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.
This term, I'm taking a very interesting mix of classes: a statistics class in the economics department, an interdisciplinary class on Russian film in the 20th century and an engineering class. ENGS 2, as the engineering class is called, is an introduction to the integrated design of structures and the evolving role of architects and engineers. This class is designed for students who are not engineering majors but are interested in exploring the design aspect of the engineering discipline. I decided to take this class to simultaneously push myself out of my academic comfort zone while also fulfilling the Technology and Applied Science distributive requirement for graduation.
For the past two weeks, I've been working on a fascinating project for my engineering class. For this project, we were required to design and construct a full-sized chair made entirely of cardboard that could comfortably support someone weighing up to 200 pounds. We had to consider the three main elements of structural design: firmness, commodity, and delight. Essentially, the chair had to be sturdy, good for sitting, and good-looking. At first, I thought it was completely impossible to make a full-sized, comfortable, and aesthetically pleasing out of a material as simple as cardboard. But with a lot of advice from our professors and teaching assistants, I discovered it is indeed possible!
For this project, we were putin groups of three or four students. I always enjoy working on assignments, projects, and other exercises in groups at Dartmouth; it's a great way to meet new and interesting people at Dartmouth that you might have otherwise not had the opportunity to meet. It also makes projects more interesting and productive because you can incorporate each person's creative and intelligent ideas into the end product. Moreover, when you spend an entire weekend in the engineering lab meticulously measuring and cutting countless pieces of cardboard with someone, you get really close!
This class also made me further appreciate teaching assistants at Dartmouth. Teaching assistants (commonly called TAs) are Dartmouth students who have taken the class before (and did really well in it) and essentially help to enhance the learning experience of current students by providing any assistance or help necessary during class periods or office hours. Our amazing TAs showed us the basic principles that you have to follow in order to build anything out of cardboard and make it structurally sound. After our first TA help session, my group realised just how surprisingly strong cardboard is. We left that session feeling a lot more confident about constructing our chair!
After days of measuring, folding, cutting and gluing pieces of cardboard, we constructed a full-sized, structurally sound and incredibly beautiful cardboard chair that actually did support up to 200 pounds without collapsing!
At Dartmouth, there is an undergraduate requirement for language; after all, it is the liberal arts! Fulfilling this requirement looks different for various people and I will focus on my experience.
Traditionally, Dartmouth students take three courses during a term, but I decided to take four courses this term! Learn about course load and the academic system at Dartmouth.
As I approach the halfway mark of my Dartmouth journey this spring, I find myself reflecting on the significance of distributive and world culture requirements in shaping my academic experience.
This is my final term before senior year, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. One thing I am excited about is the classes I am taking this term, so let me tell you more!
