Hey!! I'm Eloise and this is my blog! I'm a '28 from New Holland, Pennsylvania. I love to read and write in my free time and I'm so excited to get involved in clubs at Dartmouth. I love exploring the outdoors and I can't wait to go on more trips with the Dartmouth Outing Club. I hope you enjoy my blog!
This course covers modern American history through an imperial lens. It was my first time learning about these topics and events in-depth, and I learned so much! The class focuses on small group discussions and having nuanced conversations about assigned readings. It was the perfect class for my first fall! I cannot recommend this class enough!
This course was my first-year seminar, a portion of the Dartmouth first-year writing sequence. In this class, we read four Jane Austen novels and discussed them as a class. The best part was our final project: creating an exhibit to be displayed in Baker-Berry Library! In partnership with Rauner Special Collections Library, we worked with Austen's first editions and designed an exhibit to celebrate Austen’s 250 Birthday.
This course introduces different types of sociological research methods, which culminate in a final research proposal to explore the topic of your choice. I'm not a sociology major, so I was intimidated at first, but I fell in love with the class and the topics. I stepped outside my comfort zone, and I learned so much. I highly recommend it!
SummerWashington, D.C.
For my first off-term at Dartmouth, I spent the summer in Washington, D.C. as a First-Year Fellow through the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth. I interned at the House of Representatives, where I met constituents, politicians, and legislative staffers who help run our country. I learned so much about policy issues close to my heart, like animal rights and climate change. I also had so much fun exploring D.C. with the other fellows and learning about our nation’s capital!
First-Year Fellows (FYF) is an amazing opportunity offered by the Dartmouth Rockefeller Center (oftentimes called "Rocky" by students)! Open to all first-year students, FYF pairs about 20 students to summer public policy internships in Washington, D.C., and connects them with Dartmouth alums all around the city.
I first learned about FYF during Dimensions, Dartmouth's accepted students day. Once I was on campus in the fall, I learned more about the requirements and deadlines to apply from the Rockefeller Center's newsletter and info sessions. TheRockefeller Center's website is also a great place to stay informed about public policy events on campus.
To apply to FYF, students need to take Intro to Public Policy 5, a statistics course, and participate in Dartmouth Leadership and Attitudes and Behaviors (D-LAB). These prerequisites taught me so much about policy and leadership, and I highly recommend people take them even if they aren't applying to FYF.
Applications then opened in early March, and I applied over my spring break. During my first week of the spring quarter, I interviewed for FYF and got accepted around the middle of April. Before we arrived in D.C. in the summer, though, we had to participate in Civic Skills Training (CST).
CST is designed to prepare the fellows for life in D.C. and give us tips on how to network and succeed in our internships. Weekly CST meetings started the first week of May and continued until the end of the spring quarter. In these sessions, professors and experts taught us the need-to-know information for our time in D.C..
Topics covered a crash course in American politics, how to read and analyze policy data, and how to ask for coffee chats. These sessions also focused on group bonding activities for all the fellows. While I knew some of them before this program, I grew even closer to them during this experience, and CST was just the start of it.
Once the spring quarter ended, I had one week to go home before I drove to D.C.. The First Year Fellows program provides housing for all the fellows, so I moved into the same apartment building as the rest of them. We were spread out across five apartment units, which meant we were all just an elevator ride away!
As a nine-week program, our internships are only eight weeks long. The first week is dedicated entirely to more CST. This time, we learned and attended sessions all across the city!
In D.C., most of the CST sessions involved meeting with Dartmouth alumni at their workplaces and learning about their Dartmouth and career experiences. During this week, we visited the Department of Justice, the Capitol building, CNN, and so much more.
Me at the Capitol Building!
At every stop, we met wonderful people and learned so much about politics and life in D.C.. We also had access to some iconic spaces. During the Capitol building visit, we went on a tour of the House of Representatives' floor and sat in the same seats members sit in. We even saw the drawer the members fill with candy for long nights of voting!
During the CNN visit, we met Jake Tapper, Dartmouth '91. While we were visiting him, he got pulled onto the air to report on breaking news. Instead of having us leave, he let us be behind the camera on set while he reported live. It was so amazing!
We met Jake Tapper!
After the full week of CST, we started our internships the following Monday, but the CST enrichment didn't stop there. Throughout our time in D.C., there were more CST sessions and Dartmouth alumni events to attend and learn from.
One day, we went on a tour of the Wharf and learned all about the work Dartmouth alums are doing there. This tour was so wonderful and was a great introduction to how politics and real estate can mix.
Me and my roommates and at the Wharf!
The Dartmouth alumni network is so strong, especially in D.C.. Even when we weren't participating in events organized by the Rockefeller Center for us, we were always meeting Dartmouth alums at events and on coffee chats.
This experience was so wonderful and really expanded my understanding of Dartmouth. It's not just a college experience but a resource I can rely on for the rest of my life.
Before my internship in Italy, I spent two terms studying in Rome. How did those experiences help prepare me for my current position? Well, let me explain!
Summers between terms look different for every Dartmouth student! Opportunities are abundant and it's all what you make it out to be. This summer I interned on the Clean Energy Team at Wood PLC and traveled home to see my sister get married!
As an intern at one of Brazil's leading financial services firms, I spent my days working on strategy, design, and employee experience. But beyond spreadsheets and slides, I found purpose in my routine. Here's a peek into one of those days!
