Hi guys! I'm Chidera and I'm a '25 from Lagos, Nigeria. I've lived in a big city for nearly half of my life, so it's great to experience the scenic outdoor spaces surrounding Dartmouth. Outside of the classroom, I conduct research with the economics department, I'm a peer tutor for the Academic Skills Center and I'm also involved with the Dartmouth Energy Alliance.
Taking this class was a random and unexpected decision that I am so happy I made. This class was about the intersection between human and primate evolution and our social behaviors. It really opened my eyes to how unique and beautifully diverse different societies are, and how this uniqueness influences our biology in interesting ways.
Taught by Professor Doyle, this has been my favorite class at Dartmouth so far. It was a calculus integrated with economic applications of the concepts we learned. It was the first time this class was offered at Dartmouth, and Professor Doyle made sure we all had a thorough understanding of the material. The fact that we were also able to see the real-world applications of the calculus concepts also made the class uniquely interesting.
I took this class to fulfill Dartmouth's first-year seminar requirement. In selecting a first-year seminar class, I sought out a department that I would not have taken a class in otherwise. It was an incredibly fulfilling experience and I learnt so much about Parisian Impressionist painters in the late 19th century like Monet, Manet, Degas, Morisot and Renoir. It also taught me about the political, social and economic conditions that typically inspire pivotal art movements.
SummerWashington D.C.
This summer, I interned at the International Finance Corporation in DC, through the Rockefeller Center's First-Year Fellows program which gives first-year students the opportunity to engage in public policy early in their Dartmouth careers. I lived with about twenty other members of Dartmouth's Class of 2025 and got to experience life in a vibrant city while gaining professional work experience.
I spent this term in Accra, Ghana for the African and African American Studies department's Foreign Study Program (FSP). I'm so glad I was able to take advantage of one of Dartmouth's study-abroad programs. During this FSP, I got to explore a new country and city while taking classes taught by the amazing professors at the University of Ghana.
After being away from campus for six months, I decided to start working towards fulfilling my distributive requirements. To fulfill my ART distrib, I took a Russian film class with a friend. It was an amazing experience and a testament to the ways a liberal arts education encourages you to approach each class through an interdisciplinary lens. For my final essay in this class, I explored the ways that government and political culture affect the nature of the film industry in different countries.
This class is one of the prerequisites for the international economics track's culminating experience. Dartmouth's economics major allows you to focus on a specific field that you're interested in, while also having the opportunity to take a couple of classes in other fields. Before taking this class, I had always been interested in international economics and this class definitely cemented my interests in the field.
I used my sophomore summer off term to conduct research with the economics department through the Dartmouth Economics Research Scholars and with the funding of the James O. Freedman Presidential Scholarship. My research project, which was mentored and advised by a faculty member, focused on the effects of European Union climate policy on the economy of my home country, Nigeria. It gave me the opportunity to apply and better understand several concepts I learnt in economics classes at Dartmouth.
This was the most enjoyable and impactful class I have ever taken at Dartmouth! Each assigned reading and class discussion was more enthralling and thought-provoking than the last. This class taught me how to think outside the box, write academic articles in the field of the humanities and how to intellectualise and synthesise my own lived experiences in a way that contributes meaningfully to existing literature in African Studies. Lastly, it taught me to think critically about pressing social issues within the African continent.
I am usually not the biggest fan of winter terms; growing up in one of the hottest parts of a country with a tropical climate, I'm still not very used to the cold after nearly three years here. However, as I conclude my junior winter and prepare for my last few terms at Dartmouth, I've realized that this has been one of my most fulfilling and gratifying terms at Dartmouth. I've really challenged myself academically and socially and successfully gone out of my comfort zone in many ways.
Academically, I was quite nervous at the beginning of the term to retake an econometrics class I had withdrawn from during my sophomore winter. When I took the class last year, I was not performing as well as I would have liked to. I believed that I would be able to improve my performance if I withdrew and retook the class at another time. However, I was still nervous about how I would perform in the class a second time. Taking the class with a friend, spending more time at the TA and professor's office hours, working on problem sets more diligently, and revising for exams meticulously made me enjoy and understand the class material a lot more than I had before. I also made the intentional decision to reduce my extracurricular commitments—such as research and tutoring—in order to spend more on class material that I knew I found difficult. Feeling comfortable in an econometrics class, a core requirement for my economics major, also made me much more excited and confident about subsequent economics classes I would take.
Aside from this class, I also took a history class on modern Southern Africa as well as a government class on Africa's international affairs. My history class gave me the opportunity to learn in-depth about crucial moments in Southern Africa's contemporary history while engaging with thoughtful and interesting reading materials, including films, documentaries, autobiographies, and academic articles. I was also able to connect several of the themes from this class with the rest of my African Studies major. Despite having taken several African Studies classes at Dartmouth, my government class was the first one I had taken within Dartmouth's government department. It does not directly count towards the African Studies major, and I mostly elected it out of pure interest. However, it gave me valuable insights into how the field of political science approaches Africa's world affairs.
This term also gave me the opportunity to make new friendships several terms into my Dartmouth career. As much as the D-Plan gives students a lot of academic freedom and flexibility, it can also be tough not to be on campus at the same time as your closest friends, especially during junior year when many people have formed close relationships. However, divergent D-Plans can also remind you just how many friendly and incredible new people you can meet at Dartmouth. This term, I met new people through my classes, became more involved in my Greek organization, joined new student groups, signed up for random activities, and just became more open-minded and outgoing.
After returning from an enriching study abroad program, I'm diving into a bustling spring semester here at Dartmouth. Here are my four courses I'm taking this term!
Dartmouth's liberal arts curriculum pushes students to explore new departments and draw connections between seemingly disparate disciplines. Come explore my Economics, Physics, and Asian, Societies, Cultures, and Languages classes!
