school] and defer until after I am done playing basketball."
Football captain Andrew Dete '09 has spent his Dartmouth career both representing the Big Green on the field, and participating in numerous community service activities.
As president of the Campus Ministry Council for the Aquinas House, the College's Catholic Student Center, Dete said he is responsible for helping to plan holiday activities, holding weekly community dinners and organizing lectures.
Dete said he is also proud of his volunteer work done at the Special Olympics every winter and spring with other members of his fraternity, Gamma Delta Chi.
An economics major, Dete has a 3.71 overall grade point average, and as a junior, he received the Class of 1948 Scholarship-Athlete Award in recognition of his excellence in both athletics and academics. Dete said that being able to excel in both fields has been important to him.
"I feel like I am really involved in all aspects of campus," he said. "I don't have to be completely defined by football. I can do a lot of things and still be part of the culture, whether that's being in a [fraternity] or doing community service and keeping good grades."
Kristen McCormick '09, a co-captain of the field hockey team, similarly said that volunteer work has added an important dimension to her time at Dartmouth.
McCormick has volunteered in numerous arenas while at the College, but cites her time working with children as the most rewarding, especially as a mentor at Thetford Elementary School in Thetford, Vt.
After graduation, McCormick said she wants to work with children or people with special needs.
"I've always wanted to be involved with more than just school and sports," she said.
Tennis player Jamie Caplan '09 said the most rewarding part of her athletic experience at the College has been serving as a leader for her teammates on the women's tennis team.
"More than anything, I just had a lot of fun being a leader on this team," she said. "It's great to finally be able to put your own spin on the team environment after playing for three years."
For most of her Dartmouth career, Caplan said she was used to finding success on the court, both as a singles and a doubles player. That changed, however, when her ongoing shoulder injury took a turn for the worse this year, she said.
Although Caplan was sidelined for most of this season, playing only one doubles match, she said she found that coaching her teammates could be just as rewarding as competing on her own.
"For me, it just made my year," she said. "It would have been pretty rough without the opportunity to coach, but I enjoyed doing it a lot, and it allowed me to see the team from a new perspective."
Off the court, Caplan has maintained a 3.63 GPA over her Dartmouth career. A psychology major and a film minor, said she plans to spend some time in California after graduation and then attend law school.
