Last week's comic by Yoo Jung Kim depicted the exciting career paths of students from Dartmouth's professional degree programs (DosiRock: Sounds of the City, Oct. 31). Tuck, Geisel and Thayer were all represented with about as much nuance as an old Hollywood film. And they had a tagalong a distinctly un-uniformed MALS student, who, apparently, had no idea what life had in store for him. It seemed the cartoonist was unable to come up with anything for his thought bubble, so I thought I'd offer a few suggestions.
One of my closest friends in the program (a Green Beret) is down in Haiti right now, installing receivers to bring cellphone reception to previously uncovered villages, to aid future relief efforts. Another just secured a $10,000 grant for the Claremont Food Pantry to help them through the always-tough New England winters. A bunch of my classmates are published authors. One's a Unitarian minister a pretty nice voice to have in the classroom. I have friends who are now getting MDs and JDs and others who are managing projects for city governments. I know classmates who have jobs lined up with the United Nations and one who's headed to teach at West Point in June. And that's just to name a few.
Perhaps the diversity of our program is difficult to encapsulate in a single thought bubble. But if the critique of MALS is that we're not channeled into a rigid career path, well, that's fine by me. Turns out, the world is a pretty interdisciplinary place.
Zach Williams MALS'13Norwich, Vt.
