Greetings from the woods! My name is Gavin Fry, and I'm a student blogger with the People, Places, and Pines team. I'm a proud first-generation college student, carrying with me the full support of my crazy family. I plan to be involved with undergraduate research, outdoor activities, and club golf here at Dartmouth! You can find me geeking out about the weather, reading novels, and always drinking coffee (at any time of the day). So nice to meet you!
Academic Program
Prospective Environmental Earth Science Major with a Minor in Public Policy
Favorite Thing Right Now
My idea of starting a chapter of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) here at Dartmouth!
Oh. My. Goodness. What a fun class this was! As a certified weather and climate geek, I was totally entrenched in everything we done in this course. From the labs and weather presentations to the "flipped" classroom experience, I thoroughly enjoyed this class. Dr. Osterberg's excitement for the course material made it that much more enjoyable! It was truly an extraordinary first-year course to take.
I’ve loved this class from beginning to end. For one, I enjoyed it because of the people in it, but I also loved it because of the content. Through frequent class discussion, I learned about the health of our democracy and the ways it is compromised. Very enlightening class!
Religion 5 was a quintessential liberal arts course that deepened my knowledge in a subject I thought I had all figured out. As a STEM-oriented student, this class offered the perfect balance to my spring term schedule. As a result of this class, I became more introspective of how I was raised, and I'm more grateful in my ability to be a free-thinker.
SummerOff Campus Internship - Princeton, New Jersey
This summer, I explored my future career plans by participating in a research internship with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University. I learned a lot about what I want (and what I don't want) in a future career, and I made so many awesome lifelong connections!
A course rooted in both philosophical theory and real, practical methods of becoming a better public speaker was the highlight of the term. Our class of 16 students grew to be a sort of "mini-family," and I'm so grateful for the connections I made. I completely changed the way I view public speaking and homed in on my own skills as a public speaker!
Once again, a course outside my major found its way into my favorite class list. This sociology course helped me better understand how children are viewed in society, the way sociologists study youth, and the major differences in norms around childhood around the world. Who knew there was so much to learn about youth culture!
I was recently a panelist at a Dartmouth event we call "Critical Dialogues." During this panel, four first generation and low-income (FGLI) students (including me) shared their perspectives on what being FGLI at Dartmouth (and during the college application process) means for them. I was so grateful to be a panelist at this event. I'm especially grateful that the audience was entirely faculty and staff. The purpose of the panel was to enlighten professors and other staff on what it truly means to be FGLI at an elite institution like Dartmouth. Not only did we get to share our experiences, but we offered advice to faculty and staff on what they could do to be our supporters through our college journey. Sitting in that chair with the spotlight shining right down on me helped me reflect.
Something that I mentioned to the audience, and something that I will mention to you first and foremost, is that the four of us as panelists looked and sounded very different. I'm a white, heterosexual man, and I will never know what it's like to be a racial minority. We come from different backgrounds, and we can all offer unique perspectives on what being an FGLI student means to each of us. There's no idealistic image of what an FGLI student is; Rather, it's the story of each individual student that really captures what that term means. Personally, I grew up in severe poverty. My parents don't make any money, and I've always struggled with financial security. I also had a pretty terrible family situation throughout my childhood. My parents struggled and continue to struggle with substance abuse on a daily basis. Those things bring complications that merely saying "I'm FGLI," doesn't capture. The student sitting on either side of me will have a completely different story, and that's the point I wanted to make.
I think there's a certain amount of responsibility as a student and as a professor or staff member to practice good communication with each other. The best piece of advice I've gotten in college so far was to approach each of my professors during the start of the term and introduce myself. It may only be a simple "Hey there professor, my name is Gavin, and I just wanted to introduce myself and say that I'm excited for the course." That opens the door for future vulnerability and the gateway for good communication in general. Expressing your concerns as an FGLI student isn't easy, but it's the student's responsibility to make that identity known to their professor if they want. Then, the responsibility rests with the professor. It's their turn to say, "Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing that will me. I can tell you may have extenuating circumstances, and I want to support you in any way that I can. What does that look like for you?"
It may seem a bit simple, but I think communication is more powerful than we all realize. Being on that panel helped me understand just how fortunate I am to have a platform of influence to speak on these sorts of issues at all. At another college, I would be swept up with the crowd just like a swath of sea foam in the middle of the Atlantic. Dartmouth gives me a voice, and I always plan to use it. I'm very grateful in that regard.
Dartmouth doesn't just care about the intellectual state of student minds but also their health and happiness. Through this week's monastic programming, I have found our commitment to mental health to be loud and clear.
As a high school senior, I chose to apply to colleges with a strong Chinese language department. Luckily, I have found Dartmouth's campus brimming with students passionate about Chinese culture and language.
