Welcome to my page, I am a '27 from central New Hampshire! I came to Dartmouth for the liberal arts curriculum, so I plan to explore the academic disciplines before deciding what to focus on. I am currently looking at environmental science and religion. In addition to blogging, I work as an Interfaith Trip Fellow with the Tucker Center for Spiritual and Ethical Life. I enjoy mountain biking, running, skiing, singing, and drawing.
Academic Program
Intended: pre-health, anthropology, environmental studies, and religion.
This discussion and reading-based class was incredible and relevant! Content ranged from the historical impact of the printing press to AI in the workforce and transhumanism, and all of the topics were grounded in religion and some of the frameworks religion provides. I pondered on ideas from this class all the time.
I was captivated by the first class meeting of the term reading Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' and eventually chose to focus on it for my research paper at the end of the term. All of the readings captivated my attention, however, Kafka, Han's 'The Vegetarian', and Kristeva were the authors that made the biggest impression on me. The class discussions resulted in wonderful insights relevant to humanity at a macro level. My favorite aspect was our professor instructing us to focus on the ideas before picking apart the writing style.
This class made me think about the bigger picture of health in a systems focus. Ultimately this class helped me realize that there are a lot of structural health system challenges in the U.S. and around the world. I particularly liked learning about the histories and anthropological side of things. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were my favorite topic in the class because the frameworks are very limited, so some do not receive enough focus and funding.
My Spanish language study abroad was wonderful. In addition to improving my Spanish proficiency, I learned a lot about the culture and history of Spain- especially in the autonomous community (region) of Cantabria where Santander is located. My favorite class on this trip was literature, every class had a different theme relevant to the history and culture of Spain and this was explored with movies, videos, and readings that resulted in some great insights during class discussion. The homestay aspect and excursions bolstered the conversational and cultural aspects of the LSA.
This class sits at the center of the two interests that I have chosen for my modified major, anthropology and environmental studies. There are a few reasons I love this class. First and foremost, there is a SIP fieldwork aspect to it (I wrote a post about this!) which means I can experience local communities and have a tangible impact. Next, my professor has a wonderful design for the content and structure of the class. Also, I am genuinely excited to learn about the content and perspective this course utilizes by considering the many dimensions of disaster. I particularly like exploring the historical factors that turn a scenario into a disaster, and how that can be prevented.
First Impressions of my Language Study Abroad in Spain
Hi everyone! I just wrapped up the first week of my Language Study Abroad (LSA) in Santander, Spain. Several things have stood out to me as I am thinking through my initial impressions of Spanish culture and the program in general. First, as I anticipated, I am thrilled with the fact that this LSA utilizes a host family. This is different than some other international programs at Dartmouth which use dorms/apartments and students live in proximity to each other. Some of my peers live in the same part of the city as me but not on the same blocks. I have a host mom who has proved to be a very good fit for me, along with her two cats. In my home it is not too challenging to accommodate my diet (vegetarian and no eggs) because my host mom does not eat much meat or eggs, however when I am out and about it is a bit challenging just because it is a little less common here. Another difference that was immediately interesting was greetings since hugs and kissing cheeks are common here, and I make an effort to view this as a cultural difference, not something that is 'good' or 'bad'.
This is me and my host mom, Marcela. On my first weekend, she took me on a car trip to Fuente dé which is part of the Picos de Europa mountain range and we took a cable car to the top of the mountain where we enjoyed the views and had some tea.
This picture was one I took in the car on the way to Fuente dé and I had to lean back in my seat to get the angle. I was thrilled with how tall the mountains are.
This is the view from my bedroom. Note the soccer fields and the ocean on the horizon. This day is one of the brighter ones, it has been relatively cloudy and rainy quite often.
I am loving the fruit here. This is a yellow melon that is very similar to honeydew.
These are the two cats who live with us in my host mom's apartment. It has been nice to have pets in the house since this is not something that you get to experience in the dorms at Dartmouth.
Transitioning time zones is also a huge challenge. Spain is six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the US and this is just enough time to throw my biological clock off quite a bit. This is also paired with the fact that in Spain the food schedule is different. A typical day for me here looks like breakfast around 8:15 am, lunch around 2 pm, and dinner around 9 pm (although that is early, sometimes it is closer to 10 or later). Because of this, especially since I am a vegetarian with a high metabolism, I have gotten used to getting hungry at various times. Then there is also the siesta- a time to nap or rest- which typically directly follows lunch and could be anywhere from a half hour to two hours. Four days after I arrived my siesta was 3.5 hours since I was exhausted and adapting to the time changes. Another thing that is worth mentioning is that I only had a week between finishing my Spring term finals and leaving for Spain. Short breaks in between terms (interims) are normal at Dartmouth- winter is an exception- and in my experience, this can be somewhat exhausting.
This was taken after dinner on my first night in Santander while the group was still in a hotel. The following day we met our host families. I slept during the day and night during that day!
This is from our first Friday trip. We took this picture before we went inside the cave of Castillo (which is behind us). We learned a lot about prehistoric art firsthand with an archaeologist here.
This picture is from Santillana del Mar which is a medieval town relatively close to Santander. We also visited Santillana on our first Friday trip. I absolutely loved this town, but part of why I included the picture is because I was so exhausted that I was sleeping on the bus in between locations and was almost falling over during our tour.
My LSA is a group of 10 Dartmouth students and a Dartmouth professor travels with us to teach a class and help direct the program. Our other professors are from Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP) which is where our classroom is located. The four classes for this program are conversation, grammar, art history of Spain, and Hispanic literature. Our classes are Monday through Thursday and every day we have 4 hours of classes (2 blocks of 2 hours), and like everything in the program, it is completely in Spanish so I am more worn out after these classes than I am from some classes back at Dartmouth.
I love some of the aspects of the physical layout of Santander as a city. For example, in this picture, there is an escalator for people going up the hill and stairs for people going down.
This is the street outside of UIMP. There is a roundabout, which is very common here, and a designated bike path which is part of the sidewalk area.
Academics can be challenging at Dartmouth. But there are lots of groups across campus here to support you through your academic journey. Read on for my experience asking for help and a few organizations that might be helpful to you!
Every Dartmouth student is required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Here's my experience navigating the language requirement!
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
