Andrea Agola

My Winter Term Schedule!

After a nice and relaxing winterim spent at home in Northern Virginia (where it hasn't snowed yet), I'm back on campus (where it snows almost every other day) for my first Hanover winter! This term I'm taking Global Health & Society, Black Feminist Thought, and Writing 5: Food For Thought for my required First-Year writing class. I am also dancing in the Street Soul Dance group which I get PE credit for and technically counts as a 4th class. One of the most exciting parts about my schedule this term is that I am doing research in the Dartmouth Biomedical Engineering Center for Orthopaedics as a WISP (Women in Science Project) Intern!

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday my first class is Writing 5: Food For Thought at 12:50pm in Baker Berry Library. My 17-person writing class is based on how our world and ourselves are shaped by food and allows us to explore the personal side of food writing as well as contemporary issues related to food. That's right, a class all about food (sigh…a foodie's dream!). One of the best parts of the class is that each meeting starts with a short food-related introduction by a class member and we all have the liberty of sharing a poem/written work, artwork/visual representation of food, a current news story or short video. 

Afterwards, I walk down a flight of stairs to my Black Feminist Thought class at 2:10pm. The class, taught by the lovely Senior Lecturer Misty De Berry, is cross-listed between the African and African American Studies Program and the Program in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. I'm definitely looking forward to gaining more insight on Black Feminist ideology and overall view the class as a great source of empowerment as I navigate academia and other aspects of life as a Black woman. So far, I'm loving the structure of our class since we sit in a circle (a peace circle!) and have discussions about readings, visual cultures, queer of color critique, and performance studies that are rooted in transformative justice. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have my Global Health and Society class from 2:25-4:15pm. The course is in the Department of Geography and taught by Dr. Lisa Adams and Dawn Carey who both have amazing backgrounds in global and public health. This is a field that has always interested me and is why I'm considering the Global Health minor. In the class, responses to the HIV pandemic, the diseases that kill children, and the current COVID-19 pandemic, among others, are considered from political, ethical, medical, legal, and economic perspectives. Lessons from past and current efforts to control global infectious diseases guide our examination of the high-profile infectious disease pathogens poised to threaten our health in the present and in the future.

For about 10 hours every week, I will be working in Doug Van Citters lab focusing on joint (knee, hip, shoulder) implant research. As a prospective Biomedical Engineering major, I'm grateful for the amazing opportunity to gain great hands-on experience. Living in a River Cluster dorm has never been so convenient since while I'm farther out from the main campus, I'm just right behind the Dartmouth Engineering buildings. Over winterim, I completed some lab safety and biosafety training and am now starting to do some lab machine training so stay tuned for future posts about my experience! 

I started dancing in the Street Soul Dance Group last term and I am excited to continue this term. Street Soul is an open dance group that isn't audition based and takes all dance experience levels. I danced ballet for several years growing up and always wanted to try other dance styles so I've enjoyed Street Soul's fusion of hip-hop, contemporary, and more choreographed by students to trendy songs like Bad Bunny's "Titi Me Pregunto" and SZA's "Shirt." The group meets on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons. For me, it offers a fun and supportive environment that is stress-relieving and lets me tap into my creative side. It's also one of the great ways I can fulfill Dartmouth's Physical Health requirement (3 credits over the 4 years).

I hope you liked my winter term preview! I'm honestly really excited for this term and plan to learn to ski too so check back in if you're curious about how that goes!