Jenny Chen

While I have already gotten a taste of various departments outside of my typical scope of classes, such as Art History, Italian, and Government, there are still so many more classes that I wish I could take. Unfortunately, I have no space left in my schedule for classes that don’t count for my majors, but ENGS21 (Design Thinking), TUCK2 (Marketing), and PSYC23 (Social Psychology) are just a few of the courses I have in mind. If you have friends who strongly recommend a class for its content and/or professor, don't be afraid to add it to your classes, even if it's unrelated to your major!

Dartmouth offers a special program whereby each student gets a voucher every term to take a professor out to lunch at Pine, a local restaurant on-campus. While I did do this once, I feel like I should have taken advantage of the chance to get to know my professors better over a free lunch. Also, if you’re worried about awkward silences, bring a friend! Professors are such a great resource for major advising, research, internships, and post-graduate plans. 

In freshman year, I stuck to clubs related to my academic interests, and these were mostly informal. I wish I had explored a bit more by joining more structured clubs such as The Dartmouth or community serviced-focused clubs. Also, I was hesitant to start anything new in my sophomore or junior year, but it's never too late! These are a great way to meet more people, and if you don't really enjoy it, you can always stop going to meetings, so it's almost always a low-commitment situation. 

In the fall, I tried a lot of new things, including which classes I took. I enrolled in an introductory Italian language and art history course, both of which I loved! I took Spanish through middle and high school, but wasn’t particularly good at it, so I was nervous about testing my rusty language skills again. But I saw my Italian skills improve dramatically as the course of the term went by, in part due to the speaking drills held multiple times a week (which were conducted by a student instructor and with no grades). It was so much fun to learn new phrases, and class felt more like a discussion with friends than a formal lecture. I also learned a ton about Maria Montessori and her education system... 

This winter, it was really nice because two of my close friends were interning at D.C., only a few metro stops away from my house. Even though I’d lived here for a long time, there are a lot of parts of the D.C. scene that I didn’t appreciate before. One of my friends was a sports fan, so he took us to an NBA game. We also went to the Kennedy Center for an orchestra performance, and I’d never been before! My other friend was more into art, so we made sure to hit up the most famous art museums and galleries. This sort of thing happens all the time at Dartmouth, but I really appreciated it away from Dartmouth as well. And this is also reciprocal, meaning you should show your friends your interests and passions! 

I feel like this one is a given, considering everything that’s happened this year. While I was hoping for a winter in D.C., a spring term in Rome, and a summer in Boston, let’s just say that that hasn’t happened. But I’m super grateful for my internship and the fact that I’m able to spend so much more time with my family than I thought was possible during college. I'm someone who identifies as an absolute change-hater, but looking for the bright side kept me optimistic. For example, I've really loved my internship at the Fogarty International Center, and I've gained a lot by being able to intern for more than the typical two months of an off-term. It's definitely changed the trajectory of my career plans and made me want to pursue a Master's in epidemiology!