Last June, New York Times writer David Brooks opined, "Most [college graduates] will spend a decade wandering from job to job and clique to clique, searching for a role." He paints recent graduates as restless vagabonds, unwilling to settle down and to fixate on a single niche. Unfortunately, existing data corroborate this allegation. Of the respondents to the latest College survey, 25 percent of seniors have accepted job offers while 20 percent planned to go to graduate school ("Approx. 25 percent of seniors receive jobs," May. 9).
Yet the statistics do not tell the whole story. While students may utilize their collegiate and post-graduate years to plot the direction of their lives, others have already taken the first steps towards their destinations. Despite being obscured by bleak statistics, numerous students are already making use of their time at Dartmouth to pursue their loftiest aspirations.
Farzeen Mahmud '12, for instance, is considering a career in education so she can transmit her love of chemistry.
"I started doing organic research with my professor, Jimmy Wu, during sophomore Summer, and am still working on that research. I actively try to give organic chemistry a place in the fabric of my life, which also includes thinking about how to build communities and in the mega-family of the physical and abstract world."
Farzeen believes that chemistry carries a deeper meaning beyond academics.
"I have decided that my practice of chemistry is a spiritual practice, almost like a meditation, that lets me engage in a method of understanding and pursuit that I apply to other questions in my life," she said. "Ultimately, I want to keep experimenting with the question of, How can I make this community closer and more respecting?'"
Farzeen is already a co-author of a paper published in the Journal of American Chemical Society for research on specific synthetic organic methodology. She is currently finishing up her senior thesis and conducting additional investigations as a John L. Zabriskie Jr. '61 Chemistry Senior Fellow.
Tyler Melancon '12 was interested in medicine even before setting foot at Dartmouth, though the turning point came on his Alternative Spring Break trip.
"In those short 10 days, I discovered that my perception of health care was much too narrow," he said. "It pushed me to investigate health care access and piqued my interest in health disparities on a domestic and international scale."
Tyler shares his passion for medicine by advising other students as the president of the Minorities Associations of Pre-Health Professionals (MAPS).
Tyler is currently conducting research with the pharmacology/toxicology department at DMS while training for the upcoming football season.
"My research demonstrated how the science classes we pre-meds take, often for granted, actually apply to the careers in medicine," he said.
Eventually, Tyler hopes to work on improving access to health care.
"I want to make change on a grand scale," he said.
While college may often be depicted as a place of discovery and self-reflection, these students, as well as countless others, are making use of Dartmouth as a bridge to their careers.
