This article is featured in the 2026 Winter Carnival Issue.
You don’t have to love winter to love Dartmouth.
As I look at one of Hanover’s fiercest winters from Barcelona, Spain, I have begun to realize how different Dartmouth winters can look, and how we often limit our imagination by associating them solely with things like deadly cold, club skiing, ice skating and s’mores.
Coming to Dartmouth from Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, I, like many others, couldn’t wait to experience Hanover winters.
My excitement was sharpened by how Dartmouth advertised winter to me — as a “winter wonderland,” defined by unmatched snow and the expectation that students would take full advantage of it.
Indeed, there have been moments of joy: the first snow fight, the first attempt — and failure — at ice skating on Occom Pond or watching my first Dartmouth ice hockey game. As a Mediterranean student who had barely seen snow before, I did learn how to have fun with the cold. This is not to say, however, that everyone can or should be expected to conform to this very particular climate or feel pressured to enjoy it.
The Dartmouth we celebrate — defined by Club Ski, ice hockey and the ice sculptures of Winter Carnival — often reflects particular backgrounds and particular people. Meanwhile, some students find themselves struggling with an entirely new physical and emotional environment. For this reason, we should begin talking about the unseen faces of Dartmouth winter, including the winter that exists beyond Hanover.
I learned how to adapt in Hanover. But adaptation is not the same as belonging. And enjoying parts of winter does not mean everyone should be expected to conform to a single version of it.
This winter term, I am not in Hanover. I am in Barcelona, participating in a Spanish study abroad program through the Guarini Institute. While my classmates in New Hampshire navigate icy sidewalks and early sunsets, I watch the sun set over the Mediterranean, attend flamenco workshops and walk home in the rain instead of the snow. I am taking three courses in Spanish literature, history and culture, taught by Dartmouth and University of Barcelona faculty, alongside 24 fellow Dartmouth students. Academically, I am fully part of Dartmouth. Geographically, I am not.
Being away has changed the way I think about Dartmouth’s winters. It has made me realize how narrowly we often define them.
When we talk about winter at Dartmouth, we tend to highlight experiences that speak to particular backgrounds and physical capacities: skiing, skating and winter sports culture. But this framing overlooks students who struggle with the climate — whether due to physical health, mental well-being or simply unfamiliarity with such extreme conditions. For some, winter is not invigorating. It is isolating.
Dartmouth — especially since becoming need-blind beginning with the Class of 2026 — offers students the logistical and financial freedom to explore the world through their studies. One of the clearest expressions of this mission is the study away programs coordinated by the Guarini Institute. Across disciplines, students can spend a winter term, or any other academic term, enrolled in an institution abroad while taking Dartmouth-approved courses. Many of these programs are faculty-directed, allowing students to experience new academic systems, countries and cultures while remaining closely connected to their Dartmouth cohort.
Yet, despite how integral these programs are to Dartmouth’s global mission, we rarely frame them as part of the Dartmouth winter narrative. Many still imagine winter as something that happens only in Hanover.
Studying away does not mean stepping outside of Dartmouth. Academically and socially, students remain embedded in the College, taking Dartmouth coursework, learning alongside peers and representing the institution beyond campus. What changes is the setting. Experiencing winter elsewhere reshapes how we understand both the season and the College itself.
This does not diminish the meaning of Hanover winters. Instead, it affirms that there is space within the Dartmouth experience for multiple ways of living, learning and belonging.
If winter in Hanover feels isolating — if you find yourself avoiding the cold, struggling with early sunsets or feeling disconnected from the version of winter that is most visible on campus — that does not make you an outsider. You do not need to be a skier or skater to belong to Dartmouth’s winter community. That community is broader, more flexible and more global than we often allow ourselves to imagine.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
