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.
Computational Neuroscience with Professor Richard Granger is a multidisciplinary course taught by a multidisciplinary professor and designed for multidisciplinary thinkers. The class covered brain anatomy and physiology and the biology of learning; it covered linear algebra and the architectures and characteristics of several neural networks. Last, we had a module on "brain engineering"—how some brain circuits function and how we can get inspired by them as engineers.
The first focus of Discrete Math for Computer Science was learning to think like a mathematician: how do we use logic to find proofs to problems and our solutions? Next, we learned how to apply this thinking in computer science contexts — how do you prove that a recursive program works? How do you prove what its run-time is going to be? These were the kind of skills we were building in preparation for the next course in the theoretical computer science sequence: Algorithms. Before we can build algorithms, we need to know how to think about the steps we need to take to solve problems with the rigor of mathematical logic.
This term I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and fill out of my distributive requirements with a government class. Taught by Professor Steven Simon, America and the Middle East was one of the most interesting classes I've taken at Dartmouth. The class covered the evolution of US foreign policy toward the Middle East from the early days of the Republic to modern times. The books and papers we were assigned to read for each class were complemented by Professor Simon's lectures (his storytelling style made his class one of the few classes with 2-hour-long lectures that keep my attention till the very end), and he shared fascinating anecdotes from his work and trips.
SummerHanover, NH
I am spending my sophomore summer on campus, doing full-time research at the FINN Lab (Functional Imaging and Naturalistic Neuroscience Lab). This summer I get to do a little bit of programming, stimuli writing, and data analysis and run a pilot study that will pave the way for a bigger neuro-imaging experiment. I am also serving as the house manager of Alpha Theta Gender Inclusive Greek House. I'm still deciding which is more challenging: navigating academia or the intricacies of taking care of an actual house. ;)
Most second-years at Dartmouth spend their summer term on campus, taking classes. Some petition to take the summer off. Others—mostly international students—stay on campus, take an off term (as opposed to an on-term), and do research.
And this, indeed, is my sophomore summer experience: I am on campus, living in and serving as the house manager of Alpha Theta Gender Inclusive Greek House, and doing research for the FINN Lab (Functional Imaging and Naturalistic Neuroscience). A quick overview of a day in the life should clarify what exactly this all means. :) Are you ready? OK then. Wake up!
It's eight o'clock and you wake up in your room on the third floor of Alpha Theta Gender Inclusive Greek House (AO). The AC keeps the summer heat out, and the sunlight is streaming in through the east-facing window. You dress (a little more officially than usual because you like feeling well-dressed for your Lady Science in the lab), and you head downstairs to the kitchen. As you walk down the stairs, you check the House Jobs White-board: the board shows all the residents at AO and the chore they're responsible for. (As House Managers, it's your responsibility to assign chores and make sure people help clean the house). You smile proudly—all Sunday chores are completed! (Remember, you are starting your job as house manager with very low expectations for the people you're managing because you've been trying to have your younger sister help with the cleaning at home and she never did.)
Before I became house manager at AO for the summer, one of our house managers, Shawn, told me: "If there's a mess, it's NOT your problem. If something breaks, THAT'S your problem." I've been trying to abide by this rule, but something it's difficult. This is me cleaning out our fridges (some things were frozen-glued to the fridge).
You make breakfast, grab your bow of raspberries and oatmeal, and cross the lawn behind the house to reach Moore Hall, home to the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Three floors up, you dig the key out of your bag and you let yourself into the lab space of the FINN Lab. Your laptop is waiting for you at the desk (because summer research allows you to practice work-life balance and you can leave your computer at the lab in the evenings). Let the day begin…
You're coding up a pilot experiment you will be running online later in the term. Half your screen is VS Code, the other half is the hosted version of your web platform. Hours fly by and you barely notice—until you've been looking up and fixing jsPsych (a JavaScript library for web-based psychology surveys and experiments) functions for so long that your one-month-old concussion symptoms flare up again. (Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you about that before you decided to dive into a day in my life. Sorry. ;)
Time for a break. Your house is just two minutes away from the lab, so you go back home for lunch, checking GroupMe on the way. Uh-oh. A resident has texted that the shower drain on the first floor is clogged. Your lunch will wait—first you need to find a screwdriver and some Draino, so you can fix the shower. Oh—wait, new surprise. The second floor bathroom smells bad—is it the trash or a rodent has died (again) somewhere in the walls? You take out the trash, open the windows, check in forty minutes later… OK. No smell. Hopefully it was just the trash. In the meantime, you've also fixed the shower drain. Your job as House Manager (for now) is over. Finally you can eat lunch and call back home.
The afternoon flies by in programming again. Sometimes, as a break, you decide to write a short story stimulus for the experiment. (You love reading and writing fiction, and you've found a lab that uses naturalistic stimuli (stories and movies) to study the brain. How fun. You get to write fiction for your job :)
In the evening, you go down to the Connecticut River for a paddle or you head into Pine Park for a stroll with your friend. House meetings at night. Only a handful of AO members are currently on campus, but you get to talk to know them better than before. Together, you watch a movie in the living room. You read a book.
The Ledyard Canoe Club rents out canoes and kayaks FOR FREE to Dartmouth Students.
It's eleven pm now. Life is tiring, but it's fun. That's your sophomore summer. There are challenging moments—surprises in the house, your old concussion headaches—but mostly there are rewarding moments.
Professor of English, author of multiple books on American literature, and recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the Mellon Foundation—meet Professor Colleen Boggs.
The Fourth of July: a federal holiday usually spent over summer break with family and friends. Not this year, though! As a result of sophomore summer, I spent this holiday with my friends at Dartmouth.
