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.
Neon Horse Print Leggings and my Experience with "Flair" at Dartmouth
In my very first experience as a Dartmouth student, I was anxiously preparing to say goodbye to my mom and leave on my first-year trip. As we walked up the Dartmouth Outdoors Club headquarters, my mom and I were greeted by a mass of upperclassmen dressed in ridiculous leggings. At the time, I was super stressed about saying goodbye to my family, introducing myself to a bajillion new people, and beginning a new, independent life. All of those emotions make it difficult to find a comfort zone during the first few weeks of college. I was still nervous to move into Dartmouth, but the fact that all of the upperclassmen leaders were dressed in tie-dye crocs and zebra print crop tops helped alleviate the pressure to be cool or impressive. Because our leaders all seemed comfortable in their flair and in their own skin, I felt that some of the stress of trying to fit in at a new place was gone.
As I would soon learn, the scientific term for wacky attire here at Dartmouth is "flair," and the weird prints and neon colors are not limited to orientation week. During my first term and a half at
The club swim team wearing flair at a meet!
Dartmouth, I've encountered flair in a ton of different places, but the effect is always the same. In my experiences, I've found that flair helps level the playing field because when everyone looks weird, there's fewer reasons to feel out of place. Of course, Dartmouth is not a perfect bubble free of all social norms, but flair does help me feel more confident in new social spaces.
There are also a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds on campus, and flair is something that is usually found at thrift stores, easily borrowed, and relatively affordable. Dartmouth as an institution works really hard to provide accessibility to people from all financial backgrounds (check out the financial aid website for more info) and flair is just one example of how that manifests itself in the campus culture.
The first time I wore flair myself was to a Greek life event on a Friday night. Because I am from a place where Greek life is a predominant and exclusive part of many big schools, I came into Dartmouth with a lot of preconceived notions about the Greek system. However, in my experience, Greek life at Dartmouth has been far more inclusive than I expected. The majority of events are open to campus and sometimes, you're even encouraged to look ridiculous by wearing flair. Based on what I heard about Greek life before Dartmouth, I expected there to be lots of pressure to look and act a certain way, but when student groups encourage others to wear flair, there's a built-in message of embracing individuality.
I have written about being a student worker plenty of times in the past, but I have yet to talk about one of my favorite jobs ever: ticket selling at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a phenomenal total solar eclipse occurred — and we happened to be within the path of totality. As a result, Dartmouth hosted a variety of eclipse-related events on- and off-campus. Find out how I spent the eclipse!
