snow Dartmouth

Jenny Chen

Class of 2021
Jenny with crossed arms

Bio 

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!

Academic Program 

Biology and Quantitative Social Science

Favorite Thing Right Now 

Big scarves

Hometown 

Bethesda, Maryland

Pronouns 

She/Her

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Jenny's D-Plan

What's a D-Plan?

    • FallOn Campus

      Favorite Class: Sociology 001

      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.

    • WinterOn Campus

      Favorite Class: Biology 013

      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.

    • SpringOn Campus

      Favorite Class: The Body: The Nude in Western Visual Art

      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.

    • FallOn Campus

      Favorite Class: Organic Chemistry

      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.

    • WinterOn Campus

      Favorite Class: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

      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.

    • SpringOn Campus

      Favorite Class: Introduction to Programming and Computation

      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.

    • SummerOn Campus

      Favorite Class: Sex, Gender, and Society

      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!

    • FallOn Campus

      Favorite Class: Sports Analytics

      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!

    • FallOn Campus

      Favorite Class: Design Thinking

      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.

What I'm Looking Forward to in the Fall

Although it will surely be different from previous terms, I'm looking forward to being back on-campus. I miss the sunsets as I walk from the library to FoCo, asking my friends to study on the Green with me, and so much more about being at Dartmouth.

  1. No. 1

    My classes

    ENGS12

    I am actually super excited to be taking classes again. My three for the term are Biologic Lessons of the Eye (BIOL70), Endocrinology (BIOL37), and Design Thinking (ENGS12). It’s going to be very new because both of my biology classes are really small (10-15 students), and I’ve never taken an ENGS class before! But I’ve heard really great things about it and asked if it would count for my QSS major (and it does!). A lot of the work includes group projects and creating interesting and novel solutions to some of the problems people face.

  2. No. 2

    Being at Dartmouth

    scenery fall

    Although it will surely be different from previous terms, I’m looking forward to being back on-campus. I miss the sunsets as I walk from the library to FoCo, asking my friends to study on the Green with me, and so much more about being at Dartmouth. I also feel like because socializing outdoors is safer than doing so indoors, I’ll spend less time in the library and more time enjoying the nature around me - going on more runs outside and hiking the local mountains. And like most other people, I've really gotten into walks during quarantine! 

  3. No. 3

    '24s!!

    great issues scholars

    Fall term always feels very new and lively, in part because of the new cohort of students being welcomed to Dartmouth. I already had the pleasure of meeting a few ‘24s through my role as an Orientation Peer Leader, but I’m sure I will be meeting many, many more as fall term rolls around, whether it’s through the Admissions Office, Great Issues Scholars, or orientation events. I always like to give back to the community by playing a role and acting as a mentor for the freshmen, as I remember how important those interactions were for me, navigating the school, classes, and social life.

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Posted 09/14/2020 at 9:00 AMAll List Posts

Hobbies at Dartmouth vs. at Home

Besides just taking on new hobbies like embroidery and digital art, I've witnessed a transition in my hobbies at Dartmouth, as I've been living at home for almost eight months now. 

  1. No. 1

    Dartmouth PE Classes vs. Youtube Workouts

    skiing

    Deciding to take a PE class with my roommate in my freshman fall was one of the best choices! We got to bond a lot and held each other accountable to spend at least part of the week in an active way. Freshman year can be overwhelming so it’s important to take time to destress, in our case through a spin class. Now, I’ve resorted to finding YouTube videos to do the same.

     

  2. No. 2

    Movie Nights vs. Zoom Convos

    I loved to do movie nights with my friends, whether that was in someone’s dorm, common room, or the Hopkins Center for the Arts (tickets are only $5 for students!) Nowadays, we like to plan Zoom calls instead, to update each other on what’s going on in our lives and play virtual games like Code Names and Scribbio.

  3. No. 3

    Concerts vs. Spotify Playlists

    There are so many chances to listen to new music at Dartmouth, as they will invite artists for large concerts such as Green Key (the annual music concert weekend in the spring) and smaller weekly band playings. I’ve gotten to see MILCK, hippocampus, and Noah Kahan at Dartmouth, all for free. Obviously that’s not an option now, so it’s best to stick to making Spotify playlists instead.

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Posted 08/14/2020 at 9:00 AMAll List Posts

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