I'm Kalina, a '27 from Sofia, Bulgaria. I love books (I love reading and writing them), and I particularly love fantasy (i.e., I'm an expert on Middle Earth and Hogwarts studies). I'm fascinated by the human brain and the real-world magic of science. I also love hiking, bird-watching, climbing, and em dashes.
Instead of taking a normal Writing 5 course, I decided to fulfill my first-year writing requirement by taking HUM 1. This course helped me strengthen my relationship to literature and writing. It changed the way in which I thought about classics, both books and movies (we saw Wall-E, by the way). And it also changed the way I thought about academic writing and literary criticism. A third of the course was made up of lectures by professors from different departments, while the other two thirds were discussions with a single professor and a small group of 15 students.
Intro to Neuroscience was the first course I was truly excited about. It wasn't an easy course; we had a weekly quiz of ten to thirteen questions covering the lectures from the past few days, but it was very interesting and also very funny (Professor Winter's humor is legendary). We learned about the human brain at the level of individual cells. We also studied it at the level of different systems, from the olfactory system to the parasympathetic nervous system. And last, we learned about cognition: learning, attention, language. We saw a real human brain with formaldehyde dripping from it. We saw a real sheep's brain. And a rat's brain. And we pocked each other with paper clips to determine the sensitivity of our touch receptors.
Journalism with Professor Alexis Jetter was an enjoyable class, sometimes challenging but very satisfying. We covered a lot of US history through the lens of the media, and we started every class with a discussion of the current news and events (thanks to these discussions, I feel like a real adult now—not so lost when the conversation turns toward politics). Several guest lecturers—from former students of Professor Jetter who're now journalists to a New York Times war correspondent—brought us real stories from the field. In the middle of the term, each of us had to find someone over 30 years old in the Upper Valley, spend a day with them, and write a profile.
SummerSofia, Bulgaria
I'm spending my first summer back home, helping my family care for my newborn sister. In my free time (changing diapers takes a lot of time!), I'm doing research for the cognitive neuroscience lab FINN Lab, preparing for my classes in the fall, and working on a new book.
Coming to Dartmouth, I realized that there's much more to college than classes and academics. College is a lot about the activities you do outside of class, and most of all, I've found, college is about the people you meet.
So far, I've met amazing friends through the Dartmouth Outing Club. I've had the chance to meet inspiring Dartmouth alumni and to study under warm, funny professors. And–I was surprised to realize–I've met a lot of authors, too.
Winning the Right Game by Tuck professor Ron Adner
The first author I met (okay, saw in person) at Dartmouth was Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a mathematician and an essayist who has got a lot to say about randomness and uncertainty. One of his most famous works is The Black Swan (which still I haven't read). Mr. Taleb came to Dartmouth my freshman fall (the fall of 2023), when I was still very nervous and too fearful to approach strangers–let alone famous authors. So when my mom asked me after that if I had a picture with him: sadly, no. I don't. But I have four pages of notes on the fragility and antifragility of systems :)
The next author I met was actually a lecturer of mine. It was in the winter of 2024, and I was doing TuckLAB Entrepreneurship, a free-for-undergraduates program at Dartmouth's business school Tuck. A number of Tuck professors came to teach our cohort, and one of them was Professor Ron Adner, who gave us a lecture inspired by his book. At the end of TuckLAB, almost everyone received a copy of Winning the Right Game, and I proudly brought mine home for my parents read. (My dad immediately started it and loved it.)
Eduardo Halfon's book Canción. I won it in a raffle after his and Bruna Lobato's talk.
In the spring of 2024, the English department held one of the most memorable events I've been to so far:
International Writers in Conversation. Bruna Dantas Lobato and Eduardo Halfon, the two visiting authors, had curious backstories in which writing intertwined with foreign languages – stories that reminded me of my own.
Bruna Lobato, a native Brazilian who first came to the US as a college student, is a translator and an author, who shared that she now finds it easier to write in English rather than her native Brazilian Portuguese. Curiously enough, I find it easier to write in English rather than Bulgarian, too.
Mr. Halfon signed my book at the book café where the event continued after the book talk at Sanborn Library.
Eduardo Halfon, on the other hand, spoke Spanish when he was little; then his family moved to Florida, USA, and from this moment on till he finished his university education, his whole life was in English. Then Mr. Halfon moved back to his native Guatemala and started writing stories that carried the taste of his childhood, a period of time that happened in Spanish and therefore had to be written about in Spanish. By that time, writing in Spanish had become more difficult than writing in English for Mr. Halfon, but he did it anyway.
It was only after I heard Ms. Lobato and Mr. Halfon discuss their literary journeys that I thought I could probably call myself an international writer, too.
Abdul's fantasy novel Vultures in the House of Silence
The last author I've met so far at Dartmouth is
Abdul Rahman Latif, Muslim Chaplain and Associate Director of the Tucker Center. I met Abdul through Dartmouth librarian Rachel Starr, after Rachel proposed to both of us, since we had both recently self-published fantasy novels, to organize a book-reading event for us, where we both read a passage from our books and then discussed my two favorite things in the world: writing and reading fantasy. It was incredible to talk to someone who understands the struggles of self-publishing and also shares my reading taste (and my impatience with fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss to publish his next book).
May adventure follow you: Abdul's autograph
I'm glad I had my first book talk with Abdul, and I'm proud I got him to sign my copy of his book after that.
What a wonderful summer! From joining a summer dance ensemble to regularly canoeing along the Connecticut River, I reflect on the aspects that made Sophomore Summer one of the most memorable Dartmouth traditions I've taken part in.
Hola chicos! Do not worry I know I might be making you a little hungry but I promise it'll be worth it! Come and take a seat with me at the cookout table:)
I'm starting my sophomore year feeling more grounded and clear about my academic and personal goals after a whirlwind first year of exploration. This fall, I'm excited for new experiences!
