Hi, my name is Liliana (or Lili, for short) and I'm a '26 from Hawaiʻi! On campus, I can be found performing with my dance troupe, going on walks with friends, and spending an excessive amount of time in Collis. I also love collectible stickers, ultra-specific playlists, free verse poetry, and iced tea. Excited to share my Dartmouth journey with you all! :-)
The Undead South: Horror and Haunting in U.S. Southern Literature explores the southern gothic trope in books, television programs, films, and even video games! This is an upper-level English course, so many of my peers were upperclassmen majoring in English. Despite this, the professor, Professor Taylor, made the space so inviting! I wrote my final paper on hospitality in the American South, where I had the opportunity to engage Get Out (film, 2017), Swamplandia! (book, 2011), and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (video game, 2017). I'd highly recommend taking this horror-themed course in the fall, when the leaves change and there's a certain spooky Halloween chill in the air!
Gender Topics in Native American Life taught me so much about indigenous communities other than my own! Professor Powell was so knowledgeable about the topic, and I especially enjoyed how she encouraged students to lead discussions and drive the conversation. My favorite part of this course was my final project, where I synthesized art pieces from indigenous Pacific Islanders outside the gender binary (māhū, in the Hawaiian language)!
Paris in the 19th Century was my first-year seminar! In this course, Professor O'Rourke taught us how to truly examine Parisian art from this era. Having no experience in art history, I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to understand how special the art pieces were – but, I can confidently say that I want to visit Paris now. At the end of the course, we each gave a presentation! Mine was on Mary Cassatt and her portrayal of the upper-class female experience. Her Impressionist art was so beautiful, from her pieces on motherhood, to friendship, to liberation.
SummerOʻahu, HI and Atlanta, GA
I spent the summer after my first year at home with friends and family! People really mean it when they say that your first year of college goes by in a flash. When I wasn't working part time at a local coffee shop, I visited Kauaʻi, lounged at the beach, saw The 1975 in concert, welcomed the new ʻ27s from Hawaiʻi, and was a bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding! In July, I also had the opportunity to intern in Atlanta, GA with College Horizons, a non-profit dedicated to helping more indigenous students enroll in & graduate from college. I attended their program for high schoolers back in 2021, and this time I helped run the program itself! I'm so grateful to College Horizons for such a wonderful experience.
Sociological Classics is exactly what it sounds like. We read some of the most fundamental sociologists, like Marx, Durkheim, Du Bois, and Weber. Professor Dixon was easygoing and approachable - I remember on the first day of class, we introduced ourselves and he asked us to share "what we're watching". (I think he was looking for some new show recommendations!) From the start, I loved this course and looked forward to it every time we met. I also loved that we didn't have a final...just a project! I finished mine on the couch at home!
Introduction to Environmental Science was actually held in the same classroom as Sociological Classics, so I instantly knew I'd love this class. Dr. Chaudhary and Dr. Peach co-taught this course – I enjoyed having two professors because their teaching styles were different, but they worked together well! Having taken an environmental science class in high school, I was worried that some of the content would sound too familiar, but I was wrong. I learned so much in this course about not only the fundamentals of environmental science, but sustainability, economics, social justice, and different cultures around the world. Dr. Peach was also my faculty of choice for Dartmouth's "take your professor to a Pine lunch" program!
Morality and Political Economy was my first government course beyond the intro classes, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous on the first day… but Dr. Clark has such a special way of making students feel at ease. His passion for this subject stuck out to me so much that I attended office hours after the very first class meeting—I had so many questions already! My favorite part of this course was how we got to engage with the Political Economy Project (or PEP, for short), of which Dr. Clark is the director! Throughout the term, we attended several PEP guest speaker events, which greatly enhanced the content we learned in class. From Abrahamic religious texts to modern-day criticisms of capitalism—this course was constantly teaching me about how people, throughout history and around the world, have attached moral significance to their economic activity.
Outside of my classes and their coursework, much of my time here at Dartmouth is spent working my campus jobs. I currently work three jobs: (1) admissions tour guide, (2) admissions blogger, and (3) teaching assistant (TA) for an engineering course. Navigating campus jobs can seem daunting at first, but below, I'll walk through my personal experience with them!
I mostly chose to apply for campus jobs because of work-study, included in financial aid from Dartmouth. (Read more about it here and here!) That, and, I was really interested in gaining more job experience! The first step is finding a job to apply for. Typically, this takes place through the Student Employee Office's website, known colloquially to students as JobX. Here, students can search for campus jobs that are hiring. Not all campus jobs are posted here, but a fair portion of them are. For example, some current positions posted include teaching assistant for Italian, admissions videographer, and research assistant for Department of Film and Media Studies.
I did not find any of my jobs through JobX because they followed different application processes. I applied for my first campus job— admissions tour guide—during the winter term of my first year. This application was promoted to all of campus via email! After going through the application process and being selected as a tour guide, I completed training with an upperclassman tour guide trainer. My first tour subsequently took place in May of my first year!
I've been giving weekly tours every term since spring of my first year. This term, I actually give two tours a week. During the summer, there are less students on campus than during a typical fall, winter, or spring term. Therefore, there are more tour opportunities for myself and other tour guides on campus right now! My favorite thing about giving tours is getting to meet people from all over the world. Prospective students and their families visit Dartmouth from so many cool places, from Montréal, to Beijing, to Washington, D.C.! Being from Hawaiʻi, I often find that I have a unique perspective on attending a college that's far from home, which I can only hope eases the minds of students who are considering the same.
At some point during the 90 minute tour, I'm always met with the question, "You're from Hawaiʻi? Why Dartmouth?" If you're interested in reading an actual fleshed-out answer, I wrote a whole post about it here. But, speaking candidly, I really love the new experiences - including tour guiding, where I'm able to connect with people I never would have met otherwise.
Here's a photo that a family friend snapped of me while I was giving a tour! I look so professional…
My other job in admissions, an admissions blogger, also followed a similar application process to that of an admissions tour guide. Many students are accepted to become bloggers right around their first fall on campus, but I waited about a year to apply, and became a blogger at the beginning of my sophomore fall term. I really enjoy blogging because I can write from anywhere. I've written posts on plane rides, at the beach, or simply on the third floor of the library. The freedom this job allows is really great for me, since I have a very busy day-to-day schedule!
Pastries on the golf course!
Blog posts can be about any aspect of Dartmouth that the blogger wishes to write about; some of mine can be more on the serious side. For example, I wrote about my major declaration and why I decided to declare a major in the Government department. But, I also wrote about the annual midnight snowball fight, a fun tradition that takes place during winter term, whenever campus receives a certain amount of snowfall.
I was inspired to apply to be an admissions blogger after reading a blog post before I came to Dartmouth. The summer before college, I remember being so nervous about finding a dance group to continue dancing with. Dance was one of my favorite extracurricular activities, and I wanted to know about Dartmouth's opportunities. Scouring the web for an inkling of information, I stumbled upon a blog post about dance groups at Dartmouth and how the audition process works. I remember feeling so excited after I read the post— I couldn't wait to show up in the fall and audition!
I auditioned for several dance groups, and was selected to be in Ujima (or Uji, for short). That very blog post? Written by one of the directors of Uji. In a way, admissions blogging brought us together, and I'm so thankful it did! I can only hope that one of my blog posts might help someone out there, too. (If you're curious, here's said blog post by Love Tsai, '23.)
My third (and newest) campus job is a teaching assistant for ENGS 2, or Integrated Design: Engineering, Architecture, and Building Technology. Along with my majoring in Government, I'm minoring in Human-Centered Design, through the Thayer School of Engineering! So far, I have experience with two courses in the ENGS department: ENGS 12 and ENGS 21. Having never taken ENGS 2, I was hesitant to take on the role as a teaching assistant; however, one of my sorority sisters recommended me to the professor, and the rest is history.
ENGS 2 is a course popular with non-engineering majors, since it does not count towards the major. Because of this, most of the students enrolled in ENGS 2 are taking it either due to an interest in architecture and studio art, or to fulfill one of our distributive requirements. (See here for a more comprehensive guide on distributives, or "distribs" for short. ENGS 2 satisfies the TAS - technology or applied science - requirement.)
So far, my responsibilities as a teaching assistant have been to staff homework help sessions outside of class, and to grade homework assignments. I am one of six teaching assistants for the course, and typically, two of us will staff the help sessions together! It's very comforting to know that I have other teaching assistants to lean on if I'm ever unable to help a student. As the term progresses, I'm excited to also assist students with their hands-on projects!
These are just a few examples of the many campus jobs that Dartmouth students can work! Many of my friends also work on campus, from being a barista at Novack Café to staffing the circulation desk in Baker-Berry Library. I highly recommend working a campus job at some point during one's Dartmouth career; it's always nice to have more job experience (and make a little extra money, too)!
How do Dartmouth students balance their classes and social life in a reasonable way? Somehow, we manage to get good grades and prioritize our academics while also making life-long friendships and memories.
What to bring to Dartmouth and what to buy when you are here? A stress inducing decision making process for most incoming students, here is my perspective on some truly important things to bring to Dartmouth and what to leave behind!
As much as I love studying abroad on Dartmouth's Full Immersion in Rome Italian program, I also really miss campus! Here's a look back at some of the places I can't wait to get back to soon.
