Hey y'all, welcome to the woods! My name is Garrett Crouch, and I'm a '26 from Edmond, Oklahoma. Besides blogging, I'm involved in Greek Life and Dartmouth's Psychological and Brain Sciences Department. I enjoy reading sci-fi, listening to 90s rock, and playing video games in my free time. Other than that, I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to share a bit of my Dartmouth student experience with you—stay a while and enjoy!
For my first term at Dartmouth, I had a lot of fun exploring different courses/areas of study that piqued my interest—EARS 14 is a perfect example. This course in particular was very friendly to new students. I had a lot of fun analyzing the ways in which Earth's weather system works, everything from the tornado and climate labs to black lightning and supercooled ice. Professor Osterberg made the course extremely fascinating and personable! I'm extremely glad I took this course and recommend it to anyone interested in Earth Science.
I had zero programming experience prior to taking this course, and quite honestly, It was a split decision on my part. Nonetheless, I'm extremely glad I took COSC 1, and as a byproduct, I have a newfound love for computers. I came out of the course with a solid foundation in computer science principles as well as programming skills. More importantly, I made my own fully-functioning video game! ; )
I didn’t anticipate this course being all that different from Latin I, but it ended up being a nice surprise. A typical Latin course at Dartmouth involves small class sizes, group work, and the occasional lecture; however, within Latin II, we had opportunities to take a wide variety of field trips and learn more about the history of the Latin language as well as the many people that spoke it. I thoroughly enjoyed stepping outside the sphere of strictly language work (grammar, vocabulary, etc.) and learning more about the history of Latin in Latin II.
Psych 6 is by far my favorite course I've taken at Dartmouth—this course made me decide to pursue the neuroscience major. Whether it was walking out of the Moore Psychology Building with goosebumps down my spine having just seen a human brain in the flesh, or lying in bed rewatching lectures on the cellular mechanisms of long-term memory storage. This course genuinely made me feel like a kid discovering the world again for the first time, I loved it.
I loved this course—it was a fascinating mix of the neuroscience behind addiction as well as a deep dive into every class of drug. What particularly stood out about this course was the ability to connect my undergraduate research lab experience with the concepts I was learning (I'm currently involved in a neuroscience research lab studying psilocybin, the main psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms, so it was fascinating to see the parallels there).
At first, I was worried Cognitive Psychology was going to be a slight rerun of some of the concepts covered in Psych 6: Introduction to Neuroscience, but this class was actually a pleasant surprise. We covered everything from how babies accurately learn their native language so quickly, to how we uniquely store complex, emotional memories as humans. We even covered a unit on everything psychologists know about the problem of consciousness, which was my personal favorite. There’s something alluring (and undeniably meta) about being conscious while learning about how we know nothing about consciousness—a recurring theme in the Brain Sciences!
Can you describe what it's like being Christian at Dartmouth?
Q:
Can you describe what it's like being Christian at Dartmouth?
A:
I may not be able to answer this, but one of my close friends on campus can! Click for a mini interview/introduction on what it's like being Christian at Dartmouth : )
To start, what's your name and affiliation with the Christian church?
"My name is Caleb Saks I'm a '26 (first-year student), and I was raised in the church, specifically as a Presbyterian. Although, I now go to The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College."
How long have you been a Christian?
"I was raised in the church. My parents went to church, so that ultimately had a large impact on my early faith, but since going to Dartmouth I feel like my faith journey has become a lot more individual."
Did being Christian influence your choice to come to Dartmouth? Why or why not?
"I'd say It didn't have any impact on my choice to go to one school or another. I knew that I'd be able to find Christian groups and communities at whatever school I landed at, and I've been lucky to find a few great ones here."
Piggybacking off of that, what opportunities are there for Christians on Dartmouth's campus? What are you involved in personally?
"For worship, I go to The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College, and I've found that to be a really good community. Outside of worship, I've just recently started getting involved with the more social scenes of Christian life at Dartmouth. With Dartmouth being such a small college, it's really easy to run into people and make friends quickly—I've made more Christian friends this term and got introduced to Christian Dinners hosted at the equines house here on campus which has been a really great way to meet other Christians. There's also a seminar I've been going to on campus which tackles abstract faith-based topics through a variety of incredibly knowledgeable experts and guest speakers. No matter what denomination you are, I've found that there are plenty of options on campus to fit your faith needs."
Overall describe your experience being Christian at Dartmouth
"As I mentioned before, it's definitely much more individual for me than it was at home. Up until getting to college, it was pretty easy to go to church because my parents would go, and I'd just tag along. But you know, being away from your parents definitely puts the burden on you, which has actually been really strengthening—it's made me think about my faith in my own life. I'd say overall it's been good. Although Dartmouth isn't a Christian college, I've been able to find a lot of solid community spaces and organizations as well as grow spiritually."
Has anything surprised you about being a Christian at Dartmouth?
"I'd probably say how being around people who aren't Christian has actually strengthened and articulated my beliefs. Some of my best memories here have been the deep theological discussions with my friends on campus. It's been really cool and beneficial to hear people interested in, and wanting to learn about Christianity. And who are really devout in their own various takes on religion, thinking about Christianity in the context of other religions, that sort of thing."
Any closing comments?
"Yeah! I feel like because there are so many passionate people here, it's common to find a lot of people who are genuinely curious and constantly willing to have really insightful discourse. To reiterate, as Dartmouth is such a small college it feels very easy to meet a lot of people who are passionate, it doesn't matter whether you're religious or not."
As Caleb highlighted, Dartmouth isn't known for its overwhelmingly Christian environment, but from what I've seen as a first-year student (and in our interview), there are a lot opportunities (both social and personal) for students who are interested in faith-based communities. Check out this link for an additional overview! https://students.dartmouth.edu/tucker/spiritual-life
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
