Sydney Wuu

After a winter internship in the concrete jungle of New York, I’m ready to embrace spring in the woods. Spring may just be my favorite season at Dartmouth. Hanover is absolutely gorgeous with the weather warming, longer daylight, and trees coming back to life. During my sophomore summer, I got a taste of all that the outdoors of the Upper Valley has to offer and started attending lots of trips—mountain biking, strenuous hiking, paddle board yoga, and pizza making at the Organic Farm, to name a few. An online website called Trailhead allows all undergraduates to sign up for trips as they are posted and request gear as needed for free. I just completed a 1.7-mile sunsike (sunset hike) this past Friday to Wrights Mountain; though there wasn’t much of a sunset (instead lots of snow!), I will always remember my first ever winter hike. Wearing microspikes to prevent slippage on ice, we trekked upwards in the snow until we reached the top, where we had a nice moment of reflection to peer out at the cool blanket of fog. I’m looking forward to partaking in many more trips this spring term!

In college, you can do anything but not everything, so this term is all about prioritizing the activities that I have committed to: blogging for admissions, the Dartmouth Energy Alliance, Presidential Scholars Research, serving on the executive board of my sorority, and my job as an upperclassman undergraduate advisor. As I wrap up junior year, I am also trying to take time to recharge for myself, whether it be waking up on time to eat a hearty breakfast before class, going for scooter rides and walks around Occom Pond (or “Woccoms” for short), visiting Rosie the Goldendoodle in the Student Wellness Center, or reading for fun before bed. There is only so much time during each day and with a renewed focus I plan to make the most out of each passing moment here in Hanover.

I recently found out that I was accepted into an Environmental Studies Foreign Study Program (FSP) to Southern Africa (more details on a future post) during my senior fall, which I’m really excited for! However, attending this program means I won’t return to Hanover after this term until my senior winter. I hope to connect with others, as many ‘24s who were also gone for the fall and winter will be reunited on campus. I am especially excited for Green Key weekend (a music festival in late May), bonding with my floor and mentoring new faces as an undergraduate advisor, and playing Spikeball on the Green. Also, since I’ll have access to my car later this term, I’m excited to explore the local area with friends on weekends and learn more about Dartmouth’s surrounding community.

And, of course, how can I forget my classes? Coming back after a seven-month break from Dartmouth, it feels like a while since I have taken classes on Dartmouth’s 10-week, fast-paced academic quarter system. My fall University College London classes only convened once a week, but here at Dartmouth we meet two to three times a week. I would like to be intentional this spring about fully engaging in the readings and challenging myself to think deeper about the material. I am excited to build on my knowledge base from the introductory and core courses I took during my freshman and sophomore years and apply my previous learnings to my more topics-based, specialized courses. All three of my spring classes sound fascinating: ECON 37 (Gender and Family Issues in Modern Economies), ECON 24 (Development Economics), and PBPL 41 (Writing and Speaking Public Policy). A future more in-depth post on my classes is surely to come!