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 am interested in studying Linguistics, Native American & Indigenous Studies, and Spanish. I am really passionate about social justice, learning languages, 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.
As one of the many resolutions I wrote for the new year, I decided to get a new job on campus this term. There are many opportunities available in a variety of departments, so there was a wide range of options I could choose from. If you are interested in learning more about work-study at Dartmouth, you can check my post on the subject here. One of the most popular choices for students who speak a language other than English is to teach drill. Drill sessions are an intrinsic part of the Rassias Method – the one used at Dartmouth to improve language learning – and constitute of three to five conversational hours a week, where students are instructed to engage with the material studied in class. To be a drill instructor is to guide students through simple exercises of active learning, always based off a dialogue.
Now, I am teaching Spanish drill. The language – which is not my first nor second – had become one of my academic interests at college since Fall term. By engaging with it almost every day and helping others learn it, I feel like I am sharing a piece of this language and cultures that have brought me so much joy.
Being an instructor has also allowed me to interact more with the Spanish and Portuguese Department faculty, which has been a great opportunity. Being closer to the professors who I hope to take classes with and whom I see as big academic inspirations is quite a privilege. And the more I learn about the department, the more fascinated and convinced I am that, perhaps, this would be a great minor for me.
Work-study at Dartmouth is rarely just an opportunity to make money. With so many options available, students have the chance to turn these jobs into a professional, academic, cultural, or personal journey.
At Dartmouth, there is an undergraduate requirement for language; after all, it is the liberal arts! Fulfilling this requirement looks different for various people and I will focus on my experience.
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!
