Hey y'all! I'm Caroline York, and I'm a '25 from Georgia! My hope is to share my Dartmouth experience with potential '29s, '30s, '31s and beyond! On campus, I write sports for The Dartmouth, am a Center for Social Impact SIBS mentor, am in Christian life, a Tour Guide, a Dartmouth Emergency Medical Services (EMS) member, and do medical research! Otherwise, you'll find me at the Norwich Farmers' Market, studying in the Tower Room, and running along the Appalachian Trail. Welcome to my world!
As of right now, I'm planning to go into the health field as a pediatrician. I'm taking three classes which all seem unrelated but actually all go together and prove that interdisciplinary studies is a real concept and not just a buzzword that gets thrown around.
I'm taking "Ancient Medicine" in the Classics department, "Gene Expression and Inheritance" in Biology, and "Paris in Lit and Film" from the French department.
"Ancient Medicine" dives into the medical knowledge that was "cutting edge" 2,000 years ago. Though some practices now seem a bit outdated (like hanging people upside down to cure headaches!), some medical thinking has lasted over two millenium. We studied the Hippocratic Oath, which is still in use today by doctors. Though medical practices have changed over the years, my professor taught us that the underlying belief in helping people has remained the same.
"Paris in Lit and Film" is a first-year seminar, which is required for all freshmen. The seminar encourages discussion among students to dive deeper into texts we are reading. Reading ancient texts from "Ancient Medicine" taught me to take the time period into context when reading about "outrageous" practices in 19th century Paris.
"Gene Expression and Inheritance" has been enhanced by my study of inheritance from Antiquity in "Ancient Medicine." I've realized that our current understanding of genetics is very modern but that the idea of inheritance has existed since the time of the Greeks.
Dartmouth offers a liberal arts education, which means there is an intentional focus on learning all disciplines: STEM, humanities, and all else. Here at Dartmouth, I can take a wide range of courses each term that cover various subjects but all connect in some form or another.
All three classes this winter term have a great mix of humanities, science, and writing. But they all seem to come together in a way that helps me understand how my pre-health studies all fit together. This term has shown me the advantages of being a humanities major on the pre-health track!
This term, I competed in the annual Speech at Dartmouth competition, but would never have had this opportunity without the support of Dartmouth faculty. Read on as I share how I got here!
