New Hyde Park Resident Named Dartmouth College Valedictorian

A New Hyde Park resident was named one of Dartmouth College's four valedictorians for the Class of 2017.

Brian Chen, an economics major, graduated on Sunday in Hanover, New Hampshire. Chen, along with the other three valedictorians, marched to the Dartmouth Green at the head of the Class of 2017 and were recognized for their achievements at the podium.

“These valedictorians and salutatorians are the Class of 2017’s academic stars,” Dean of the College Rebecca Biron, said. “Their interests and aspirations represent the breadth of what Dartmouth’s liberal arts education can offer. The entire Dartmouth community should be incredibly proud of them.”

Nearly 1,900 degrees were presented at the graduation ceremony. The other valedictorians were Ran Zhou ’17 of Hangzhou, China; Yerin Yang ’17 of Seoul, South Korea; and Zhecheng Yao ’17 of Nanjing, China.

Chen, who graduated from Herricks High School, plans to apply to law school and eventually become a law professor.

Chen discussed his future career plans with Dartmouth:

“I was premed for two years, but I was increasingly drawn to law after taking a class with Professor Fischel in the econ department on land-use economics. It’s a seemingly mundane field, but the geographic location of economic activities is really important. There’s a lot of new scholarship coming out that says that restrictive zoning affects the labor market and mobility to the extent that it has an implication as to whether the United States is actually an optimal currency area. So these are some pretty profound implications in something that is so seemingly simple. I think that entire area is fascinating because has all these enormous but underappreciated impacts. It brings together law, economics, and politics.”

Image via Dartmouth