2022

2022

CLASS NOTES

In this issue’s column we are catching up with Brandon Zhou, who is currently the president ofthe class of 2022 executive council (CEC).

Brandon stayed in Hanover for some of summer and fall. As the associate director of first-year trips last year, he still deeply cares about this Dartmouth tradition and spent the summer working full time with Jack Kreisler, the director, chatting with ’26s, training trips volunteers, and figuring out trip schedules and Covid protocols. He was really excited for trips, where he was able to meet new friends and work with existing friends across trip leaders and “Croo” members. Fall term felt like a nice wind down from trips and the perfect transition to graduating, with a bit more normalcy after the hectic summer. Brandon worked on and presented

his thesis in linguistics about how the sound systems of Cantonese and English interact with each other as native Cantonese speakers learn English. He had just received the bound copy of the thesis the day before I called him to catch up.

During the summer and the fall Brandon traveled to different corners ofthe United States and around the world, but the common theme was the Dartmouth presence wherever he went. He visited the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact cohort in Philadelphia and caught up with ’23 s doing internships there and at the end of fall he traveled with some friends to Europe. Brandon admitted that the highlight to his trip was running into Dartmouth students and alumni all across Europe, from ’22s on post-grad trips to ’23s and ’24s on their foreign study abroad programs and even surprise run-ins with alumni wearing Dartmouth hoodies and hats in airports.

Around March Brandon will be starting work in Toronto, Canada, and he’s excited for post-grad life because a more structured work schedule will allow him to dedicate more time on Dartmouth programming. Brandon said that one of the reasons that motivated him to become the president of CEC is to continue the Dartmouth sense of community beyond graduation. It might be jarring for many to go from running into people constantly on the way to classes and in social environments to needing to coordinate with people and go the extra miles to see other alumni because we are all physically further away from each other. Brandon’s goal for the CEC is to continue the sense of closeness through building infrastructure for the future, such as with social media, website, and newsletters for the class.

We are excited to be able to connect with more and more members of the class as social media and newsletters are established, but in the meantime, please reach out to us if you’d like to be featured in this column and chat for a few minutes about what new hobbies you have picked up since graduating. Looking forward to hearing from you!

—Louisa Gao, 279 E 44th St, Apt 3L, New York, NY 10017; louisa.gao0922@gmail.com

Louisa Gao