Ei! My name is Antônio Jorge Medeiros Batista Silva (yes—four last names!) and I'm a '25 from Governador Valadares, Brazil. My journey to Dartmouth has crossed two continents, three countries, and over 10 schools—and I'm a strong believer that everyone's path to the Big Green was unique in a way. At Dartmouth, I study Linguistics, Native American & Indigenous Studies, and Spanish. I am passionate about social justice, language-learning, and the oxford comma!
This class is an introduction to the Spanish minor and major courses and, although I did not expect to particularly like it, it not only turned out to be my favourite but it made me start considering a degree in the department!
In this class, we analysed different productions of Latinx American theatre. Prof. Analola Santana was probably the best person I met this year at Dartmouth. Being her student was a very important experience as I try to navigate my potential majors and minors.
In this class, I was able to carve time out of my busy Dartmouth schedule to study and learn my Indigenous language: Krenak. With the help of Prof. Gokke, all students were encouraged to develop a final project that spoke to their community's needs for language learning and revitalisation. It was an extremely important class for me, not only academically, but also for my personal healing process.
I had the honour of spending my sophomore fall in Madrid, taking part in the Spanish FSP. There, Prof. Martín was not only a great professor, responsible for my favourite lecture of the program, but also an incredible company throughout our classes and in-country trips. Great way to wrap up my Spanish minor, honestly!
This was my second class in the NAIS department, and thus it took me one step closer to wrapping up my major. Nonetheless, it was Prof. Powell's genuine charisma and caring personality that made it my favourite of the term!
This course was definitely life changing! Prof. Pochedley, a visiting post-doc of the Potawatomi nation did a great job at keeping the students engaged while teaching us to see the land we inhabit as a source of knowledge and spirituality. In a majority Indigenous classroom, we got to develop individual projects related to our traditional homelands, learning to navigate the world through Native world lenses.
Prof. Gómez is one of those profs I've always wanted to take a class with. His work with the Horror genre in Modern Spanish literatures amazes me, and it was an honour to guide in-class discussions and develop my own research on the themes of science, testimony, and fear.
LING54 is an umbrella course: the actual content of the course may vary each year, but it is the common letter-number code to refer to the course taught abroad by your accompanying Dartmouth Linguistics professor. In this year's Linguistics Foreign Study Program (FSP), LING54 was a 'Language Documentation' class, wonderfully taught by Prof. David Peterson.
Before this class, I had no idea what visual and cultural studies actually encompassed. Every chat with Prof. Broner opened my eyes to a different analysis or method for interpreting literature, and for that, I feel truly lucky! We got to discuss films made by Indigenous women from all over Latin America, exposing the class to distinct ways of interacting with and stewarding the environment.
This year was my second year working for reunions, and it keeps getting more and more fun.
For those who—like me just a few years ago—are unfamiliar with the idea, a reunion is when the College invites alums back for a 2-3 days-long get-together with your class. And as a current student, you can work there! You get to meet all these incredible people who know what it's like to be a student at Dartmouth. Alumni often offer current students advice, making this a unique networking opportunity.
However, being able to take a sneak peek into what my life could be like in 50 years is not even the best thing about being at reunions as a student-worker. For me, it was an essential middle step in the transition from campus life to work life—which has turned out to be less abrupt than I thought. For context, one of the reasons I decided to work for reunions again this year was because of the long time window I had in my calendar between the end of spring term classes and the beginning of my summer internship. I was about to move to a much bigger city and was reasonably anxious about it. Having the opportunity to put my mind to work in that meantime was great because it kept me busy, gave me something to look forward to, and even provided solid pocket money for the summer!
I think this might be one of the most underrated student jobs on campus. People don't realize how fun it is to get to know not only the alumni but also the amazing crew behind Alumni Relations and the other student workers—many of whom I had never seen before but ended up becoming great friends of mine!
As an international student, I was hesitant to join Greek Life, but I found a welcoming community. Now, as a junior, I hope to help others find their place too.
When asked about my favorite term at Dartmouth, I'll enthusiastically answer, "Sophomore Summer!" Whether it's the enhanced beauty or community on campus, one aspect stands out as the highlight of my term: the start of summer dance ensembles!
