Hi there :) My name is Bryanna and I'm a '23 who was raised in Singapore. On campus I co-direct Sugarplum Dance Team, am involved in the Dickey Center's War and Peace Fellows program, do oral history research on the Vietnam War, and am writing a history honors thesis on the Cambodian Genocide. In my free time, I work as a barista at a local cafe called the Nest, listen to The Daily, and watch Masterchef (I'm trying to get into cooking).
With only 12 people, this course was the perfect seminar style course to introduce me to the history department at Dartmouth. We learned about pre-Columbus America up until the American Revolution, exploring a vast period of American history that is largely swept over in high school curriculums.
As someone who hopes to attend law school one day, this course was the perfect introduction to legal jargon, briefs, and the like. Professor Kalish helped me improve my writing my leaps and bounds as we explored judicial philosophies, current Supreme Court cases, and court history.
Despite my inability to sing or act, I've always been a big fan of theatre. Quite frankly, this course is one of the reasons I applied to Dartmouth in the first place. We read plays written from the early 1900s up to Hamilton, engaging with each deeply through class discussions and essay writing.
This summer I interned with a food bank in Philadelphia called Philabundance through the Dartmouth Partners in Community Service (DPCS) summer internship program. Each year, students apply to be matched as interns with non-profits in San Francisco, Philadelphia, or Boston. I completed the 10 week internship remotely from Asia, working a 9pm to 5am shift 5 days a week. It was an incredibly timely experience, as I worked primarily on Philabundance's COVID-19 relief efforts.
One of the best parts of Dartmouth is the way that students are willing to cram in a ridiculous amount into any given term. Last weekend was no exception.
Friday started with Halloween festivities. My sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, along with the fraternity Alpha Chi Alpha got together to partake in the Center for Social Impact's DREAM and OLE trick-or-treating. DREAM and OLE are two organizations on campus that aim to close the opportunity gap for youth living in low-income housing communities in Vermont by providing programs and mentorship. We baked cookies and put together to-go bags of decorations for the kids who came by in costume. It was so fun to see the kids running up and down Webster Ave with their DREAM and OLE student mentors. People were out on their lawns throwing footballs and playing volleyball amidst the crisp fall air. It was simply perfect.
Saturday, Dartmouth students bussed down for the Harvard-Dartmouth football game, which Dartmouth won 20-17. Honestly, it seemed like there were more Dartmouth students than Harvard ones in attendance! The alumni came out en masse, and it was so lovely to reconnect with old faces and friends. After the buzzer hit, the entire Dartmouth section stood to sing the alma mater together. It was one of those moments when you simply realize how much you love the school. It felt great to be a Dartmouth student.
On Sunday, my friends and I bused (once again) up to Burlington, VT for the Noah Kahan concert. He's an artist from the Hanover area, and his songs truly capture the essence of New England. My freshman fall, five friends and I went down to Boston to watch him perform (I wrote an article about it called "We Took the 89 to Boston"!). It truly felt like a full-circle moment as we watched Noah sing -- as juniors this time. Dartmouth students must have made up at least half the crowd, and many of us were brought to tears singing Carlo's Song, which is about the Gile Mtn. fire tower near campus. As it was Halloween, we went in costume. I was a disco cowgirl and my friend Sophia went in an inflatable shark costume.
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!
