Welcome! I'm Olivia Koo '26, hailing from Los Alamos, New Mexico. I am studying biological chemistry on the pre-med track, and I'm excited to be supplementing it with music, as a classical pianist and singer-songwriter! Some of my favorite things to do are watching YouTube videos about video games, singing and playing my guitar, and reading New York Times op-eds. Look through my page for information about Dartmouth's pre-med track, STEM research, acapella/music, and study abroad opportunities!
Unsure whether I would enjoy the biology-heavy pre-health track, I took an intro biology class. I surprisingly found myself so invested each class—I didn’t think I’d ever be excited trying to determine if the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) had DNA or RNA, but here we are! I found it a great introduction to thinking processes at Dartmouth.
I loved coming to this class with its supportive environment! The professor's feedback really helped me improve in my writing. This course guided us through personal narratives and organizational writing while discussing what it really means to be authentic. It also introduced me to the library’s resources for writing and research!
This class was definitely not easy! The accelerated version of general chemistry, it was my first class at Dartmouth that used a textbook, and I had to adapt and learn how to use a textbook for a class properly. But that didn't mean I didn't have a good time! The classes were full of physical demonstrations, and I felt very supported in the lab and beyond.
This was the first group music class I took, and I loved it! Each class we'd move a little forward in time; one day we'd talk about medieval chants, and by the next couple weeks, we talked about Baroque music. We even got to observe original medieval music scores from the Rauner Library, and attend a performance of Baroque music by the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra!
Songwriting 1 was the first time I was able to work on something creative/in the arts at Dartmouth, and I really loved it! I got to learn how to improve my songwriting and get to know a community of fellow songwriters on campus. The class was both supportive and constructive, and I pushed myself to my creative limit with the assignment of writing one new song a week. This class inspired me to continue writing and being expressive, whether in an academic setting or not.
For one of my classes on the London Music FSP, I got to attend a myriad of musical performances in London and discuss them with my class! It was a once-in-a-life-time experience–getting to watch multiple operas, ballets, jazz sets, and a musical, as well as seeing beautiful performances from the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, and more, helped me grow my ear so much and my inspirations as a musician.
I took this class to learn a little more about the social landscape around medicine, and this class delivered that by a mile. From environmental exposure to racial inequities in medicine/health to the discussion of medicine itself as a manipulative tool in colonialist social structures, this class helped me rethink medicine and my role within it.
The D-Plan, the system in which students have flexibility in choosing which terms they are on-campus and taking classes and which ones they are not, inevitably requires students to have a term when they are not taking classes while the majority of students are! These are colloquially called "off-terms," in which students are usually off campus for a term. As I have taken five terms in a row "on," ie. taking classes, it's about time for me to take an off-term.
One of the many highlights of my five-term stretch was going to Edinburgh, Scotland!
Off-terms contain opportunities to do, well, anything; many work for a term, either at a job or internship, in an area of career interest. Dartmouth's Center for Professional Development provides opportunities for funding for an internship at no cost to the workplace that would host the internship! One of my close friends will be doing this for his off-term—working for the public defender's office near his home. Dartmouth's Center for Social Impact also provides opportunities for funding, specifically for internships with non-profit organizations.
Other students may choose to stay on campus, to audit classes, conduct research, and more; this is what I will be doing–thanks to a research grant from the Chemistry Department, I will be conducting chemistry research full-time for a term! After finding research to be an interesting and fulfilling activity throughout my time at Dartmouth, I'm seeking to go further to initiate a project of my own to potentially turn into a thesis in the future. This research term will be my first step! At the same time, I hope to take the extra time I have to explore more of the Upper Valley, write and record music, and volunteer locally. As an aspiring music major along with my biochemical side, I feel that it's been too long since I've been able to focus on music, with my science-heavy terms in the summer and fall! I'm excited to have more free time to dedicate to music. I also hope I can try out some of the activities that are provided at Dartmouth that I haven't been able to try out yet, like jewelry making!
I'll be with the Rockapellas, of course!
And, of course, there are plenty of students who also choose to take the off-term truly "off"—travelling, relaxing, and unwinding from a long streak of high-intensity Dartmouth terms. Even though there is pressure to always be doing something at high-achieving schools, self-care and mental health should come first in one's journey through education.
I'm excited to see what the off-term will look like for me and for others! It feels like the off-term is a time for growth for students, apart from the Dartmouth schedule…we'll see how it looks on the other side!
It's hard to believe that it has been a year since I wrote my first end-of-fall-term reflection. It felt like only yesterday that I stepped into my dorm room this September, eager to reunite with my friends.
