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!
As part of my language study abroad (LSA) in Rome this summer, I took classes in both Italian language and culture. In Italian II, I finally gained confidence in my language skills and felt more comfortable conversing with locals and my teachers completely in Italian. I could more clearly express my feelings and thoughts in Italian and become a stronger writer in the language.
Although I did not expect this to be a glamorous class, as taking a quantitative statistical class of some kind is just a requirement for my Government Major, SOCY 10 was a pleasant surprise! From interactive and through lectures by Professor Smith, to working in small groups to write a research paper on a topic of our choosing, to learning to code for data in STATA, my expectations were blown out of the water.
Although I do not formally study art in college, Dartmouth has allowed me to stay in touch with my creative side. Whether through the art distributive requirement for all students or the various performing arts groups on campus, Dartmouth truly has it all and has a space for all interests and passions.
In high school, I took three ceramics courses and fell in love with the process of creating physical pottery pieces. Coming to college, I was worried I would not have the same opportunities because I was not planning to study ceramics; however, this was not the case.
At the Dartmouth Student Ceramics Studio, all students are taught how to work with clay and create. Anyone is welcome in the studio, whether you are an absolute novice, a complete pottery pro, or somewhere in between—like me! Every term, they hold weekly handbuilding classes and twice-termly wheel-throwing courses.
Working at the Studio!
This past term, I signed up for a handbuilding class and want to take you along on my journey.
To work in the studio, students must first sign up for a session slot. Each session will meet twice within one week, and so students are encouraged to sign up for the week and a time that works best with their class schedule.
The very first class is focused on building pinch pots! In high school, I made some similar objects, but it had been years since I last touched clay, so the instructions served as a helpful reminder.
My Pre-Pinched Clay
For each session, they always have two instructors present to help answer your questions and show you what to do. For my first project, I chose to build a wide-brimmed pinch-pot bowl that I would later give to my sister as a Christmas gift (spoiler alert).
While you are given plenty of time to complete your project during the allotted session time, the studio is also open for work hours every afternoon so students can come in to finish their projects.
My Post-Pinched Clay
During our second session meeting that week, we were then given more clay and taught how to complete a new project. This time, the instructors showed us how to roll out clay into an even slab and then take our slab and build an open cylinder. From there, we shaped our pieces into whatever we wanted, and I chose to make a bowl-vase-glass-thinging (the exact purpose of my object is tbd).
Projects on the Finished Shelf (mine's on the right)
That weekend, our pieces were fired in the kiln—essentially, they were placed in a huge oven, transforming the soft, breakable clay into ceramic—and then on Monday, we were able to go into the studio to glaze our work. Glazing is the process of applying a glass-like paint or layer to your work to give the piece a shine or color and further protect the artwork.
All the Available Glaze Colors
While glazing, the instructors taught me how to properly layer colors to achieve my desired effect and how to apply the colors to ensure proper coverage. They also helped me pick out what glazes to use, as the glaze colors aren't intuitive and will change drastically after firing.
After glazing my pieces, I placed them on a shelf with some other pieces of work and then came back to the studio the next week to pick them up.
My Glazing Process
I absolutely love how my pottery pieces came out and will definitely be returning to the studio next term!
Although I am partial to the ceramics studio, Dartmouth actually has three student workshops that are available to all undergraduates: the Woodworking Studio, the Metal/Jewelry Studio, and, of course, the Ceramics Studio. If you want to learn more, check out their websites on The Hopkins Center for the Arts webpage.
A week later, I was able to pop by the ceramics studio and pick up my finished pieces. The whole experience was incredible and fairly simple, and I can't wait to return next term!
In this blog, I share how joining Ujima, Dartmouth's oldest hip hop dance team, became not just a creative outlet but a family built on collective work, responsibility, and love.
To the Class of 2030: Congratulations! For those of you who are still making a decision, this blog is intended to give you some tips from my own experience of being in your fortunate (but difficult) position.
Staying connected to significant people in my life is very important to my emotional well being at Dartmouth. Here are some ways I stay social around Hanover and a little bit away in Boston!
