Maria Cole ’84

Maria Cole, Class of 1984, does not know how she ended up at Dartmouth. While her older brother and friends seemed to have a school of choice, Maria did not feel that way about a particular college. She did not visit Dartmouth before accepting her offer of admissions. Rather, she based her decision on the course catalogs and the information that the College sent to her in the mail.

Dartmouth and Hanover were entirely new environments for Maria. She had purposely chosen an institution where she did not know anyone. In contrast to her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Hanover was remote and isolated. It offered her features that a large city could not. Upon reflecting on the overall quality of her Dartmouth career, Maria notes that she was lucky to have had a very positive experience at Dartmouth. While she values her journey, she also recognizes that not everyone shares these sentiments. As she learns more about the current conditions of campus from news sources and students, Maria hopes that Dartmouth can bring about a change that will allow others to experience the joy and fulfillment she did during college.

As a first year, Maria found community in her freshman floor. She was placed in the River Cluster, a grouping of dorms that is somewhat removed from the rest of campus. In this space, Maria felt as if individuals were able to transcend their differences. Although students of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and walks of life lived in the River Cluster, Maria believed that they were able to develop strong, meaningful relationships in spite of these differences because they all inhabited the same space. 90 percent of the people that Maria is still in contact with were members of her freshman floor.

Maria did not try to fit into the dominant social scene at Dartmouth. She knew that fraternities were not environments for her. As she transitioned into life as student, Maria fought to stay true to herself. To do so, she opted to create her own space and entertainment. She chose to dance.

I was not hanging out at fraternities at all. That just was not my thing. Me and my girlfriends would go to the AAm and dance. We would meet up with all my other friends from all over campus, like from Topliff or whatever. We would hang out at the AAm and dance. I didn’t have a problem bringing my friends who were not Black to the AAm to dance and hangout. All of my friends loved to dance, regardless of what color they were. And I would bring my friends from the River Cluster—that was just our little rainbow coalition—and we went to the AAm and we hung out. Most of the time, to describe college life for me, was a little bit different then describing college life for the average person on campus. For me, college life was a very intimate thing. Hanging out with my friends. Growing as a person because I got to see how other people lived. I got to go home with some of them for the weekends or for Thanksgiving because it was too far. I would have to go back to school for a week and then go home for Christmas, so rather than do that, I was invited to go home with my friends that I had made while I was up there. College life for me was different in that my life never revolved around fraternities and drinking.

After completing her interview, Maria thinks of something that she forgot to mention, a piece of her Dartmouth experience that was significant to her success. She emails the following response, hoping to shed some life on the role that faith played in her life during college.

One thing I did not mention but was integral in my life — and you might say kept me sane at Dartmouth was faith. The very first time I ever felt ‘un-tethered’, isolated, and lost — I found myself going to church. For me — faith, spirituality, church — whatever you want to call it, had a way of centering me; reminding me of who I am — in relation to myself, as a child of God, and basically helped to put things into perspective for me. I neglected to walk you through my first few weeks at Dartmouth but I have to say, just sitting in that pew and finding a moment to meditate, pray, and reflect on who I am in relationship to this universe helped to make all things bearable.

Maria never regretted her decision to attend Dartmouth. If anything, she wishes that she had more time to spend at the College on the hill. If she were able, she would take advantage of the multitude of opportunities Dartmouth offers its students. She believes Dartmouth cultivated her curiosity and desire to learn. It made her appreciate a liberal arts education.