Hi there! My name is Kiara Ortiz, a '24 from New York! I'm interested in studying Neuroscience along with Public Policy on the pre-health track. In my free time, I like to read sci-fi, play board games, and brag about my (supposedly) awful science puns. If you don't find me lost on the Green, I'm probably playing Werewolf or Trivia on Zoom with other '24s. Stay tuned to learn about the Dartmouth community I fell in love with and more about our virtual reality!
Academic Program
Intended major: Neuroscience; Intended minor: Public Policy
Imagine this: It's a Saturday morning. You sleep in and wake up a little later than usual. Your stomach is growling and all you can think about is satisfying that hunger. You roll out of bed, grab a pair of sunglasses and a bucket hat, and you are on your way to FoCo, our college dining hall. But, wait? What's that smell? The savory scents draw you down a little hill and there it is: the West House barbecue.
It is summer time, and what that means is that there are endless barbecues around campus. West House, my housing community, decided to also host a barbecue for all of campus and parents who had come to visit. There were beef, turkey, and veggie burgers, a colorful assortment of fruit-flavored popsicles, and an endless supply of bubbles. Why are the bubbles important? Oh, for the dogs of course! Our housing professor, Professor Hickox, brought his dog, Ben, to the cook-out, which is always popular for students. Ben is infamous for jumping and trying to catch the bubbles, which is both entertaining for the children and the college students.
I was able to reconnect with friends who had just come back from studying abroad, and meet new people who came to visit their friends. I also had riveting conversations where I learned fascinating facts. Did you know that there are peanut butter flavored bubbles for dogs like Ben? Who knew!
Besides this eventful barbecue, West House is planning a blueberry picking trip, and also the opportunity to visit a pottery studio. Maybe even a game of assassin? The housing communities on campus host a variety of events for students to learn new things, engage in talks with professors, or just make friends and enjoy free food. Though all communities will engage you, I am a firm believer that West House is the best house (not biased at all)!
I have written about being a student worker plenty of times in the past, but I have yet to talk about one of my favorite jobs ever: ticket selling at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
It's not every day that my Intro to Chinese Culture and Understanding the Universe classes were both canceled, but the cosmos had other plans. Welcome to a rare weekday in my life with no classes!
