Hi, and welcome to my corner of the woods! I'm Lauren, a '27 from Munger, Michigan. I'm excited to be back to taking classes after two "off terms" in a row! Outside of academics, I'm involved in Ledyard Canoe Club, the Dartmouth Organization of Rural Students, and Dartmouth Sports Analytics Club. I'm excited to share stories from my favorite place with all of you!
I took this class as part of Dartmouth's first year writing requirement. We read a pro cyclist's life narrative, discussed research papers on controversial topics in sports, and wrote our own papers on a contentious sports technology of our choice. I really enjoyed this course's emphasis on discussion, and the small class size!
This was my first class in the classics department, which was super exciting as a classical studies major! We learned about the ancient Olympics and the connections between athletics and other aspects of ancient Greek society. I loved the final project in this class, which involved creating an argument about how the ancient pentathlon was scored!
To conclude my language requirement, I took Latin 3! This class was super exciting because we began to read ancient texts and poetry. We also took a class trip to the Rauner Special Collections library so we could physically handle and read some manuscripts. And as an added bonus, Latin counts as a prerequisite for my classical studies major!
As a part of my language study abroad in Italy, I also took a class on Italian history and culture! We went on field trips to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, participated in walking tours of Rome, and watched a lot of great cinema in this class! I loved it so much that I decided to minor in Italian.
This class, in addition to being a pre-requisite for my major, was super interesting! I loved learning about archaeology through hands-on projects and lectures that felt like TED Talks.
My favorite course on my Italian LSA+ in Rome is focused on Italian literature, which we are studying in a reverse-chronological order! It has been incredibly fun to see different topics and styles evolve over time and to learn from the works of the best writers.
I’m absolutely loving this hands-on introduction to paleography, and the fact that my class meets at Rauner every day! I can’t wait to hear from our guest lecturers, too, and I’ll be sure to share those experiences on the blog. All in all, Latin 10 was a great way to get back into the language after a term away in Rome.
I signed up for this Latin class after the FDOC (first day of class), and I'm so glad I added it to my sophomore summer schedule! Our class is combined with GRK 30.08 History and Structure of the Greek Language, and it has been incredibly interesting to compare the ancient languages and learn a bit of Greek.
FallIvrea, Italy
This term, I'm interning with the Olivetti Leadership Institute in Ivrea, a small town in northern Italy.
WinterHanover, NH
For my second off-term, I'm back on campus! I'm keeping myself busy by working, spending time with friends, and working on my to-be-read list.
I signed up for this course to complete my final distributive requirement for graduation, and it has turned out to be one of my most rewarding classes! It’s been fascinating to explore a region of the world I hadn’t formally studied before. As a bonus, the lectures are incredibly engaging and I always leave class feeling like my perspective has been broadened.
I'm getting ready to take courses again for the first time since sophomore summer, and that long stretch away from academics gave me plenty of time to think carefully about what I wanted to elect this term. After weighing my options, I landed on a lineup that I'm genuinely excited about—even if it looks a little unconventional for a junior.
I chose to knock out a few of my final distributive requirementsthis spring: a combination of SCI (science) and LAB (laboratory) withEARS 1: How the Earth Works, and NW (non-western culture) through MES 1: Introduction to Middle Eastern Studies. Although it feels a bit odd to be taking two introductory courses during my junior spring, I'm actually really looking forward to it. It's exciting to still be able to step into entirely new subjects at this point in my college career.
My friend, Nico, took EARS 1 last spring and had to survey the walls of Rollins Chapel.
To round off my three courses, I'll be taking ITAL 27.05: IMPEGNO! Italian Imagination and the Role of Intellectuals (1945–Today). It's an upper-level Italian course focused on the evolving role of the Italian intellectual from the postwar years to the present. We'll be reading novels, watching films, and analyzing the ways Italian writers, filmmakers, and thinkers grappled with questions of responsibility and imagination after World War II. Italian has been one of the most rewarding parts of my academic experience at Dartmouth, so I'm excited to jump back into the classroom and work on my language skills again.
Beyond academics, I'll be continuing some of the jobs I was working during my off-termright here in Hanover. It's nice to have that continuity and stay connected to the community even as the rhythm of the term picks back up. Balancing work and coursework was once a struggle, but by now I've found a system that works for me.
When I have a lot of work to do, I like to write it out on a whiteboard to visualize the steps.
Sticky notes can also help me prioritize tasks and balance my workload.
Spring is my favorite term on campus, and there are a ton of traditions I'm looking forward to taking part in for the third time. At the top of my list is all of the music that comes along with Green Key weekend, from the main concert to Block Party to indie groups performing at the Collis Center for Student Involvement. There's really nothing like Hanover when the snow finally melts, and the Green comes alive again.
I can't wait until campus looks like this again!
Here's to a great junior spring. Stay tuned for updates along the way
True to the theme of a liberal arts education, Dartmouth requires students to take one or two classes each in several different subject matters, or distributives, in order to graduate.
This fall, I took INTS80.06: Multilateralism and US Leadership. The course was taught by visiting Professor DeLaurentis. We finished off the term with a trip to New York City to visit the UN and various UN Embassies.
