Cindy Shen

At Dartmouth, you get to meet people from all sorts of backgrounds with different interests and hobbies. As a result, my friends are in an array of different clubs/organizations/activities on campus and a mix of affiliated and unaffiliated people. The addition of Greek Life hasn't changed my friendships at all; we're closer than ever.

I've met a ton of '22s this term! This is Alisya, she's one of my lovely debate babies.

It's an autumn tradition to go to IC4U (Ice Cream Fore-You) and order a baby cone (that's actually giant). Rookie mistake if you order a small ... it's enough ice cream to feed a family.

Okay, this one's obvious. But as the lovely home of Dartmouth, Hanover is definitely a destination that should be listed here!

For Trips, I spent three days sailing on Mascoma Lake with a few other incoming freshmen (trippees). I've never really sailed before, or been around a lake for an extended period of time for that matter, so this was a new experience (and location) for me.

Boston is only two hours from Hanover, and some terms I've visited every other week (usually for debate or fencing competitions). I always try and stop at a museum if I have the time (or scout out some seafood)!

Every freshman is required to take both a Writing 5 and a First-Year Seminar; that, or take Humanities I and II. I chose to go the Writing 5 route because there's a wide variety of course options (you can take a Writing 5 about anything from food to sports medicine). I took The Supreme Court (taught by Professor Kalish) because it seemed like an interesting subject, and I was (obviously) not disappointed. 

I cannot express how phenomenal this course was (it is definitively the best class I've ever taken), but I'll try my best: Professor Kalish somehow guided discussions in a productive direction without dominating them (in fact, she usually just asked really insightful questions and let us take the wheel from there). Professor Kalish also held weekly office hours with everyone. Through these individual office sessions, she not only helped me become a better writer (and change the way I approached essay-writing), she also connected with me on a personal level. (One of my good friends and I also took her out for lunch.) I always looked forward to going to class, and I felt proud of all the work I submitted in this class.

Who knew that you could love a required course so much?

Call me a #snek, but I've loved every single economics course I've taken here. I've taken two of my three profs out to lunch because I loved their classes so much. I find the subject really interesting and just the right amount of challenging. If you're at all interested, I'd suggest at least taking one econ course to see if you like it!

Photo: Celebrating the snowfall after our econ final!

As a dedicated doodler, taking my first formal art class was definitely something I wanted to do in college. So I had high expectations going in. While the class required many late nights in the studio (sometimes just drawing still objects), they paid off! I think many people expect to improve in technical skill from an art class (and yes, Drawing 1 delivers in that department), but I found the most interesting part of the class to be the section on composition (i.e. what to leave out, what to emphasize, etc.). I'd never really thought of every line in a drawing as a deliberate part of it, so learning about composition helped me generate my own style. I went into this class thinking that it would be the only art class I'd ever take, but I'm now actually considering a studio art minor because I loved it so much!

Photo: Taken in the process of completing one of my final drawings.