

Jenny Chen

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Jenny's D-Plan
What's a D-Plan?-
FallOn Campus
Favorite Class: Sociology 001I 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 013Biol13 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 ArtAlthough 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.
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FallOn Campus
Favorite Class: Organic ChemistryThis 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 AnthropologyAlthough 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 ComputationThough 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 SocietyI 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!
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FallOn Campus
Favorite Class: Sports AnalyticsAs 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!
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FallOn Campus
Favorite Class: Design ThinkingI 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.

A Winter of Lasts and Firsts
The winter term at Dartmouth has officially begun! Even though it's my last winter on-campus, there are plenty of firsts I will be going through, which always makes the term more exciting.

Winterim To-Dos
As a senior, this is my last winterim, and I plan on making the most of it! Winterim is a break between fall and winter term that spans six weeks (or Thanksgiving to New Year's).


Escape Outdoors with Art
On Friday, a few friends and I decided to take part in an event held by Collis After Dark, which organizes a lot of the student programming on-campus.

My First E-Bike Ride!
With current COVID-19 restrictions, the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) had to rethink the way that they run their outdoor excursions. Instead of completely scrapping ways for students to enjoy the beautiful fall landscape, they bought e-bikes!

Savoring My Last Dartmouth Fall
The tree outside my door becomes more and more red each day, I ordered a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks the other day, and on several occasions have stopped dead in my tracks to enjoy the beautiful New England foliage.

To Do: Build a Rollercoaster!
This term, one of my classes is ENGS12: Design Thinking, one of the most popular and well-known classes offered at Dartmouth.

Back On-Campus... and Busy!
I returned to Hanover a few weeks ago, and it felt like coming home. After almost a year away, I reveled in how novel yet familiar the campus seemed my first few days, especially with a new class of '24s cohabiting it with me.

Items Capturing My Dartmouth
Now that it's my first night back on-campus, I have found time to reflect on some objects I associate with Dartmouth and why.
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.
- No. 1
My classes
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.
- No. 2
Being at Dartmouth
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!
- No. 3
'24s!!
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.