Kate Ginger ’27 paid attention to the little things. She folded origami animals, laminated pressed flowers and decorated intricate charcuterie boards. She wrote cursive hand-written letters to friends. She asked questions and remembered people’s answers.
Ginger, a neuroscience major from Fairhope, Ala., passed away on Nov. 28, 2025 from complications with her cancer treatment. She was 20 years old. Ginger was involved with many groups and activities at Dartmouth — she helped lead Sugarplum dance group, led First-Year Trips, wrote for Spare Rib and The Dartmouth, woke up for Organic Farm work days at 8 a.m., worked for summer outdoor rentals and served on the Sexual Violence Prevention Project student advisory board.
According to her mother Sherri Ginger, she “knew how to be in the moment.”
“She was playful, goofy and unabashed,” Sherri Ginger wrote. “She hung out near the kitchen — spinning, jumping, handstanding and partner posing with [Ginger’s sibling] Lee for fun and laughs.”
Dance was second-nature to Ginger. According to Sherri Ginger, she danced with a ballet company in Mobile, Ala., before coming to Dartmouth, where she danced and choreographed with Sugarplum.
“She found freedom in moving through the pathos, passion and joy,” Sherri Ginger wrote.
Ginger danced not only with technique, but “a natural resonance with the music,” according to Sugarplum member and friend Natalia Schmitter-Emerson ’26.
“She really felt the music because she felt things very deeply in general,” Schmitter-Emerson said. “She made [her emotions] a gift that she shared with others.”
Her mom shared a memory of pointing out to her daughter that she was a half a second behind the other dancers.
“Her immediate response: ‘They’re half a second too fast,’” she wrote. “That’s how confident and connected she was to her artistry.”
Sugarplum co-director Annabella Wu ’26 said she will “always remember” Ginger’s audition. Wu described a “huge explosion of cheers” from Sugarplum members when they learned Ginger would join them, which was “very rare.”
“I think I cried,” Wu said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we get to have her!’ She was just that great of a dancer, and an even better person once we got to know her.”
Wu said Ginger’s talent for choreography “brought so much” to the group.
“You’re thinking about music, you’re thinking about creative movement and then on top of that you’re having to set it on people with individual skill sets, different learning speeds and abilities,” she said. “Some people just have that skill — they’re able to feel the music in a different way.”
Ginger was elected to be the sole junior co-director this year, according to Wu, and served as director for summer dance group Splenda during her sophomore summer. Sophie Xu ’27, who danced and choreographed with Ginger in Sugarplum and Splenda, described her as an “artistic genius” and a talented leader in an email statement to The Dartmouth.
“She was not only the logistic backbone of every dance, practice and social event, but she filled Splenda with her unique Kate-branded whimsey,” Xu added.
Ginger’s friend Yuri Naidu ’27 joined Splenda last summer thanks to Ginger’s encouragement, despite having no previous dance experience. He said Ginger was “non-judgemental and honest” when teaching him how to dance.
“She pushes you out of your comfort zone, but she’s always there every step of the way,” Naidu said. “Whenever you need her, she’s there.”
Naidu added that Ginger’s leadership made the group’s dynamic more inclusive.
“She had a way of bringing people together,” Naidu said.
When she wasn’t dancing, Ginger was a prolific writer. She shared her creative writing for Spare Rib magazine and wrote for The Dartmouth’s news section.
“Kate felt the world,” Sherri Ginger wrote. “In her journalism and creative writing she shined a light and advocated for the unheard, un-noticed voices.”
Ginger’s friend Zoe Manning ’27 said Ginger often asked her to read her Spare Rib articles, which focused on gender.
Her writing “captured girlhood in a way that was raw — it’s the messiness of it,” Manning said. “It wasn’t all good. It wasn’t rose colored, but it was real.”
Ginger’s passion for making Dartmouth a more welcoming and accessible place shined through her writing. She was the SVPP student advisory board’s inaugural writing fellow, a position she helped create, according to SVPP coordinator Benjamin Bradley.
In October 2025, she wrote a “moving” piece for the Student Wellness Center blog which “advocates for inclusive and empowering spaces where everybody is treated with dignity and respect,” Bradley wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth.
“Kate believed that everyone had a role in preventing sexual violence, and her words exemplify her leadership, courage and passion for writing,” he wrote.
Ginger loved to travel, according to Sherri Ginger. On the Spanish language study abroad in Barcelona during her sophomore winter, she “traipsed around Europe,” Sherri Ginger wrote. She went to Puerto Rico with Liv Pyrczak ’27 and other friends in August 2025. She had plans to go to Japan when she passed away, according to Sherri Ginger.
Pyrczak described her best friend as an “adventurous spirit,” and the first one out the door every morning on their trip to Puerto Rico.
“She would get up in the morning and … she would be like, ‘I’m going to the beach. You guys can meet me there,’” Pyrczak said.
Ginger loved being outdoors and encouraged her friends to enjoy nature in the Upper Valley, according to her friend Aryanna Ram ’27. She remembered making snow angels with Ginger last winter and relaxing at the river.
“She was a person that really knew how to make time for what’s important and she could really slow things down, especially when my gears were going too fast,” Ram said.
Ram said Ginger’s authenticity made an immediate impression when they met during freshman orientation.
“She was just so open and honest, in a very natural way — that was kind of surprising, especially during [Orientation] Week where people are super, super sweet, but in a way that doesn’t feel that real all the time,” Ram said. “She talked about a lot … real, genuine things and we chatted on the docks until sunset.”
Manning recalled Ginger’s acts of kindness, including making her a “giant” birthday card their freshman year, saying that she “‘wanted [Manning] to know how loved’” she is.
“She was the person who remembered the person at the grocery store’s name, or who would leave food out for a stray cat,” Manning said. “She was intentional in those small ways that I think oftentimes are forgotten and overlooked.”
Multiple friends said Ginger was “emotionally intelligent” and great at giving advice.
Ginger’s “gentle demeanor and emotional maturity made me feel so seen throughout conflicts with family, friends and boys,” Xu wrote. “Over time, her support has empowered me to try scary things such as having tough conversations and setting boundaries or signing up for a heels dance class in an unfamiliar city.”
Sofia Piraino ’27 said Ginger reminded her of “a feeling you get when you’re in the sun — that warmth on your skin.”
“She really did have a lot of love and compassion for everyone around her,” Piraino said. “She took time to kind of get to know people, understand them in a more complete way, which I think is really beautiful.”
Pyrczak agreed that Ginger was “genuinely curious” about other people.
“She didn’t just care about who people were,” Pyrczak said. “She cared about how they got to be that way.”
This interest in understanding others and herself translated into her academic life. Naidu said Ginger turned her neuroscience classes inward. Ginger planned to work as a research assistant at American University, studying the effects of psychedelics on the brain before her diagnosis, according to Ram.
“She really was making the most of her education because it made her understand so many things about herself,” Naidu said.
Iris WeaverBell ’28 is a news reporter. She is from Portland, Ore., and is majoring in economics and minoring in public policy.
