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!
What's a "Special Project" or "Independent Study" at Dartmouth?
Week two of my sophomore spring is coming to an end which means I've completed 20% of this term… oh my. The end of week two at Dartmouth also marks the end of the "add/drop" period for classes. During the first week or so, students typically do a bit of course "shopping" to see what classes they would like to commit to for the term. The typical course load here at Dartmouth is three classes, but very rarely do students take two or four courses depending on the individual students' academic plans. I participated in the typical course shopping period, and I'm glad I took the time to carefully consider what courses I want to take. I want this term to be a bit of an easier workload than the past few terms, and I think it's going to be just that. Instead of a traditional, lecture-based, sit in the classroom type of class, my third course this term is something called a "special project" or independent study in the Earth Sciences department.
To use the official Dartmouth language, a special project is "advanced study in a particular field of [insert discipline] under the supervision of a faculty advisor." If you haven't gathered yet from some of my past blog posts, I'm very passionate about meteorology. From simple afternoon thunderstorms to massive nor'easter blizzards, I love everything about the weather. After taking EARS 14: Meteorology my first term on campus, my love for weather solidified. However, I want to learn some more in-depth material relating to meteorology. The beauty of a liberal arts education is that you get a well-rounded understanding of a bunch of disciplines. The beauty of Dartmouth's liberal arts education is that you can get these well-rounded academics, but you can also learn about a subject in much more detail if your heart so desires. So, I'm pursuing a special project in the Earth Sciences department where I'm learning more about atmospheric thermodynamics!
Here's a great example of atmospheric thermodynamics in the real world! Through my independent study, I will learn more about how we get instability in the atmosphere... which contributes to the wicked looking clouds I saw during my storm chasing adventures in Arkansas!
I'm very fortunate to have a professor that was willing to take this on with me. Essentially, I will be doing a good amount of self-learning from an atmospheric thermodynamics textbook, do various problem sets associated with the chapters, do online labs according to the course taught at other institutions, and study the material independently. It's a great way for me to mature academically and to hold myself accountable even more so than in regular classes. Aside from meeting with my professor once a week or so to discuss the content, the special project lives up to its "independent study" name. At the end of the special project, I will need to come up with a "suitable written or oral report" on my conclusions from the class. I'm still finalizing this part, but I imagine I will design some small coding project analyzing atmospheric thermodynamics in the real world! I won't get too far into the weeds on this, but I think it's important for you to know that you can explore your most niche academic interests at Dartmouth while getting a liberal arts education.
Every Dartmouth student is required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Here's my experience navigating the language requirement!
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?
