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Nick at his Speech

One thing you'll learn about Dartmouth is that it's a campus that's always changing. And I don't just mean the students or professors, but also the physical buildings themselves. Whether it be renovations or constructing new buildings, Dartmouth is a campus that is constantly moving into the future. Dalnouth's latest and flashiest buildings are the new Engineering and Computer Science Center and the Irving Energy Center.


Nick trying on suits
I ended up hitting the local J. Crew to try and find a suit. As you can tell, I'm not quite used to them yet

Honestly, I'm not going to try to describe it because I don't think that'll do it any justice. I'll tell you this much though. Every time I step into that building, it makes me regret that I only have 1 more year here. And judging by the amount of non-computer science and engineering people who hang around the building, I'd say they feel the same too. 

I thought that would be the extent of my interaction with that building: just taking classes, working as a TA there, maybe getting a meal with friends. I never thought though that I would be invited to speak to the actual people who made it possible.

I didn't expect the email at all, but out of the blue I was invited to speak at the Dartmouth Innovations and Technology Festival. Essentially, they wanted me to speak on stage to the donors about my story, and what the new computer science center meant to me. I told them that I'd love to do it, but I didn't have a suit. To that, they just responded that I should just go to J. Crew and pick out a suit, any suit, send the receipt and that they'd pay for it. No questions asked. I was getting a free suit out of it, so I wasn't going to complain. 


Nick giving his speech

The day of the event came, and my speech went really well, in fact. Though that was not at all the memorable part of that event. It was more than just the fancy food (fancier than I've ever had before), but rather meeting all the alumni and donors who made this building possible. It was an insanely fancy event, and as someone who up to that point didn't own a suit, I was definitely feeling out of my element. But, every alumni there was so kind and welcoming to the point that it confused me. Each one of those donors was people at the top of their field, doing really cool things that I would try to explain but it was honestly all above my head. And yet, they wanted to ask about me? And how I was doing?


Nick with the donors
Me with some of the donors and trustees that I met. Huge shoutout to Steven Tseng (second to right) who was so kind and welcoming, and really showed me what it meant to be a Dartmouth community member even past graduation

Things like this are what I loved about Dartmouth. I've said it before, and in my speech, but what I love about this campus is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Even aside from the fact that the college was willing to pay for a nice suit for me to wear to make an event like this possible for me, the fact that all those donors took the time out of their day to just chat and laugh about our times at Dartmouth, and how the school has changed throughout the years remind me why I love this school so much in the first place. And why I made the right choice three years ago, and why I'm looking forward to my last

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