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.
The beauty about college life is being able to choose a majorː settling, if you will, on a subject that steals your heart.
And so it goes. Usually. Most of the time.
But the other beauty of college life, especially at Dartmouth, is called the liberal arts. And the liberal arts are, quite literally, very liberal, especially hereː we have enormous latitude in choosing the classes we want to take, both for our majors, our minors, and simply the ones that we need to take to fulfill our graduation requirements. Dartmouth is like the parent that really wants you to find your passion, and so they enroll you in karate classes. Or ballet. Or make you try out for the soccer team. Or put you in a coding class because even social sciences or humanities majors need at least fundamental tech experience in the technological age.
My name is Gabe, and I am not a STEM major. But for Fall 2020, I am a STEM studentː I am taking a coding class.
In my first blog post of the term, I talked a lot about how excited I was about this class, and in many ways that excitement has yet to fade. Nothing can quite match the sheer sense of satisfaction and adrenaline after successfully completing a program. For that serotonin rush alone, I love the class. But I want to speak to the concerns of any prospective students that share my love for the non-scientific that fear the numbers and symbols that make up the STEM world. Firstly, your fear is justifiedː numbers are scary. But secondly, it's important to note just how many resources I've used so quickly as a computer science student that have made comp sci both possible and passable (so far, fingers crossed, knocking on the wood of my desk right now).
For one thing, this fall most all of Dartmouth's classes are online, and that includes all three of my courses. As it stands, I attend an hour-long Zoom lecture with my classmates three times a week — Monday, Wednesday, Friday — and attend another, much shorter session with a Teaching Assistant (TA) once a week.
During the lectures, we go over big picture concepts and get introduced to new elements and arms of Python in order to tackle our weekly assignments and/or lab projects (which I currently just did, look at my recreation of the OG computer game 'Pong')! During the shorter session, called recitation, myself and a handful of other students practice important concepts with our TA in order to drive the most important aspects of the week's curriculum home.
Just finished for my latest lab assignment. Color scheme kinda lacking, but upgrading shortly...
Outside of class, I've Facetimed friends to discuss coding strategies just to get the ideas flowing (we're allowed to talk about our assignments in any language but Python, which is kind of nice for building translation muscles) and I've talked with my more STEM-y friends who help me figure out the logic and math involved in some of my programs. Dartmouth is a really collaborative space, and this class more than my humanities ones is truly going to show that for me on an individual level. While my humanities classes are based on discussion and the sharing of ideas, the solutions in my computer science class are figured out within the brainstorms of the collective.
It's honestly been a really satisfying experience thus far (I truly hope I'm singing the same song by the end of the term). For non-STEM prospies, not only will you have the opportunity to choose how you want to take on STEM while at Dartmouth, but should you decide something as quintessentially STEM as computer science, just know: the Dartmouth community got you.
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.
Traditionally, Dartmouth students take three courses during a term, but I decided to take four courses this term! Learn about course load and the academic system at Dartmouth.
As I approach the halfway mark of my Dartmouth journey this spring, I find myself reflecting on the significance of distributive and world culture requirements in shaping my academic experience.
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!
This is my final term before senior year, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. One thing I am excited about is the classes I am taking this term, so let me tell you more!
