Hey there! I'm Isabel, a '20 from the sunny town of Tucson, Arizona. I spend most of my time at the Dartmouth Engineering, but you can also spot me hanging out with plants and my twin brother in the greenhouse, snapping photos of picturesque Hanover, or drinking iced coffee even during the winter (Arizona habits die hard). I'm an undergraduate advisor for the North Park housing community as well as a member of the marching band, Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineers, and Club Swim.
This special topics class taught Adobe Illustrator and the CAD software Rhino 3D. We laser cut, 3D-printed, and used the CNC router to cut huge sheets of plywood to make pavilion structures. My group made an 11 foot tall pineapple structure that now sits in House Center A .
This is the one class that Professor Merton teaches each year and it is well worth it just for her. The texts are transformative and lend themselves to self reflection and better learning in all aspects of life. The expertly planned assignments helped me become a much better writer.
ENGS 20 with Professor Taylor is taught in a "flipped classroom" style where one watches mini-lectures before class and works on coding projects during class. Students are assumed to have no coding experience coming into this class and are taught the basics of C and Matlab languages.
SummerTucson, AZ
I went home for the summer, enjoyed the sun, swam nearly everyday, and worked for Cocina Verify, a startup company that verifies food safety in restaurants in Latin America.
The Peru LSA+ for Spanish is one of the defining moments of my Dartmouth career. We pet llamas, hiked in extraordinarily beautiful places, visited Machu Picchu, and read amazing Peruvian literature, my favorite of which is Rosa Cuchillo by Oscar Colchado Lucio.
My favorite class ever! Taught by the renowned Argentine comic artist Liniers, we looked at Latin American comics through time and were exposed to history and many variations of the Spanish language.
ENGS 44 teaches the basics of sustainable building design. Throughout the course we designed tiny homes for varying applications and went on several field trips around the Upper Valley, including a visit to a straw-bale insulated home in Vermont.
My class designed a range of installations for the Dartmouth Organic Farm, including small buildings, amphitheaters, and comprehensive pathway systems. We went on a site visit to the Organic Farm and had weekly lessons for the software Rhino 3D.
ENGS 37 is a chill engineering class that covers diverse technologies for water and air treatment, risk assessment, design for the environment, life-cycle assessment of a product, and other related topics. We also had one week of field trips during class!
WinterTucson, AZ
I spent my winter off-term enjoying the Arizona weather at home and working remotely for a FinTech startup based in New York. It was nice to have some time to reflect on my Dartmouth experience thus far and refocus for the future.
I took ENGS 71 with Vicki May, one of my favorite Thayer professors. The course covers modeling and approximation of structural systems, for example calculating the type, dimension, and layout of beams to properly support a roof with certain applied loads.
SummerBeverly, MA
This summer I worked for Build Health International, a non-profit that designs, builds, and equips healthcare infrastructure in low-resource settings. I worked on initial design for a hospital in Rwanda and researched germicidal UV lamps at hospitals in Haiti.
In ARTH 38.01 we learned about Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic architecture as well as Asian funerary architecture. Professor Hockley taught us the basics of religious thought and introduced us to many fabulous structures.
Modern Architecture, taught by Professor Heck, starts in the mid-18th century with Neoclassicism and ends with the expansion of the 'International Style' post WWII.
SpringTucson, AZ
I am taking Glaciology, Reproductive Ethics, and Machos & Malinches (Gender and Sexual Identities in Latin/x American Literature and Culture) remotely this spring term.
"Hey, I heard you designed the pineapple in the Onion!"
Translation: "Someone told me that you helped make that eleven-foot plywood pineapple structure that now sits in House Center A!"
Yep, I did. And before you ask, it was our final project for my 3D Design and Digital Fabrication class that I took freshman fall. It was a special topics class that is unfortunately not offered anymore, but elements of its curriculum are embedded in architecture classes offered in the Studio Art department.
Slime Mold Growth: hand drawn, traced in illustrator, and laser cut.
Freshman fall comes with the feeling that anything is possible, which was the case in this class. We learned Illustrator, Rhino 3D (the CAD program architects use), 123D Make, and how to laser cut, 3D print, and use large machining tools like the CNC router. We became familiar with the woodshop and the Dartmouth Engineering machine shop. While the learning curve was steep and the sign-up sheet for the laser cutter long, I managed to create some memorable pieces.
Laser cut detail.
My slime mold "box", designed to look like a decaying log.
We started off drawing change over time, which I showed through the growth of a slime mold. We then learned how to trace our hand drawings in illustrator to make digital drawings that we could then use to cut on the laser cutter. Our second assignment was a continuation of the first: we were to make a box for whatever we had chosen as the subject of our first assignment. I was initially confused on how to make a box for a slime mold, but I ended up creating a "log" using horizontal cuts to make the flat chipboard surface into a cylinder. Our following assignments included creating Halloween costumes and 3D printing.
My creation for the Halloween assignment.
Our final assignment was to design a pavilion. This was our only group assignment, but thank goodness, because we needed all the people we could get. We were to create something inspired by an animal abode with an associated sensory component. When my group member Bryan saw my glass sponge idea, he thought it looked like a pineapple. And then it dawned on us. Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob. The sponge was our animal and the pineapple was the abode. Our sensory component would be to serve pineapple at the unveiling of our structure. And the joke of the Lone Pine(apple) was too good to pass up. The shape was created in rhino, then put through 123D Make for the interlocking parts, cleaned up in illustrator, cut on the CNC router out of 8'x10' plywood, and assembled with lots of clamps. Our pavilion was the only one out of our class to be saved and it now sits in House Center A (which is my house center, so I see it all the time).
My original pavilion idea: the glass sponge. The shape was created in Rhino and sent through the application 123D Make for the waffle structure.
The famous Lone Pine(apple), designed, cut out, and assembled in less than a week.
Sometimes I get asked about the legacy I think I will leave at Dartmouth. My answer always begins with one thing: the pineapple.
I have written about being a student worker plenty of times in the past, but I have yet to talk about one of my favorite jobs ever: ticket selling at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
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.
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!
This is part two of me "nerding out" about my honors thesis! If you want to learn more about independent projects, theses, or the humanities at Dartmouth, check it out!
