Rika Masuda Singh

Discovering My Interest in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies!

I was one of those kids who always knew what I was going to be when I grew up. "A doctor, duh," I would often answer when asked. It was a passion sparked by my countless visits to the pediatrician's office, where my curiosity prompted me to point at every tool hanging on the wall and ask, "What's that?" Well, little 3-year-old me would be happy to know that my desire to become a doctor is still going strong. 

The doctor teddy bear that I've had since age three!

When I started thinking about college, it was a given that I would be "pre-health," but at a lot of schools, including Dartmouth, "pre-health" isn't a major in itself. It's rather a track that is taken alongside a major, with its own set of courses needed to fulfill the requirements for medical school. Because biology is so pertinent to medicine, there are naturally many overlaps between the courses in the pre-med track and the biology major here at Dartmouth. So, logically, to make things as simple as possible, I figured I would be a biology major here, which I wasn't upset about at all since I do love biology. 

Dartmouth has a fantastic program during first-year orientation called "Open Houses," where all of the academic departments are scheduled to host an open house where first-year students can ask questions about majoring or minoring, meet professors, and simply get a feel for the departments they're interested in. My open house schedule looked pretty simple: Biology, Chemistry, Physics (maybe), and even then, I knew that I would just be going for the sake of going—I already knew I would be taking classes in all three departments, for my biology major and the pre-health track. Because I only planned on attending three open houses, I was pretty much done by noon, so I decided to walk around campus (which was still very new to me at the time) to fill the rest of my time before our next orientation program. I walked into Baker Library, where I stumbled across a sign that read, "Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Open House →". I never really thought about the WGSS Department because it seemed so humanities-like to me, and I had convinced myself that I was supposed to be a STEM person. However, within medicine and healthcare, I had a special interest in female and reproductive health, so I thought it would, at the very least, help me meet some professors that I could reach out to in the future. 

Little did I know that entering the WGSS library was the best decision I have ever made. 

The moment I walked in, I felt an immediate sense of belonging. The room, which is a beautiful library, was buzzing with students engaged in conversation with the eclectic and enthusiastic professors. The bookshelves were lined with WGSS-branded tote bags and department pamphlets. At the center of it all was a large table covered with six different flavors of mini artisan cupcakes. I knew this was the place for me. 

I flipped through the pamphlet and was so deeply intrigued by the listed classes. Sex, Gender, and Society; Transnational Feminism; Intersections; the list went on and on. For the first time, I had found classes I was genuinely interested in, apart from the ones I "had to" take. I knew, immediately, that these classes would widen my scope of knowledge, thinking, and understanding—key skills that would only enhance the rest of my academic career. 

Pamphlets, course listings, and fun course syllabi!!

And so, in the thirty minutes I spent at the WGSS open house during orientation, I derived a new path for myself. It wasn't a path that dismissed the one I had spent most of my life on, but a path that introduced new twists and turns while still getting me to the same destination. Now, after taking a few WGSS classes, I can say for sure that they have truly enhanced my time here at Dartmouth!