Ariana Thornton

How I Found My People As a First-Year

The summer before I arrived at Dartmouth, one of my biggest concerns was where I was going to find my people—the people with whom I could genuinely connect, whom I'd grow to call my lifelong friends. Like many other incoming first-years and prospective students, I was hungry for social belonging and eager to find community.

In a serendipitous turn of events, I found that belonging by joining a Living Learning Community called Great Issues Scholars. This program fundamentally shaped my first year at Dartmouth and helped me find some of my closest friends.

Living Learning Communities (LLCs) are an easy way to surround yourself with people who share a meaningful affinity or interest with you when you first arrive on campus. Students apply to LLCs precisely because they want to meet people who are like them in a particular way, and having that built-in common ground can make meeting people feel more natural. Instead of searching for how to start a conversation, you already have something to talk about: why you joined the LLC! There's a simple beauty to that.

There are several LLCs open to first-years, each with their own focus. You can read about them here. For this blog post, I'll be talking about the one I joined in my first year.

Great Issues Scholars (GIS) is a year-long program for first-years centered on global issues and international affairs. Throughout the year, GIS hosts speakers with diverse backgrounds from around the world and organizes discussions and events for scholars within the program and other students involved with the Dickey Center for International Understanding. It's also one of the larger LLCs on campus, with roughly 100 students involved.

The U.S. Naval War College led an exciting simulation that challenged us to roleplay competing nations, corporate interests, and Indigenous groups in the Arctic.

Students who apply and are accepted to GIS during the summer, like I was, live together in the McLaughlin Housing Cluster starting in the fall. McLaughlin is home to some of Dartmouth's newest and nicest residence halls. (If you're curious about life in North Park—the broader residential hall community located in the McLaughlin Cluster—try clicking here, here, and here.) Students who join GIS after arriving on campus still get access to the same events and programming, even though they live in different residence hall communities. This allows more students to be part of GIS than would be possible if everyone lived in the same building.

Looking back, being a residential GIS-er was such a transformative part of my first year. On move-in day, everyone was so friendly, and I quickly learned the names of my neighbors and began chatting in the hallways. In the first few days of orientation, we spent hours getting to know each other in our floor's common room, talking about where we grew up, what we hoped to study, our favorite books and poems, even our faiths and philosophies on life. Some nights, those conversations stretched well past midnight. It was so easy to feel connected with people who were as interested in others' lives as I was. 

In the common room, my friends and I enjoyed a night of "starcuterie": charcuterie followed by stargazing!

Regular GIS programming facilitated my newfound connections with my floormates. After a particularly engaging speaker or event, I'd run into a neighbor on my way to brush my teeth, and we'd end up talking for several minutes about the insights we'd gained that day. When grabbing a meal with a fellow GIS-er, mentioning a recent GIS event and asking for their opinion was a simple way to skip past mere small talk and have a deeper conversation. These kinds of micro-interactions happened again and again throughout the year, stacking up and slowly transforming acquaintances into friends the more time we spent together in both new and familiar environments. Before I knew it, the people who sat next to me at GIS events had become the people who accompanied me to the dining hall, studied with me, and collaborated with me in shared extracurriculars like the Sustainability Action Program, another year-long program for first-years. 

Many a friendship can be forged through a picnic on the Green.

One thing I especially appreciated about GIS is the kind of people it attracts. The program naturally draws students who are curious, selfless, ambitious, and genuinely interested in learning from others. These qualities showed up in everyday acts of kindness. My friends—most of them GIS'ers who lived on the same floor as me during our first year—offered to help me unpack when I moved in. They shared ibuprofen when period cramps hit at the worst possible time. They used their dining dollars to bring over my favorite snacks from the dining hall when I was holed up in the room studying. Around the holidays, one friend quietly asked for everyone's favorite candy and surprised us with handmade care packages filled with our favorites. These kinds of gestures made me feel like I truly belonged at Dartmouth.

Some of my favorite memories are the ones I never could have planned. Once, I wandered into the kitchen late at night to find my friends debating political philosophy over a freshly baked cheesecake. I stayed for a few minutes, admiring the cheesecake and joining in the banter, before bowing out to finish my homework in my room. The sounds of their raucous discussion carrying down the hallway gave me a much-needed laugh. 

Behold, the aforementioned cheesecake.

I could write a whole essay about the value GIS brought me through its lecture series, socials, and workshops. (You can read other GIS'ers' takeaways here.) But looking back, what I value most about GIS is not any single event, but rather the people I met through such events and the new perspectives they inspired in me. I'm so grateful that GIS gave me countless opportunities for ordinary moments to turn into lasting friendships. This is what helped me find my people, and what made Dartmouth feel like home. 

Proud smiles at the end of the year. I'm in the far back right!

So, if you resonate with my experiences, I'd encourage you to reflect on what communities or LLCs you'd like to belong to at Dartmouth and seek them out. Stay curious! Who do you want to surround yourself with? Who do you want to connect with? And do you want to debate political philosophy over a freshly baked cheesecake?

Peace,
Ariana