Hey, how about some (good) news? David T. Jones makes

The
Third Issue
‘08 Update
Back to School...
As I was sitting around pondering the next gut-wrenchingly interesting topic to feature in the ‘08 Update, I began
to self-reflect, a notoriously disastrous activity, and I realized I had no job and was a pathetic hangover of an ivy league
education. So I figured I would try to reach out to those like me, sitting alone at home surrounded by a mountain of empty
Slim Jim wrappers and cereal boxes, by blaming the economy for my problems and asking you all to write about your own
similar experiences. I figured hearing about being laid off would make both the unemployed and previously-employed feel
community, all the while making those with jobs and those who stayed in school feel better and smarter for their planning
and decision-making skills. Furthermore, anyone who wrote in about how this bum economy hasn’t hurt him/her at all
would come across as a pompous anomaly (sorry), shifting the feeling of an outsider away from me for a moment while I
tried to quell my sorrows with another fistful of ambiguous Hostess product or some other equally-embarassing treat.
So that’s what you got folks. If you’re getting sick of me, send in ideas. And don’t blame Annie for this issue.
Your Class of 2008 Newsletter Editor(s),
Chad Detloff (and Annie Greengard)
Hey, how about some (good) news?
David T. Jones makes a feature article
in the Valley News entitled “Jones’ Goal
Extends Bruins’ Struggles” [Valley News,
10/13/09]: “Former Dartmouth College star
David Jones scored a shorthanded goal lift
the Avalanche over the Bruins yesterday.”
Check out the following link to an article
in La Prensa, the Nicaraguan newspaper,
about the history project Ben Jastrzembski is doing in Nicaragua about the history
of gold mining in Eastern Nicaragua.
http://www.laprensa.com.ni/archivo/2009/
abril/18/noticias/regionales/322472.shtml
David Chodounsky wins the U.S.
Jean Carlos Bonilla, Ashia Sheikh, Stephanie St. Louis, Mitalee Patil, and Irene Shyu
“take the Spring Break trip we never took while at Dartmouth but were able to take after
Dartmouth: Hawaii. We stayed in a cabin that was literally in the middle of the woods in
Kokee State Park. It’s was a 4,000 feet ascent literally up the side of a mountain to get to
the cabin and it took about 45 minutes to drive, each way, but we got to go off-roading every day as a result. We watched sunsets on the beach, sipped Tai Chis and Chi Chis, went
hiking, snorkeling, learned how to hula (not very well), went to a Luau where we stuffed
our faces, and went to the beach pretty much every day. Aloha!”
(Text and image courtesy of J.C.B.)
alpine ski championships! Read the article
“Vonn, Chodounsky take slalom titles” in
the Associated Press as presented by USA
TODAY on 3/29/09 at the following site:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/
olympics/2009-03-29-667100038_x.htm
We are getting a new surgeon…your
job has become obsolete.
Jessica Long
That Friday evening when LB, the office
manager, summoned me into the conference
room I didn’t think anything of it. People
ask, “Did you see it coming?” I definitely
did NOT see anything coming: but when it
rains it pours. It sure was raining that day,
literally. Confused and frustrated I left that
evening with the realization that no one is
immune from being slapped across the face
with reality of the rising unemployment rate
and then becoming an active participant of
the ever-changing statistic. So, I’m writing
to say if you have a job be thankful for it
whether you like it or not. And for those of
us that don’t have one, keeping looking for
that window of opportunity to open up so
you can climb through and start anew!
ing in BS HAS had some benefits…actual
employment—clearly not one of them.)
My interview this morning at an SF Cosmetics company was a total drag. I know
that my education and experience (professional publishing) doesn’t exactly scream
STYLE. And, I totally understand that “archival assistant” is more akin to “beige cardigan” than “hot pant” and “hooker shoe”,
but do these devils, (fashionably) wearingemaciation, really have to remind me of my
own personal strife and desperation?
Straight from the lips of the VP of Marketing (and I quote): “We don’t really need
someone with a college education…” And,
I was sure—as I always am—that I masked
my secret beige. Looking more Ann Hathaway than Annie Oakley, clad in wide-legs
and a fire-engine red pea-coat tactfully
overpowering nude pumps, I cat-walked to
my early morning appointment armed with an arsenal of highlighter and eye
shimmer (L. Crowe can attest to this) ready to fight
for my right to skim gawker.com, box concealer, and
tie millions upon millions
of little pink bows for the
latest elbow-rub.
Still this jab at my education (one OF many I’ve
experienced—Ruder Finn
delicately delivered this
beauty last month: “Our
Members of the Dartmouth College Gospel Choir Louisa Account Execs don’t usuThompson ‘08, Jessica Long ‘08, Michele Smith ‘08, Khad- ally interview interns just
ijah Bermiss ‘08, and Anike Adekoya ‘08, along with One because they have great
Accord, Walter Cunningham’s choir from Chicago, sing at recommendations, strong
the West Point Alumni Event during the Inauguration in resumes, and happened
Washington, DC.
to graduate from a school
of good standing…but fortunately for
Pathetically Unemployed and Powyou, you SEEEEEEMM to have a good
dered to Pasadena: An Update from personality”—cough, cough.) is the least
of my job search woes. On top of learning
the PR-Job Hunt Front
Stevie Belchak that I don’t speak Fashionese (Hi Olivia
Parlemo!)—and that my unisex(ie)(ee)(ey)
Starbucks and its genius PR team have won (y) name makes me a he-she and a freak
over my desperate-for-human-contact self unworthy of employment—I just recently
once again. I write you while I (post-job learned (as in a second ago) that Craigslist,
interview) sit in one of the 17,000 SBux my new BFF, is a two-face liar:
worldwide, educating myself on Chelsy
Davy’s latest skanktastic moves for the Sitting in another Starbucks on another cor‘Hot Ginge’ (courtesy of dlisted.com) while ner (Corporate Whores: 1 Billion, Starving
simultaneously figuring out how to fudge Artists and Desperate Graduates: 0), I came
3 years of administrative experience using across probably one of the most promising
creative alliteration and acumen. (Major- internship postings on Craigslist to date.
It began: ”Rapidly expanding SF based
multi-media production company/with
an established national media presence/is
looking for a PR/Marketing Intern/to support the execution of multi-faceted projects
and relationships...” Neither located in the
Financial District nor on a fault line but in
the Lower (cup mouth!) Pacific (inhalation!) Heights (sigh!) this job had “it”: PR,
Marketing, and Media tied into one big, fat
bow by the hands of a single, semanticallysweet sentence.
Dressed with the all the right trimming—
‘multi-media,’ ‘national,’ ‘multi-faceted,’
I became so excited reading its details, I
NEARLY left my PC unattended--IN. THE.
CITY.Thank god, this self-proclaimed media giant forgot to encrypt its reply-to, and
THANK GOD for the genius of Google (Hi
AdWord Associates!)Within three exciting, yet devastating, seconds I had learned
all I needed to know about said love@
docwade’s internship, and it was that this
job was NO JOKE.
It seems Doctor Wade, THE ONE AND
ONLY Love Doctor and, MORE importantly, the producer and personality of the
INTERNATIONALLY
ACCLAIMED
P.B.S. Television Series “Power Choices”
and—yes—EVEN the SF-based “Black
Renaissance” desired to wield her psychological prowess over her own personal
bitch. “Power Choices,” Doc Wade? Dear.
God.
So, as I drain another frappuccino and prepare to calm my nerves with another hit of
Union Square, I leave you, not only a predetermined failure to freakdom—pathetically unemployed and powdered to Pasadena, but also--thanks to Doc Wade and
affiliates--hanging tight to my last shred of
dignity: the “Power” of ‘Just Say No.’
Don’t forget about our class
website!
www.dartmouth.org/classes/
class08/
Information about upcoming minireunions, an online copy of the
newsletter, pay your class dues, and
more!
Never Been Better
Katherine Gorman
At the risk of sounding melodramatic,
it is safe to say that my life post-college
has been nothing like I expected. I always
thought that the “real world” I had heard so
much about would be pretty be an analog
of my college career. I would attempt to
get up early to hit Alumni Gym/Washington Sports Club and fail, show up for my
classes/meetings and sometimes pay attention, do a minimal amount of school/work
work and get by pretty well resorting to an
all-nighter when needed, and strut around
campus/city streets content with myself
and my place in the world. Only this time
Keystone Light would be replaced by Grey
Goose martinis and frat shoes tossed aside
in favor of Manolos. And did I mention I
would be making money? Faaaaabulous.
Fast-forward six months. After a rather inglorious career at a management consulting
firm that didn’t have any business, a failed
attempt of moving back into the parental
home post-graduation (bad idea, in case
you were wondering), and the general realization of how much life costs and how
little remains after taxes, insurance, rent
and the like—It happened. I was unceremoniously, matter-of-factly, and quite definitively laid off. Vowing not to cry in the
office, I quickly cleaned out my belongings
from my dingy cubicle and hopped on the
metro home. Once outside, I faced an inner
conflict, a dark night of the soul if you will.
I wanted to take a taxi. I felt that after my
horrendous Friday morning (where I not
only fought back unemployment tears but
also fought back the urge to vomit Thursday’s happy hour) I deserved to take a taxi.
But I decided that, as an unemployed person, I shouldn’t take a taxi. So like a modern Jane Eyre, I resolved to live a plain and
simple life—no shopping, no restaurants,
and certainly no taxis. That plan lasted for
about six hours, until long-standing dinner
plans forced me to reconsider my options.
I decided to forgo new spring dresses and
unnecessary vacations; I also decided
against playing the martyr “unemployed
friend” who complains about how much
life sucks and forces everyone else to pay
for her drinks (otherwise she simply can’t
afford to leave the house, sorry). Yes, there
were the less than pleasant parts of unemployment, like meeting my new boyfriend’s
parents and having to answer the question
of “what is it that you do?”, or driving
down city streets in the morning jealous of
all the commuters going their merry ways
to their important jobs. But then there were
the perks! Daily yoga classes, reading two
books a week and sleeping nine hours a
night. But more than all that, I think that
losing my job really did open my eyes to
the “real world” whose existence we do
our best to deny during our four years at
Dartmouth and sometimes after. I realized
that life is a lot more difficult than a threecourse term and that there are responsibilities far more pressing than sorority meetings and registrar deadlines. I realized that
my parents had given me so much over the
years so that I would be prepared to deal
with any situation that came along and
come out successful. And I realized that,
even if things hadn’t gone exactly according to plan, I would be ok. And I am. In
fact, I’ve never been better.
salary (in euros!!) and I teach English to
university-aged (read: mature) students
6-10 hours a week. Actually, it’s been even
less this semester because of the national
education strikes. Between the many perks
of working for the French government (affordable rent, healthcare, and lots of vaca
time) and the discounts for travelers under
the age of 25, I have been traveling a lot.
Just this semester, I’ve traveled to Madrid,
Rome, Tuscany, Paris, Cannes, and Corsica and I have trips planned to Marseille,
Sevilla, and various places in Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Germany. The best part
is that I haven’t had to ask my parents for
any money since I graduated. In February,
I even took a two-week trip back to the
States, which would have been nearly unaffordable, except that I got the grad schools
I was visiting to pay for it. I met up with
several Dartmouth alums up and down the
Jacquie’s high life: New Year’s Eve with Theresa Yang, Katie Har, Caitlin Crowe, Laura
DeSouza, Adam Vachon, Corey Chu, Carey Lou
Living the Life
Jacquie Pond
Have I been hit hard by the economy? No.
Bring on the hate mail, but I have to say,
I’m living better this year than ever. Since
September, I’ve been working as a lecturer
at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon,
France, a graduate school for super-smart
French students, most of whom hope one
day to become teachers. I make a decent
East Coast, and while my year-long EuroTrip has been splendid, I’ll be glad to be
back in America next year. For those of you
hit hard by the economy, and I know I’m
friends with several of you, I am certain
that things will get better. If you still can’t
find a job stateside, consider ex-patriotism
for a year, and flaunt your fluent English
skills. As for me? I’m starting a PhD in Romance Studies, so this year may have been
the peak of the high life.
I.U.D. S.I.S: Stay in School, Cause
It’s the Best
Back to School
Bridget Alex
After changing my major junior spring...
and then again senior spring, I needed to
take classes F08. As an “active older,” I
was denied basic human rights like college
housing and a student discount at the Nugget Theatre. Despite paying full price for
movie tickets, I’ve managed to make ends
meets by not paying any rent. I lucked out
with a house-sitting job at Professor Charles
Wheelan’s house, while it undergoes extreme renovations. So maybe a brigade of
hammering construction men invade my
house at 7 am, so maybe I cook on a hot
plate and wash the dishes in the bathroom
sink…but hey, it’s a free, real-live grownup house. And I have 8 EXTRA beds that
are available for Green Key visitors (free
for friends, negligible fee for acquaintances, and a mere $150 a night for Random
Campus Enemies)!
I successfully graduated in December, and
successfully received a diploma mid-February (delay due to a yoga class I forgot to
pay for somewhere along the line), but I’m
still in Hanover! Why you ask? Is it the frat
scene? Collis Late Night? Curiosity over
the weekly specials at Lou’s? No, no, it’s
giant ancient lemur teeth of course.
(as recently as 5000 years ago, lemurs the
size of gorillas flourished in Madagascar.
Humans came to the island, and the lemurs
soon thereafter went extinct. I’m measuring trace elements in their partially fossilized teeth in order to reconstruct their diets)
I decided to stay and do research before
commencing graduate school in the fall.
I’ll be doing more archaeological bone
chemistry, getting a PhD in Anthropology/
Archaeology from Harvard (which explains
my recent appearances at Dartmouth ‘08s
of Boston soirees). Over the summer I’ll be
on an archaeology dig in Romania. I could
have chosen anywhere in the world to go,
and I chose a Romanian village that boasts
500 people, an Eastern Orthodox Church,
a Church of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, an
elementary school, two bars, and two groceries stores (“very small, attached to the
bars”). It should lead to amusing stories.
Laura Reyes
I am a Biological Anthropology MA student at New Mexico State University, and
I will be presenting my current research at
the annual American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting this April. The
poster I am presenting is on the amount
of sexual dimorphism present in anteroposteriorly deformed prehistoric Puebloan
crania from New Mexico. I’m also going
to Belize during spring break for a primate
behavior field school. Basically, I will be
trudging through the jungle looking at
monkeys in the trees
while also trying to avoid their pee raining
down on me.
Be the School
Hanover Heaven
Sonia Lei
Still in Hanover, working as an intern in the
Studio Art department, but I did get to have
my own little show in the Barrows Rotunda
(That weird cylindrical space at the front
of the Hop) from February to March. Once
this year-long gig at Dartmouth is up in
June, I’m going to finally escape New England and drive across the continent, looking
for a place to take root along the way. If
that doesn’t happen before I hit the Pacific
Ocean, I’ll choose from among Tucson,
AZ, San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle to
settle down in and look for work (or the
path to enlightenment).
Jamie Tansey
The past few weeks have been both entertaining and frustrating. Students pretty
much checked out at the end of April, so
class in May was a real struggle. Attendance was pretty poor and in general there
wasn’t a lot of motivation going around.
While this was really frustrating to deal
with as a teacher, I can certainly remember my own high school experience, so I
can’t really blame my students, but it didn’t
make it any easier on me.
Inside the classroom, then, was pretty unexceptional. One highlight-- for me at
least-- was reading about different religions of the world in my 11th grade class.
Kids here have really distorted/uninformed
views on religions other than Christianity,
so I thought I’d use the last week or two
to try and correct some misconceptions.
A popular belief, for example, is that Barack Obama is a Muslim and is therefore a
bloodthirsty tyrant. At the end I’m not sure
how many fully grasped the nuances of Islam and Judaism, including the idea that
Jesus was Jewish, but I think the students
came out slightly better informed and less
likely to offend someone, so that’s a plus.
We played some games in the last week to
liven things up a bit. Scattegories was a big
hit. We also did a little bit of review but
more than anything we just talked about
stuff.
Since classes ended, students have spent
almost every waking moment at my house
watching movies or listening to music.
Several times students have even spent the
night, which is always a disaster because
kids will be coming and going until sunrise. A couple students have left a towel,
some toiletries and a change of underwear
and are regularly showering at our house.
This also happens at all hours. All our food
gets eaten, especially the hot sauce and
peanut butter, and in general it’s like I’m
supporting 6-8 children. I now understand
why parents send their kids away to summer camps. While it’s nice that my students
want to hang out with me at times, I get a
little exasperated, mainly because of their
uninspired artistic tastes. I’ve already mentioned the repeated viewings of “B13”. Other popular films include: “Bride and Prejudice”- a Bollywood adaptation of Pride and
Prejudice; “Last Kiss”- a lame Zach Braff
movie that my students enjoy because of
the nudity; “X-Men 3” and “Spiderman 3”just looking for action. Anyway, I hope to
never watch any of these films again.
We’ve started to run low on supplies so
we’ve had to improvise in our homemaking. We ran out of dish soap, for example,
and so for a couple weeks we were washing
out plates and bowls with Old Spice body
wash. Our food started tasting like “Swagger- the Official Scent of Confidence” however, so finally we had our field director
send us more dish soap on the plane.
And there it is: the end of my time here has
finally arrived. For all the shi**y music and
lazy students I’ve dealt with in the past few
weeks I’ve really grown to love this place,
and I’ve made some legitimate friendships.
I am sad to be leaving, especially since realistically I will probably never come back.
I had some ups and downs during my time
here and there are a few things I wish I had
done differently, but overall I had a great
experience. I didn’t dramatically shift my
world outlook or reach some epiphany
about what I’m supposed to do with my
life, but that wasn’t why I came in the
first place. I wanted to go someplace that
I would never otherwise go, experience a
new culture, try some new things, and generally take a break from Western culture.
I’d say I’ve accomplished all those things
and more. If I had to do it again I would,
even though it’s been hard being away from
my friends and family back in the states.
I’d recommend this experience, or one like
it, to anyone looking to try something new,
and I wouldn’t be surprised if I do something similar again in my lifetime.
Greece Lightening
Andrew Klein
I’m currently chilling in the library in
Thessaloniki, Greece, watching the sunset
in my peripheral vision and ruining my
forwardly-focused vision by looking at this
computer screen, but I’m using it to listen
to a fascinating talk about biotechnology
and the future of evolution on www.ted.
com, so no harm done in the grand scheme
of things... Hey, maybe iIll be able to get
my eyes replaced or
modify my child’s
genetic code so that
he has x-ray vision...
then it wouldn’t matter if Ms. California
had clothes or not.
Yeah, if I could have
one [conventional]
superpower it’d be
x-ray vision... or the
ability to effectively
sense auras/magnetic fields. Then learning how to manipulate the emotions of
the children I teach
wouldn’t be so damn difficult...that’s one
of the things I have to do in the classroom:
manage emotions. I don’t like to do it because I want the kids to be free, and I’m
always looking for better methods... how
does a person balance a child’s wish to be
free and idealistic while conditioning him
to navigate the mucky waters of society?
I’m taking a course in Reiki this weekend with the parent of one of the Greek
students, so maybe I’ll actually learn the
talent for managing magnetic fields. The
student is Pondiaca, the clever race of humans from the Caucus mountains - they
have more phallic noses and slightly darker
skin than most Greeks - facial analysis is
something that’s really fun to do over here.
Every person from the same culture looks
similar, but there are those little differences
that make me learn to appreciate the finer
points in life. Ah, the finer points in life right now i’m using photography and yoga
to appreciate finer points in life: flow of
form represented by flowers and humans in
conversation.
Psychoacoustics dude: sound. It’s an amazing thing. I’ve been drumming in the streets
for the past two mornings with some drums
I brought back from Thailand. It’s hard to
find my own rhythm in life sometimes, so
I steal others’ by matching the beat of their
flow while I chill by the water and secretly
find solace in the fact that I’m not actually
street performing for money because I need
it, but only doing so to improve my thought
process and determine direction.
Here’s a pretty baller picture of a pair of
dung beetles I took while hiking a mountain in Greece with a student. I keep it as
my background on my computer to remind
myself that teaching children is a sh**ty
task sometimes. But, at the end of it all,
after you’ve mopped up all the idiots who
can’t keep their heads on straight, behave
rationally, respect the ideal nature of the
human to be a peaceful organism - not only
to other humans, but to all things great and
small, and to be gentle, kind, non-aggressive, to listen to others and to realize that
truth is relatively based upon life experience, you realize that they too are lovely.
As it may take a pair of dung beetles and
45g of crap to make a ball of dung useful for fertilizing the ground from which
grows a tree that produces the paper that
provides the surface for the signing of the
peace treaty that ends the next world war,
so it may take 45 students to collectively
establish a base for the foundations of good
in society, each contributing a little bit of
what they believe is right.
In the heat of a giant crap it takes only a
little pushing to make it go the right way.
And there is only right way: the good. And
this is why I love them... and why I fully
believe in education as the foundation of
society.
Reunions come in all shapes and sizes!
Big Reunion in the Big Green Apple
Yasmin Mandviwala and Tess Reeder
SEC NYC Mini-Reunion Chairs
After almost a full year as alums, we
hosted our first NYC mini ‘08 reunion
at Fiddlesticks. As would be expected
of Dartmouth alums, the free beer
brought a crowd. Keystone wasn’t on
tap, but nearly sixty 08’s attended.
It was a great time to catch up with
friends, and even make new ones, and
we’re looking forward to many more
NYC ‘08 reunions! And if you aren’t
receiving mini-reunion invites for your
area, be
sure to update your contact information at: alumni.dartmouth.edu/contactupdate.
HEY 08s!
If you have any awesome ideas for a CLASS PROJECT
Something you want your dues directly involved in...
anything at all...
(and not just some bench on the green!)
Forward any and all ideas to [email protected]
They will be taken in consideration by your Executive Committee.
Thanks!
Dartmouth in NYC
Jon Hopper
There’s a group of us that meets ever Wednesday at the
one bar in New York (that we know of) that has a legit
pong table. Joe Hanley has gone so far as to purchase
(and ship) a box of paddles and balls from Stinson’s
so that we can have an authentic pong experience right
here in Manhattan. Wednesday Night Meetings occur
every week, starting immediately after work, and all are
welcome.
SF Mini-Reunion
Annie Greengard and Zainep Mahmoud
We didn’t take pics but we had a great time at Amelie wine bar a few months back where we had yummy French wine and appetizers. We reminisced about
school and thought about future mini reunions!