Hello, 你好, and Bonjour! My name is Tao; I'm from New York City, and I'm a proud first-generation student. I'm currently interested in studying applied math and learning a new language (French, with the intent of studying abroad using my D-Plan!) at Dartmouth. I love being immersed at campus–especially aesthetic Woccoms, fookie grubs at FOCO, and Baker-Berry Tower Room study sessions. Come one, come all: let me take you along!
Academic Program
Mathematics and Quantitative Social Science with a minor in French
As the name describes, this class taught me all about food! While the class is centered on teaching academic writing skills, I have definitely learned a lot about fun topics like food diversity, ethical farming, and culinary significances. For my final project, I got to write about how sauces relates to our society!
Yes, you read that right—Shark Tank! I just spent the entire weekend in Boston with my team competing in the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC). What's crazier is that just a few months ago, I knew nothing about this.
So let's take a step back.
At Dartmouth, the Magnuson Center for Student Entrepreneurship hosts an eight-week intensive VCIC workshop with a Tuck Professor, Jim Feuille' 79, for students who are interested in Venture Capital, which evaluates and invests into startups—like Shark Tank! Shout out to Professor Jim, this has been his 7th year leading this program for FREE! Though I had no experience in the field of finance or specifically venture capital, throughout the 8-week program, we learned about all the nitty gritty details from learning to build models, doing due diligence, and presenting a pitch on companies! At the end we even got to do an internal Dartmouth competition where we invited real founders of startup companies to show us their innovative technology.
Mock-investment meeting!
Then in late December, I received the best news in my email when I was at the airport catching a flight back to New York—I got an invitation to represent Dartmouth at the New England competition for VCIC! The Dartmouth team consists of me, Julia '28, and upperclassmen mentors: Jake '27, Cooper '27, Andrew '27, and Shira '27! VCIC is no joke, within a 72 hour time frame, we are given three companies to research on and pitch one at the finals. To up the stake, there are 15 judges who are scoring us throughout the entire process. So, leading up to the competition, I am getting ready through mock competitions with my team, who were all amazing mentors of mine, against the MBA Tuck team.
Us preparing for the competition in a team meeting!
The stakes are high: for the past few weeks, we'd go into Tuck for the mock competition around 3 P.M. and get out at 10PM. Though, my favorite part was that we'd get a rejuvenating team dinner after every session—no matter how tired I was, I'd be instantly healed by my team's affectionate laughter and explosive energy! There's so much opportunity as a Dartmouth student to interact with scholars like Prof. Jim, who loves to teach, and I cannot wait to update you guys on the coming competition which is in less than 5 days. Dartmouth is a place where liberal arts intersect with curiosity. Even as a first-year student, I've been able to explore so many different regions of studies—I would've never imagined myself learning all about investing as a shark (from Shark Tank)!
Winter at Dartmouth has many special traditions, but my favorite winter activities so far have been the "little things": the random, spontaneous adventures Dartmouth students experience daily. Read to learn about my encounter with the "Winter S's"!
Oftentimes, life can be stressful. Though it's easy for me to feel anxious, I have found that identifying the things I am grateful for can be rather helpful. Read on to hear about what I appreciate.
Whether you're braving the cold on your way to class or participating in classic winter activities, there are plenty of ways to make the most of a Dartmouth winter!
I am a lucky member of the Dartmouth Decibelles, the oldest all-female acapella group on campus, and my first term with them was filled with so many fun moments.
