Hello, Eda here: full-time learner, part-time writer, and pretty much a happy amateur at everything else. My hobbies include reading, discovering new movies, and looking at the pictures of my cat. On campus, you can find me peer supporting for the Mental Health Union and SAPA, writing for Spare Rib, doing research in psychology, or listening to Turkish & English alt-rock. Feel free to ask me about taking a gap year, transitioning to a new cultural space, or college in general!
This class discusses the concepts of sex and gender in the broader context of issues related to race, class, national identity, and more. I loved this class because it helped me better understand how systemic inequality affects individual lives and made me think about ways to change it. Professor A'Ness is such an inspiring prof!
In this first-year writing seminar, we discussed how avant-garde movements from futurism to punk rock have constituted a rebellion against the status quo. I loved all the readings for this class and Professor McCann inspired me to take more courses in the English department!
In this course, we learned all the basics of fiction: character, plot, setting, etc. My favorite parts of the course were receiving feedback from other students, reading my peers' work, and having fiction readings as assigned course work! I also appreciated all the guest speakers we had, who were experienced writers in their respective genres.
As an aspiring clinical psychologist, this course has been one of the best classes I have taken at Dartmouth so far. The class focused on the etiology, diagnosis, characteristics and treatment of various mental disorders. Professor Hudenko has been one of the greatest lectures I had the pleasure of meeting. As a clinical psychologist himself, he had extensive knowledge in not only the theory, but also the practice of clinical psychology. He also succeeded in making a lecture-based class feel interactive and dynamic.
We covered the complex neural and biological mechanisms of multiple mental health disorders ranging from common conditions like anxiety to more complicated illnesses such as schizophrenia. In addition to reading about the cutting-edge research in this area, we also read memoirs and watched documentaries about the mental illnesses to focus on how these conditions are affecting people in real life. Professor Funnell is one of the best profs I had!
As an aspiring clinical psychologist, this has been one of my favorite classes at Dartmouth. We learned about different therapy methods, how and when to use them, their advantages, and shortcomings. The class was incredibly engaging with Professor Hudenko's frequent demonstrations of methods, therapy videos, and guest speakers. I would recommend this class to every psychology major.
I worked at Dimock Health Center as part of my community health internship. I was part of a team of summer interns who were college students like myself. We worked as patient advocates that helped people reach out to resources regarding housing, food, utilities, etc. Most of our work involved calling patients, helping them fill out forms, and researching resources. I learned so much about community health resources and how to communicate with a diverse set of patients. It was an invaluable experience!
I took classes in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London. My favorite class of the term was called London Performance Now, which involved going to different performance events in London and discussing them in class. It was the perfect opportunity to explore the cultural landscape of London.
As the title of the course suggests, this class was about food: its history, economics, and cultural practices. I learned a lot through this course thanks to guest speakers, thought-provoking readings, and engaging assignments. My favorite assignment in this course was writing about a family recipe; I learned so much about my family's history as well as the cultural conflicts in my home country. Overall, it was among the best classes I have taken at Dartmouth. Plus, we even got to eat delicious food cooked by our classmates!
The main reason I am enrolled in this course is because of the biology requirement within my global health minor (I wrote about minoring in global health here). But I am still excited about the content of this course! See, sometimes you get lucky for major/minor/distributive requirements; it makes you take a class you would not otherwise take but still find yourself looking forward to. One exciting thing about this class is that four anthropology professors are teaching this term instead of one. Each professor covers the subfield of biological anthropology in which they are a field expert. It is an excellent opportunity to get to know more professors in the anthropology department, a department I started exploring far too late in my Dartmouth career. However, I am still glad I have another year left to explore everything the anthropology department offers.
ANTH 17: Anthropology of Health & Illness
Speaking of which, ANTH 17 is a class I had my eyes on for quite a while. This class is a must-take as a psychology major interested in global mental health and public health. Beyond the content, I am also excited about the structure of the course with guest speakers and labs. Of course, these are not what typically comes to your mind when you think of labs, as these are labs in social science. For instance, our first lab will be the very first week, during which we will interview each other about our experiences of illness. Another lab example is a community observation. I do not know much about the rest of the labs, as the class has just started, and I have never done labs in anthropology before, but from what I gather from the syllabus, I am beyond excited!
PSYC 60: Principles of human brain mapping with fMRI
Speaking of labs, I will be taking a lab class in psychology that teaches us how to analyze brain imaging data from fMRI. You might have heard before that Dartmouth is the first liberal arts college to own an fMRI machine for research purposes. In this class, we will design studies and learn how to operate the fMRI machine. I also look forward to the opportunity to improve the skill set necessary to analyze fMRI data, which is an invaluable experience for any psychology major looking to apply to graduate school. While I expect to be challenged quite a bit in this class, since I have limited programming experience, I have trust in Professor Chang, who also teaches Power of Beliefs, a culminating experience course in the department I took last term (read more about that here). He is among the professors who understand the student experience and challenges the best at Dartmouth, so I have no doubt I will learn a lot from this class!
Stay tuned to learn more about these classes as I explore more!
Dartmouth's liberal arts curriculum pushes students to explore new departments and draw connections between seemingly disparate disciplines. Come explore my Economics, Physics, and Asian, Societies, Cultures, and Languages classes!
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.
Witnessing an eclipse was one of the most exciting days in my life to date, and a solid reminder of our place in this universe. Read on to hear about it!
