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!
Just to the left of this blog post, you'll see a drop-down menu titled "Gavin's D-Plan," and I'd like to dive into just what that is and what it means for your time in college. A regular semester-based system is typically a fall and spring term that lasts from September to December and then from January to May/June respectively — just what you'd be used to from high school. Dartmouth does something a little different; we have a quarter-system that is composed of a fall term which lasts from September-November, and then a month-and-a-half break from late November through December. Then comes winter term from January to the middle of March. We then get around a two-week spring break until the spring term which lasts from late March to early June. The unique summer term lasts from late June until late August and then we repeat with the fall term!
That's the quarter system, and there's a great amount of flexibility when it comes to what terms you're "on" and "off." To start, you're required to be "on campus" during your first three terms, that is your freshman fall, winter, and spring. Many students take off their first summer, but a few students stay on campus and take courses! Personally, I elected to take an "off-term" during my first summer and had my first formal research experience. Beyond this first year, things start to get a bit interesting. Dartmouth offers some comprehensive information on some more of the logistical information behind the D-Plan, but I'd like to give you a bit of a case study of what you can do with the D-Plan starting with the beginning of my sophomore year:
Here's what my D-Plan looks like for the rest of my time at Dartmouth!
Sophomore fall: My second fall on campus was very memorable. I participated in First-Year Trips as a trip leader, welcomed the new Class of 2026 to campus, and enjoyed the wonders of the fall foliage. The fall is a very busy time to be on campus, and there's loads going on. From "club-day" where incoming students explore all the clubs on campus to the Dartmouth bonfire, Dartmouth's fall term is obviously an experience you need to have.
Witnessing the fall foliage across campus is truly mesmerizing!
Sophomore winter: My second winter on campus was a nice quaint time to really buckle down academically and pursue my independent research. I still participated in many outdoor activities like ice fishing and skiing, but things were a bit more calm than the fall. It's a good term to take some tougher courses, and that's just what I did!
Winter term is a whole journey in itself... just look how beautiful campus is!
Sophomore spring: Right now, we're sitting almost half-way through my second spring on campus, and the end of this term will mark the half-way point of my time at Dartmouth. Wow! I just wrote a whole blog post about how spring is my favorite term on campus, so I'll let that post speak for itself. I'll just leave it at this: the spring is a great time to be on campus, and you'll certainly have a great time through the months of April to June!
Spring is my favorite term on campus because nature reemerges from its slumber. What a beautiful day out on the golf course!
For my final two years on campus, I'm planning on going abroad this summer! There will be multiple blog posts dedicated to my whereabouts this summer (my sophomore summer), so I'm not going to go into detail just yet… but it's going to be a great time! I then plan to take an "off term" during my junior fall where I hope to find a good internship and a nice place to stay from September through December. Then, I will be back on campus for my junior winter and spring terms to take classes. My junior summer will be dedicated to a formal research experience via the NOAA Hollings Scholarship program, so I'm certainly looking forward to that! From then on, I will be on campus taking courses during my senior year. It's remarkable to think that my senior year will be here before I know it. Things have moved by astronomically fast, so just remember to live in the moment when you can!
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
