I'm Kalina, a '27 from Sofia, Bulgaria. I love books (I love reading and writing them), and I particularly love fantasy (i.e., I'm an expert on Middle Earth and Hogwarts studies). I'm fascinated by the human brain and the real-world magic of science. I also love hiking, bird-watching, climbing, and em dashes.
Instead of taking a normal Writing 5 course, I decided to fulfill my first-year writing requirement by taking HUM 1. This course helped me strengthen my relationship to literature and writing. It changed the way in which I thought about classics, both books and movies (we saw Wall-E, by the way). And it also changed the way I thought about academic writing and literary criticism. A third of the course was made up of lectures by professors from different departments, while the other two thirds were discussions with a single professor and a small group of 15 students.
Intro to Neuroscience was the first course I was truly excited about. It wasn't an easy course; we had a weekly quiz of ten to thirteen questions covering the lectures from the past few days, but it was very interesting and also very funny (Professor Winter's humor is legendary). We learned about the human brain at the level of individual cells. We also studied it at the level of different systems, from the olfactory system to the parasympathetic nervous system. And last, we learned about cognition: learning, attention, language. We saw a real human brain with formaldehyde dripping from it. We saw a real sheep's brain. And a rat's brain. And we pocked each other with paper clips to determine the sensitivity of our touch receptors.
Journalism with Professor Alexis Jetter was an enjoyable class, sometimes challenging but very satisfying. We covered a lot of US history through the lens of the media, and we started every class with a discussion of the current news and events (thanks to these discussions, I feel like a real adult now—not so lost when the conversation turns toward politics). Several guest lecturers—from former students of Professor Jetter who're now journalists to a New York Times war correspondent—brought us real stories from the field. In the middle of the term, each of us had to find someone over 30 years old in the Upper Valley, spend a day with them, and write a profile.
SummerSofia, Bulgaria
I'm spending my first summer back home, helping my family care for my newborn sister. In my free time (changing diapers takes a lot of time!), I'm doing research for the cognitive neuroscience lab FINN Lab, preparing for my classes in the fall, and working on a new book.
As a People Places Pines blogger, at the end of each quarter, I pick my favorite class of the term and describe it in my D-plan section (see my D-plan to the left if you're reading this on a PC, or scroll up, if you're reading this on your phone). It's the end of my freshman spring now, and I need to make my decision–which class did I like better? My journalism class (ENGL 6)? Or my neuroscience class (PSYC 36)?
The truth is: I loved them both. They both deserve to make it to the Hall of People Places Pines' favorite classes, but there's only one spot per term, so I'll have to make a decision. Here it is–I'm putting Journalism (ENGL 6) in the records as my favorite class. However, the main reason I'm doing so is because last term, I said Intro to Neuroscience (PSYC 6) was my favorite class. I cannot have my D-plan be only neuroscience classes. We need some diversity! Therefore: ENGL 6 is my official favorite class. PSYC 36 is my unofficial one.
Here's why:
Neuroscience Systems (PSYC 36) is a core class for the neuroscience major and is one of the four classes that all neuroscience majors need to take at some point in their academic career. It has a lecture portion–every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday–and a lab portion, roughly two-three hours every Tuesday. During the lab, students cut a sheep's brain for several weeks and study it. There is also a human anatomy portion, where students dissect human brains and look at brains with different injuries. And there's a portion of the lab where students train lab rats to find their way out of the Morris Water Maze (that part was my favorite).
I remember on the first day of class, Professor Smith asked everyone to introduce themselves and say what their year was, and I was the only freshman in the class. Everyone else was either a junior or a senior, and there were a few sophomores. I didn't sign up for PSYC 36 because I had to urgently complete my major, and I wasn't overly preoccupied with getting the best of a grade (although maybe I should have been, since–again, full transparency–I think I'll have a B+ for this class). I just thought it would be fun to do it!
My sheep brain :)
Throughout the term, I was constantly sending my family pictures of the sheep brain we had to dissect, and after every lab session, I called my mom or my aunt to tell them about the smell of formaldehyde on my hands and about the interesting organs we learned about that day. I was thrilled when we got to go to Dartmouth Geisel Medical School and look at actual human brains, and after our session of training labs to perform in the Morris Water Maze, I told everybody that I got to PLAY with rats for my class (isn't it great when work is play). I love animals, so getting to cuddle rats and move them from their cage to the pool (water maze) and back was amazing. I had my weekly dose of animal affection. Professor Smith was also wonderful. He has a very characteristic sense of humor that students love and impatiently wait for it to manifest in class in the form of Maroon 5's Adam Levine's face appearing on a slide about the cerebellum.
Overall, I loved this class because it was fun. It was exactly the experience that you dream of having when you decide to study neuroscience: you dissect brains, you play–okay, you work–with rats, you learn about the intricacies of the nervous system… You feel like you're finally doing what you came to college to do.
Every Dartmouth student is required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. Here's my experience navigating the language requirement!
