Find Your Community and a Sense of Belonging
A strong sense of community enhances both academic success and personal well-being in graduate school and as a postdoc. Meaningful relationships with peers, mentors, and campus groups provide support during challenges, reduce stress, and contribute to overall mental health. Take the time to meet new people and invest in long-lasting friendships.
Tips For Building Your Community
- Attend Events: Participate in workshops, seminars, and social gatherings to meet new people.
- Join Organizations: Engage with groups that align with your interests or cultural background.
- Use Campus Resources: Take advantage of wellness programs, mentorship opportunities, and support services.
- Connect with Peers: Form study groups or casual meet-ups to build relationships with fellow students and postdocs.
Find Events and Social Gatherings
Social gatherings are common across campus with many hosted by the graduate programs and academic departments, as well as student groups, and units across campus. The Graduate Student Council (GSC) and Dartmouth Postdoc Association (DPA) organize social events throughout the year, including outings, mixers, and themed celebrations. Grad students can find event details on the GSC events page or in emails from the GSC and postdocs can look on the DPA calendar. Announcements are also shared on the Guarini and Postdoc Slack sites.
Stay up to date on upcoming events from across campus through the weekly Guarini Newsletter.
Find Your Community
Try new activities even if you have no prior experience. These workshops provide opportunities to meet fellow students and postdocs while exploring new hobbies.
- Book Arts Workshop Studios: Explore traditional and contemporary bookmaking techniques in a hands-on studio environment.
- Ceramics Studio: Learn pottery and sculpting skills with access to professional-grade tools and kilns.
- Donald Clafin Jewelry Studio: Create your own jewelry pieces while learning metalworking and design techniques.
- Film Society: Watch and discuss classic and contemporary films with a community of cinephiles.
- Harold Edward Cable Makerspace: Access cutting-edge tools for prototyping, crafting, and digital fabrication.
- Hood Museum: Engage with world-class art collections and exhibitions right on campus.
- Hopkins Center: Attend performances, workshops, and creative activities in Dartmouth’s cultural hub.
- Woodworking Shop: Develop woodworking skills and craft custom projects with expert guidance.
- Dance Ensemble: Explore choreography and performance in various dance styles.
- Jones Media Spaces: Access multimedia tools and creative workspaces for video, audio, and digital projects.
- Library Concert Series: Enjoy live performances featuring a diverse range of musical styles in an intimate setting.
- Music Practice Rooms: Reserve private spaces equipped with instruments for solo or group rehearsals.
The Dartmouth Center for Social Impact (DCSI) maintains a list of local agencies, Volunteering in the Upper Valley, that accept volunteers. The DCSI can also advise any Dartmouth student (undergraduate, graduate, or professional student) on which might be a good fit for their time, skills, and interests, as well as how to connect with those entities.
Building Community Through Conversation
GuariniGRAD Dialogues are a series of events designed to bring students, postdocs, and faculty together in informal settings to foster empathy, understanding, and a deeper sense of community. By creating spaces where differing views, perspectives, and circumstances can be shared and appreciated, these dialogues aim to strengthen connections within the Dartmouth community and foster a sense of belonging.
Coffee or Tea Break with Your Faculty Advisor
Step out of the classroom or lab and into a relaxed environment with your faculty advisor for an informal chat at Ramekin Café in Anonymous Hall. This event encourages personal connection beyond academics, helping to build stronger relationships. Participants will receive coupons to use at Ramekin.
Walk Around Occom Pond
Join the Associate Dean of Guarini Graduate Student Affairs for a reflective walk around Occom Pond, followed by a coffee or tea break at Ramekin. This event offers a chance to connect with fellow graduate students and postdocs in a relaxed, natural setting, promoting well-being and community spirit. A $6 coupon for Ramekin and a Guarini mug will be provided to participants.
Guarini Baker Tower Tour
Experience Dartmouth from a new vantage point with a guided tour of Baker Tower. This event offers Guarini graduate students and postdocs a unique opportunity to see campus from one of its highest points, encouraging a fresh perspective on familiar surroundings. The tour includes a climb up several flights of stairs, including a ladder-like stair for the final ascent to the Bell Tower cat-walk. Participants should be prepared for a physically demanding experience and should be comfortable with heights.
Conversations with Montgomery House Fellows
Each term the Guarini School partners with the Montgomery House to bring graduate students and postdocs together to meet their Montgomery House Fellows for lunch and discussion.
Dartmouth six House Communities are designed to function as a residential experience for undergraduates and a community that promote intellectual engagement for all who work and study at Dartmouth. Dartmouth’s graduate and professional students and postdocs can become members of the Houses with first year Guarini students assigned membership in on of the six communities.
Please note that this does not involve living in one of the houses, but rather being part of the wider House community. However, you may be interested to know that twenty-four graduate and professional students already live in the House Communities as Resident Fellows.
House membership fosters connections through dinners, teas, workshops, lectures, intramurals, performances, and other campus House activities. There is no obligation attached to your House membership; membership simply means that, should you wish, you can receive all House communications, participate in events, and even join the leadership team.
These events can provide a fun, free way to connect with peers, faculty, and staff.
Email Residential Education to be assigned to a house or check on your status.
- Dartmouth Postdoc Community Resources: Resources relevant to postdocs, including the Postdoc Buddy Program.
- Postdoc Listserv: Occasional postings and our primary source for keeping you informed.
- Postdoc SLACK: Frequent postings and a place to “chat.”
- After Hours: Provide College and Medical Center employees with opportunities to get acquainted and participate in social, recreational, and cultural activities.
- Social: DPA’s slack channel that provides update information on our current social activities.
- LocalEvents: DPA’s slack channel that promotes local events.
- Upper Valley Young Professionals: Resource for young adults in the UV region of VT/NH who are looking to expand their personal or professional networks.
- Employee Resource Networks (ERNs): networks for postdocs, faculty and staff to join and aim to foster a more inclusive environment, enhance the sense of belonging within the institution, and strengthen connections within the Dartmouth community and beyond.
- MeetUp Upper Valley: Created by the Upper Valley Business Alliance (UVBA), serves to strengthen the bonds between you, your employees and the community
- The William Jewett Tucker Center: The Tucker Center is a great place to ask big questions, deepen spiritual identity, increase religious literacy and appreciation, find community, and get inspired. All are welcome, including people who are spiritual but not religious or identify as atheist.
- Spiritual Groups on Campus: Include Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim traditions.
- Off-campus Houses of Worship
Visit Dartmouth’s William Jewett Tucker Center for more updates and additional resources.
- Graduate Student Council (GSC): The GSC is the elected representative body of the graduate community at Dartmouth. They organize social events, support various student organizations, and provide resources for the graduate community. Meetings are open to all and are held on the first Tuesday of each month.
- Active Graduate Student Groups: The GSC maintains a list of active student groups that are open to all graduate students.
