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's safe to say that many things have been derailed by the public health emergency, in both minor and major ways. When I started my internship in January, I certainly did not expect to stay here for eight months, much longer than the two and a half I had planned to. Here's an update on how my life has changed and in what ways Dartmouth has supported me throughout it.
My freshman roommate and I were going to study abroad in Rome together, but I'm still grateful that we got to spend the winter term in D.C. with one another.
I originally was going to intern here (at Fogarty International Center in the NIH) for the winter, and then study abroad in the spring term in Rome. I was going to be learning art history and Italian, which I had prepared for with two classes in the fall. Unfortunately, the study abroad program was cancelled in March, along with all other study abroad programs.
Due to the last-minute changes, Dartmouth offered to give students who were scheduled to study abroad $5000 to either pursue an internship or to cover off-campus housing. Since housing had already been assigned months ago, there wasn't a way to fit a significant portion of the campus into on-campus housing.
Fortunately, I'd already been to Rome once with my family, but I'm hoping to visit sometime in the next few years. I'll get to use my Italian if I remember it!
After looking at my major and degree requirements, and a few emails with my Undergraduate Dean, I realized that I could graduate without taking classes in the spring. Essentially, I would graduate with 11 terms of classes instead of 12. It was a hard decision, but I ultimately decided to stay at my internship to save money and pursue my internship projects further. It also helped that I received funding from Dartmouth in the form of the $5000 grant.
In the summer, I was planning on doing an internship with the National Eye Institute. However, it became apparent that it would have to be remote, meaning a lot of the programming and social events of the particular fellowship I was a part of would all be cancelled. In addition, given the relevant nature of my work at Fogarty, which is mostly on COVID-19, I decided to once again stay there through the summer. Luckily, I've received funding from The Dickey Center for International Understanding for this remote internship.
But I do miss having my friends around - they were interning in D.C. in the winter and came over to my house one night for dinner!
I have gotten the opportunity to have an extended internship that spans more than the typical two or three months, which I've found extremely beneficial. First, I've been able to explore so many different projects instead of just one or two. I've gotten to work with collaborators from Pakistan, The Washington Post, and the Yale School of Public Health along with my colleagues and supervisors at Fogarty.
Furthermore, this internship has done what all are supposed to do - help clarify my future career path. This was actually my first time doing any sort of epidemiological research, and it's caused me to consider applying for a Ph.D. program in addition to an M.D.! But, while I'm grateful for the time and ability to pursue an internship for so long, I can't wait to take classes again in the fall…
I am writing this blog post as I enter week 9 of my spring term. The weather is so sunny, refreshing, and awesome (it reminds me a lot of the weather in California). I am dedicating this post as a reflection on my week 8.
Now, I am wrapping up my first year at Dartmouth. After reflecting on my experience thus far, I want to offer some advice to prospective and admitted students.
When I applied to college, I was dead set on studying only music and neuroscience. However, I now say go take that course that has nothing to do with your major and maybe find a new passion.
10 weeks, 3 classes, 40 departments and programs, 420 tenured and tenure-track professors—endless possibilities. Here's why I love academics at Dartmouth.
My weeks at Dartmouth are often full of back-to-back events and a constant rush of activity. For me, the best way to quell these negatives is to leave school behind and become one with the trees.
