Seventeens and transfer students, welcome to Dartmouth! The vast majority of you have just finished trips and are ready to embark on your next few years at the College on the Hill. Only two years ago, I was in the same spot as all of you in a new place wondering what I had gotten myself into. And while our paths to Dartmouth may differ, the campus we will share over the next few years is the same. Please allow me to indulge myself by telling you some lessons I have learned along the way.
I would first like to address the transfer students and those of you who have more unusual paths to Dartmouth. Between Dimensions, Trips and Orientation, it is easy to feel left out with all of the welcoming of '17s and events geared toward the typical freshman. Before coming to Dartmouth, I had to decide whether to apply as a freshman or a transfer. Ultimately, I came to Dartmouth as a freshman, but my path to college was far from typical. Not only am I a first generation college student, but I also spent six years as a Marine. As a freshman at Dartmouth, I was older than most of the seniors. I was excited to finally have the opportunity to pursue a college education, but I was understandably worried about how my younger peers would accept me.
I came to find out that my age and my experiences were more of a worry for me than for the other students. Sure, my friends still joke about my age and most conversations with new students end up with them asking my age. However, I have felt nothing but accepted by the larger community. I lived on the transfer, exchange and international floor as a freshman, and I noticed the other students integrating as well as I did. I think we were able to do this because we got involved. Dartmouth students are fluid we switch groups and commitments regularly before finding our place. You will not be the only new kid in a group, club or society, and chances are some of the other new kids are upperclassmen. You can and will find your niche.
To all of the incoming students, I would advise you to take advantage of the various students groups and organizations. Dartmouth has a diverse community, and I have been blessed to make friends amongst a wide variety of people from athletes to nonners, from the crunchy kids to the frat stars and from traditional to non-traditional students. The diversity at Dartmouth affords you the opportunity to meet people who will challenge the way you think and help you see issues from another perspective. However, you will only make the most of these opportunities if you step outside of what is comfortable and expand outside of your traditional peer groups.
Many of you may be familiar with the Dimensions protest or with the issues raised by Real Talk Dartmouth. They are right when they say that Dartmouth does have its problems. However, Dartmouth is more than administrators or professors or a set of buildings or an institution. Dartmouth is now you. During a talk at the Lodj, I remember a Dartmouth alum and professor saying that students have the most power to effect change on campus. You have an enormous opportunity to make Dartmouth a better institution.
Maybe the best piece of advice about Dartmouth I gleaned from my trip leader and friend Rob Szypko '12. In his final article at The Dartmouth, Szypko talked about the experiences he had on campus and concluded that Dartmouth was not the best four years of his life. They were not the worst four years either, but they were formative. He summed it up by writing, "I won't let the bad spoil the good and won't let the good sugarcoat what I learned from the bad." You will have some absolutely amazing times here on campus. You will meet some amazing people and make some great memories, but you will have your struggles and hard times. I hope we all learn what we can from our time here and leave better people and Dartmouth a better place. Welcome home.
