Ei! My name is Antônio Jorge Medeiros Batista Silva (yes—four last names!) and I'm a '25 from Governador Valadares, Brazil. My journey to Dartmouth has crossed two continents, three countries, and over 10 schools—and I'm a strong believer that everyone's path to the Big Green was unique in a way. At Dartmouth, I study Linguistics, Native American & Indigenous Studies, and Spanish. I am passionate about social justice, language-learning, and the oxford comma!
This class is an introduction to the Spanish minor and major courses and, although I did not expect to particularly like it, it not only turned out to be my favourite but it made me start considering a degree in the department!
In this class, we analysed different productions of Latinx American theatre. Prof. Analola Santana was probably the best person I met this year at Dartmouth. Being her student was a very important experience as I try to navigate my potential majors and minors.
In this class, I was able to carve time out of my busy Dartmouth schedule to study and learn my Indigenous language: Krenak. With the help of Prof. Gokke, all students were encouraged to develop a final project that spoke to their community's needs for language learning and revitalisation. It was an extremely important class for me, not only academically, but also for my personal healing process.
I had the honour of spending my sophomore fall in Madrid, taking part in the Spanish FSP. There, Prof. Martín was not only a great professor, responsible for my favourite lecture of the program, but also an incredible company throughout our classes and in-country trips. Great way to wrap up my Spanish minor, honestly!
This was my second class in the NAIS department, and thus it took me one step closer to wrapping up my major. Nonetheless, it was Prof. Powell's genuine charisma and caring personality that made it my favourite of the term!
This course was definitely life changing! Prof. Pochedley, a visiting post-doc of the Potawatomi nation did a great job at keeping the students engaged while teaching us to see the land we inhabit as a source of knowledge and spirituality. In a majority Indigenous classroom, we got to develop individual projects related to our traditional homelands, learning to navigate the world through Native world lenses.
Prof. Gómez is one of those profs I've always wanted to take a class with. His work with the Horror genre in Modern Spanish literatures amazes me, and it was an honour to guide in-class discussions and develop my own research on the themes of science, testimony, and fear.
LING54 is an umbrella course: the actual content of the course may vary each year, but it is the common letter-number code to refer to the course taught abroad by your accompanying Dartmouth Linguistics professor. In this year's Linguistics Foreign Study Program (FSP), LING54 was a 'Language Documentation' class, wonderfully taught by Prof. David Peterson.
Before this class, I had no idea what visual and cultural studies actually encompassed. Every chat with Prof. Broner opened my eyes to a different analysis or method for interpreting literature, and for that, I feel truly lucky! We got to discuss films made by Indigenous women from all over Latin America, exposing the class to distinct ways of interacting with and stewarding the environment.
If you are a long-time reader of my blog, you might know already that I spent last term studying abroad. If you are a newcomer, firstly, welcome! Secondly, yea—I studied abroad!
As a Spanish minor (or potential double major, oops!), Dartmouth has offered me a lot of resources to practice the language and, most importantly, get immersed in Hispanic cultures. Our department currently offers one Language Study Abroad (LSA) program in Santander, two LSA+ (similar to the LSA, but with higher level classes) in Barcelona or Buenos Aires, and two Foreign Study Programs (for people minoring or majoring in the language) in Madrid and Buenos Aires. The array of options is impressive, I'd dare to say. As the possibility to study abroad was one of the key factors I accounted for while designing my college list, I jumped onto these opportunities as soon as I could.
A trip to Barcelona was part of the program!
You can go abroad as early as your fourth term at Dartmouth, which for me was my sophomore fall. Going to Madrid was an amazing experience, and I could not have had a better time! Not only was Madrid an incredible city to explore, it was also an extremely welcoming culture to take a deep dive into. I was super excited to live with a host family and get to live all the intricacies of Spanish day-to-day life, but what really struck me was the amount of friends I ended up making along the way. I was lucky enough to have a couple of friends from high school who were now studying there, so I did not feel like a complete stranger to the social scene once I got there. But, honestly, I feel like in every metro ride to class and every night out I met more incredible people. And, even better than just learning the language and studying literature, I got to learn how to make friends in Spanish.
And we got a cute sweatshit!
Ever since coming back, I keep on making a joke to my friends that, whilst someone's love languages might be gift-giving, acts of service, or quality time, I am quite sure mine became Spanish. Both in class and outside of school, I used the language to build relationships and connections that I will forever carry with me. And don't get me wrong! I have been studying abroad for four years now, from high school in Canada to college at Dartmouth. But, getting the intense experience of living with a family, making friends on the streets, and living my daily life in a new language was something unlike anything else. And, honestly, this is what sets Dartmouth's study abroad programs apart from all others: there seems to be a lot of caring for you to feel safe and welcome wherever you are headed. I cannot wait for my next experience studying abroad with Dartmouth!
Join me for a 5:30 A.M adventure as I hike the Gile Mountain to catch the sunrise and explore the Norwich Farmers' Market, enjoying delicious treats and a beautiful morning!
