Hi y'all! I'm Catherine and I'm from the great state of Texas. When I'm not in class you'll find me carefully curating Spotify playlists, exploring the Upper Valley with friends, or finding ways to enjoy the great outdoors through different sub-clubs with the DOC. I am the Treasurer of the club lacrosse team, a tutor for the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, and am involved with research in machine learning and computational humanities through Sophomore and Neukom scholars!
After seeing this class in the course catalogue, it surprisingly piqued my interest. I decided to take the course on a whim, and I don't regret it for a second. Between reading various historical accounts and conducting my very first true historical research paper, I learned more about Gandhi than I ever thought I would know in my lifetime. Furthermore, I gained valuable knowledge about India's struggle for independence and subsequent partitions that have allowed me to better understand the historical context behind current day issues in South Asia. From this course I've realized that I love history, and want to pursue the discipline as a double major.
This class was AWESOME. I originally took the course as a prerequisite for another potential major. However, coming away from CS1, I now know that I want to continue further in the CS department! My professor was amazing and truly had a passion for teaching computer science and getting new students excited about the discipline. Besides having an infectious energy during class, she also made sure to make short assignments and labs fun and engaging. HIGHLY recommend. So much fun.
This term was by far my favorite so far at Dartmouth, especially by the time the snow melted and the sun came back out from wherever it was hiding. I absolutely loved this history class that I took because I felt that it helped me to better understand the way our country is today by studying our political past. I got to focus on a research topic of my own choosing, and I discovered a real love and affinity for research in the field of history.
SummerTraveling
I spent the summer at home, relaxing with my family and friends. When I wasn't at home in Houston, I was traveling with family, in particular my grandparents, who live in Florida and California.
I'm finally back on campus! I can't wait to get back into the swing of things, and enjoy the beauty of Hanover autumns. i am very excited for my classes this term, particularly a coding class in the humanities, where I will get to apply my love for computation and programming to topics in the humanities!
This class, being in the Anthropology department, was certainly out of my comfort zone. With my history background, however, I found that I had a unique perspective to contribute to class conversations, due to the varied nature of the anthropological academic approach. We learned about the history of conquest in Latin America and how that shape conquest today. What is conquest? Does it still persist? Can it ever go away? Are we to always live in the legacy past?
Spring 20S! Online classes… This class, CS52, got me through this term. With all the chaos and uncertainty surrounding everything going on, the projects for this class made me stay sane. Work for this class was fun and even stress relieving (weird, yes, I am aware). And the professor was absolutely incredible. I am super proud of all the projects I made, including most notably our app Tempo, an IOS app that makes custom workout playlists.
This past Friday Dartmouth held the 28th annual Karen E. Wetterhahn Science Symposium in the Class of 1978 Life Sciences center. It is a unique opportunity for undergraduate students engaged in STEM research to present their findings to faculty, graduate students, campus administrators, undergraduates, friends and family alike. I participated as a Women in Science Program (WISP) intern, presenting a poster entitled “Visualizing machine learning models for predicting readmission after an acute myocardial infarction”.
Since my research involved creating dynamic visualizations, I presented with an online poster using a provided TV.
I began participating in this research through the WISP program, a program I would highly recommend for any and all aspiring female-identifying first years that are interested in anything STEM related here at Dartmouth. This was a two-term program, but I intend to stay working with my lab for the following year. I’ve had a terrific experience.
Presenting a poster at the Wetterhahn Symposium is required for all WISP interns, but it was really a great way to not only create a culminating product of your own research but furthermore, to learn about other types of research here at Dartmouth. It was especially interesting for me to hear about the research of my friends, as I had heard so much about them working at their respective research labs, but never had the opportunity to discuss the specifics of their research in-depth. Also, my friends who aren’t involved with research came and I got to share what I have been doing for all these weeks with them!
Before we presented our posters, we listened to the keynote speaker, Paulina Jaramillo, Ph.D., who talked about how she became involved in her research in energy development in Africa. It was inspiring to hear her story. Her advice: never feel like you don’t belong. You made it here for a reason and are capable of achieving anything. Also, she added, go to therapy. Mental health is important.
Overall, I really enjoyed being part of the event. It was a fun way to be able to celebrate research in STEM here at Dartmouth.
Now, as I'm wrapping up the last days of my freshman year in college (UNBELIEVABLE), I want to share some things that I learned throughout my first year here as well.
There is no "the" thing you should be stressing over doing between your first-year and sophomore years. It's about what you need and what will bring you fulfillment.
Despite the vast ocean that separates me and my dream school, I applied to Dartmouth College as an international student from Bangkok, Thailand in the early decision round. This wasn't just a leap of faith, I assure you.
