Arianna Dunkley

(Spring)ing Into My Third Term

After taking the past two terms to grow acclimated to everything in a college environment, I decided to take classes that piqued my interest. Spring is the term where any unexpected snowfall melts and transforms into lush grass and sunny blue skies. As a Southerner who had my first New England winter, I am ecstatic to have the opportunity to experience the beautiful springtime at Dartmouth. With this in mind, I scheduled my classes to be in the afternoon so that there is room to enjoy spring activities in the mornings.

At Dartmouth, first-year students are required to take a writing class and a seminar-based class to fulfill an English requirement. The writing class comes first, and must be completed either in the fall or winter, followed by a seminar class in the winter or spring terms. There are three different tracks you can choose from.

The writing class structures for Writing 5 and Seminar (the path I chose to complete), Humanities 1 and 2, and Writing 2 and 3 function in a similar manner, and students take them over the course of two terms. After taking the Writing 5 class, Limits of Democracy, last term, I am now enrolled in a Seminar class called Picturing African American. As I approach only my second week of classes, I already know that I am going to adore this class. It is an African and African American Studies class that utilizes iconography to curate the historical significance of moments pivotal to African and African American culture. At the end of each class discussion, students are given a prompt in relevance to an art piece and must answer it open-mindedly. 

When I entered Dartmouth, I believed that I would pursue Economics as a major. After exploring other classes from different departments, I am leaning towards double majoring in Government and Sociology. However, I still have not taken an Economics class at Dartmouth, propelling me to take Econ 2 with Professor David Blanchflower. It is a survey course that splits between microeconomic and macroeconomic concepts, helpful in understanding general economic standards. 

After my experience with taking Math 3, Introduction to Calculus, during my fall term, I was excited to take another math course. Though math is not my best subject, I loved AP Statistics in high school, so I decided to take Math 10, Introductory Statistics.

Overall, I am extremely content with my classes this term and I know that it will be an amazing spring! Stay tuned for more blog posts throughout the duration of my spring term.