This fall, undergraduates and graduates will gather to discuss campus issues over family-style dinners through OneDartmouth, a student-driven mentorship program. The program, started by Geisel School of Medicine students Inyang Udo-Inyang and Kenoma Anighoro Med'14, biology professor Lee Witters and Lindsay Mandel '14, will place 10 to 15 undergraduates with one student from each of the graduate schools.
"It is an initiative to connect the many schools of Dartmouth, which have previously occupied separate spheres," Mandel said.
Dartmouth students could benefit from increased inclusivity, Mandel said, adding that a disconnect currently separates these pieces of campus.
Founders were inspired after classes were canceled in the spring, when some graduate students felt disconnected from the controversy.
"As a graduate student, a lot of these things don't really affect you," Geisel student Marie Onakomaiya said. "We're generally just an invisible population."
Onakomaiya, who will participate in the program, said Dartmouth's current structure cultivates the separation of different student bodies through lack of integrated work spaces, food establishments and social outlets.
"We do not interact with the other groups socially, in classrooms or even where we eat," Onakomaiya said.
Onakomaiya also cited graduate students' lack of awareness after the day of canceled classes as her reason for joining the organization.
"We all have ideas of what the other groups are like, so it would be good to learn what actually goes on and break down barriers," she said.
OneDartmouth will allow graduate students to share lessons they learned while at college.
"As an undergraduate, I got to know graduate students who were very valuable resources on campus so I want to give back as a graduate student," Amundam Mancho TDI'14 said.
Undergraduate applications will be released a few days after fall term classes start.
Bianca Jackson '15 said she is excited to learn about the different roles that graduate and undergraduate students play on campus.
"One of my favorite things is learning what my peers are passionate about and what drove them to Dartmouth," she said. "Expanding this to the wider graduate and undergraduate community is a great opportunity."
So far, over 70 undergraduate and 20 graduate students have expressed interest in the program, and it has received over $5,000 in funding from the offices of the Dean of the College and Graduate Studies.
"I am frankly willing to put in my own money," Witters said. "I really think these student dialogues and conversations are essential to many of the issues on campus here."
