Aloha to the page of a wanderlusting writer juggling college life and several other hobbies into an eternally-short 24-hour day. I hope to shed light on the Dartmouth experience as I explore the brave new world of Hanover, NH and everything going to college here has to offer. In my free time, you can find me trying to learn a new language or building the perfect Spotify playlist (alternative/indie, anyone?). I hope you enjoy!
Taught by Gordon Henry, an Anishinaabe poet and author, this class taught me to explore Indigenous storytelling within digital contexts. I took this class with only seven other classmates, allowing us to really engage with films, comic books, and television shows in Indigenous languages or produced by Indigenous artists.
Taught by Timothy Pulju, this class taught me how to identify and understand how languages evolve over time and why. I analyzed and reconstructed fictional languages of imaginary nations in order to understand the link between language and culture, and ended up having such an appreciation for the complexity and beauty of language's place in history!
Taught by Lindsay Whaley, this class let me discover a newfound love for ancient apocalyptic literature. We analyzed ancient texts and compared them to modern apocalypses, looking at the zombie apocalypse phenomenon and other apocalypses in pop culture and comparing them to the ancient tradition of writing apocalypses. Additionally, I learned the Greek alphabet and now I can even stumble through ancient Greek passages.
FallNew Orleans, LA
Favorite Class: Native American Literature and the Law
Taught and organized by David Peterson, this class let me get into the shoes of a real linguist as we did fieldwork (virtually!!) with the Zophei language. I learned how to describe a never-before-learned language's phonology (sound system), how to characterize its grammar and words, and ultimately got to present my research to experts in the language family around the world in a workshop at the end of the term!
WinterHanover, NH
Favorite Class: Native American Literature and the Law
Taught by N. Bruce Duthu, this class taught me how Native literature can provide lens by which to evaluate, critique, and ultimately revise Federal Indian Law. During this class, I read works by Native authors like Tommy Orange and Louise Erdrich '76 alongside the opinions of definitive case opinions in American law and explained how literature can be a catalyst for Indigenous sovereignty.
Supervised by N. Bruce Duthu, I spent this off-term performing research after being awarded a Sophomore Research Scholarship to study contemporary Hawaiian cultural and linguistic revitalization. I studied 19th-century newspapers and contemporary Hawaiian texts in order to understand how Hawaiian language revitalization both past and present has advanced and continues to enable a contemporary bodied Hawaiian politic of sovereignty.
Taught by Laura McPherson, this class taught me about how languages create meaning through words. During this class, I learned how to analyze different languages' morphological processes and compare different approaches within the field as to morphological structures.
Taught by N. Bruce Duthu, this class offered me a glimpse into the lived realities of Native people in Indian Country Today. I learned about the economic, social, cultural, and historical roots for the struggles of Indigenous people today within the United States, and was able to write about the contemporary battle for Native Hawaiian visibility and Hawaiian sovereignty.
Taught by Laura McPherson, this class taught me how to engage in language documentation and how, as a linguist, we can put our skills to use to help communities seeking to document and revitalize their languages. I worked on the Satawalese language, spoken on the island of Satawal in the Federated States of Micronesia. Ultimately, my team created two dictionaries - one in English, one in Hawaiian, a website, and several materials that focused on the Satawalese tradition of wayfinding and non-instrumental ocean navigation.
Taught by Charles Eastman fellow Sunaina Kale, this class taught me about the role of sound in delineating, conceiving, and comprehending relations between people and the land in Indigenous musical traditions. Over the course of the class, we discussed Indigenous musicians, listened to music from Native peoples around the world, heard from masterful Indigenous musicians, and ultimately presented a project that creatively analyzed a song of our choice. My project focused on the song "Ask Yourself" by Foster the People, and I wrote a poem that integrated aspects of Indigenous languages and worldviews to answer questions posed by the song.
This term, I formally began the research process for my upcoming honors thesis in the Linguistics department on Hawaiian semantics! While living in Hanover, I also began working as a Senior Fellow with the Admissions department—a position I will be holding for the entirety of my last year at Dartmouth.
In the summer after my junior year, my mom, myself, and a friend and their mom decided to go on a college touring road trip. As the final destination for this road trip, we headed up to the little town of Hanover, NH to see Dartmouth. It was a long trip, well out of the way, and yet I had to see the place I'd then seen just in really aesthetic YouTube videos and student vlogs. Despite feeling like yesterday, that visit took place in the summer of 2018, almost three complete years ago, and yet pulling up to Dartmouth in the backseat of my roommate's car as we arrive on campus as near-juniors, that same excitement was nothing short of surreal. And to be honest, would it be anything short of wrong for us to not feel that way during the legendary time that is sophomore summer?
As per Dartmouth tradition, sophomores at Dartmouth are required to spend summer term during their second year on campus. After your first year -- which is normally spent entirely on campus -- Dartmouth students will often diverge in their Dartmouth plans (what we call the D-Plan!). Some students will take on a fall internship during their sophomore fall, or spend winter on a study abroad in New Zealand, or however they'd like to organize their terms. Because of that, sophomore summer usually marks the first time that your entire class converges in one shared space in a little while.
So this term (regardless of what the 22s might say) is first and foremost a way for the class of 2023 to get back together! I've accordingly spent the past few days seeing so many faces that I've either not seen since I first left campus my freshman winter or that I've only seen through the Zoom screen, which has made this term already such a great source of happiness in that reunions are awesome and the weather couldn't be more different than an Upper Valley winter. Summer at Dartmouth is what made me fall in love with the campus the first time, and it is beyond poetically fitting that the midpoint of my college career is happening at the very same time as its earliest beginning.
Between classes, my friends and I get together on the Green to play spike ball, or throw a volleyball around, or simply hide in the shade from an overly excited sun. Because of an overwhelmingly vaccinated student body, my friends and I were actually able to get together for a barbecue at the Native American House (NAH) where I was able to see so many of my friends from within the Native community. We were able to eat the first homecooked meal I've had on campus since my freshman winter. The featured image for this post is not a candid, but I can tell you that the sheer serotonin levels evident in the picture are off the charts. If this term shapes up to be anything like the vibes at this moment, I couldn't be more excited to share the rest of my summer term shenanigans with you all. Aloha ā hui hou -- goodbye until we meet again!
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!
Witnessing an eclipse was one of the most exciting days in my life to date, and a solid reminder of our place in this universe. Read on to hear about it!
