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.
The first week of my first year at Dartmouth (last year) felt strangely uneventful. Now I'm starting my second year, and I'm surprised by the big difference in first-week experiences.
Last year, I was wondering how come I only have three hours of lectures per day. What was I supposed to do with all that free time I had? And I was also very perplexed by the fact that my Tuesdays and Thursdays were also free. I had all my three classes on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays! Of course, my free time was quickly filled with homework and clubs. However, I was still baffled by the amount of free time I had on my calendar.
This year my first week was vastly different, and I found myself thinking, "Now I know why we only have three hours of lectures and the rest is (supposedly) 'free time'!" Because there are simply so many things to do—and so many activities to learn from—apart from classes, and THEY quickly fill up your schedule.
My favorite study spot this term on the fourth floor of Fairchild Tower.
I spent my evenings on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in a classroom in Dartmouth Hall—the building home to the French and Italian departments—training with a group of other French speakers to become a French drill instructor. Foreign language drill, based on the Rassias Method, is one of the key components of Dartmouth students' experience with learning foreign languages at college. Language students meet three times a week with their drill instructor (this year, it will be me for whoever's taking French 2!) to practice speaking and pronunciation. You can read about my friend Diana '23+1 and her story of taking Mandarin drill here.
Apart from training for a new job–which occupied more than half of my evenings–I also attended my first lab meeting at FINN Lab (more on my research at FINN Lab here). Last term (Spring '24), I always had class when FINN Lab held their meetings, but this year, I can be there for the whole hour and a half, and it's exciting!
During the meeting, each of the graduate and PhD students in the lab shared their research and feedback with one another. I got to ask questions, take notes, and dream a bit about what I could be doing one day in the lab.
I also received my first scientific paper recommendation—Tommy, the graduate student who told me about it, knew its full title by heart because, to quote him, he's just googled it so many times (You know, it's one thing to receive a fantasy book rec by an avid reader, but receive a paper recommendation by an excited researcher? Believe it or not, that's actually thrilling).
In addition to blogging, I work as a Fellow for the Tucker Center, which focuses on promoting spiritual and ethical life on campus. As part of this role, I'm leading the Interfaith Alternative Spring Break Trip. Read on to learn more about my work!
