Hi guys! I'm Chidera and I'm a '25 from Lagos, Nigeria. I've lived in a big city for nearly half of my life, so it's great to experience the scenic outdoor spaces surrounding Dartmouth. Outside of the classroom, I conduct research with the economics department, I'm a peer tutor for the Academic Skills Center and I'm also involved with the Dartmouth Energy Alliance.
Taking this class was a random and unexpected decision that I am so happy I made. This class was about the intersection between human and primate evolution and our social behaviors. It really opened my eyes to how unique and beautifully diverse different societies are, and how this uniqueness influences our biology in interesting ways.
Taught by Professor Doyle, this has been my favorite class at Dartmouth so far. It was a calculus integrated with economic applications of the concepts we learned. It was the first time this class was offered at Dartmouth, and Professor Doyle made sure we all had a thorough understanding of the material. The fact that we were also able to see the real-world applications of the calculus concepts also made the class uniquely interesting.
I took this class to fulfill Dartmouth's first-year seminar requirement. In selecting a first-year seminar class, I sought out a department that I would not have taken a class in otherwise. It was an incredibly fulfilling experience and I learnt so much about Parisian Impressionist painters in the late 19th century like Monet, Manet, Degas, Morisot and Renoir. It also taught me about the political, social and economic conditions that typically inspire pivotal art movements.
SummerWashington D.C.
This summer, I interned at the International Finance Corporation in DC, through the Rockefeller Center's First-Year Fellows program which gives first-year students the opportunity to engage in public policy early in their Dartmouth careers. I lived with about twenty other members of Dartmouth's Class of 2025 and got to experience life in a vibrant city while gaining professional work experience.
I spent this term in Accra, Ghana for the African and African American Studies department's Foreign Study Program (FSP). I'm so glad I was able to take advantage of one of Dartmouth's study-abroad programs. During this FSP, I got to explore a new country and city while taking classes taught by the amazing professors at the University of Ghana.
After being away from campus for six months, I decided to start working towards fulfilling my distributive requirements. To fulfill my ART distrib, I took a Russian film class with a friend. It was an amazing experience and a testament to the ways a liberal arts education encourages you to approach each class through an interdisciplinary lens. For my final essay in this class, I explored the ways that government and political culture affect the nature of the film industry in different countries.
This class is one of the prerequisites for the international economics track's culminating experience. Dartmouth's economics major allows you to focus on a specific field that you're interested in, while also having the opportunity to take a couple of classes in other fields. Before taking this class, I had always been interested in international economics and this class definitely cemented my interests in the field.
I used my sophomore summer off term to conduct research with the economics department through the Dartmouth Economics Research Scholars and with the funding of the James O. Freedman Presidential Scholarship. My research project, which was mentored and advised by a faculty member, focused on the effects of European Union climate policy on the economy of my home country, Nigeria. It gave me the opportunity to apply and better understand several concepts I learnt in economics classes at Dartmouth.
This was the most enjoyable and impactful class I have ever taken at Dartmouth! Each assigned reading and class discussion was more enthralling and thought-provoking than the last. This class taught me how to think outside the box, write academic articles in the field of the humanities and how to intellectualise and synthesise my own lived experiences in a way that contributes meaningfully to existing literature in African Studies. Lastly, it taught me to think critically about pressing social issues within the African continent.
As I'm halfway through my junior year at Dartmouth, I'm paying a lot more attention to completing all my major requirements for my Economics and African and African-American Studies (AAAS) double major. Through my own experiences and hearing about the experiences of some of my friends at Dartmouth, I've realised just how much space Dartmouth's academic system gives students to customise their academic and intellectual journeys while preserving the comprehensiveness, breadth and depth of each academic discipline.
I've been pursuing an economics major since I started at Dartmouth and in this time, have learnt a lot about the economics department and the opportunities it gives students. Being one of the most popular majors at Dartmouth, there are a lot of misconceptions that the economics major plan is very rigid, but I've found that this is not the case! The major does have a lot of requirements, but the department encourages you to select a "track"—development economics, labour economics, international trade, microeconomics, macroeconomics, games and economic behaviour, finance, econometrics—to focus on as your "culminating experience", while also encouraging you to take at least two other upper level courses unrelated to your track of interest. In doing so, students are able to learn the core requirements of the major, specialise in their interests while still leaving room for exploration.
My study abroad experience in Ghana on the AAAS Accra Foreign Study Program (FSP) inspired me to pursue a AAAS major. The AAAS major encourages a lot of academic freedom as long as you fulfil the distributive requirements of social analysis (SOC), systems and traditions of thought, meaning and value (TMV), art creation, performance, history or criticism (ART), the history, criticism or theory of literature (LIT). Dartmouth AAAS majors can also fulfil the culminating experience requirement in many ways: through a senior seminar class, an senior independent research in a topic that interests them or an honours thesis. Through the variety of electives and fields offered by the AAAS, I've been able to intellectualise so many of my experiences as a young African as well as my interests in public service on the continent.
Aside from my specific experiences as an economics and AAAS double major, opportunities like faculty-mentored research, combinations of majors, minors and modified majors, independent studies that count towards your major, curricula that encourage you to explore subfields and unique culminating experiences encourage Dartmouth students to craft their own academic experiences. One of my friends is even creating her own major under the supervision and advice of professors at the intersection of English and Philosophy.
At Dartmouth, there is an undergraduate requirement for language; after all, it is the liberal arts! Fulfilling this requirement looks different for various people and I will focus on my experience.
Traditionally, Dartmouth students take three courses during a term, but I decided to take four courses this term! Learn about course load and the academic system at Dartmouth.
As I approach the halfway mark of my Dartmouth journey this spring, I find myself reflecting on the significance of distributive and world culture requirements in shaping my academic experience.
