After graduation, Blythe George will serve as an academic counselor at the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods, a charter school on her tribe’s reservation, before beginning a PhD program in sociology. (photo by Eli Burak ’00)
Blythe Katelyn George is the first member of the Yurok Native American tribe to attend Dartmouth College, and says she is “eager to return home and use my skills to help other Native youth reach their higher education goals.” This work, George continues, “will build off of my Senior Fellowship research on Native student performance in alternative schools.”
George, recalling her first day on campus, says, “There is no way I could tell that girl how much she was going to learn in college about her future, academics, building community, and forming lifelong relationships. I never could have predicted how much I would come to love this place and the people that fill it.”
The sociology major from McKinleyville, Calif., has immersed herself in many things Dartmouth. She is a member of the 2012 delegation of the Palaeopitus Senior Society, served as the socioeconomic status representative on the Inter-Community Council, and has worked with the First Generation Student Network for Native Americans at Dartmouth, and the Diversity Peer Program. In addition, George is part of the Mellon-Mays undergraduate fellowship program, which encourages undergraduate research, is a member of the Tabard co-ed fraternity, and she has been an undergraduate adviser (UGA) for Residential Life and student area manager for Novack Café for the last three years.
“I’m so proud to be graduating,“ says George with mixed emotions, “but it comes at the high cost of leaving all this behind. In addition to the credentials and opportunities that this institution has given me, it also gave me friends and mentors that I will stay in touch with for a lifetime, and that network is indispensable, and easily the most important thing that I’ll take with me.”
After graduation, George will be returning to her home area for a year to serve as an academic counselor at the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods, a charter school on her tribe’s reservation. In 2011 George won a prestigious Beinecke Scholarship which provides significant financial support for graduate studies. “I plan to use the scholarship to pursue a PhD in sociology, with an emphasis in education and economic reform policy in Native or rural communities,” says George.
Read more profiles of members of the Class of 2012:
- Give a Rouse: Meet Mia Jessup, Dartmouth Class of 2012
- Give a Rouse: Meet Motema Letlatsa, Dartmouth Class of 2012
- Give a Rouse: Meet Adam Rice, Dartmouth Class of 2012
- Give a Rouse: Meet Danielle Levin, Dartmouth Class of 2012
- Give a Rouse: Meet Julia Kelson and Suzanne Kelson, Dartmouth Class of 2012
- Give a Rouse: Meet Jason Toffey, Dartmouth Class of 2012
- Give a Rouse: Meet Alexi Pappas, Dartmouth Class of 2012
- Give a Rouse: Meet Javed Jaghai, Dartmouth Class of 2012
- Dartmouth Experience: Paul Kim ’12 Blends Campus Involvement With Undergraduate Research Opportunities
- Dartmouth Experience: Wills Begor ’12 Leverages Learning Opportunities in and out of the Classroom
- Dartmouth Experience: Aaron Limonthas ’12 Steps Out
- Dartmouth Experience: All the World’s a Stage for Singer Amber Dewey ’12