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.
Summer is an exciting time to be a sophomore at Dartmouth… or so I've heard—I'm about to embark on my sophomore summer adventure. Sophomores at Dartmouth are required (with exceptions) to spend their summer on campus. Every Dartmouth upperclassman I've talked to remembers fondly their sophomore summer–whether it was classes, or new friendships, or parties, or adventures. My friend Wyatt Cummings '24, for example, co-founded the Dartmouth Outing Club's sub-club Flora and Fauna his sophomore summer (you can read more about FnF here). Other friends of mine have mentioned the friendships they formed or the paddles down the Connecticut River… I'm yet to find out how I'll remember my sophomore summer.
I have a hypothesis—just a hypothesis because Dartmouth always surprises me—that I'll remember it for the memories I'll make at my neuroscience lab. International students like me can take classes their sophomore summer like anyone else; it can be a little more complicated bureaucratically but not impossible, and the Office of Visa and Immigrations Service (OVIS) has guided a lot of students through the process of enrolling in a summer term.
I decided, however, to stay on campus and do research, rather than take classes.
This is Juniper, a friend and mentor of mine at the FINN Lab. :)
I have been a research assistant at the FINN Lab (Functional Imaging and Naturalistic Neuroscience Lab) since last spring; and over the past three terms, I have been funded by URAD (Undergraduate Research Assistantship at Dartmouth), a program that gives Dartmouth undergraduates a stipend to conduct research with a faculty member during terms. You can read more about my first steps into research here or about my experience at the lab here.
Starting last fall, the graduate student with whom I work closely, Katie (who was also a TA for one of my favorite classes PSYC 40: Computational Neuroscience), began preparing me to start working on a project where I'd take the lead. Last fall (fall 24), Katie pointed out to me an inconsistency in the neuroscience literature our lab is interested in (naturalistic neuroscience); then she sent me on a solitary journey through the papers and had me report my findings in front of the graduate students in our lab (that happened in winter 25). The feedback the other grad students gave us helped us refine our experiment idea, so when the spring term came (spring 25), I was ready to write a proposal for a leave term grant for summer.
This is going to be my future desk for the summer, as labeled by Katie.
After a lot of planning, writing, and editing, I submitted the proposal, and at the end of the term received the good news: UGAR* was giving me a grant to cover housing and food expenses for a term, so I can stay on campus and do research! And thisis how my sophomore summer starts.
(*UGAR, Undergraduate Advising and Research, is the parent program that allows students to conduct part-time or full-time research during terms or leave terms.
This term, I competed in the annual Speech at Dartmouth competition, but would never have had this opportunity without the support of Dartmouth faculty. Read on as I share how I got here!
Dartmouth has so many academic resources, including free newspaper subscriptions! Although this may not seem like a big deal, it's a great accessible way to learn about local and national news!
