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.
When I think back to all of the thoughts racing through my head when it came time for me to choose a college to attend, I remember the biggest questions in my mind. Will I find my community at my future college? Will I find my people? Will I be able to study what I want to study so I can do what I want to do after graduating? But one of my biggest questions was easy: will I be able to study abroad?
When I visited Dartmouth after being accepted, one of the tour guides told all of us that she had studied abroad three terms in a row. Because the College was and remains so committed to supplying opportunities for studying away, she was able to take advantage of three unique, distinct programs while receiving Dartmouth credit all the while exploring new parts of the world — all as part of her D-Plan. To put it simply, I was sold — and this past winter, from January to March 2022, I lived in Hawai'i as a student on Dartmouth's Linguistics DSP.
As a linguistics major, I always knew I wanted to apply to the Linguistics study abroad program. Usually, the program is an FSP based in Auckland, New Zealand (read about it here!). Because I speak the Hawaiian language, a closely-related linguistic cousin of Māori (the indigenous language of Aotearoa, or New Zealand), I was super excited to learn another Polynesian language while engaging with a similar culture to my own. But when the COVID-19 global pandemic caused us to switch gears and we ended up on a course for Hawai'i, I couldn't have been happier about the change of plans.
For the first four weeks of the program, all the Linguistics and Anthropology students (both our programs went to Hawai'i in 22W!) lived in the town of Kapolei, on the island of O'ahu (on the western side of the island, a little more than half an hour from Honolulu). After that first four weeks, we split ways: the Anthropology students went to Kīhei, on the island of Maui, and the Linguistics students went to Hilo, on Hawai'i island (also known as the Big Island!). For the next six weeks, we took classes on Hawaiian language, attended workshops and lectures about language revitalization in Hawai'i and hula, and learned about language documentation. Ultimately, in small groups, we worked with the local Micronesian community and crafted documentation projects for the Satawalese and Woleaian languages.
While being on campus is a big part of being a Dartmouth student, studying in Hawai'i really gave me so many new perspectives and experiences that otherwise would've completely eluded me. The fact that every Dartmouth department has study abroad programs is a hidden gem when it comes to what Dartmouth provides in the way of academic resources. You can take your major, whether it be linguistics, history, economics, government, ancient Greek, math, or physics, and study in an entirely new place. Additionally, you'll be one student within a cohort of several students that might share academic interests, but likely you've never met before. I made new friends that I'd never met on campus all because we all wanted to study away. We could attend lectures by prominent Indigenous scholars, learn hula in a workshop with world-class experts, plant kukui nut and coconut trees, harvest taro from an actual lo'i, and truly dive into Hawaiian culture as part of our courses.
If you're thinking about attending Dartmouth, I couldn't encourage you more to check out the programs the College has to offer. I'm happy that learning about the different programs out there was a major part in my final decision to attend Dartmouth, and after attending one of the programs finally, I have to say that I couldn't be more happy and appreciative I made that choice.
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!
Planning on visiting Dartmouth as a prospective student or an interested person wanting to see our beautiful campus? In this post, I share insider tips to ensure your visit is fulfilled!
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!
