Hi! Welcome to the blog! I'm from a small suburb in South Carolina, just outside of Augusta, Georgia, so I'm excited to document my first New England winter! On campus, I'm involved in club water polo, the America Reads program, and research in a computational neuroscience lab. In the classroom, I'm super excited to find a balance between STEM and humanities by focusing on both English and pre-med classes. I hope you enjoy following along as I explore all that Dartmouth has to offer!
Academic Program
English with focus on creative writing (also on the pre-med track)
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.
Before coming to Dartmouth, my biggest concern was definitely how I was going to cope with the cold. As a southerner, I was excited to see lots of snow, but I was nervous about the lack of sunlight and being ill-equipped clothing wise. Luckily, I have a lot of friends that are also excited to embrace the snow with me, so I wanted to share how we've been enjoying winter term so far!
My morning walk to class is so beautiful!
First and foremost, sledding! I went a few times as a kid, but I really forgot how fun hurdling down giant ice-covered hills could be! My friends and I took advantage of the giant hills on the Dartmouth golf course during the first few days of winter term. The golf course is beautiful and is only a five-minute walk from my dorm.
As my friend said "it's deceptively steep!"
The sled I bought at a beginning of the year sustainability sale was passed around, and we all shared a few pairs of gloves. After lots of sledding and powdery snow in our faces, we headed to One Wheelock to grab free hot chocolate, tea, and coffee.
Here are the things I learned during my experience skating on Occom Pond: I can't ice skate and hot chocolate heals all wounds. Nevertheless, getting outdoors during the cold days makes them much more enjoyable. I had fun playing goalie (aka leaning on the goal and hoping the puck didn't go in the air) and my friends from colder climates did give me some ice-skating pointers.
Learning how to skate!
By the end, I could even move without flailing my arms around frantically! Occom Pond is super close to my dorm, but it feels like something out of a snow globe, so it was nice to take a break from schoolwork and spend time with friends!
Clearly, we were being very useful to our team.
Finally, and a bit more practically, I've been learning to dress for the cold. With some advice from upperclassmen, I rented a car for the day and spent it wandering around Lebanon and checking out the local thrift stores. I found a couple of reasonably priced layering pieces and enjoyed having some alone time off campus. Bonus points for sustainable fashion!
I'm going to be completely honest: sometimes college is hard! I've compiled some resources that are great if students want to take some time to de-stress.
Even if I won't see my fellows NADs (our powerful Indigenous community), Questies (Questbridge ʻ23s represent!), and First-Generation Low-Income (FGLI) folks for a little while, you should all know that you make Dartmouth a wonderful place to be.
Because the town and school are small, they are extraordinarily interconnected and, in my experience, people in the community have been super welcoming. One long time Hanover resident even helped me pick out a good winter coat!
When I think of "old" at Dartmouth, I think of the many parts of campus that are rich in history. So this week, I went around to a couple of locations on campus to capture some of the historical parts of campus and their history.
I don't think any place exemplifies the stereotypical college town like Hanover and our dear old Dartmouth. Of the places at Dartmouth that have the best vibes, my vote — without question — goes to The Hop.
When I came to Hanover almost four years ago to start my freshman year, finding every place that serves coffee was of the utmost importance. Here's the rundown on the best places in town for coffee.
My morning walk to class is so beautiful!
As my friend said "it's deceptively steep!"
Learning how to skate!
Clearly, we were being very useful to our team.
