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!
In my blog post to kick off 21W, I told you guys that I'm taking a public speaking class this term. I've always admired people who can command a room by speaking confidently and articulately, so I thought a public speaking class would be a great class for me to take. Not only did it serve as my ART distributive, but the class was also offered asynchronously, which is especially helpful considering I'm currently in China. When I told my friends about the class, they were confused: how could a public speaking class be taken asynchronously? Wouldn't it be private speaking instead? Well, I'm here to answer all those questions and introduce my public speaking class to you all!
A preview of my public speech from my room!
To start, an asynchronous class means there are no live meeting times for the class. Instead, all classes are recorded and I'm able to watch them during times that work for me. Although this means I'm granted more autonomy over my schedule, a drawback of asynchronous classes is I get less interaction with my classmates and professor, which is pretty important in a public speaking class. Luckily, my professor does a great job of making up for this through a variety of ways. First of all, she is always making herself available for individual meetings, where I can ask her questions and chat about the class. In the past few weeks, I've met with her weekly to discuss speech assignments and the recorded lectures. Furthermore, although our speeches are done in the comfort of our rooms, there is a "public speaking" aspect to them. Our professor allows us to watch our classmates' speeches, and we actually have to provide feedback after. Therefore, I know while I'm speaking that people will listen to and evaluate what I'm saying. Finally, our professor opened up discussion boards where we can talk to our classmates and find out more about them, which is also important in better understanding our audience. So, even though our public speaking class is asynchronous, I feel connected to my professor and my classmates!
Now that I'm on Week 8 of the quarter, I've already completed two speeches for the class and feel so much more confident delivering them. The feedback that I've gotten from my classmates is especially great, because I get a different viewpoint from every comment. It also helps being able to see other people's speeches, as I'm able to learn from everyone's strengths and weaknesses. Although I haven't spoken in front of an actual classmate in my speaking class yet, I think this class is a great example of how Dartmouth has adapted to Zoom classes. My academic experience is certainly different from what it would be if I was on campus, but I'm happy to show that it's just as exciting!
As I approach the halfway mark of my Dartmouth journey this spring, I find myself reflecting on the significance of distributive and world culture requirements in shaping my academic experience.
This is my final term before senior year, which is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. One thing I am excited about is the classes I am taking this term, so let me tell you more!
This is part two of me "nerding out" about my honors thesis! If you want to learn more about independent projects, theses, or the humanities at Dartmouth, check it out!
Many small classes at Dartmouth are seminar-style and are the cornerstone of the intellectual exploration and intentionality that define the learning experience at Dartmouth.
