Laura Roche '04

I graduated in 2004 with a degree in Comparative Literature, with French and Economics as my comparative disciplines. I was originally an Economics major and French minor, but I decided to change to Comp Lit my junior year. The personalized attention, close community of the majoring class, and ability to do senior thesis research were all highly appealing. My choice of major gelled my interests in such a way that I really consider it to be the defining feature of my Dartmouth education. I chose to write my senior thesis on the Senegalese film director Ousmane Sembene. My senior winter I was chosen for Richter and Dickey Center Grants to travel to Dakar, Senegal to attend a CODESRIA conference on Economic issues relating to a modern day Africa. My undergraduate exposure to foreign cultures and my senior thesis research in Africa were largely instrumental in guiding my future career aspirations. I will be starting at the London Business School this August to pursue a MBA (Class of 2010), and I was awarded a Dartmouth Reynolds Grant as well as a London Business School Annual Fund Scholarship towards this study.  Prior to LBS, I was working as a Global Marketing Communications Manager for a brand design consultancy. I plan to leverage the international degree to work in business abroad.