Hello! My name is Jenny and I'm a junior at Dartmouth studying biology and qualitative social science. Besides blogging, I also work as communications intern for the admissions office, conduct research at the Geisel School of Medicine, and act as a mentor for the Great Issues Scholars LLC. Some of my favorite things to do on-campus include running around Occom Pond , stargazing, and spending quality time with some of the amazing people I have met here.
I looked forward to this class every week, partly because of the professor and partly due to the content. We read books on a wide variety of topics, ranging from privilege and how it affects our interactions with others to restaurant kitchens and the hierarchies inherent in surgical residencies.
Biol13 is structured so that you have to work as a group on difficult class problems and even on some exams, which was novel to me and pushed me to really understand the material. This class inspired me to pursue research (both off-campus and on-campus) related to genetics.
Although this class was daunting to me in the beginning, given that I had little to no experience in either Women's, Gender, and Sexuality or Art History, it was also one of the classes in which I became the most engaged in. For our final project, I investigated the history of allegories in Western art and why they were so often portrayed as women.
SummerOff Campus
I interned at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA under Dr. Livingston. I explored the mechanism by which BRCA1 acts as a tumor suppressor. It was really rewarding to be able to apply what I had learned in Biol13, including specific procedures and techniques we had been tested on, to a real-life laboratory setting.
This class is notorious for its difficulty, and I would not call it an easy class. Nonetheless, it was my favorite class because I loved Professor Jacobi, who has taught at Dartmouth for 22 years, and I appreciated learning mechanisms behind why certain reactions happen. Instead of rote memorization, this class relied on being able to predict the products of a reaction, a skill picked up from lots of practice.
Although this was an introductory class, Professor Craig made it more dynamic and interactive, with several visits to the Hood Museum of Art, ethnography labs, and weekly discussion posts. I learned about everything from the Gebusi culture and their rites of passage to the opioid epidemic. For my final paper, I conducted an ethnography studying the social dynamics that take place in Baker Lobby and how that relates to the exchange of capital.
Though I had taken four years of computer science before (mostly in middle school), I did not have a very good experience with coding prior to taking CS1. However, the professor was one of the best professors I have had, explaining jargon in understandable ways and even giving out chocolate bars to students who answered the most difficult questions she would ask in class. I was certain that there was no way I would be able to create the lab assignments (such as a revolving solar system animation and map of Dartmouth that calculated the shortest possible route between two points), but she enabled all of us to through exercises, short assignments, and exams.
I took this class for a distributive requirement and ended up loving it. Each student was assigned a day to present on a certain topic - mine being patriarchy. I decided to analyze relationships in Crazy Rich Asians through a lens of the patriarchal bargain. We explored transgender issues, the history of feminism, gender identity, and so much more. Would highly recommend!
It’s not every day that you get a front-row seat to hear a presidential candidate talk about the issues she is passionate about. Kirsten Gillibrand '88 is the first Dartmouth alumna to win election to Congress, and she has represented New York in the United States Senate since 2009. She is an advocate for affordable child care, affordable healthcare, paid family leave, and more. And as she has recently announced, she is running for president in the 2020 election!
The event featured three Dartmouth female alumni who forged a path for themselves in politics. They include Martha Hennessey ’76, Annie Kuster ’78, and Kirsten Gillibrand ’88. Hennessey mentioned that she actually met Gillibrand at a Dartmouth alumni organized event. Kirsten talked about how during her time at Dartmouth, she majored in Asian Studies, did a study abroad program in Beijing, and played squash (her coach was even at the talk!).
People started lining up early to ensure that they would be allowed to enter such an anticipated event.
The event itself had a huge turnout and was attended by both Dartmouth students and local community members. Though it technically started at 3 pm, there was already a line by 2 pm when I walked by to grab food from the nearby dining hall, and some people couldn't get in because there simply wasn’t enough space. It was a great opportunity to get to know about Senator Gillibrand’s experience as a senator and her platform on various issues, including climate change, student loans, and how she plans to win the Midwest votes.
It’s also quite impressive how much the Dartmouth Democrats accomplish. They are one of the most active student groups on campus and regularly invite speakers, advocate for various issues, and invite other students to become more politically active. During the midterm election, they made sure that vans would leave every 15 minutes to drive students to polling stations and students knew about the whole registration process. As the executive director mentioned before the speakers took the stage, it is incredibly easy to get involved with politics and the barrier is low.
As other bloggers have previously written about, Dartmouth is a unique and incredibly important place to be in terms of the political landscape, and 2020 will certainly be no exception.
One thing that I had yet to do on campus was make jewelry at the Donald Claflin Jewelry Studio. Although the rings I made would definitely not be sellable, I learned so much about the process of jewelry-making.
Coming from California, I was used to being able to eat a variety of Asian food: ramen, boba, curry. As I adjust to my new life here, it's nice that there's something that resembles what I had back home.
Student Assembly is Dartmouth's student government and represents the interests of all undergraduate students. Aside from fun projects, Student Assembly gets to work with Dartmouth's administration when making policy affecting all of campus.
Just before Thanksgiving I finished up all of my classes and finals, and now I am home for 6 weeks. These are the things I miss most about Dartmouth while I'm away (not in any particular order).
A question that we're often asked in the Admissions Office is whether it's possible to work a job while going to school here. The answer is yes! Here are some ways to learn more about employment on campus.
People started lining up early to ensure that they would be allowed to enter such an anticipated event. 
