Matthew Monroe

​​Branching Out Academically

This term is the first time I've ever gone to school and not taken a STEM class; it feels kind of crazy. In high school, I usually took two or more STEM classes a year. Last term, I took (and really enjoyed) Chem 11, one of the general chemistry intro pathways. I'm planning on majoring in biology. But despite all this, Dartmouth's degree requirements are encouraging me to branch out, and it's really exciting! At Dartmouth, students have to fulfill distributive requirements, essentially various credits from broad subject areas that are required to graduate. This term, I'm taking Lighting Design to fulfill my ART distributive and to hopefully continue my involvement with Dartmouth's theatre programs. So far, the class has been very engaging; I have a background in lighting design from high school, but I've only ever been taught to view it in a very mechanical way. The class, while still teaching the technical aspects of the art, is much more centered around the creative process and harnessing light as a truly artistic medium. Aside from learning the methodology behind hanging, focusing, and programming lights, we also learn to appreciate art, nature, and everyday situations through the lens of light. One of the things that struck me as most interesting during the first lecture was my peers' reasons for taking the course. I was expecting everyone else to come from a theatre background like me, but in reality, interests ranging from architecture to feng shui had inspired my classmates to learn about light. Being in a creative setting with such a variety of people from different backgrounds and methodologies has been inspiring so far. I'm so excited to see where this class and this topic takes me throughout the rest of the term. 

In addition to my arts distributive, I'm fulfilling another degree requirement: the first-year seminar. This is part of the first-year writing sequence and serves as a follow-up to Writing 5 (shout out Metamorphosis and Otherness from last term!). While Writing 5s are focused on learning and improving the fundamentals of good writing, the seminar helps students branch out and explore their advanced writing skills through the depth of a single, departmentalized topic. That is to say that every seminar belongs to a specific department, meaning one parallel seminar-style class exists for all academic departments on campus! My seminar is Investigative Memoir, an English department offering that teaches students to improve their "literary journalism" through developing tellings of their own stories. Perfect for a blogger, right? It's only week two, but this class is a lot of work. Lots of readings, decent-length assignments, critical thought, and self-reflection on a lot of topics. And it's so worth it. I feel like over the course of the past three lectures, I've already learned so much about myself and started the journey of truly improving as a writer. 

Finally, (surprise!) Chinese 2! If you've read any of my school-related blog posts from last term, you'll know I picked Chinese to fulfill my language requirement! This means a commitment to a full school year of Chinese, which I'm still loving every minute of. I have the same professor and drill instructor as last term, so this course definitely feels like a continuation of Chinese 1. I won't say too much in this post, but if you're interested in learning more, check out my post about the first-year language experience!

Although I'll probably be back on the STEM grind in the Spring (Biology? Chemistry? I guess we'll have to wait and see), I'm really enjoying a term chock full of creative and unexpected classes. I can already feel a great term ahead, and I'm sure these innovative and mind-expanding classes will help me move in that direction.