Hi friends and welcome to my page! I'm Emily, a '25 from a town where winter rarely comes to visit and departs after only a few days. In my spare time, I love to read fiction novels, bake cinnamon rolls, play card games, solve riddles, delve into conspiracy theories, and engage in any water activity. I'm thrilled you're here and hope you enjoy!
My fall term began with my favorite class so far at Dartmouth: Antiquity Today. In this intro-level Classics course, we analyzed our own culture through comparison. Delving into topics of violence in entertainment, philosophies of government, and attitudes about sex, we deconstructed our own cultural norms and biases through comparing them with the practices of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Embracing the spirit of the Greeks' dramatic stage was the wonderful professor, Paul Christesen. He would bring a bag of goodies and distribute them to students who asked questions as incentives for students to engage with the course material. Overall, I feel that I have learned worlds about my time as well as the past and can see the world through an enhanced sense thanks to this course.
In an introductory-level Earth Sciences class, we traveled through time studying the origin of the planet, the history of life on earth, its migration to land, as well as the mass extinctions that plagued ancient populations. A key component of this conversation was the earth’s current state, and how we are experiencing the beginning of the sixth mass extinction in earth’s history. We discussed causes of the earth’s critical state and compared carbon levels throughout time to better understand our current carbon situation. In homework assignments, we took what we learned in the classroom into the field, which was my favorite component of the course. We wrapped up the class with the coolest project: Constructing a proposal that would meet the goals set in Biden’s energy plan as practically as possible.
As a last-minute change during Dartmouth's 'add-drop' period (the two weeks where students can make scheduling adjustments), I checked this class's box on a whim. I surely was glad I did because we engaged in some of the most interesting discussions about what makes up a religion and how other frameworks, like economic systems, can overlap. Over the term, we delved into the history of capitalism, the depraved ethics behind the origin of America's capitalistic system, and the Catholic Church's role in capitalism through usury. Very engaging and applicable class to round out Freshman Spring!
What is the soul? Is it the same as the mind? What's the difference between the mind and the brain? How does the heart factor in?
I absolutely adored this class that took a stab at the big questions! Or, at least, guided us through how the ancient philosophers viewed the intangible things that make us who we are. From readings about ancient physics-which could be surprisingly accurate!-to discussions about ancient views on psychiatric disabilities, we pieced together answers and started seeing from the eyes of the great thinkers of the day!
When I was thinking about college, rush was the last thing on my mind. When I imagined the tender, wholesome parts of Dartmouth that drew me to the college, Greek life seemed to fall out of the picture and out of my image of Dartmouth as a whole. And I think that after starting college, a lot of the first-years felt the same.
But how could this be, when our friends at other schools are rushing or have already accepted their bids?
At Dartmouth, there is an intentional effort to distance first-years from Greek life while they settle into their new environment. For the first 6 weeks of first-year Fall, there is a "frat ban" enforced, which encourages new students to bond with their class. Another policy that Dartmouth differs on is that we rush our Sophomore Fall, instead of during first-year. I really appreciated this system because it allowed me to find my footing here and establish friendships before rushing, which I think has made being in a house less consuming.
This system Dartmouth maintains allowed me to forget about rush while I was figuring everything out! But when it came time for sophomore year, I was still hesitant: I was unsure of whether rush would be a beneficial thing for me. My friends who attended different schools all rushed before me, and I remember thinking that it would be cool to be in a group of all women, but I didn't think the dresses, the makeup, and the artificial connections I thought sororities and fraternities would foster were really for me.
However, Dartmouth Greek life is much different than what I'd heard about the southern state school experience. Since I haven't gone through fraternity rush, I won't speak for the guy's side of things, but for sororities, it is much more lowkey. The dress code is whatever you feel most comfortable in, and they don't look for one uniform person. While the sororities do try to place you in the house you'll fit best, evaluation is based on your personality rather than looks. Also, rather than having a cookie-cutter image of a house's girl, many sororities are very diverse, which is something they take pride in.
Since rushing, I think that a sorority at Dartmouth is something you can be as involved or as uninvolved as you want: there is only one short, required meeting per week. The rest is fun bonding activities that you only attend if you want to! For example, every Sunday, we have spa night, where we make bracelets together and wear face masks! And every Tuesday, we have a movie night! My favorite event this term has been making charcuterie boards before listening to Taylor Swift's "Midnights" when the album dropped!
Whether or not you think you would want to be affiliated, your experience at Dartmouth would be very similar: spaces like sororities, clubs, and extracurriculars are all spaces to get to know the people around you and become more involved with campus. Most of the upperclassmen I knew before rushing were unaffiliated, and I met them because they were involved in the things they enjoyed! Since they didn't have to split their time between Greek life and extracurriculars, they were always around and were friendly faces to see during club meetings and club socials. So, the community and social aspect some might look for in Greek life exists in clubs as well.
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
