Matthew Monroe
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Matthew's D-Plan
What's a D-Plan?-
FallHanover, NH
Favorite Class: CHIN 01: First Year Courses in ChineseDuring my first term, I wanted to try something completely new—and start working on fulfilling some of the distributive requirements. Two birds with one stone, right? To accomplish this, I enrolled in the first of three introductory Chinese language courses. Taking a fun and informative class with an interesting subject matter—and a stellar professor—has made this term fantastic! I can't wait to see what's in store over the next two terms. I also have a full blog post about my first-year language experience if you're interested in learning more!
Nooks and Crannies: Moore than Meets the Eye
Join me on a thorough exploration of the Moore psychology building!
A Simple Guide to Course Selection
Course selection at Dartmouth is a long process, but it's set up in a way that greatly benefits students! Here's how it works.
Nooks and Crannies: A Fairchild Adventure
Today, my building explorations led me to the Fairchild Physical Sciences Center.
Nooks and Crannies: A STACKSploration
This week I went on an in-depth adventure into the Baker stacks!
Wood You Could You in the (Wood)shop?
I recently found out that Dartmouth has a woodshop that is open for student use, and I've been spending a lot of time there ever since!
Extra Extracurriculars
This term, I'm ramping up my extracurricular involvement by checking out as many clubs as possible.
- No. 1
Irish Dance
Having a tap-dancing background, Irish Dance has always been something I’ve wanted to try. Well, now I can say that I have, and it’s a lot of fun. Irish Dance meets once a week in the Alumni Gym to learn new steps, practice routines, and put together fun group dances. It’s a great workout (my calves were on fire the following day) and a delightful way to improve your balance, learn fun routines, and get to know other people with similar interests.
- No. 2
Club Nordic Ski
Before coming to Dartmouth, I had never really skied. Although I’ve yet to hit the Dartmouth Skiway, this past week, I made the trek into Pine Park to Headcorders, the meeting spot for Dartmouth Club Nordic. Nordic (or cross-country) skiing is very different from what a Floridian such as myself would typically imagine skiing to be. After suiting up, hitting the (moderately uphill) slope, and falling down about a dozen times, I finally started to get the hang of it. It’s tough, and I’m really bad at it, yet it’s so fun that I’m determined to improve. I’ve even started using some of the Nordic ski-geared workout equipment in the student fitness center! Hopefully, next time, I can make it around the loop with a few fewer scrapes.
- No. 3
Timber Team
After I was accepted to Dartmouth, I went through a very long waiting phase where I got really excited about all of the minutiae of college. I remember walking around campus on Google Earth, hunting through the Wikipedia pages for new facts about the school, and spending who knows how many hours reading through blog posts (very full circle). On this search, I came across the Dartmouth Timber Sports Team and knew I had to try it. Timber Team is both a chill extracurricular club and an actual team that competes at regional Timber Sports events. At practices, club members learn to saw logs, split wood (my favorite activity), build fires, and even throw axes. Then, once a term, they head to a competition with other New England schools. Although my hands were freezing and I ended up very, very sweaty, I had a fantastic time. Despite being very exerting, chopping wood is somehow quite calming. Every time I’ve felt stressed the past few days, I’ve found myself wishing there was a log nearby I could turn into firewood. I’m taking this newfound appreciation for cellulose a bit further and getting certified to use Dartmouth’s woodshop next week, so if anything exciting comes of that, I’ll be sure to post about it!
Branching Out Academically
This term is the first time I've ever gone to school and not taken a STEM class. In this post, I walk through my classes this term and how they relate to Dartmouth's graduation requirements and my personal interests!
Things That Slipped My Mind: A 23F Term-In Review
To celebrate my last blog post of the term, I'd like to take a look back at all of the exciting stuff I've let slip through the cracks!
- No. 1
Dance Nation
One of the biggest activities I’ve totally missed is lighting a production of Dance Nation for Displaced, our student-run theatre group. I was able to get on the lightboard in one of Dartmouth’s on-campus black box spaces and help put together an exciting show! It was fantastic getting to put my love for lighting design to use, and through talking with other people involved with the technical production aspects of Dartmouth’s theatre productions, I’ve learned much more about what the department and student-run organizations offer. I plan on continuing my involvement by taking a lighting design class next term!
- No. 2
Snow!
This past week was the first snowfall of the school year in Hanover! Being from Florida, I have minimal experience with snow, and waking up to find campus covered in a beautiful layer of fresh powder was so exciting for me and other people from warmer climates! I made snow angels, made footprint drawings, and even started a snowball fight with a few friends (great practice for the campus-wide snowball fight at the start of winter term!) Although it isn’t forecasted to snow again before I head back to Florida, getting a little taste of what winter term has to offer was so amazing.
- No. 3
Drill Dinner
As the term comes to a close, I’ve had the opportunity to spend some non-academic time with people from my classes! The most fun was getting dinner with the people from my drill session, essentially an extra language practice class you take in addition to your intro-sequence language courses. We headed to Han Fusion, a Chinese restaurant in Hanover to have a meal together. I haven’t spent too much time in Hanover, so I’d yet to eat at Han Fusion, and it was really tasty! A welcome break after ten weeks in the dining hall.
A 23F Mock Trial Recap!
I decided to try something completely new this term and joined the Mock Trial Team!
The First-Year Language Experience
I decided to fulfill my language requirement by jumping headfirst into Chinese 1! This is what it's like starting a new language at Dartmouth.