Welcome to my page, I am a '27 from central New Hampshire! I came to Dartmouth for the liberal arts curriculum, so I plan to explore the academic disciplines before deciding what to focus on. I am currently looking at environmental science and religion. In addition to blogging, I work as an Interfaith Trip Fellow with the Tucker Center for Spiritual and Ethical Life. I enjoy mountain biking, running, skiing, singing, and drawing.
Academic Program
Intended: pre-health, anthropology, environmental studies, and religion.
This discussion and reading-based class was incredible and relevant! Content ranged from the historical impact of the printing press to AI in the workforce and transhumanism, and all of the topics were grounded in religion and some of the frameworks religion provides. I pondered on ideas from this class all the time.
I was captivated by the first class meeting of the term reading Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' and eventually chose to focus on it for my research paper at the end of the term. All of the readings captivated my attention, however, Kafka, Han's 'The Vegetarian', and Kristeva were the authors that made the biggest impression on me. The class discussions resulted in wonderful insights relevant to humanity at a macro level. My favorite aspect was our professor instructing us to focus on the ideas before picking apart the writing style.
This class made me think about the bigger picture of health in a systems focus. Ultimately this class helped me realize that there are a lot of structural health system challenges in the U.S. and around the world. I particularly liked learning about the histories and anthropological side of things. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were my favorite topic in the class because the frameworks are very limited, so some do not receive enough focus and funding.
My Spanish language study abroad was wonderful. In addition to improving my Spanish proficiency, I learned a lot about the culture and history of Spain- especially in the autonomous community (region) of Cantabria where Santander is located. My favorite class on this trip was literature, every class had a different theme relevant to the history and culture of Spain and this was explored with movies, videos, and readings that resulted in some great insights during class discussion. The homestay aspect and excursions bolstered the conversational and cultural aspects of the LSA.
This class sits at the center of the two interests that I have chosen for my modified major, anthropology and environmental studies. There are a few reasons I love this class. First and foremost, there is a SIP fieldwork aspect to it (I wrote a post about this!) which means I can experience local communities and have a tangible impact. Next, my professor has a wonderful design for the content and structure of the class. Also, I am genuinely excited to learn about the content and perspective this course utilizes by considering the many dimensions of disaster. I particularly like exploring the historical factors that turn a scenario into a disaster, and how that can be prevented.
Some preparation is involved in a Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) break trip. This starts with writing an application to the trip and hearing back about whether you have been accepted. Then, in the case of the trip I was on we had a meeting mid-way through the fall term to make sure that everyone was committed and ask people if they needed any help with gear and costs. The DOC will help provide most or all gear if that is needed, and if you are on financial aid there is assistance with the trip fee (includes food) and airplane ticket costs. Even if you are not on aid this trip will cost you less than it would to do on your own since the fee is supported by the sub-clubs and larger DOC funds. After that meeting our tasks were to arrange for our plane tickets, get our gear together, and put in the effort to finish out the fall term well.
We stopped here as a group to let some walkers by and appreciate the landscape. This trail was a challenging and fun ride on our second day.
We took this picture on the last day of riding after doing a substantial uphill climb. Half of the group split off to do some harder trails and the rest of us opted to take it easier thanks to the riding from the days before.
Going on the trip was an incredible experience and one that I hope other people can have as well. However, sleeping on a sleeping pad in a tent on the ground after a tough day of mountain biking is not for everyone! Between getting acquainted with the terrain, other people in the group, and the rental bikes, it took a bit of time to get settled in, but once I did I had a blast. Shredding trails, getting some seriously chapped lips from the dry air, and laughing around a campfire while eating a homemade meal allowed me to detach from the world for a little while and get to know some Dartmouth students who I previously did not know well. This is also in the context of enjoying some mountain biking which I had not had the opportunity to do outside of my familiar turf of New England.
This photo was snapped of me on the second day of riding before we did a steep and somewhat demanding downhill section.
A huge part of enjoying the trip came from the social time around the campfire at night. This is where we enjoyed our meals and just had fun hanging out and relaxing a bit after a good day of riding.
My next goal after going on this trip is to finish up becoming a leader in the Dartmouth Mountain Biking Club (DMBC) which is a DOC sub-club. I have co-lead some trips, so now I need first aid certification, seminar training, to complete some trail work, and ideally becoming driver certified with the Outdoor Programs office.
I can't wait to celebrate Winter, so I just had to write a blog post all about it. Read on to hear about all the fun (and affordable) Winter activities at Dartmouth!
50% of Dartmouth students are unaffiliated and find community through non-Greek social spaces. One such space is an undergraduate society. In this post, I interviewed Marion Caldwell '25, who has been a member of Amarna since her junior fall
