Scholarship Student Lorin Paley - Summary of my freshman year at Dartmouth
Thank you Rotary Club and Suzie for your generosity in helping me pursue my dreams. I really appreciate all of your support!
I thought you might enjoy my summary of my freshman year at Dartmouth.
I muscled my way through three terms of calculus and a tough physics course. Thanks to my friends for helping me understand some difficult material and survive some late nights. One of the great opportunities at Dartmouth is exploring other courses while taking an engineering curriculum. I enjoyed a theater lighting class and a first year seminar on psychology and how it relates to sustainability and the environment. As a final project I did lighting for a play produced at The Hopkins Center; really cool experience. During my seminar we met with an inspiring 90 year old woman who pioneered land conservation in New Hampshire. My research internship on evaluating materials for joint replacement finally yielded some useful data, and the student research team displayed our research projects at an end of term "research day".
Starting a new Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) tradition, the DOC Adventure Race, was a fitting end to my freshman year at school. As the DOC Outreach Chair this term I wanted to introduce more students to some of the many activity groups under the DOC umbrella: Ledyard Canoe Club, Woodsmen's Team, Organic Farm (can you identify Canadian ground fruit?), Mountaineering & Bouldering, Cabin 'n Trail and Bait 'n Bullet. Could outdoor activities compete with fraternity activities such as beer pong for students' time? Would Rolling Stone Magazine send a reporter to cover the race?
Expecting only 16 students as a nice manageable size to initiate the race, we were swamped with 56 racers by the big day! With six volunteers and a few hijacked friends we pulled off the race and an adventurous fun time was had by all. I initiated two new DOC activities this year by getting three SUPs (Stand Up Paddleboard) ordered into The Ledyard Canoe Club and setting up an archery range for Bait and Bullet. The SUPs are already a popular activity at the river and I expect more and more "Hunger Games" fans to join me at the archery range where I am working on my 3" arrow groupings. Next year I will work on getting more SUPs and hosting a SUP event on the river.
With a big end of term push I completed my design/ build wood shop projects. I now am the proud owner of a hollow wood SUP that is sleek and fast for flat water racing. It was a eureka! moment when I launched and paddled; great tracking and as light as an epoxy board. Of course I already have modifications for the next model. I would like to instruct a mini course on building a SUP at school, but I would have to take over the whole wood shop. The school has a great shop and staff that helped float my boat.
Project 2 came about when I took over the lease on my new Hanover housing. The "Pebble" is a small cottage size house nestled with two other larger houses occupied by DOC enthusiasts. As the name implies, the Pebble is cozy; why not a fold up murphy bed that converts into a stand up desk during the day? I launched into designing the bed on the computers at Thayer, the engineering building. After struggling with the basics of "solidworks" a computer aided design program I had a workable design that I could watch fold up and down on the computer. Next step, build it out of wood at the shop. The beds are installed at the Pebble awaiting some metal hardware that I am designing and machining this summer. Next exploration, the machine shop at Thayer.
My summer internship is underway and I am sourcing equipment to set up an innovative water jet slurry cutter for a startup company under the tutelage of an amazing retired Thayer Engineering Professor and inventor, Bob Dean. Bob has designed some of the unique engineering courses at school and has started up several technology companies around Hanover. At 85 Bob is starting another venture that promises to revolutionize an industry. After he handed me a textbook on fluid dynamics to get ready for the project, I know it would be an interesting experience.
This week I am away from Hanover for leadership training with Outdoor Nation (ON) in NYC, and then on to the ON National Congress in DC. More on this later! Looking forward to Summer OR Show and hopefully seeing many friends in Salt Lake. I will definitely give you a call when I return to Steamboat during my Winter Break. I will look forward to having lunch with you and the rest of the group.
Lorin Paley
They say life is an adventure. Prove them right.