The Dickey Center recently organized a panel of Dartmouth alumni and current students to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Great Issues Scholars (GIS) program as well as the 250th anniversary of the College. The discussion was moderated by Dickey Center director, Daniel Benjamin and generated productive cross-generational engagement between the classes of ’57 and ’82 with past and present GIS students. It was the first event of a series celebrating ten years of GIS, supported by the Great Issues Innovation Fund, that will be occurring throughout the year.
Attended by over a hundred members of the community, the lecture hall was filled to capacity with students, professors, and alumni alike lining the walls and filling the standing-room buy the door. There was a healthy atmosphere of interest which the panelists were able to take advantage of to address great issues of the past and present. They started off with what they thought was the most important advice for the audience. 
“When your mother says she loves you, check it out,” offered Christopher Wren, Dartmouth ’57. “If you pass a bathroom, use it,” he continued, setting the tone of discussion as he dove into other pieces of wisdom concerning his long career as a distinguished conflict journalist The New York Times: keep your pack light enough so that you can still make a mad dash to safety, always carry a tie anywhere you go, and don’t stick around if a bomb goes off, there’s likely another. Wren also emphasized the major impact of the Great Issues course during his senior year on his determination to embark on a career in international journalism. 
Sitting beside him, Sam Carlson ’82, shared insight about his winding career path and the lessons he learned through it. He spent the early part of his career as an education specialist for the World Bank, later choosing to pursue solar energy development in Burlington, VT. Carlson advised that the path to the future was environmental activism and perhaps ecological disobedience. He pressed the urgency of current environmental issues and implied that slow reform would not get the planet to where it needed to be, that people needed to take control more visibly of this issue.
“Take charge of your Dartmouth career, don’t think that you have to take a conventional track,” offered Anna Ghnouly, ’16, the panel’s most recent graduate and a past GIS student, as she shared the many formative experiences gained through her various terms off as an undergrad which included two US missions with the UN and a term with the Council on Foreign Relations. Her sentiments were echoed by panelist Namrata Ramakrishna ’20, who also shared her copious involvement on campus which included, being a GIS student and mentor, internship in Kosovo on a global health policy project and at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta on a project for risk reduction to emergency response.
The panelists were asked questions by the audience that touched on topics such as the role of a war journalist, the potential of solar technology, the necessity of alternate activism strategies, and pathways to a meaningful career during and after Dartmouth.
After these thoughtful questions, attendees had the opportunity to address questions more personally with panelists over appetizers and refreshments at a small reception.
Surrounded by Dickey center faculty and staff, members of many classes of Dartmouth students, alumni, and their loved ones, the event was a point of multi generational and international exchange.
To watch the entire panel discussion please click here
For more pictures of the event please click here or visit the link on the sidebar.
By Victor Cabrera