My name is Eva, and I'm a '25 Mechanical Engineering BE student from Upstate New York. My time at Dartmouth has been marked by the combination of the arts and engineering on campus and you can often find me working on a new project in either the Dartmouth Engineering Machine Shop or Visual Arts Center. In my free time, I love to work on lego sets and watch the craziest reality tv I can find!
This was a great exploratory class to take as an introduction to Dartmouth. I took it with Professor DeSilva, an extremely passionate individual who made this class incredibly engaging the whole way through! Coming into college I never would have expected my favorite class to have been about monkeys and early humans, but I discovered a deep interest in the evolution of reproduction.
Coming from a background of little chem experience, this class was challenging, but fun! I learned a ton about the foundations of chemistry and their applications in the modern world. My favorite part of this class was the lab where I got to see what I was learning in class in real life. I'll be taking a lot more chemistry in the future and I feel a lot more comfortable with the material as well as how to study effectively.
Design Thinking for Engineering was an incredible class that completely restructured the way I make decisions. With an 100% project based course load, this class develops teamwork, positive attitudes, and an eye for design. Not only did I learn a lot, but it inspired me to pick up a minor in Human Centered Design.
SummerHome
I took my off term in the summer to work at a coffee shop close to home as a Barista. Ask me about where to get the best coffee on campus!
My first art class and my favorite class yet! Under the instruction of a fantastic artist, I learned about many kinds of printing and made some incredible art to add to my portfolio. This is a great class for beginning artists and stood as a great start to my arts career at Dartmouth. The printmaking community within the arts department is incredibly supportive and full of talent.
Imagine taking an engineering project from its ideation to creation all in 10 weeks: stressful, but an awesome experience! Paired with an incredible team of interdisciplinary majors, I worked on the development of an electronic kettlebell to "gamify" the workout experience.
This was an incredible theatre workshop taught by a known August Wilson scholar. We read all of August Wilson's plays over the course of this class and engaged in meaningful discussion about their meaning and significance.
The summer theater workshop is an experiential class that brings students and current artists together to work on collaborative projects. This class allowed me to expand greatly as an artist and create meaningful connections with people who are currently pursuing theater full time.
FallCincinnati, Ohio
During my off term, I pursued an engineering internship at Johnson and Johnson in their surgical devices department.
My weeks at Dartmouth are often full of back to back events and a rush of activity. Though exciting, it can cause burnout and unmanageable stress. I find the best way to quell these negatives is to leave school behind for a day and become one with the trees.
This weekend, my friends and I planned a trip to Franconia Notch, a 13-mile hike merely an hour and a half off campus. Though the DOC sends hiking trips out every weekend we decided to embark in one of our friend's cars.
We packed into my friend's SUV and each brought an obnoxious amount of hiking gear, our microspikes, and an obnoxious desire to belt Olivia Rodrigo's most recent album. Though each reminiscent of the midterms just taken the week before or dreading the upcoming ones, we were able to relax and simply enjoy the company of each other and our ensuing theatrics.
On AllTrials, this hike is listed as hard. With the combination of steep uphills, two summits, and icy trails, it's truly a step up from the intermediate hikes I was used to from home. On top of this, the friends I went with were truly experienced hikers. From hiking Mount Washington in the middle of winter to trekking multiple overnight backpacking adventures, there certainly wasn't a lack of training among the group. This made me feel worried and honestly a bit like an imposter. I dreaded being unable to make it up an uphill and holding up the group.
This feeling of fear before beginning a challenge reminded me of the beginning of spring term. With the addition of CHEM 006 to my schedule and a time intensive engineering class, I felt totally overwhelmed before I even began my term. I was worried that I would be unable to finish successfully or get through the assignments without relying heavily on my classmates for assistance. Perhaps this was a result of the infamous imposter syndrome, or maybe it was the overestimation of work resulting from past student horror stories. Regardless, it made getting started seem like an impossible task.
The first summit of Franconia Notch!
After the first hour of our hike, I was absolutely exhausted. We had just traversed an uphill so steep that I couldn't get up it without crawling and I soon after got my boots stuck together, resulting in me planting myself in mud. I considered turning back then and letting the rest of the group go on without me, but knew I had to keep pushing through.
After hour three, we reached the first of two summits. I ran up the final incline and burst through the tree line, panting as I sprawled myself on the rocks. There's something to be said about the beauty in the journey of a hike, but I find the best part to be the summit. Not the end of the hike or somewhere random in the middle, but a pause in between where you can truly stop and appreciate how far you've come. It's there that I realize how worth it the grueling pushes through the mud and dirt were; it's the clear air that prepares me for the challenging trek back down; it's the way that I can say, "Wow, I just climbed a mountain," and feel proud.
No matter how difficult or grueling the efforts, being outside and in nature reminds me to take a step back and truly appreciate the journey, in life and in school, I've taken thus far. So as I enter this next week, I'm going in and saying, "Wow, I just finished my 7th week of my spring term at Dartmouth," and feeling so incredibly proud.
The friends who keep pushing me to keep being my best
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.
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a phenomenal total solar eclipse occurred — and we happened to be within the path of totality. As a result, Dartmouth hosted a variety of eclipse-related events on- and off-campus. Find out how I spent the eclipse!
