Gaining Greater Knowledge at Dartmouth College

 

Faith Rotich always thought she would stay in Kenya to seek a university education.

Rotich is from Eldoret, a town of about 290,000 people in the western part of the country. After she completed high school in 2012, the University of Nairobi accepted her into an undergraduate program.

However, Rotich says at that time there was limited space at Kenyan public universities. Many students had to wait a year or more after schools accepted them before they could begin studying. During her year of waiting, she began thinking about other possible choices.

Rotich then learned of the Kenya Scholar-Athlete Project, or KenSAP. This program helps gifted high school graduates with little money gain admission to selective colleges in the United States and Canada. With the help of KenSAP, she applied¹ to several schools, all in the northeastern part of the U.S. called New England.

In 2014, Dartmouth College accepted Rotich to start her undergraduate studies in mathematics.

Dartmouth is a private research university located in Hanover, a town of about 11,200 people in the northeastern state of New Hampshire. In 2016, more than half of the town residents were students at the school.

Dartmouth is one of eight private colleges and universities in the Ivy² League. The schools are widely considered to be some of the best in the world. From 2011 to 2013, Dartmouth earned the highest rating in the country for ‘Strong Commitment to Teaching’ from the website U.S. News & World Report.

Dartmouth selected Rotich for its King Scholar Leadership Program. This program chooses students from developing nations and helps pay for and supports them in their education at the college. Upon graduation, they are expected to return to their home country to help fight poverty.

When she arrived in fall of 2014, Rotich says she could not believe her eyes. She says she was surprised at how much the school and the town looked like pictures she had seen on the internet.

"I felt some kind of happiness, that I want to explore this place, I want to know what it’s like. Then later on … I met some wonderful students who immediately made me feel like I really belong here."

In her first year, Rotich started taking pictures for the university newspaper. As her interest in photography grew, the 22-year-old held special events to share her works with even more people.

Rotich has also explored different ways of thinking. She says where she is from, people believe in a form of Christianity with strong, conservative rules. At Dartmouth, she took a religion class that asked her to question some of those beliefs.

Her mother grew concerned that Rotich might lose respect or support for her own culture as a result, she says. But after Rotich explained that the purpose of classes like these was to improve her critical thinking, Rotich’s mother grew less worried. Her mother came to see the value in the respectful way professors teach these classes.

Exploration has been a big part of Rotich’s experience at Dartmouth. Now she is even considering changing her subject of study from mathematics to economics and anthropology³.

Interest in research

Gilbert Rahme is from Beirut, Lebanon. Like Rotich, he also had little money growing up.

After completing his education at a Catholic high school, he had two choices: work as a bartender or attend the country’s only free public university - Lebanese University. He chose a university education and, in 2008, earned undergraduate degrees in biology and geology.

In 2009, Rahme began a master’s degree program in biology at the American University of Beirut. It was there that his interest in scientific research began to grow.

Rahme says he became increasingly interested in studying cancer and how to fight it. Halfway⁴ through the master’s program, he applied to several well-known research schools in the U.S. for his doctorate⁵ degree.

Rahme was especially drawn⁶ to Dartmouth because he loves cold weather. The average winter temperature in Hanover, New Hampshire is between about -2 and -12 degrees Celsius⁷.

Students applying to almost any doctorate program in the U.S. have to go through an intensive interview process. But Rhame says the focus on academics and research and the difficult interview at Dartmouth excited him.

Rhame says he received some support for his research into cancer biology while in Beirut. However, Dartmouth’s support for his research is like nothing he has seen before, Rahme says.

"We had to deal with a very tough funding situation in American University of Beirut. So the research funding we had for a year [at American University in Beirut] was equivalent to what I spend here [at Dartmouth] in a week."

Rahme says there are few problems he has faced in the last seven years at Dartmouth that he has not been able to solve.

After the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon in 2013, some Americans said insulting things about immigrants. But Rahme used that moment to explain how hurtful comments like that could be for immigrants like himself.

He feels his experiences meeting different types of people at Dartmouth have been just another way of learning more. And he says the more knowledge he gains, the more he wants to share.

I'm Caty Weaver⁸.

And I’m Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

undergraduate – adj. used to describe a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after four years of study

gifted – adj. having great natural ability

selective – adj. careful to choose only the best people or things

graduation – n. the act of receiving a diploma or degree from a school, college, or university

wonderful – adj. extremely good

master’s degree – n. a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after one or two years of additional study following a bachelor's degree

doctorate degree – n. the highest degree that is given by a university

academics – n. courses of study taken at a school or college

funding – n. the amount of money that is used for a special purpose

equivalent – n. having the same value, use, or meaning

1 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

2 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。

3 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

4 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

5 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

6 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

7 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

8 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。