Hello, Eda here: full-time learner, part-time writer, and pretty much a happy amateur at everything else. My hobbies include reading, discovering new movies, and looking at the pictures of my cat. On campus, you can find me peer supporting for the Mental Health Union and SAPA, writing for Spare Rib, doing research in psychology, or listening to Turkish & English alt-rock. Feel free to ask me about taking a gap year, transitioning to a new cultural space, or college in general!
This class discusses the concepts of sex and gender in the broader context of issues related to race, class, national identity, and more. I loved this class because it helped me better understand how systemic inequality affects individual lives and made me think about ways to change it. Professor A'Ness is such an inspiring prof!
In this first-year writing seminar, we discussed how avant-garde movements from futurism to punk rock have constituted a rebellion against the status quo. I loved all the readings for this class and Professor McCann inspired me to take more courses in the English department!
In this course, we learned all the basics of fiction: character, plot, setting, etc. My favorite parts of the course were receiving feedback from other students, reading my peers' work, and having fiction readings as assigned course work! I also appreciated all the guest speakers we had, who were experienced writers in their respective genres.
As an aspiring clinical psychologist, this course has been one of the best classes I have taken at Dartmouth so far. The class focused on the etiology, diagnosis, characteristics and treatment of various mental disorders. Professor Hudenko has been one of the greatest lectures I had the pleasure of meeting. As a clinical psychologist himself, he had extensive knowledge in not only the theory, but also the practice of clinical psychology. He also succeeded in making a lecture-based class feel interactive and dynamic.
We covered the complex neural and biological mechanisms of multiple mental health disorders ranging from common conditions like anxiety to more complicated illnesses such as schizophrenia. In addition to reading about the cutting-edge research in this area, we also read memoirs and watched documentaries about the mental illnesses to focus on how these conditions are affecting people in real life. Professor Funnell is one of the best profs I had!
As an aspiring clinical psychologist, this has been one of my favorite classes at Dartmouth. We learned about different therapy methods, how and when to use them, their advantages, and shortcomings. The class was incredibly engaging with Professor Hudenko's frequent demonstrations of methods, therapy videos, and guest speakers. I would recommend this class to every psychology major.
I worked at Dimock Health Center as part of my community health internship. I was part of a team of summer interns who were college students like myself. We worked as patient advocates that helped people reach out to resources regarding housing, food, utilities, etc. Most of our work involved calling patients, helping them fill out forms, and researching resources. I learned so much about community health resources and how to communicate with a diverse set of patients. It was an invaluable experience!
I took classes in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London. My favorite class of the term was called London Performance Now, which involved going to different performance events in London and discussing them in class. It was the perfect opportunity to explore the cultural landscape of London.
As the title of the course suggests, this class was about food: its history, economics, and cultural practices. I learned a lot through this course thanks to guest speakers, thought-provoking readings, and engaging assignments. My favorite assignment in this course was writing about a family recipe; I learned so much about my family's history as well as the cultural conflicts in my home country. Overall, it was among the best classes I have taken at Dartmouth. Plus, we even got to eat delicious food cooked by our classmates!
I started my first year of college knowing that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. Flash forward to today, and that conviction still holds: I'm a psychology major aspiring to attend graduate school to become a clinical researcher and therapist. All of this is to say that I have always been interested in health-related topics, specifically in the context of mental health. I took SOCY 35: Sociology of Mental Health my sophomore fall because I realized I was also interested in the wider context of health care. My interest in public health grew after I did a community health internship in Boston through the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact (you can read more about that here). By the end of summer, I knew I wanted to take more classes related to public health.
I learned about the global health minor through friends who have been taking anthropology classes, since the minor is under the anthropology department. I did not know that anthropology was one of the strongest programs at Dartmouth. After taking my first anthropology class, ANTH 50.56: Anthropology of Food, I now understand why. This class has been one of the best classes I have taken at Dartmouth. Instead of following a traditional grading system, Professor Charis Boke uses "many paths to mastery" criteria, meaning different assignments fulfill different learning objectives, and as long as we meet the threshold for the said objective, we get a point. Even though it was a bit intimidating at first, I started to appreciate the flexibility of this evaluation system. My favorite thing about the class has been the content. I just finished writing a midterm personal essay on an important dish in my family, and it was inspiring to hear my classmates' stories about this. We also published our essays on Dartwrite's digital portfolio project, which provides all Dartmouth students with WordPress-based digital portfolios. This way, we can read other classmates' works and personalize our websites.
Next term, I am taking two more anthropology courses: one in biological anthropology and one in social studies of health and medicine to fulfill the minor requirements. I am super excited about these courses, so stay tuned!
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.
