Meet Dennis Heintz

Learn more about Dennis Heintz, Alumni (Class of 2020)

Where are you living now and what are you doing?
I am currently a freshman at the University of Vermont studying Mechanical Engineering. I live on campus in the university dorms and have a roommate.

Do you feel that ISL adequately prepared you for this next step in your life?
Yes, the study skills and research skills I learned at ISL prepared me for University. The content I covered in my classes this semester was also very similar to the content I covered at ISL.

What has been the most challenging thing to overcome since leaving ISL, and transitioning to your new environment during a global pandemic?
It has been challenging to meet new people during my first semester. All of my classes were online and I found it difficult to meet new people. In addition, the strict rules in our dorms did not allow us to use the common areas which made it even more difficult to meet others.

Do you have any interesting anecdotes to share about your life at University in Covid times? 
During one of the first weekends at university I wanted to go hiking with a friend. Due to COVID, however, the local buses didn’t run on weekends so it wasn’t possible for us to get to the mountains by bus. What we realized however is that there is a bus that will bring us within 14km of a mountain we could hike up that runs on Saturdays. So we decided to leave on Friday and take the bus as far as it would go. We then walked the 14km to the mountain and spent the night in hammocks at the top. The next morning we hiked back to the bus stop to get the bus back to campus. Unfortunately that was the only way we could go hiking in the mountains without a car. We were only gone for 18 hours and it was probably one of my best weekends. 

What do you miss most about ISL?
I miss being able to go to classes and interacting with other students and the teachers. I don’t interact at all with other students in my online classes and have not met anyone who even studies the same major as me.