Hi, welcome to the blog! I'm a sophomore 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.
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 think fall may be my favorite season on Dartmouth's campus. Campus is breathing with new life as we witness the gorgeous transformation of lush green to crisp orange leaves!
I think a big elephant in the room is the presence of Greek life. Everybody knows it exists; it just looms in the background of the discussion sometimes.
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.
