Sasha Gol'dina

From Ukraine to Hanover: Welcome to My Dartmouth Journey!

Hello and привіт ("pryvit")! My name is Sasha Gol'dina, and I'm a '29 from Ukraine. Welcome to my blog about life at Dartmouth!

I grew up in Chernivtsi, a city cozily nestled among the gorgeous Carpathian mountains. I've always associated them with stability and comfort, so I couldn't imagine living somewhere not surrounded by mountains. 

The view I saw every day on the walk to my school in Chernivtsi, Ukraine.

So when the Dartmouth Coach drove me to campus for the first time, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the window. All those hours I'd spent scrolling through photos on the Dartmouth website, all those virtual walks I'd taken through Hanover on Google Maps—everything was coming to life. Excitement flooded me, and so did fear: I knew everything was about to change. The bus took a turn, and the White Mountain peaks appeared in the distance. I exhaled in relief; this place suddenly felt like home.

I took this picture of the White Mountains during my first week at Dartmouth!

That sense of possibility I felt looking at those mountains? It extends to my academic life here, too. I came to Dartmouth completely undecided about my major. In my fall term, I took Introduction to Cognitive Science (I had no idea what Cognitive Science (COGS) was before coming to college), and loved it so much that I'm now a prospective COGS major! I'm also passionate about linguistics: I love exploring how language changes across social contexts and how it connects to the human mind.

Beyond the classroom, I pour my energy into three main activities:

1. I serve as the president of the Dartmouth Student Alliance for Ukraine, where I organize events to spread awareness about Ukraine and share our culture. Through it, I create a community that I can share my language, culture, and art with—and it helps me to stay connected with home! 
2. I teach Ukrainian with language drills using the Rassias method: a special language-learning technique that was developed by a legendary Dartmouth professor, John Rassias, back in the 1960s (how cool is that?)
3. I stayed true to my nature as a theater kid and joined Displaced Theater Company, a student-led contemporary theater. This term, I'm stage managing for the UMBRA festival of student-written one-act plays!

Stick around as I navigate Dartmouth—I promise there will be mountains, theater mishaps, Ukrainian culture, and plenty of stories along the way!