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 most fun parts of Sophomore Summer (the term that rising Juniors take on campus) is the existence of student-led summer performing arts groups! The few members of each performing arts group that are on campus for the term will audition new members and run a more casual version of the group for the summer. As summer co-director of my dance group, Sugarplum, I'm leading "Splenda." Along with two hip-hop groups, Sheba and Ujima, we auditioned over 150 people and ended up inducting 50 people with little to no dance experience into our group for the summer. Although Sugarplum is usually an all girls group, our cohort this summer includes both guys and girls. We rehearse three times a week and are preparing for two shows in August. Taking away the competitiveness that surrounds some of these groups enables the greater Dartmouth community to experience how wonderful the performing arts community is here.
An all female acapella group, the Subtleties, and an all boys group, the Cords, joined forces this summer to form the "Cordelties." They auditioned talent from all across campus and ended up with a dynamic group of singers and non-singers — all excited to make music together. An improv group, Dog Days, is running "The Dog Days of Summer" in a similar fashion, though they were a bit more selective than other groups. Over 40 people showed up to audition — only seven were accepted. New Dog Day member Vanessa Haggans says of the group "it has been a fantastic experience to push me out of my comfort zone at Dartmouth. Never did I ever think that I would spend my summer doing improv!"
Sophomore Summer is certainly the time to try new things. Groups like these make it possible!
