Senior Profile: Tina Meng ’14

The Rockefeller Center encourages its outgoing seniors to reflect on their experiences at Dartmouth as part of a series called Rocky and Me.

Tina Meng '14 (Photo by Thanh Nguyen)

During orientation freshman year, I attended many of the Rockefeller Center’s open house events, and was immediately drawn to both the Public Policy course offerings as well as many of the programs the Rockefeller Center offered for undergraduates. However, my main involvement with the Rockefeller Center began during sophomore year after I enrolled in Introduction to Public Policy Research in the fall. As a Public Policy Minor, I was excited to engage in projects that integrated research methods with complex policy problems state governments face on a daily basis. I was also looking forward to implementing what I learned from that course in future projects with the Policy Research Shop (PRS). 

Through the class, I became involved in a project that took an in-depth look at strategic management and performance measurement systems for the New Hampshire Department of Safety. While the project started off small in scope, it quickly expanded in size and became one of my most demanding extra-curricular involvements on campus. After months of diligent case study research and meeting with department directors, my team members and I managed to create a tailored strategic management solution for the Department of Safety. After our initial presentation to the department directors, we were then asked to present our research to the Governor of New Hampshire, who at the time was Governor John Lynch. 

This was one of the highlights of my Dartmouth experience; getting to sit down with the top policy maker in the state and have an open conversation with him about the work we had done was incredibly rewarding. Although one of the original reasons I chose to attend Dartmouth was because of its intense focus on undergraduate education and opportunities, I did not fully understand what that meant until my involvement with this project. At any other institution, such an undertaking would have been given to other policy graduate students. However, being at Dartmouth enabled me to get this real, hands on experience with policy research and face-to-face interaction with policy makers. The entire undertaking was definitely one of the most valuable experiences I have had while at Dartmouth.

I was also involved in the Management and Leadership Development Program (MLDP) sophomore year. I had heard about this popular program from many of my upperclassmen friends, and quickly realized why so many students chose to be involved. We were provided with a wide variety of training sessions with knowledgeable and committed presenters, and also had the opportunity to meet and network with a large group of peers with similar interests but diverse involvements in campus activities. The experience empowered us to be better and stronger leaders in our pursuits at Dartmouth, and gave us invaluable resources and tools for our future endeavors in our extracurricular commitments.

All in all, I think the Rockefeller Center and my classes through the Public Policy Minor have contributed a lot to my memorable experiences at Dartmouth. My involvement in the PRS and my interesting coursework through the Center have given me a vehicle to explore both academic and professional interests, and I know all that I have learned through these experiences will follow me anywhere I go after graduation.

--Tina Meng '14

Tina is a Government and Mathematics double major with a minor in Public Policy. In addition to her involvement at the Rockefeller Center, she has held leadership positions with the Dartmouth Law Journal and the Dartmouth Consulting Group, and been a part of the Dartmouth Figure Skating Team for the last four years. Tina is excited to be working as a consultant at Oliver Wyman in New York City next year after graduation.