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!
"Focus less on who you want to be and focus more on what you want to do." I heard this quote from a video of President Barack Obama when he was passing on wisdom to White House Interns back when he was in office. I've thought a lot about this advice in the past several weeks, and I'm taking it to heart. The academic journey here at Dartmouth will teach you things, and I've certainly learned a lot over the past several months. The key here is to remain open-minded. You will learn a lot about yourself during your first year of college, and Dartmouth has been there for me every step of the way.
Focusing on what you want to do is a powerful yet scary statement. Oftentimes, I find myself fantasizing about who I want to be and what I want to become rather than emphasizing what I want to actually do for a living. For example, it's a dream of mine to work for the President one day. I would love to go into a career of public service and earn myself a position of influence in government. However, I think I've spent too much time fixating on this idea. I would find myself saying things like "Well, I should probably major in 'X' to make my resume attractive to employers." Or "I should probably take this class because it will make my academic journey more rigorous." Although this mindset works for some, I've come to realize it doesn't work for me.
Thinking about all of this reminds me of something my dad told me before I left for college, "Son, do what you love and call it work." That's a more powerful statement than I gave it credit for at the time. The truth is, I feel that I've got sucked into this feeling of "I've got to take the most ambitious path no matter what," and that's just not how I want to operate moving forward. For instance, the internship I did this summer was marvelous for my resume and for my future career aspects. However, it didn't entail what I picture my future career to be, and it wasn't that enjoyable. I'm slowly starting to realize my priorities as an adult, and my career is high on that list. What I haven't realized until now, is that the path you take to get that dream career is important as well. A quote from John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" puts this perfectly: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
Here's what I mean in the context of academics and Dartmouth specifically: I felt that I had to mold myself to what everyone else is doing because it's "safe" and "competitive." For example, Dartmouth is huge on climate advocacy and environmental science, but my passions lie in severe weather and disaster response communication. The good news is, Dartmouth allows for career exploration in any niche academic area you may desire. That's why I'm working on crafting my special major in "Applied Climate Science and Communication." Now, I can focus more on what I want to do, and less on the expectations of who I ought to be. I can safely say I will be much happier with this approach to life at Dartmouth!
Assisting communities in need before and after a natural disaster is a passion of mine. It's time I start reconnecting with those true passions!
Applying early to a university can be overwhelming and confusing. As someone who did not apply to Dartmouth through early decision, here are a couple tips that I could have used when thinking about applying early to a school!
