Hello there! My name is Shuyi and I'm a '23, which means it's my senior year here at Dartmouth! Follow me for my last year at Dartmouth as I reflect upon my college experience. At Dartmouth, I enjoy playing squash, eating at late night, and of course, blogging. You can ask me about studying social sciences, coming to Dartmouth as an international student, and anything else really. I hope you enjoy the blog!
I actually wasn't planning on taking this class but it eventually became my favorite class. The professor was very funny and created a relaxed classroom environment where I enjoyed looking at diversity in different contexts, such as college admissions and group dynamics.
This class was a perfect mix of philosophy, classical studies, and writing. We were able to reflect on societal views, our own ideas of optimism and pessimism, and how we can lead more fulfilling and compassionate lives.
My first experience with computer science was my Freshman winter, and I quickly became interested in the subject. I followed up CS1 with CS10 in the Spring, which I found just as cool. I love how you can solve problems by applying logic and math with computer science, and I look forward to diving deeper into the major!
Econ 21 is required for all Econ majors, and I loved my experience with Professor Gustman. He made the material super easy to digest and allowed me to take exams in my timezone, which I thought was really nice.
It was really interesting to study public speaking in an asynchronous environment, and I came away with a deeper understanding of not only public speaking but speech writing. I wrote a separate blog post about the class, so check it out!
Since English was one of my favorite classes in high school, I wanted to take another writing course at Dartmouth. This was a great choice, as it was a perfect mix of lecture and discussion. I loved reading and learning about several American dramas, and even discussing modern topics such as Trump's rhetoric!
SummerShanghai
I took my Sophomore Summer off, which many international students do, and got involved with the Tuck School of Business through the Bridge and Paganucci programs! You can read more about my summer experiences in my blogs!
This was my first class from the QSS department, which was long overdue considering that I'm a QSS major! I really enjoyed picking up some coding skills and tackling problems like transitional justice with quantitative approaches.
I took Econ 25 in the Fall, and Econ 35 was the next course in the game theory sequence! It was really fun to apply game theory to cool concepts like sports, Covid-19, and auctions.
This was my first time taking a music class even though I have been involved with music my entire life, whether that was playing the piano or learning how to make beats. I loved this class because I not only learned more about music, but more about Native culture as well!
SummerNew York
I took my junior summer off to pursue a management consulting internship in New York. I had a wonderful experience!
I absolutely loved this class! Theatre was one of my favorite classes in middle school, and so it was great to reconnect with theatre again in college. The professor was amazingly kind and passionate, and the final project was a really fun group performance!
This was a small class of around 15 people, which allowed us to have intimate discussions of readings and theatre. I loved hearing from my classmates, as we used our personal experiences to guide us in our understanding of materials. My final project was a protest on campus, which also really fun and refreshing take on performance!
As I wrap up my fourth term at Dartmouth, I've now spent half of my college experience away from Hanover. It's definitely been a weird time for everyone, but I think we've all done a good job of adapting and making the best of these crazy times. While I've been busy this past week working on final papers and exams, I'm reminded of similar experiences last year where I was grinding away with my friends in Baker Library during the end of each term. In the spirit of being another term closer to finally going back to Dartmouth, I thought I would talk about a couple of things this term that have still felt distinctively Dartmouth, even though I'm thousands of miles away.
My Modern Iraq class with some of my friends and Professor Kadhim!
Feeling supported and considered in class
Everybody has their own circumstances nowadays, so it's hard to come up with a perfect solution for how classes will go. As someone who lives in a different time zone and ran into WiFi issues a few times throughout the term, I've encountered some headaches with remote learning. However, all of my professors have worked with me to make sure that I feel supported and considered. Whether that's moving my exams to fit my time zone or offering to hop on individual Zooms with me, I'm so grateful to be around professors who make an effort to help their students. As my Economics professor said in a class recently, everyone is getting affected by COVID-19 right now, and he's going to try his best to make sure that it doesn't make affect his students' academic studies. Outside of my professors, I've kept in contact with my friends who are taking the same classes as me. The Dartmouth culture of helping each other out has stayed alive during these times, and I've enjoyed doing problem sets together over Zoom and texts.
Feeling connected to the College community
A view I'm missing right now
It's hard to feel connected to a community when everyone is spread around the world, but Dartmouth has managed to make me feel like a Dartmouth student, even though I haven't been to campus in over half a year. I think having a smaller student body has definitely been a huge factor, as I'm able to stumble across friends that I haven't talked to in my classes and various activities. It's hard to keep in touch with everyone when you can't see them across the Green or at the gym, but I've been surprised at how many familiar names I've seen on Zoom, Canvas and elsewhere. For example, I connected with one of my friends from First-Year Trips when I saw his name in a Zoom for a club I was interested in. Although I hadn't talked to him since I left campus, we immediately started talking about our summers and what we've been up to. Random interactions like these have allowed me to feel like I'm still part of a college community, although I'm definitely excited to see everyone in-person again.
Although I'm not at Dartmouth, I definitely still feel like I go to Dartmouth. Despite everything that's going on, I'm grateful that I get to feel some sense of normalcy through my interactions with the wider Dartmouth community.
Through Dartmouth's Guarini Institute for International Study, I am getting to take classes and experience life at Wellesley College, an all-women's school!
