Kasey Crockett ’16

Kasey Crockett, Class of 2016, had a picture of what she thought college should be like long before arriving at Dartmouth. She wanted the college experience she had seen on BET while she was growing up. At home in Southfield, Michigan, Kasey’s mother had always made education a priority. She was dedicated to spending her time, energy, and money to ensure that Kasey received the best education possible.

At the age of 14, Kasey began her college application process. She realizes now how different her process was from other students’. As a student-athlete, Kasey began by talking to coaches and recruiters. She knew she had to perform well, both off and on the basketball court. By December of senior year, Kasey had committed to Dartmouth as both a student and a member of the women’s basketball team.

Life as a Dartmouth student turned out to be quite different from what Kasey had pictured. Though she felt academically prepared, having attended a rigorous college-prep academy for high school, the pieces of her college experience were not coming together as she hoped. Throughout her time at Dartmouth, Kasey changed majors, ended her career as a student-athlete, and rediscovered passions she thought she had lost.

When asked to describe academics at Dartmouth, Kasey reflects on her experiences in two different departments at the College. A course she hadn’t expected led her to something she truly loves.

I had two experiences with academics because I started off as pre-med and then shifted to African American Studies. My pre-med academic experience was starkly different. Dealing with the science people and their department…it’s not very personal. It’s not that they don’t care. They’re just not overly concerned with your personal success. So dropping a class, failing a class… they’re not going to shed a tear. They’ll offer to help you as much as they can but for the most part, it’s not a personal ordeal with them.

It’s distant compared to the experiences I’ve had my last two years, which have been more in the African American Studies Department where you really make a close connection with your teachers. They’re concerned about how you’re doing. They’re concerned about your personal life. They’re mentoring you in different ways and offering you different opportunities that I feel like I definitely missed out on my first two years in being pre-med.

I took Professor Rickford’s Black Radical Tradition my sophomore winter… junior winter… I don’t know. They’re starting to run together. But I remember taking that class and at that point, I was still dabbling in African American Studies. I liked it and I didn’t really think it was going anywhere. I remember being in that class and at the end of it being like I think this is what I need to do. I need to go major in African American Studies. I need to focus on this for my career. It was really a moment where I had a lot of clarity and found the passion that had been missing throughout my academic career. Some of the things that I cared about in high school that I had let go because for me it was school, basketball, school, basketball—no time to think. That was one class that really woke me up and made me realize that there were opportunities to do other things outside of my normal routine.

When asked to recall a memorable social experience, Kasey recounts a memory from a big weekend her sophomore year. A conversation in passing that forced Kasey to reflect on her choices and her Dartmouth experience.

I remember it was Green Key my sophomore year. I had honestly just been reckless in drinking for two years straight. It was ridiculous. I remember I was in the apartments at the Alphas’. I was talking to somebody and I asked him, “Oh do you have a drink? Are you having fun? Do you have a drink?”

And he said, “No, because I don’t need liquor to have fun. Do you need liquor to have fun?”

I said, “No.” But in my mind, I was like… probably. And then, at that moment, I was like maybe I really need to take a step back and think about how it is that I’m coping at Dartmouth, how it is that I’m trying to make this work.