Hi! I'm Reece, and I am '28 from Northern California! I hope to study Government, Policy, and Religion in college but come winter, I'll just be hoping to survive the snow. Outside of classes, I love to read, crochet, and journal, and can't wait to expand on my interests this year. I love the outdoors—but hate hiking—and I can't wait for my first spring on the Green! I hope my blog can help answer your ungoogleable questions, and please follow along for chaos that is bound to ensue!
As a student interested in both government and religion, I was thrilled to take this course in the fall—concurrent with the presidential election. The Professor, Randall Balmer, was a really engaging speaker and a leading expert in the field—he even authored two of the course books! We spent our class time discussing many historical and modern elections and discussed in depth the religious influences on the various figures. Overall, this class was really interesting and a great introduction to the religion major!
I took this class with Professor Devin Singh, and it really solidified my interest in studying Religion at Dartmouth. We began the course by outlining the various emergence theories of money, and spent a significant amount of time debunking the most popular: commodity theory (i.e., that money emerged to help people trade). We examined historical evidence, discussed relevant texts, and were able to build our own theories about the history of money. The second half of class focused on the religious connotations of wealth. Overall, this course challenged me in a positive way and highlighted the importance of studying religion in contemporary society.
I wanted to try something new this term, so I took my first pure STEM course at Dartmouth—a mini departure from what I have done in the past. At first, I was apprehensive as Computer Science 1 is a larger class held in a big lecture hall, but my fears were quickly squashed. Throughout the term, I felt so much support from my peers, all the TAs, and even the professor himself. Professor Campbell was an engaging lecturer who kept classes interesting, always telling little anecdotes about his life and his journey to CS, all while adding a few dad jokes here and there. He held weekly office hours, concept chats, and coffee hours with students, so there were plenty of opportunities to get to know him on a personal level. Although I am not a STEM or CS major, and will probably not take another CS class at Dartmouth, I really enjoyed this course! It taught me the foundations of computer science, pushed me as a student, and made me realize how important it is to try new things!
After three terms at Dartmouth, I feel I can safely say that Dartmouth has it all, research-wise. From easy access to research librarians who can help you navigate a jungle of information to hundreds of databases and thousands of research sites accessible at our fingertips, I've found that Dartmouth's resources are truly endless. Whether you are writing a paper, crafting a play, or engaging in independent study, Dartmouth always has what it takes to succeed.
A few weeks ago, I was tasked with writing an original short play for my theatre class. I could write about any topic I wanted, but it had to be inspired by a recently published article in The New York Times. At first, I was worried I wouldn't be able to access the site, but then my teacher told us we all had complimentary access. As Dartmouth students, we are automatically given subscriptions to The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Valley News—the local paper in our area of Vermont and New Hampshire—and The Wall Street Journal, among many others. All students can always access these newspapers online and sometimes even in person at the central tables in our libraries.
All of Dartmouth's resources are super accessible to students for personal or academic purposes. You can meet with a subject librarian who will give you access to a random book online. You can go to Rauner—our special collections library—and examine rare and ancient artifacts with your bare hands. You can play The New York Times crossword and challenge your friends to Wordle. You can go to JSTOR and look through scholarly articles (fun fact: Dartmouth alumni have access to JSTOR for life). The possibilities at Dartmouth are endless!
Dartmouth requires all students to take three PE/Wellness classes in order to graduate. Upon hearing glowing recommendations, I chose to take the wellness sampler offered by the Student Wellness Center as a way to fulfill this requirement.
One of the most rewarding parts of my time at Dartmouth so far has been participating in research. Read on to learn more about how Dartmouth makes research accessible for all students!
