Hi all! Welcome to my very public blogging page! I am Toni Fabian '25, the middle child of my family, from a small town in sunny Southern California. I plan to study economics and human-centered design. I am passionate about culture, educational equity, and social justice. I will be writing about all things Dartmouth, from the infamous FOCO cookies to the resources and opportunities offered here on campus. I am truly so excited to bring you along with me while I navigate my college journey!
Academic Program
Intended majors: Economics and Sociology; Intended minor: Human-Centered Design
Each week I was responsible for completing problem sets, quizzes, classwork, and discussion boards. Every week we related what we learned in class to the real world. For example, we read about food banks and their past struggles with efficiency. As a class, we discussed solutions and delved deeper by asking questions and collaborating with each other. I loved this class a lot because Dr. Petre made learning really fun and is so kind! I learned a lot of information ranging from different elasticities of demand and supply to the indicators of poverty. This class was awesome!
For my FYS (First-Year Seminar), I took a history course called Gender and Urban Transformation (9L slot). Our class discussions drew from primary sources and historical analyses that dabbled on gender and its intersection with race, sexuality, and class in the development of U.S. suburbs and cities. Essentially, we explored urbanization and suburbanization as a multi-gendered process. I developed my research skills as I drafted an annotated bibliography, book review essay, and prospectus on the Chicano Movement's impact in the realm of higher education from the 1960s to the present in California, Texas, and Chicago. I learned a ton, I am so happy that I took Professor Rabig's course!
Sociology 1 is the introductory course for the Sociology major, and I loved this class so much! We had a ton of class discussions and the material was very insightful. We were assigned a term-long discussion group, and my group leader was so kind and knowledgeable. We analyzed and discussed the reasons behind class stratification, power dynamics, and social and economic inequalities in society. This class has truly helped me further develop my sociological imagination and changed my perspective in life. :)
For the entire summer, I interned for Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano (SJC). Breakthrough SJC is a non-profit organization situated in Southern California that aims to close the achievement gap for underrepresented and underserved students. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have served as a teaching fellow this summer and for Dartmouth's support in preparing me for this amazing and unforgettable experience!
I am writing this blog post as I finish up week 7 of my fall term. I want to utilize this blog post as a reflection piece on the busy week. Firstly, I am very grateful for all of my friends and family. I feel really happy. My classes are challenging me a lot, but I am getting a handle on them! Currently, my favorite class is Macroeconomics, it has probably been the most eye-opening and applicable course that I have ever taken at Dartmouth. The class focuses on utilizing real-world case studies and applying the models that we learned in the course to apply them to economies abroad and domestically. It was fascinating to learn about Germany's savings glut and its contribution to the United States housing bubble in the early 2000s (by the way it popped and contributed to the great recession).
On another note, this past weekend, my friends and I went to Nashua, New Hampshire to visit a scary house attraction. It was really awesome. It took about an hour to get to the attraction, it was definitely worth the long drive. It was scary, eerie, and filled with a ton of jump scares. The experience was something really unique to me because this was my first time going to a haunted house. We also got Chick-Fil-A on the way back which was amazing. By the way, that is the closest one to Dartmouth (an hour or so away), so I got a lot of it because I will probably not be getting it again for a very long time.
Chick-Fil-A
Nevertheless, this week was awesome and I am very grateful for the memories that I made and the new people that I met. I will make sure to update you all on my life as I continue to have more life updates! Until next week!
It's not every day that my Intro to Chinese Culture and Understanding the Universe classes were both canceled, but the cosmos had other plans. Welcome to a rare weekday in my life with no classes!
