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.
What volunteer/community service opportunities are available for students at Dartmouth?
A:
In high school, service was an exceptionally important part of my experience, so when I was picking a college, I wanted to find one that prioritized both local engagement and international development initiatives. With the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact (DCSI), Dartmouth checked both of those boxes. Many of my friends are engaged in the Center for Social Impact's local volunteerism programs like DREAM, Outdoor Leadership Experience (OLE), and SIBS – youth mentoring programs for students to partner with schools and community organizations to create holistic approaches to youth growth, development, and learning. My friend Abigail Roberts '23 from Miami, a volunteer with DREAM, reflected on her experience mentoring local youth, saying "you really get to see the impact that coming to DREAM every Friday has on the kids, as you get to watch them grow from week to week and even term to term." Another friend of mine, Arabella McGowan '23 of Memphis, commented on the Foundations of Social Impact Fellowship program that she's engaged in. "In Foundations, we spend the winter term on a "social impact tour" of campus interacting with different parts of Dartmouth like Rauner Library, the Hood, and the Tiltfactor game lab to see how they each play a role in social impact. During the spring term, we work on a consulting project for a local nonprofit. It's been rewarding to see Dartmouth through this lens and to gain exposure to the Upper Valley through our project."
This summer, I applied and was accepted to the DSCI Summer Internship Program. Each summer, the program pairs Dartmouth students with non-profit ogranizations focusing on social impact in San Francisco, public health in Boston, and poverty alleviation in Philadelphia. A group of around 15 Dartmouth students live together for 10 weeks as they intern with the organizations that they are matched with, and they are also matched with a Dartmouth alumni intern in the area. Needless to say, the internship will look a little bit different this summer as I will be interning from my own home. I was matched with Philabundance, Philadelphia's largest hunger relief organization, and am super excited to grow my engagement with development work this summer.
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
