In Their Own Words: Alumni in Education

Courtney Brown '13

After graduation, I accepted an AmeriCorps position as a College Preparation coach with a St. Louis college access organization called College Bound. We work to help promising students from under-resourced backgrounds prepare for, get accepted to, and be able to pay for college.Everything I learned about education and equality while obtaining my Sociology degree is directly relevant to the work that I do. I am so much more aware of the impact someone's background can have on how they go through life. I am able to be open-minded not just because I'm a "good person" but because I have been educated about these issues.

Orli Kleiner '12

I am excited to be pursuing a career in social studies/history education at the high school level.  To that end, I have been awarded the Sociology Department's Truxal Prize to assist my current pursuit of an MA in History at Yale University.  I have served as a teacher's assistant and tutor, and I am eager to continue to share my passion for learning and intellectual pursuits in the social sciences with students, immerse myself in an academic environment, and continuously engage with scholarship, teaching, and learning.

Scott Abramson '06

I have recently finished my PhD in politics at Princeton and will be a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute for the AY 2014-15. After this I will join the faculty at the University of Rochester as an Assistant Professor of Political Science. My work uses statistical, game theoretic, and historical methods to explain the origins of the modern territorial state - a question of classical historical sociology - and has been heavily influenced by my undergraduate education in the Sociology Department at Dartmouth.

Jasmine Otkins '06

I have done a few things that are linked to my Sociology degree. I worked with the Chicago Department of Youth and Family Services in 2006 as a youth mentor and team leader within the Early Literacy Initiative. I worked in special education at a public high school in Chicago from 2011 through June 2013. Within this position, I did a great deal of work with the coordination and delivery of specialized services (social work services, health services, psychological and support services, etc). In September of 2012, I completed a master of public health degree and I am currently attending medical school.

Isabel Casariego Bober '04

I graduated from Dartmouth in 2004 with a modified Sociology major. My sociology classes initially got me interested in issues around race and gender, and modifying let me bring in classes from departments like Psychology, Government, Women's Studies, Education, and Public Policy. Although I worked in sales and marketing for Procter & Gamble initially, I took a leap after one year and started working in higher ed. Since then I've worked in undergraduate admissions at Tufts and now Dartmouth. I've been able to travel extensively domestically and internationally and run programs all the way from tour guides to implementing non-cognitive assessment measures into the application review process. In between Tufts and Dartmouth I got my master's degree in higher education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. My coursework at Dartmouth but specifically in sociology absolutely informs my day-to-day work, thinking about structural elements that act as barriers into education, group dynamics and how they play out (for example on a college campus, or within an undergraduate class), and how to analyze information while acknowledging biases. Most of all it's the curiosity and probing that my professors encouraged that have helped me to become a better professional in this field.

Jamie Kennedy '04

I modified my Sociology degree with Education, and now I teach 6th grade math at a Title I school in Lithia Springs, GA. As a result of my studies at Dartmouth, I am much more equipped to understand what my students experience at home and am able to support them better in the classroom. For example, an unfocused student could just be a hungry student. An aggressive student could be transferring feelings about how his/her parents engage in certain vices at home. An unkempt child could be... well, neglected.

By putting God first, connecting with my students and putting into place various systems to support them, I consistently have obtained large academic gains from my students. I have built a brand of excellence, "Kennedy's Kids," at the school and in the district and have been spotlighted by the superintendent twice. In 2012 I won the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Teacher of Promise award (basically, the rookie math teacher of the year for the state of Georgia)!

I strive to extend my impact on the school, the county, and eventually, the state. With the training that Dartmouth provided me, I believe I can do it. Thank you, Dartmouth!