But when talking to Dickoff, it's hard to see this aggressive side. A soft-spoken, mild-mannered, and polite 22-year-old from Minnetonka, Minn., Dickoff's sweet exterior masks her physical strength and determination.
"Meg is a sweet lady, but with an edge that is hiding below her Minnesotan, mildly bumbling and good-natured exterior," said Gudrun Juffer '08, a rugby team captain.
The scholar-athelete
Not only does Dickoff dominate on the ice, she has played club rugby for Amherst each spring since her sophomore year.
"On the rugby pitch, she hits low, hits hard, and is always behind her teammates to clean up any mess," said Juffer. Dickoff plays prop, where she is responsible for supporting other players in the scrum. A scrum is a penalty formation where players from the two teams bind together to move the other team away from the ball. Her teammates know they can trust her to help keep the scrum secure.
Teammates in both contexts marvel at Dickoff's leadership and sportsmanship.
"Though she isn't one of our captains in name, Dickie is definitely a team leader and really pulls her weight both on and off the pitch," said Juffer, who praised Dickoff's dedication to helping teach less experienced players when they start out.
Ditmore has played ice hockey with Dickoff since they attended Benilde-St. Margaret's High School together. A year younger and class behind Dickoff, she says that the older player influenced her decision to come to the College and always served as a role model to her. When they were younger players in high school, the two bonded while sitting the bench and coming in to fill in for players during penalties.
Ice hockey coach Jim Plumer, who has worked with Dickoff since her first year, praised her work ethic. "She often sets the pace in practice where we try to get our players to play at their top speed," he said. Aside from her competitive attitude and energy during practice, he said that her ability to face off has made her one of the most valuable players. She has been on the NESCAC All-Academic team the last two years and has been an American Women's Hockey Coaches Association national scholar-athlete twice.
For Dickoff, one of the greatest parts of her Amherst experience has been the team's success this year. This year, the Amherst Women's Ice Hockey team won the NESCAC championship beating out rivals like Williams, Bowdoin and Middlebury Colleges for the title. They made it to the Division III NCAA finals for the first time in College history.
A scholar-athlete at heart, playing sports has always been part of Dickoff's life. She sampled typical sports like soccer and softball, and figure skated from age three. When Dickoff was in middle school, ice hockey was becoming a popular sport for girls in Minnesota. In seventh grade she switched ice sports for the more aggressive ice hockey and has been playing ever since. She plays center, the middle forward position. She hopes to continue playing hockey when she goes back to the Midwest for grad school. Being part of a team is an important part of her life and school experience. "I do my work more efficiently while I'm in season," she said.
Her appreciation for contact sports drew her to rugby. It was a completely new experience for her; before playing she had only seen professional men's rugby on television. Aside from the team aspect, she likes the fact that both sports "combine strength, skills and toughness."
These attributes similarly characterize her attitude outside of sports. A geology major, she wrote her thesis on metamorphic rock samples she collected in the field in Montana last summer. Dickoff and two other final-year geology students, Owen Neill and Colin Lindsay, worked personally with their advisor Professor of Geology Tekla Harms, who says that the three students made the experience enjoyable. "When you're working in the field, you live in close quarters," said Harms. "People have to be easy going and take pleasure in what their doing and that's what those three students did."
According to Harms, on the trip, Dickoff made her follow the Stanley Cup finals for the first time. For her choice to study the Felsic rock sample, Professor Harms now calls Dickoff Felsic Femme. Dickie to her teammates, Felsic Femme to her advisor, Dickoff is a woman of many names.
But she does not have many faces. Harms describes the same dedicated Dickoff that her teammates know. "She's quietly self-confident, competent, has fun, and accomplishes what she sets out to do," said Harms.
Harms praised Dickoff's work overall, saying that the entire thesis process went smoothly. The only hitch was when some samples were not returned from the lab through no fault of Dickoff's. But she handled the situation well. After all her work, she received an A- and has been recommended for magna cum laude. As long as her grades are high enough, she will receive that honor.
Next year, Dickoff will be studying hydrology at the University of Wisconsin. She thinks that knowledge of hydrogeology will give her flexibility to work as an environmental consultant.
Dickoff's studies in geology are already paying dividends in practical and unexpected ways. When she found herself lost on her way back from a rugby game a few weeks ago, she discovered her mistake by noticing the difference in the surrounding rock foundations.
Geological passions
Dickoff has been interested in the environment and environmental studies as long as she can remember. She attended an environmental camp in the summers through her childhood starting in fourth grade and later went back to work there. She found the experience of working with kids particularly inspirational.
"Seeing kids go from being terrified of the ropes course-a 30-feet-high obstacle course of sorts-to completing the whole thing because their friends were cheering them on was incredible," said Dickoff. This feeling of inspiration led her to consider teaching as a possible alternative to environmental consulting.
She thinks that her older brother's attendance at the camp and outdoor interest may have helped sparked hers. Being out in the field and in nature is part of her attraction to geology. She appreciates the hands-on aspect of working in geology and being part of a major in which the labs involve field trips. "I love … being able to see the things we've learned about out in the real world," said Dickoff.
Originally, she declared a major in math, but in her junior year she switched to geology. After thoroughly enjoying her first geology class, Introduction to Environmental Studies with Harms, she just continued to take classes in the department.
Although she is starting graduate school in the fall, in the meantime she will acquire practical work experience interning with the United States Geological Survey in Vancouver, Wash., this summer. She will be working at the Cascade Volcano Observatory, doing both office and fieldwork. She looks forward to spending time outside and providing geological information for guides and translators.
She was recommended for the internship after doing cartography at a geological field camp last summer at Indiana University's facilities in Montana. She received the internship in February, but said that if that hadn't worked out, she would have been content traveling over the summer. Dickoff would certainly have deserved the time off; her complete devotion to her school work during the semester has been one of Dickoff's distinctive feature. "Even in elementary school, I had amazing teachers who made it fun and engaging to go to school, so I never found it difficult to stay interested," said Dickoff.
Dickoff's former roommate Rubinger added, "It seems like she's taken classes in almost every department at Amherst, and done well in all of them." Dickoff and Rubinger have roomed together or next to each other since they shared a room their first year in Appleton Hall. They are a true roommate success story. "Meg is the ideal roommate," said Rubinger, speaking of Dickoff's responsible, caring nature. "Meg was the kind of roommate who could never turn on the lights in the morning if I was still sleeping."
Diverse skills
A closer look at Dickoff's room will reveal another of her many talents. She sewed her own curtains and helped Rubinger make herself matching pillowcases and a bed skirt. She is also an accomplished knitter. "Especially during the winter, she's always working on a scarf, a pair of mittens, or a hat. Of course, always to give to someone else," said Rubinger. Dickoff said that her grandmother taught her how to knit when she was very young and after forgetting the skill, picked it up once again in her senior year of high school. She is most fond of knitting hats, usually during movies-it takes her about two movies to knit one hat.
Dickoff learned to cook from her mother and grandmothers and she especially enjoys baking her grandmother's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Over Interterm this year, when the hockey team went to Minnesota, they stayed with Dickoff's family and baked daily.
Aside from her schoolwork, sports and crafts, Dickoff also served as the president of the Amherst Change for Change program and has been involved through ice hockey for several years. A national program, Change for Change gives students cups to keep extra change; Change for Change members then collect the change twice a semester and donate the proceeds to various local charities. As president, Dickoff was responsible for coordinating with the national program and organizing the collection dates.
Heading back west
Dickoff is looking forward to returning to the Midwest next year, and although in her opinion people in the Midwest tend to be friendlier (she also misses the lakes), she says she will definitely miss Amherst. She came to the College because she wanted to go to a liberal arts school and leave the Midwest for a while. Her grandparents live in Connecticut so it has been nice for her to have family in the area. When Amherst felt too small she has had a place to go and visit. But for the most part, she's hasn't felt much desire to get away from campus because of her friends here.
Indeed, for Dickhoff, the hardest part about leaving will be leaving her friends, most of who will work in either Boston or New York City next year. But she knows that she will keep in contact with a lot of people and make new friends in grad school. Her friends at the College will undoubtedly remember Dickhoff for her loyalty and positive personality. "She's one of the best examples of someone who has a golden retriever personality," Ditmore said. "She's so faithful and even-tempered, and she has a lot of heart."