Case Stories

We wrote four case stories, one for each of the first four major themes or types of critical moments that emerged from the interviews; the fifth theme, support, played a part in all of the case stories. The purpose of the case stories, again, is to promote discussions about the retention of women and minorities in the sciences. The four cases were designed to be compelling illustrations of real students with representative critical moments. Each of the case stories focuses on a single fictitious Dartmouth student, who is typically a composite of 2 ! actual students. Each case story includes several actual "uotes from the interviews #generally from several different student interviewees$; direct "uotes are shown in italics in the case stories. Three of the case stories feature women, since the primary goal of the project is to promote discussion about the retention of women and minorities. %ne male character was included to portray one male perspective. Two of the characters are &aucasian #''( of the students who responded to the survey and )*( of Dartmouth undergraduates are &aucasian$, one is +sian +merican #,2( of the students who responded to the survey and ,!( of Dartmouth undergraduates are +sian +merican$, and one is +frican #*( of the students who responded to the survey and '( of Dartmouth undergraduates are international students$. The case stories focus on the following four characters #all of the names used are fictitious$&ase .tory ,. Antonetta Disappointing Group Experience. +ntonetta describes herself as a /shy, aw0ward +sian girl.1 2er critical moment comes when she has a disappointing e3perience with a group project in an engineering course. +ntonetta is +sian +merican. &ase .tory 2. Dalila Poor Preparation. Dalila is an international student with poor preparation in math and science who struggles to 0eep up at Dartmouth. Dalila is +frican. &ase .tory !. Greg In Over His Head During the First Year. 4reg comes to Dartmouth with /loads of +5 credit1 and what he thin0s is a very strong bac0ground in math and science. 2onors multivariable calculus and physics prove for a difficult first year e3perience for 4reg. 4reg is &aucasian. &ase .tory 6. Michelle 7First Exam 8ichelle wor0s hard and feels well prepared but is shoc0ed when she scores below the mean on her first e3am. 8ichelle is &aucasian. Each case story, which is included in a separate bo3 of te3t in this section, begins with some bac0ground on the student, followed by a vignette of the student9s critical moment. :inally, a list of "uestions is included to prompt discussion. The facilitator of the discussion gives a brief bac0ground of the project before beginning the discussion #future handouts may include a brief written discussion of the project$. The project team views the case stories as evolving in nature 7 stories that will be modified and e3panded based on feedbac0 from faculty and student discussions. +fter each discussion session, wor0shop participants are as0ed to provide feedbac0 on the

authenticity of each story and whether additional discussion "uestions should be included. !ase "tor# $% Antonetta &'( Disappointing group experience. )ac*ground +ntonetta is +sian +merican; she describes herself as a ;shy, aw0ward +sian girl.; .he is scared of study groups and intimidated by the idea of seeing a professor during office hours. +ll of her close friends at Dartmouth are majoring in English or 5sychology. +ntonetta9s parents have always encouraged her to become a doctor but she came to Dartmouth planning to pursue a career in engineering. I volunteered in a radiology department in high school. And one of the technicians in the lab had been an engineer. When I learned more about engineering it seemed like the ideal job for me. +he !ritical Moment +ntonetta9s critical moment #a trimester long moment$ came during a group project in E<4.2, 7 =ntroduction to Engineering. .he enrolled in the course with high e3pectations. I had heard so much about it. Just the way the class is set up was so exciting. You form your own groups. hen you research a product! develop a design! and then you build it. It sounds fascinating. >nfortunately, +ntonetta didn9t 0now anyone in the course so she was randomly assigned to a group with three guys. .he reports that though they were all very nice, they were close friends so she felt li0e an outsider. We struggled to find a product to work on" there were limited guidelines and it seemed like everything we thought of had already been done. We finally decided to try to improve the design of a heated jacket. #orth $ace had recently discontinued their heated jacket design so we investigated why and how to improve the design. %y primary role in the project was to write the report. he three guys in my group had an easier time getting together so they took care of building the prototype. Anyway! I just found the whole experience to be very disappointing. I&m now planning to major in psychology. %aybe my parents have been right all along and I should just become a doctor. ,uestions to consider% ,. &ould the project or group e3perience have been better structured? 2. 2ow much influence do you thin0 +ntonetta9s parents had on her decision to major in psychology and possibly become a doctor? !. 2ow would her e3perience in E<4.2, have differed if she had had some friends in the course or at least majoring in engineering?

6. Would her e3perience have been better if she hadn9t been the only female in the group?

!ase "tor# -% Dalila .'/ Poor preparation. )ac*ground Dalila is a sophomore from @enya. .he attended almost two years of secondary school in the >nited .tates and always intended to apply to competitive colleges here. .he has wanted to be a doctor since the age of A but also has a strong interest in physics. .he is the oldest of four and until she came to Dartmouth she e3celled in all of her science and math classes, both in @enya and in the >.. But physics and chemistry courses in her first year at Dartmouth shoo0 her confidence. I found at first that my preparation was very different from that of my peers! or so it seemed to me. I felt I was working ten times as much as everyone else just to stay barely afloat in chemistry and physics. Both chemistry and physics courses were ;flying through; loads of material and it seemed that the professor too0 no account of the various levels and types of preparation students had before coming to Dartmouth. .he discovered much later that all of her peers had different levels and types of preparation and many who presented a good front were actually having as tough a time as she was. hat was the overwhelming feeling of my freshman year'just feeling behind all the time! feeling like I have to work a hundred times more than anyone just to barely make it and feeling alone'and also there(s this feeling that everyone else is doing just fine. I mean )artmouth students seem to give this impression of *I(m doing just great+* ,o for most of the year I thought I was the only one. Dalila was not aware of most of the support available to her that first year. .he did not 0now about services at the +cademic .0ills &enter such as organiCed study groups and tutors. .he 0new that her physics professor offered office hours but when she finally mustered the courage to attend she felt intimidated by the large group of students there. =t never occurred to her that she could as0 for an individual appointment with him. +he !ritical Moment Then came that first chemistry midterm in wee0 four of the termI opened the first page and wasn&t sure where to begin. I looked at the second -uestion and I blanked. hen the next and it was basically the same story all the way to the last -uestion. I remember crying during the exam .and I wasn&t the only one+/ I got a 012 on that midterm because I guessed right on one -uestion. While Dalila 0new that she was struggling in the course she had hoped that all of her hard wor0 and studying would pay off and she would do o0ay on the midterm 7 26( is not

o0ayD .he wondered if her dreams of becoming a doctor were over. What should she do now? ,uestions to consider% ,. What can we learn from her story? 2. What could she have done differently? !. 2ow can professors ta0e into account different levels of student preparation? 6. Do international students have special needs? ). 2ow can we at Dartmouth provide more opportunities for more one on one e3periences?

!ase "tor# 0% Greg .'( In over his head during the first year. )ac*ground 4reg grew up in southern &alifornia where all through middle and high school he was on the accelerated trac0 in math and science. 2aving e3hausted the math offerings at his high school, he too0 calculus at a local community college. +s he puts it, he was ;one of the ones who gets it; in math and physics and was often called on to help his peers. +lmost from the first day at Dartmouth, he feels li0e he has been struggling and he is not sure why. I have friends who didn&t do as well as me in high school but are doing fine in college. I just think math and science at )artmouth are like way harder than at other colleges. 4reg came to Dartmouth planning to major in 5hysics and do pre med, possibly even trying to become a 8DE5hD. !ritical Moment 4reg9s critical /moment1 was really his entire first year. I came to )artmouth with loads of A3 credit and jumped in way over my head. I took %ath 4561 my first year! which is 7onors %ultivariable 8alculus and then 3hysics 69561. I was great in math and science in high school but I&m not like the math geeks here at )artmouth. %e and my friends are more like in the second tier in math. here are guys who are just brilliant at math here! they seem to live and breathe math. I&m just not that into math" 8ath and 5hysics did not go well for 4reg his first year. 2is difficulties in math were compounded in 5hysics ,! and ,6, which rely heavily on multivariable calculus from 8ath F and ,6. ,o! I mean! it was a good time but I think it was just too theoretical for me because 4 and 61 are honors courses. hey are all about theorems and proving theorems and

things like that! which I kind of like but we focused so much on theorems and so little on applications. When I couldn&t visuali:e it theoretically! I had nowhere else to go. 2e is no longer planning to major in 5hysics. 2e is currently undecided about a major but /probably not in the sciences.1 In the 3hysics )epartment! in order to take some of the higher level classes! you have to take three intro classes! 69! 61! and 64 and you have to have a certain grade average in order to even continue. ,o! if you don&t have that grade average! which I don&t have" ,uestions to consider% ,. What could 4reg have done differently in his first year to have a better e3perience? 2. What could 4reg9s advisors and professors have done differently? !. What are the differences between high school and college that made 4reg9s first year difficult?

!ase "tor# 1% Michelle .'/ First exam )ac*ground 8ichelle came to Dartmouth from a large, well funded suburban high school where she always did well in math and science courses. .till she was an3ious about science courses at Dartmouth because she felt she had been ;force fed; information in high school and she e3pected college level courses to be "uite different. ;verything in high school was distilled < this is what you need to memori:e! this will be on the test. I expected I would have to take far more responsibility for my own learning at )artmouth. 8ichelle has wanted to be a marine biologist since she was a very small girl and spent many summers at the beach. =n middle school and high school she really enjoyed her biology courses, especially the labsI absolutely loved our lab days= they had slides prepared for us to study under the microscope and I found that to be the most fascinating thing. I felt like! >h! I can see myself doing this for life. =n her first term at Dartmouth, 8ichelle too0 Biology ,6 and 8ath !, and though she had had some difficulty with high school calculus, she did well in 8ath !. The sessions with T+s helped her understand each concept and maintain confidence for the e3ams. Bio ,6 presented more of a challenge. .he had to learn new techni"ues for studying and learning; it wasnGt at all li0e the force feeding she was used to in high school. .till she was enjoying the deeper learning she was getting in Bio ,6 and felt she was getting the support she needed from her professor.

8ichelle has great respect for her professors and has ta0en several of her professors to lunch through the :+.T program #:+culty and .tudents Together$. .ays 8ichelle, I really love all my professors. hey(re very open and friendly. hey want you to do well and you can feel it! even when you(re not doing well. +he !ritical Moment 8ichelle scored below the median on her first midterm in Bio ,6 and was shoc0ed. hat was really rough after coming from being at the top of my class in high school. I went into the exam feeling well prepared and then I got the test back and I was in shock. 8ichelle9s immediate reaction was to call her mom, who advised her to go tal0 to her professor. .he too0 her mom9s advice and has an appointment to see her Bio ,6 professor ne3t wee0. While she really li0es her professor, she is worried about tal0ing to him about the e3am. What will he say? Will he be disappointed in her performance? What if he tells her that her dreams of becoming a marine biologist are unrealistic? ,uestions to consider% ,. What should the professor say to 8ichelle? 2. =f she had not made an appointment to see her professor how might the story have ended? !. 2ow would this story differ if 8ichelle had not had the support of her mom?