Hello! I'm Cal Shin, and I am a '27 from Cary, North Carolina. I am hoping to double-major in Economics and Philosophy. Outside of academics and blogging, you'll find that I am involved The Dartmouth as a writer and designer, WebDCR as a radio show host, and Dartmouth QuestBridge Scholars Network (DQSN) as an executive board member. Ultimately, I am a storyteller, and I hope you enjoy these stories about my Dartmouth journey!
I went through the college application process in my senior year with my classmates. Unlike most of my classmates, however, I was also preoccupied with the worries of whether I would even be able to afford college as someone from a low-income background. The reasoning behind my decision to apply via QuestBridge was a simple one: if I matched, I would be guaranteed a full-ride for four years at college. It was a bargain, but it was the best deal I could have.
After I was matched to Dartmouth via QuestBridge, I found myself curious about the community. I wasn't apprehensive about "finding my people," but I thought having a community of other QuestBridge scholars to talk to would be nice
Once I arrived at Dartmouth, I found that the QuestBridge community was initially less active than I would have liked. I wanted to change that; I endeavored to revive the chapter. As a result, I became part of the chapter's executive board as a first-year student
As a board member, I help plan various events geared toward QuestBridge scholars and advertise these events to the community on social media. We hosted a big welcome dinner at the beginning of the fall term. Our turnout was great, and it was an incredible opportunity to finally meet my fellow Questies in person after talking to them online.
The events continued. We partnered with the FGO (First Generation Office) to host a Halloween movie night. All first-generation and low-income students were welcome! Some of us had already watched the movie Edward Scissorhands; others hadn't—I am the former. Nevertheless, I enjoyed spending my Halloween weekend in a casual, relaxing way with people of a similar background.
My favorite event so far, however, is karaoke night. There was plenty of food, refreshments, and songs from people of all skill levels! Everyone had a blast singing their favorite songs, ranging from Taylor Swift to Pink Floyd to instrumentals and video game soundtracks—yes, instrumentals. Somehow, people made that work by improvising, which was the best part!
A QuestBridge scholar absolutely singing his heart out.
We have hosted more events during this fall term than in previous years. As a board member, we will be keeping this up! I joined because I wanted this chapter to be super active, and I'm going to make sure that we continue building momentum. Whether it be through some of the bigger events I described above or weekly QuestBridge dinners, there is no shortage of community here.
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.
