While most seniors will spend the year pursuing the final courses necessary to fulfill major and distributive requirements, Talene Monahon '13, Michelle Berlinger '13, Larissa Russell '13 and Max Hammer '12 have embarked on individual creative projects that will take the place of classes.
As the 2013 Senior Fellows, the four students are not required to finish a major for graduation, but will instead undertake efforts "larger in scope than traditional theses and culminating experiences can provide," according to Jill Savage, assistant director of undergraduate advising and research and financial advisor to the fellows. Senior Fellows apply for their positions in the winter and spring of their junior year, and between two and 12 fellows are selected each year.
"It's not really competitive in the way that student projects are compared against each other," Savage said. "This is not a situation where we get a lot more applicants than we can fund. Really, we try to see if the students will get more out of this project than taking classes for a year."
The program was created specifically for Nelson Rockefeller '30, who had finished all of his graduation requirements and was permitted to take his final year off to collect art and travel, according to Savage.
"The program basically evolved out of this incidence," she said.
Today, the fellows and their advisors view it as one of the best but lesser-known programs at the College.
"Students like Talene, when all of their interests have brought them to a certain place, can take on something of real size and substance," Monahon's advisor Peter Hackett '75, a theater professor, said.
While it takes an exceptional student to complete such a product, the opportunity ensures a worthwhile experience, according to students and professors.
"So many people don't know about this program," Hammer said. "Honestly, I feel like I'm getting away with something. It's so nice to know that they would let you make your education personal and help you follow through with it."
Talene Monahon
Monahon, formerly a theater and women's and gender studies double major, will be writing and performing a theater piece about gender relations and Dartmouth social life. The full-length one-woman play will be included during Spring term as part of a series of programs for the Year of the Arts.
As part of her project, Monahon is collecting quotes from 30 interviews conducted with students and faculty.
"People normally know exactly what they want to talk about," she said. "They have such strong voices. I just want to express that in my work."
Monahon received the inspiration for her project from actress Anna Deavere Smith, who conducted interviews, incorporated them into plays and subsequently performed the plays herself.
"She's not making anything up," Monahon said. "Everything on stage came from real life. It also seemed like a challenge for me, as an actress, to perform real words."
The inspiration led her to create a simpler version of her current project three years ago during her first term at the College. Monahon created a 30-minute play about gender issues on campus that included five interviews for a course she was taking.
Hackett, who saw the original play, said he was awed by Monahon's talent.
"I was so impressed by her ability to create all these different characters and incorporate so much material in about half an hour," Hackett said. "I said to her then, You should expand this, make this something bigger.'"
Monahon said she has a deeper understanding of the issues at Dartmouth because of her personal experiences. She has also furthered the project through extensive research on the history of Dartmouth since the beginning of coeducation.
Seeing the result of Monahon's project during the 40th anniversary of coeducation at Dartmouth will mark a special moment, Hackett said.
"I was a member of the last all-male class of Dartmouth and had spent a long time researching gender relations from that point of view," he said.
Michelle Berlinger
Formerly a sociology and studio art double major, Berlinger will conduct research and write about the ways in which jewelry designers consider notions of women and gender in their creative processes. In addition, she will personally create a line of fine jewelry based on her findings.
Berlinger is currently in New York City interviewing designers and will return to campus in October to begin work in the Claflin Jewelry Studio. The designs made of fine gold and silver and semi-precious stones will include 10 to 15 pieces and feature bracelets, rings and body armor.
"Hopefully, my designs will reflect my article and show the empowerment of women through jewelry," Berlinger said.
Berlinger has been designing and selling jewelry since high school. At Dartmouth, she works from the jewelry studio and collaborates with a store in Hanover to sell her work.
Berlinger said she has been interested in completing a senior fellowship since her first year at the College. Her ideas for the pursuit began to solidify during her junior fall, when Berlinger decided to combine her sociology and studio art majors.
Berlinger has met famous designers and interviewed 17 people more than her original intention as part of her research.
"It was kind of like the snowball effect," Berlinger said. "I would interview one person, and they would talk about it with someone else."
She said she hopes to finish the article component by Thanksgiving and spend Winter and Spring terms creating prototypes of her jewelry. After graduation, Berlinger intends to start a company to sell her pieces.
Larissa Russell
Russell, a double major in government and geography modified with economics, will spend the year writing a novel that seeks to combine her experiences in all three disciplines. In addition, Russell will complete her government major by conducting a separate independent study project this year.
Russell's novel will be a fictional account set in South Africa, a developing economy that offers "a lot of potential to explore the themes that I have studied," she said.
Russell will travel to South Africa for three weeks this winter to conduct observational research and interviews for her project. While Russell has always wanted to write a book, she said she only considered applying for the senior fellowship after discovering that her intended government thesis was too narrow for her diverse interests in international and domestic themes.
"One great thing about the program is that they let me be pretty independent," Russell said. "When else in my life am I going to have a year to write my own novel and not follow what everyone else is doing?"
Max Hammer
Hammer, formerly a studio art and film double major, will create a stop motion animated movie, beginning with the construction of puppets and sets from wood.
Hammer said he has always been interested in making films and began to make movies about skiing while still in high school. He was later drawn to animation because "you can do anything you want." Unlike in film, "there are no human physical limits."
He has already constructed many of the four-by-four-foot sets for his puppets, and he produces footage by taking still shots and physically moving the set pieces and puppets. A full day's work in the studio yields about five seconds of film, and the final project which will take until the end of Spring term to complete will be about five to 10 minutes in length, he said.
The project features a theme of modern mythology with a focus on technological intrusions into daily life.
"I'm not into modern norms," he said. "I'm into a pretty simple lifestyle. A lot of stuff that resulted from capitalism gets to me."
Drawing on this theme, Hammer will use mostly recycled materials for his sets and will operate on a relatively small budget.
Hammer said he is unsure if he will continue producing animated films following graduation but that the problem-solving skills acquired in the process will serve him in fields as diverse as engineering and writing.
Hammer said he is thankful that one of his undergraduate deans told him about the senior fellowship program a few years ago.
"What I like about the program is that it's not super defined," he said. "I can find my own path, follow tangents, see where I end up. Following tangents is how I learn best."
In addition, Hammer has had to pause his education several times to pursue his skiing career. The flexibility of the senior fellowship will enable him to finish his degree this year, he said.
The final stop motion film will be screened in an outdoor theater in the spring.
"I want this project to be a way to showcase that you don't have to go to a movie theater or be stuck on a laptop to enjoy film," Hammer said. "This will be about creating a more inviting arena in a simpler format."
