Hi everyone! I'm Yehalah and I'm a '26 coming all the way from Colombo, Sri Lanka. My academic passions lie in Energy Engineering and Environmental Studies. I am a first-generation and low-income student, actively involved with the community. I love to paint and read during my free time. I'm excited that you're here, and I hope you enjoy this account of my life at Dartmouth!
The sequel to Drawing 1! Undoubtedly harder, but definitely a great class. I can now say, with confidence, that I am able to paint a mango successfully.
The Sacred Architecture of Asia is one of the most incredible courses I have taken at Dartmouth! The course is primarily discussion-based, with Professor Seher explaining and initiating conversation about the course material.
It's about to be week four! Midterms have started rolling out and students sitting at the library have started looking more and more focused. You could physically feel the academic drive emanating from a room of people working on assignments.
A typical Dartmouth year consists of three ten-week terms; fall, winter, and spring. Students normally take a three-course workload per term. For my Freshman Fall as a prospective Engineering major, I am taking three extremely different courses! I have two of my classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and one other class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
My first class of the week on Monday morning is NAIS 025, which is Indian Country Today, a course in the Native American and Indigenous Studies department. I have had the privilege to gain so much valuable knowledge in this class about Native American culture, dynamics, rights, and power as sovereign nations. We have had amazing guest speakers visiting our class over the past few weeks, engaging us in our course material and helping us understand evolving concepts and ideas.
The leaves are falling!
My next MWF (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) class is Math 003 which is a prerequisite for prospective Engineering majors. This is easily my most challenging class, particularly because I am an international student so the mathematics I learned back home was extremely different from what I am learning in Math 003. However, I am slowly starting to get the hang of it! Studying with friends and working on problems together really does work wonders. I particularly love studying at the First Generation Office (FGO)!
Last is my Tuesday/Thursday class, SART 015 which is Drawing 1in the Studio Arts Department. This was a class I chose completely on a whim, the day we had to elect courses. Our assignments are progressively getting more difficult, but more interesting at the same time. Our last assignment was on charcoal which was the first time I had ever used charcoal. It was both fun and extremely messy, resulting in me getting charcoal all over my face and clothes. Tip number one for a drawing course: never wear any light colours to class unless you are willing to sacrifice them. Our most recent assignment was put up on the walls of the Black Family Visual Arts Center where the Drawing 1 class is held!
Our drawings on the wall of the Visual Arts Centre!
Wish me luck for week four and I'll be back next week with more tales from the life of a freshman!
At Dartmouth, there is an undergraduate requirement for language; after all, it is the liberal arts! Fulfilling this requirement looks different for various people and I will focus on my experience.
Traditionally, Dartmouth students take three courses during a term, but I decided to take four courses this term! Learn about course load and the academic system at Dartmouth.
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.
Witnessing an eclipse was one of the most exciting days in my life to date, and a solid reminder of our place in this universe. Read on to hear about it!
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!
