Hello there, friend! My name is Love and I am a '23. Aside from being on the pre-med track, I'm currently interested in studying math and public policy. I have a penchant for old things, learning languages, and the arts. I also love personality tests, irrespective of their actual validity—in case you're curious, I'm an INFJ, Scorpio, dragon, and type 2w1.
BIOL 11.07 (Major Events in the History of Life and the Human Genome) is a very unique class. We learn topics such as oxidative phosphorylation in conjunction with evolution and paleontology. In other words, where and when did ETC come from, and how can we support our hypothesis? Though not an easy class by far, every day the material I learn amazes me with the wonder of life, which is how biology should be!
MES 7.03 (Jerusalem: Vision and Reality) was my First-Year Seminar and such an interesting class to take! We explored Jerusalem through three main viewpoints (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). The class had a bit of religion, literature, anthropology, sociology, and even geography—all things I love to study but don't necessarily have the space for with our three-class quarters. I often found myself going to office hours just to talk with my professor about questions I had outside of the reading!
COSC 10 (Problem Solving with Object-Oriented Programming) is a data structures course and the last pre-requisite for the computer science major. Though I added it as a fourth class on a whim because of COVID-19 and remote learning, it quickly became my favorite class this term because I loved the problem solving that CS has to offer. It is a difficult class but the emotional and academic rewards make it all worth it!
This was one of four classes I took during fall term and it was super interesting! We learned about healthcare systems and innovations from around 4 guest lecturers per week, and were able to do research on our own and propose a new system at the end of the term. Students came from all over campus and the course was very enlightening for me in terms of understanding how care is dispensed in the U.S. and how we can improve it.
Though this was my first "foundation" course in the Biology department and I still found it challenging, I really enjoyed learning the material and found it all super exciting! We learned about DNA replication, mRNA transcription and protein translation, genetics, and had the opportunity to do a literature review at the end of the term.
The dreaded Organic Chemistry sequence of my pre-med track came upon me faster than I thought it would, but it surprised me by being one of my favorite classes to date! I found it intellectually interesting (even though it was time-consuming), probably because I treated it like a STEM-and-logic puzzle instead of pure STEM or pure memorization. Am I great at it? Not necessarily. Do I remember everything I've learned? I'm not too sure! Am I mentally ready for Organic Chemistry 2 next term? Not at all! But I had a lot of fun doing this class and surprised even myself with how I tackled it.
I love dancing, story-telling, and learning about different cultures so I knew going into this course that I would enjoy it. Cross-listed in the theater and AAAS departments, this course let students have the privilege of working with Dance Theatre of Harlem members who were in Hanover for a summer residency. As a group, we analyzed a play ("The Purple Flower" by Marita Bonner) and transformed the text into a physical movement piece. Each student also had complete ownership of a personal final project, and I opted to do a self-choreographed dance. Overall, I loved getting the chance to work creatively in my academics this term and I also was able to broaden my perspective and knowledge of the African-American story in the process!
As a pre-med, I am constantly trying to learn more about the U.S medical system. This course was extremely engaging in all aspects, taking students through all of American history through the lens of healthcare within the span of 10 weeks. I particularly liked having a discussion session that replaced a lecture, since we were able to talk about the issues with the professor and think out loud about our readings. The course was definitely challenging and required a lot of synthesis across different time periods and topics, but I feel like I came out of it with a deeper and more profound understanding of our healthcare system and why it functions the way it does today.
WinterDetroit, MI
For my junior winter, I did an internship in clinical research! With COVID affecting so much of my college experience, this practical, in-person work internship was very important for me to not only hone my employable skills but also see what having a 8am - 5pm job looks like and how it could fit into my future.
Much like my other pre-med courses here at Dartmouth, Biochemistry was quite rigorous and fast-paced. It was certainly challenging, but I found the work extremely rewarding and I enjoyed learning about all the different mechanisms that happen inside of our bodies. Additionally, many of my friends were also in this class as well, rounding out final prerequisites for graduate school, and this fact made it all the more fun.
SummerDresden, Germany
For my junior summer, I had a research internship in Eastern Germany, working at the intersection between math, computer science, and biology! The learning curve was very steep since my project focus changed once I arrived in Europe, but I had a lot of fun and learned a lot about the content and myself. I am extremely thankful for all the support that Dartmouth has given me throughout my time here, without which I wouldn't have been able to do a 12-week European adventure!
As a pre-med student interested in health disparities, SOCY 75 was an amazing class to take! We covered numerous topics concerning how where one lives can impact their health outcomes. At the end of the course, students were also able to complete a final project of their choosing and I loved being able to tie my personal experiences into an academic course.
Throughout college, most of my science courses have been at the introductory level: one term of genetics, one term of cell structure, etc. Rarely have I had the chance to engage with something on a deeper level or connect the pre-med courses to human biology. This course was super interesting because I could finally connect everything I've learned throughout college into one cohesive course that connects to something I want to do post-Dartmouth.
One of my favorite things to do as a Dartmouth student is going to all the various talks, lecture series, and events that the school holds throughout the year.
This wasn't something that I had anticipated coming in. In my "Why Dartmouth" essay, I had talked about everything from amazing professors and an engaged student body, to being able to live in the Upper Valley and learn with a liberal arts focus as reasons for why I wanted to attend the College. Things like lecture series or department-sponsored speakers outside of class weren't necessarily things that were on my radar. But now, I would definitely add "speakers" to my essay!
During my time at Dartmouth, I've had the opportunity to attend many events in different disciplines both in-person before COVID and on Zoom since March of 2020. There are three major categories of speakers that I will highlight below so that you can get a glimpse of what there is for you to partake in.
1. School or department-sponsored events.
These are lecture series that are sponsored by the school, and you will often hear of them through the daily newsletter that goes out to all students or see flyers advertising them around campus. Some of the talks that I've been to have been sponsored by the Dickey Center for International Understanding, Rockefeller Center for Public Policy (often referred to as "Rocky" by students), the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact (the DCSI), the Center for Professional Development (the CPD), the department for Race and Migration studies (RMS) the biology, math, or anthropology department, and the Geisel School of Medicine.
This is a screenshot of a calendar of events pulled from Rocky's website. As a prospective public policy minor, I love going to these talks and think that these are amazing opportunities to hear from a wide range of speakers on many different topics. If you aren't interested in public policy, don't fret! Simply go to the department website and click on "Events", which should bring up a list of upcoming talks if they aren't already highlighted on the home page.
Most lectures focus on a specific topic either relevant to current events or the speaker's research / career and last one hour long. Additionally, some speakers may also be alumni of the school, and it is always fun to ask them questions about how the school has changed since they were students or ask for some advice. I recently attended a DCSI event where Rev. Leah Daughtry ('84) came in to talk about her career, insights, and experiences and I left totally inspired and invigorated!
2. Student organization sponsored events.
Many student organizations also invite speakers with their COSO funds. Sometimes, they are faculty members. Other times, they are alumni or people connected to organizations that students have worked for during internships. And still other times, they may be completely new or unrelated to the club. This type of talk is often more intimate (think around 30 students at most during attendance) and gives you an amazing opportunity to ask more questions and hear more personal stories.
For example, I am an executive member of the Nathan Smith Society. We host talks called "Dinner with a Doc" throughout the term and invite doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) to come in and talk about their life to students over food (usually Thai!) during pre-COVID times. I actually started becoming more interested in certain types of work and research through these talks!
Many times, you will hear about events through listservs or already being a member of the club yourself, so you will find talks that really interest you. Student clubs like the Political Economy Project, Dartmouth Apologia, Dartmouth Democrats / Republicans, Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineering, and GlobeMed invite speakers quite often and give students a great chance to talk about their interests in a broader setting with perspectives from beyond Dartmouth. Even if you are not part of the club, meetings are often open to campus and anyone can come. And once you are part of a club, you can have the opportunity to plan talks and decide who comes in to speak to your group.
3. Other.
Some talks that happen at Dartmouth are completely unrelated to the school. One prime example of this is political talks! During presidential elections especially, many candidates come to Hanover because of New Hampshire's status as the first state to hold their primaries and set the tone for the rest of the election. During the 2020 election cycle, Hanover saw basically every single candidate, many times more than once. Many students were in attendance at these talks and there is a huge surge in political interest during these times so it feels like campus is brimming with activity. I actually attended an event held by Andrew Yang with some friends my freshman winter on a whim! It was my first time going to a political rally and I had a lot of fun and met some really interesting people.
Here is a screenshot of a graph I pulled from nhpr.org, which is a "2020 N.H. primary candidate tracker" and is essentially a histogram showing each Democratic primary candidate during the 2020 presidential election and how many times they visited New Hampshire. Look at all those long bars!
Those are the three categories of speakers that you can see as a Dartmouth student. I love attending talks because I can learn about new things, get outside of the "Dartmouth bubble," and develop my interests in topics such as medicine, policy, religion, anthropology / sociology, and social impact. Oftentimes I even leave space in my week just in case an interesting talk comes up! I highly encourage people to take the time to attend these and learn something new—with everything online now, many talks sponsored by the College are open to the public and you can login from home. If you're interested, you can see talks from category one (school-sponsored events) at this link.
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!
