Hello! My name is Jenny and I'm a senior at Dartmouth studying biology and quantitative social science. On campus, I also work as a communications intern for the Admissions Office, teach piano to elementary school students through Musical Empowerment, and mentor freshmen in the Great Issues Scholars LLC. My hobbies include reading, attempting to finish crossword puzzles, and embroidering, which I only recently picked up. Welcome to my blog!
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!
As someone who didn't know the rules to pretty much any sport, I tentatively signed up for this class. However, the professors made it clear that everyone had a different sports background, so I never felt at a disadvantage. We used Markov chains to predict winners of tennis matches, analyzed field goals kicks using logit models, and listened to guest speakers from a variety of industries.
WinterOff Campus
I spent the winter at the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, studying epidemiology and global health. I was first involved on a project using data surveillance and social media to model Ebola outbreaks in the DRC, but as soon as the COVID-19 outbreak started, I transitioned to that. I was even able to publish my first paper!
SpringOff Campus
I was planning to study in Rome for the term and practice my basic Italian skills, but unfortunately the program was canceled. Instead of taking classes, I decided to continue working at my winter internship at NIH. Some of the research I conducted involved analyzing data on excess mortality as a method of estimating the true burden of COVID-19.
SummerOff Campus
I continued my research at Fogarty while also working part-time as a Learning Fellow for BIOL13 (Gene Expression and Inheritance), a job I also did my sophomore summer. It was great to see some familiar faces and help with transitioning this very interactive class into something Zoom-friendly!
I had heard about this class long before taking it my senior fall, as it's one of those quintessential Dartmouth classes. We had a total of six projects over ten weeks, many of which were group projects. They included everything from building rollercoasters, creating Photoshop posters to combat harmful misconceptions, and designing prototypes to improve student dorm life. I learned so much about what it means to design ethically and purposefully, and will definitely carry these lessons forward with me in my future endeavors.
It was the day after I had a midterm and a quiz, and how did I choose to destress? Roller skating, of course! And since this is Dartmouth, it had to be in flair (crazy clothing). Some notable pieces from that night include a cheese hat, light-up disco necklace, and multiple animal onesies. Donned in a pink tutu, I boarded a van with my friends on Saturday night to our destination: Great View Roller Rink. The event was organized by the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) as their “semi,” which is a social event that occurs once or twice a term.
As my freshman roommate El said, you never know when three tutus will come in handy (they're all hers!).
Although I am not very involved with the DOC, and neither are my friends, the event was open to the entire campus, which I thought was a great way to get to know more active members of the DOC. I’m certainly interested in leading a First-Year Trip, either before my junior fall or senior fall, because I think it’s a great opportunity to both act as an anchor point for incoming freshmen and meet people in the DOC.
The last time I went skating was actually my freshman fall here at Dartmouth, during an event held by the Collis Programming Board. They converted Collis Common Ground, a popular area for big events, into a temporary roller rink. Both of these events were free, meaning all you had to do was show up ready to roll (literally). That was one of my favorite events from freshmen year because I never expected to do something like that during my first few weeks in college.
The whole place had a very ~retro~ vibe, and it was like I was taken back to the 80s.
Sadly, this was probably the first and last time I visited the Great View Roller Rink because it will soon be transformed into a pet store. It’s a Dartmouth student favorite, especially for outings like this one as well as sorority and fraternity semis. We undeniably made the most of it, skating for an hour and a half to popular hits including Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” as well as the Trips classic songs. If you’re a prospective student, just know that by the time you’re an initiated Dartmouth student, there will be a few songs that will hold a special place in your heart and that you might know some dance moves to. But that’s for you to discover…
That same day, the Collis Programming Board was holding a free skating day at Occom Pond, and the Living Learning Communities had planned a cosmic snow tubing trip, complete with a bonfire and DJ. Needless to say, there are so many ways to appreciate the winter season, both indoors and outdoors. If I had one complaint to make, I would say there are too many tempting activities to partake in and difficult decisions to make, such as choosing roller skating versus ice skating!
I was attracted by the opportunity to engage with first-year residents and shape their Dartmouth experiences, in addition to working with other UGAs and staff who shared my interest in helping others.
We so very wish you could step onto Dartmouth's campus yourself to witness the beauty of our winters live, but COVID-19 has made visiting campuses extremely difficult. I would love to share some of my favorite photos from this past snowy week!
With lots of things (understandably) still closed on campus, it's nice to know that study spaces are beginning to open up again in a safe and responsible way.
In previous winters, I was able to skate on Occom Pond, usually at events with my Living Learning Community, and I'm glad to see that we're still able to take part in such winter festivities even with COVID-19 restrictions.
As my freshman roommate El said, you never know when three tutus will come in handy (they're all hers!). 
