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!
Coming from my high school background, there was never really a need to establish a concrete study routine because the material wasn't challenging, and my curriculum was anything but rigorous. I quickly learned that this dynamic would change when I started classes at Dartmouth back in the fall of '21. Just a gentle disclaimer: it's easy to for the mind to get clouded if I were to throw around phrases like "Dartmouth classes are harder / more challenging, therefore I needed to have a study routine." That's not what I want to convey. While the coursework was certainly more difficult, it was also… different. I realized within my first few weeks here that this would be a different learning experience. For example, I had never really been in a classroom where my input was necessary. Discussion based classes at Dartmouth were a breath of fresh air. You learn from everyone in the classroom instead of the instructor. You also learn a lot about yourself in the process and where your understanding of the material is lacking. The lecture classes were also different; they required me to gain a baseline knowledge of the material and then build on it on my own time. I never had to do this before; it was new. The point being, I've picked up on things, I believe, a first-gen or low income student could benefit from coming from a similar background.
Time in the classroom is valuable, but it's only the foundation.
First off, just show up to class and try your best not to miss lectures. You only have about 20-30 lectures each class per Dartmouth term, so each one is valuable; don't miss/skip class! That being said, your learning experience merely begins in the classroom. The real learning takes place away from the classroom, when you spend time self or group studying the material.
Take note of, attend, and keep attending OFFICE HOURS.
I had no idea what office hours were before coming to Dartmouth, but the FYSEP community educated me! A lot of the success I've had in the classroom has stemmed from attending office hours – an allotted amount of time given by the professor to discuss material in the classroom that you need additional support with. For instance, I'm in a math class, Math 13, which requires a lot of time outside of class to be successful. When I attend office hours, we can go over tricky problems and talk with my fellow peers about the material as well. Office hours are golden, please attend them!
Here's an example of a math problem completed in office hours that was giving me a hard time!
Be attentive and use the "smarter not harder" study approach!
I feel that I really need to stress this point, because it took me a while to understand what I'm about to say to you. Let me give you a "hypothetical" example: the professor throws up lecture slides of some important material and begins giving the lecture. The professor states they will provide you with those same lecture slides after class for additional study. If this is the case, I would strongly recommend being attentive and engaged in the class rather than trying to copy down what's on the lecture slides. Give your full attention to the professor and participate in class; they may say things that are even more important that aren't on the lecture slides!
Use the power of technology to your advantage!
I had never considered taking electronic notes before coming to Dartmouth, and I'm so glad I've developed that habit. Personally, I like Microsoft OneNote for my note-taking in class. With a stylus, you can move text around, draw graphics with ease, and it's pretty hard to be disorganized with electronic notes. It also helps you pack a lot lighter when walking across campus. If you have a ton of notebooks, pens, pencils, sharpeners, etc., it's a lot more cumbersome than if you just had a laptop/tablet and a stylus. Just food for thought.
Microsoft OneNote is awesome for uploading PDFs of papers/books and annotating for notes!
Find some reliable "study buddies!"
It's been such an amazing experience to collaborate with some of the brightest students I've ever met. It's not necessarily about putting yourself around them to work together to get the best grade, but that's an inevitable side effect of gaining new perspectives on a problem and truly valuing each other's input. Different perspectives around the same issue makes solving the problem a lot easier. Finding study partners has truly helped me solidify my understanding of some complex material!
Dartmouth offers so many study spaces to be productive! I'm partial to the Tower Room in the Baker-Berry library.
Of course everyone learns differently and perhaps not everything I said here resonates with you, and that's okay! The point is, make sure you're working hard early to identify what study patterns and habits work for you. This may a look a bit different than what I've stated, but these are things I wish I'd known prior to coming to Darty. Can't wait to see what journey you take!
Unlike some other universities, many of the STEM lecture classes at Dartmouth require concurrent enrollment in a laboratory section. What is it like navigating that time as a student?
As a senior, one of the most exciting things for me is my thesis project. In this blog, I describe how to approach making a senior honors thesis. As Dartmouth focuses on their undergraduate research, many students complete a thesis, so let's dive in!
