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!
A Partnership between Dartmouth Undergraduates and Peru Champs
Earlier this summer, I enjoyed participating in the Tuck Bridge program, which I wrote about here. After enjoying a short break, I'm once again getting involved with Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business through the Paganucci Fellows Program, which gives a group of undergraduate students the opportunity to engage in a paid consulting project with an international non-profit organization. As someone who's not sure about what I want to pursue professionally after Dartmouth, getting involved with Tuck and engaging in programs such as the Paganucci Fellowship and Tuck Bridge helps me gain insight and direction into my goals post-Dartmouth. Also, it's a lot of fun to apply the skills I've taken in the classroom and gain some real-life work experience!
This year, the Paganucci Fellows are working with Peru Champs, an NGO from Peru who helps promising children go to school by awarding scholarships. I'm currently one of six Paganucci Fellows with two students from each of the '24, '23 and '22 classes (rising Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors). We come from all over the world, and it's been great getting to work with these people who share similar interests as me. Although it's been hard to come together as a team over Zoom, we've bonded over countless informative interviews, client meetings and team debriefs. It's also been great to have Professor Pierson as a mentor for the team, who is a Professor of Management at Tuck. Through this project, I've picked up a lot of real-life skills that I can apply to whatever career I decide to pursue, while also making some great connections. Furthermore, it's been great learning about the inspiring work of Peru Champs, who was started by a Tuck alumnus!
Some results from our new skills with Excel!
In a few weeks, we'll be presenting our final project to Peru Champs, which will be centered around helping the NGO develop a telemarketing operation. In the past few weeks, I've applied a lot of the quantitative skills I've taken from my STEM classes and research projects, while also getting to use the qualitative skills I've developed through small classroom discussions. Of course, I've also picked up a few new skills through this project. I've learned how to run analyses on Excel, how to get the most out of interviews, and how to create and present some beautiful PowerPoint slides! While I came to Dartmouth because I connected with the school's liberal arts curriculum, it's the unfortunate reality that every college student must start a career at some point. It's been difficult deciding what I want to pursue, but opportunities such as the Paganucci Fellowship have given me a taste of what working in the non-profit or consulting sectors would be like. I've really enjoyed seeing what kind of work I like to do, and what kind of work I would want to stay away from in the future. Stay tuned to find out how the project goes!
Unlike some other universities, many of the STEM lecture classes at Dartmouth require concurrent enrollment in a laboratory section. What is it like navigating that time as a student?
