The Class of 2000 Takes Off

SIX DEPARTING SENIORS EXPLAIN HOW DARTMOUTH CHANGED THEIR LIVES.

ON ONE OF THE CLOUDLESS DAYS OF FRESHMAN ORIENTATION week, my 'shmobmates and I sat at a table in Thayer eating lunch. Two men, one with a camera around his neck, the other clutching a notebook and pen, approached and asked if they could take our picture. We had nothing else to do, being freshmen, and we were enthralled at this mysterious invitation. The menan editor and photographer from the Alumni Magazine, led the six of us to a studio where we were photographed and interviewed.At the studio we sat and talked anxiously, listening in on each of the interviews to learn more about each other. It seemed as though each of us had accomplished something that the others found surprising. "No way, you wrote a novel?" we exclaimed to Nathan Chaney. "You mean you're only 16?" someone asked me. When it was over, we were bursting with pride about ourselves and our class, which had been selected for admission from the largest pool of applicants in Dartmouth history. We were featured in a November 1996 story in the magazine. • And now we return to these pages. Four years older, four years wiser. Early this spring, at the outset of our final college term, I caught up with each of the students who appeared in the original article. While we agreed that Dartmouth has changed little during our time here, I found that my classmates and I have changed greatly. Here's how.

STAGE STRUCK

RASHAAD GREEN '00

When Green penned his Dartmouth application essay, he wrote of giving something back to his community in Staten Island, New York, by becoming a doctor. But before he attended his first class, second thoughts crept in. So he took psychology classes. Then some sociology courses, followed by classes in African-American studies and English. As he cast about in an attempt to land a major his freshman year, Green found what turned out to be his favorite class at Dartmouth: "Reading and Writing in the Arts and Sciences," a course taught by professor Donald Sheehan. Green started taking more English classes, but they lacked the passionate dynamic that he got from Sheehan's class. Then, during Green's sophomore winter, an opportunity arose that would change his life. "I learned that Joe Turners Come and Gone, a play written by August Wilson, was coming to Dartmouth, along with August Wilson," Green recalls. "My dad had suggested I try acting he went to school with Denzel Washington. So I jumped right in, took three drama classes that term and got a part in the play." It was pretty risky to dive in so heavily, and Green says he's still not sure why he did it that way. "But I landed in theater-world, and this is where I want to be for the rest of my life," he says. Green, who will graduate with a degree in drama modified with English, recognizes the financial risk that comes with pursuing an acting career. But he believes that he will find a way to be successful if he's doing something he loves. To improve his chances, he'll enroll this fall at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and pursue an M.F.A. in acting.

CONFIDENCE BUILDER

SARAH KENNEY '00

"Athletics don't make up who you are. I've learned you just have to have confidence in yourself. You're at Dartmouth because you should be," says varsity track captain Kenney, balancing herself on crutches due to a fractured foot. Three years ago, Kenney had doubts about Dartmouth. A graduate of a small public high school in her hometown of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, Kenney had always felt pressured to cover up her intelligence in order to fit in. By the time she was recruited by Dartmouth's track team, she had almost tricked herself into believing the act. "Everyone was telling me that I'd been a big fish in a small pond for so long and now I was coming to a big pond—Dartmouth," she says. "I convinced myself that everyone here was better than me and that I was just a dumb jock. I had a lot of trouble adjusting freshman fall." Despite her worries, Kenney developed a group of close friends who eased the transition. Recent injuries (a fractured vertebra to go with her broken foot) have kept her from competing for 13 months, but the down time has helped Kenney separate athletics from her college identity. She has realized that her intellectual pursuits (she's a government major with a psychology minor) prove her Dartmouth worthy, yet she retains her pride as a hurdler and sprinter. Kenney is unsure of her immediate post-graduation plans, but Dartmouth's intellectualism has rubbed off. She plans on attending law school.

LURE OF THE WORLD

SUSAN BARBOUR '00

As a freshman, Barbour had dreams of becoming a doctor after she graduated from Dartmouth. She felt inner pressures to pursue a career that would reap big financial rewards. Accordingly, Barbour immersed herself in pre-med classes her freshman year and had little time to socialize. But she found that science was not her passion travel was. Barbour's most influential college experience was a trip to Africa during her junior winter. Anative of Champagne, Illinois, she volunteered to work in a bush hospital in Malawi, where she was drawn to the intensity of the experience and the truths it revealed. "I never realized how much of what I assume to be universal is really just cultural," she says. "I honestly felt when I left that I could have stayed there forever and been perfectly happy." More over, she found she loved human contact and communicating with others. "In Malawi, where as many as one in three people treated at the Embangweni Mission Hospital where I worked are infected with the HIV virus and the infant mortality rate before the age of 5 is 22 percent, life is too short and too precious to build walls," says Barbour. "For that reason—because I didn't have to build up walls and could connect with people readily I felt very much myself in Africa and very much at home." Having scrapped her intense premed curriculum, Barbour will graduate an English major. She hopes to volunteer abroad for a few years after graduation, then perhaps attend graduate school for an advanced degree in English.

POSITIVE THINKINg

NATHAN CHANEY '00

Chaney says he wasn't the easiest person to get along with when he first came to Dartmouth from his hometown of Warwick, Rhode Island. He remembers that he was quick to find flaws in people and was antagonistic toward professors. Pledging a fraternity during sophomore fall changed his attitude and his life. Interaction with a diverse brotherhood taught him to be more tolerant of people's apparent flaws, he says. He now has friends in many different social groups all over campus and has gone out of his way to cultivate close relation ships with some of his professors. The lesson he's learned from all this? "Don't be too quick to judge people, because everyone can teach you something," he says. "I feel that I've contributed to this school and I've made great friends here and done all that I could to make everyone I met feel happy they came here," he says. A philosophy major with a minor in English, Chaney hopes to find a job in journalism following graduation.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

JONATHAN MCK1NNEY '00

When McKinney was a freshman, soccer was his life. He was a rare walk-on to the junior varsity team and spent hours each week at the practice field. During his sophomore summer, McKinney received an Andrew Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship, which contributes $6,000 toward thesis expenses. McKinney, a Native American studies major from the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, began work on a thesis that examined the cultural effects of housing policy and architecture on the Acoma people. But he had a tough time juggling his thesis and soccer. Matters came to a head during his junior year, when McKinney faced an irreconcilable scheduling conflict between class and soccer. "My coach said, 'Tell me if you're committed or not.' By the end of practice I quit the team. I love the game, but I wasn't going to sacrifice my academics for soccer," says McKinney.

McKinney still plays informally on intramural teams, giving him plenty of time for his thesis. This winter McKinney was back at Acoma, where he worked on the selection committee that chose a contractor for an $8.5-million housing and infrastructure project. "Because I have talked to so many people about this who are directly affected by it, and because I am from Acoma, I feel a huge responsibility to produce something worthwhile. I have to get it right," he says. Such dedication has a price. McKinney will finish his studies during the summer term. After graduation he suspects he'll be in Washington, D.C., working as a political activist.

CAREER CONSCIOENSESS

STEPHANIE EDWARDS '00

My chance encounter with the editor and photographer from the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine that day in Thayer dining hall was a life-changing one for me. It got me thinking about a writing career. After being hired as a research assistant freshman spring, I've worked for this publication ever since. And this year I became a paid intern, which has given me invaluable experience in magazine journalism. I am a creative writing major and hope to pursue a career in journalism. Speaking of a career, I am pretty worried about finding a job. So, ifyou happen to be reading this from an editor's desk and want to help out a fresh alumna, th t Alumni Magazine knows how to reach me.

RASHAAD GREEN

SARAH KENNEY

STEPHANIE EDWARDS

NATHAH CHANEY

JONATHAN MCKINNEY

SUSAN BARBOUR

ONCE THEY WERE FRESHMEN OUR STORY SUBJECTS AS THEY APPEARED IN THESE PAGES FOUR YEARS AGO (FROM LEFT): KENNEY, BARBOUR, GREEN, EDWARDS, MCKINNEY AND CHANEY