Hi, welcome to the blog! I'm a junior from a small suburb in South Carolina, just outside of Augusta, Georgia. On campus (and virtually), I'm involved in club water polo, the America Reads program, and the TAMID student consulting group. In the classroom, I'm super excited to pursue my interest in improving the world through public policy by studying the intersection of government and economics. I hope you enjoy following along as I explore all that Dartmouth has to offer!
Coming into Dartmouth, I knew I wanted to explore the creative writing department and this poetry workshop was a great way to do that! We studied well known political, love, and ekphrastic poems and wrote our own work every week. I really appreciated the small class size the classroom became a safe community for sharing my work, and I was able to get individualized critiques from Professor Francis.
Introductory writing classes are required for every Dartmouth student, but there are a wide range of topics, which makes finding an interesting course super interesting. My class focused on the American education system and gave me a ton of freedom to choose my paper topics.
Media and Politics was a writing intensive class which fulfilled my first year seminar requirement. While honing our writing skills, we studied the impact of news media, advertising, and messaging on campaigns and policy making. The class inspired me to continue exploring the government department, where I eventually declared my major.
Long Time, No Blog! Where I've Been & Where I Hope to Go
Hi blog! It's been a while since I've written! Since I last wrote, I've finished another term of classes, spent an off-term nannying, picked up approximately a bajillion random quarantine hobbies, and have begun applying to my first round of internships. Usually, my blog posts feature some sort of central anecdote or theme or piece of advice. For this post though, I'm letting go of that structure to share a collection of reflections, feelings, and ideas about where I'm going from here.
First off, I should explain what I've been up to since my freshman spring! I took the summer off, as the majority of Dartmouth first-years do, and spent time with family while working as a full-time nanny. Nannying was a new experience for me and taught me so many practical skills. No matter where you go to college, it can be easy to get forget that the world is not limited to classrooms and 20-year-olds. I found that taking an off term to work helped me decompress and reconnect with my hometown community.
In my sophomore fall, I was a part time nanny and took classes from three departments that were new to me. Be on the lookout for a more detailed post on those classes because I absolutely loved them. I took American Politics, Introduction to Computer Science, and a religion class focused on social movements. Working part time while taking classes was challenging, as were many of my friends' circumstances while taking remote courses, but Dartmouth professors are expert adaptors and managed to provide engaging classes despite the difficult conditions.
Now that I've caught you up, I'll try to give you an idea of where I'm going from here (although the pandemic has taught me the beauty of having flexible plans). I'm currently taking a break from working to focus on classes, which include Microeconomics, International Politics, and Quantitative Social Sciences. Again, look out for a post with more details on my spring classes because I could go on and on about each of them!
While I'm doing remote classes, I'll be living in a house with eight other classmates! I could not be more excited to be around Dartmouth friends again and I'm super grateful that Dartmouth's financial aid, which makes the experience possible. My financial aid package covers part of my housing each term and, since the pandemic, has been very flexible. Without financial aid, my family and I would not be willing to take on an additional expense, so I'm immensely grateful the Dartmouth's support is allowing me to live with my peers this term!
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.
This is my final term before senior year, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. One thing I am excited about is the classes I am taking this term, so let me tell you more!
This is part two of me "nerding out" about my honors thesis! If you want to learn more about independent projects, theses, or the humanities at Dartmouth, check it out!
