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!
I'm sure we've all seen those clips from movies about college with huge dance scenes, disco lights, partying, and hundreds of people crowded into one room. For some that may sound like a fun weekend and an opportunity to make fun memories, but for the rest of us it's cause for stress and anxiety.
This week, I talked with my friend Ella Grim about alternative social activities on campus for all the introverts out there!
First, a little bit about Ella. She's an adventure-loving poetry finatic who's considering either a Comparative Literature major or an English major with a Creative Writing concentration. She spends a lot of time at her job in the book arts workshop and often finds herself exploring nature around Dartmouth's campus.
When I asked her what advice she'd give someone coming to Dartmouth and being worried about the social scene, she stated, "You have to make your own fun, but there is a lot to do if you're willing to take initiative." Ella is an integral part of the "alternative social scene" groupchat which includes students looking for activities outside of the regular party scene. There they list everything going on during and after the school week at places such as The Hop, Collis, and Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC). As long as you're keeping up with emails and staying in the loop, there's plenty of stuff to do and people to do them with!
The Hop hosts shows from a variety of genres and keeps new performances coming to Dartmouth. This weekend, Ella attended a sonic opera with a friend for only $10 and gave it a raving review! There are also movies, dances, singing performances, and more that are shown there. A couple of my friends had a movie binge this weekend where they attended every movie shown at The Hop from Friday to Sunday. There are also student performances on some weekends where you can watch your peers dance, sing, and act. I'm looking forward to the showing of RENT towards the end of this term seeing as I have a ton of friends participating in the show!
The Collis Student Center always makes sure there are activities to do over the weekend. They host scavenger hunts, bingo nights, trivia nights, movies, crafting, and more. Ella and I are both big fans of the bingo nights and attend as many as we can. Earlier in the year, Ella won a TV for her dorm and just last week I won an iPad. It's always fun to try your luck at bingo night because you never know how lucky you'll be. The Collis Student Center also provides s'more materials for students to use around the bonfires outside in the winter. Along with those, there are free hand warmers as well as hot chocolate so you can have a cozy evening around the bonfire with your friends.
Me and my friends after an awesome snowball fight
The DOC always—and I mean always—has stuff to do. Using Trailhead, students can sign up for whatever activities they would like to do that week. In the winter, there's ice climbing, ski lessons, nordic skiing, ice skating, and more. They also host dinners at the lodge as well as sleepovers there. I haven't taken advantage of any of these opportunities this term, but I'm super excited to try my hand at ice climbing. Ella attended many Ledyard Canoe Club events before the river froze over and is just as excited to ice skate as I am.
Along with all of the school-sponsored events, there are endless moments you can create with friends whether it be exploring the depths of the library, going on walks, having movie nights on bingo won TV's, sledding, or making meals with friends.
A spot I found when exploring Sanborn Library
Ella and I are both so happy with the friends and memories we've made throughout our time here and will keep seizing every weekend opportunity with elation!
It's not every day that my Intro to Chinese Culture and Understanding the Universe classes were both canceled, but the cosmos had other plans. Welcome to a rare weekday in my life with no classes!
However, as I conclude my junior winter and prepare for my last few terms at Dartmouth, I've realized that this has been one of my most fulfilling and gratifying terms at Dartmouth.
