Hi everyone! I'm Julia from Seattle, WA. Reading this blog during my junior and senior years of high school helped me to envision myself on this campus, so this all feels very full-circle. I'm studying QSS and I'm looking forward to taking my French skills abroad later this year in Toulouse. I love cooking/food, watching old Modern Family episodes (my favorite character is Mitch), and finding cozy places to study on campus. Talk to you soon!
This class served as a great introduction to the Quantitative Social Science department. My favorite part of class was working with real-world data in our problem sets each week. I also adored my professor, Elsa Voytas. It was her first term as a professor here, and she was constantly eager to answer any questions you might have. I'm really looking forward to taking more QSS classes in the future!
I loved this class and especially my professor, Michele Tine. My favorite part of the course was watching the "Up!" documentary series as a class. The episodes began with a cohort of children at age 7, and has continued to follow them throughout their adulthood. We got to analyze the children's decisions and lifestyles in the context of what we were learning about, culminating with a paper highlighting one of the cohort members.
Paris and Literature and Film was the last part of my first-year writing experience. Professor Kane did a great job of bringing a variety of sources into our classroom discussions (books, movies, articles, etc.) which made the course very engaging. Plus, it was so much fun to learn about France before visiting in 25W!
A trip to Washington, D.C., covered exclusively by Dartmouth, sounded too good to be true. But, before I knew it, I was on the Dartmouth Coach at 3:00 am on my way to Boston Logan International Airport. My whole class was giddy with excitement. Some, like me, had been to D.C. before, but some had not. When we landed in Virginia, everyone was ready to begin our adventure.
The primary reason that we were going to D.C. was to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Our class is curating an exhibit about Black theater for Rauner Special Collections Library on campus, as well as helping think through some future exhibits at the anticipated African American Museum of Performing Arts in Chicago. Needless to say, we needed some inspiration.
Given my love of museums and D.C., I decided to set out to explore while the rest of the class rested at the hotel. I started at the National Portrait Gallery and saw portraits of the Obamas (among others). Then, I decided to head to the National Gallery of Art. I was FLOORED by this gallery. It was so, so beautiful! I loved seeing all of the greenery in and around the museum; it made me even more excited to see spring colors arrive in Hanover.
I mean, come ON! The Natural Gallery of Art is so, so beautiful!
After eating some lunch, I met back up with the group at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (our main goal of the trip). It was so special to explore the museum with people who care about Black history as much as I do.
For dinner, we met up with the creators of the African American Museum of Performing Arts! We had great conversations about what it means to create an effective and likable museum. Then, I headed off on my own again to visit one of my close friends who's in D.C. for college! Pretty soon, I was back in my hotel bed so I could rest before heading back to Hanover in the morning.
I am so happy to go to an college that offers students the opportunity to go on such unique adventures. I know that this is adventure the first of many!
Every Dartmouth student is required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Here's my experience navigating the language requirement!
