Hello, and welcome to my neck of the woods! My name is Brendilou Armstrong, and I am a '26 hailing from the cornfields and grassy plains of Western Nebraska. This year, I plan to involve myself in The Dartmouth, WebDCR (Dartmouth College Radio), and the Spilled Ink Poetry Club. I couldn't be more excited to set out on this expedition through college alongside all of you. Thanks for visiting my page!
Academic Program
English/Creative Writing
Favorite Thing Right Now
Binding my own journals at Dartmouth's Book Arts Workshop
If you are interested in Victorian literature in any capacity, this is the class for you! It is a course taught by the WGSS (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) department and combines historical and political aspects into a literary seminar. The material is compelling and allows you to view female authors, including Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, and Elizabeth Gaskell, in a different perspective knowing the societal context of the time period and themes in their most popular works.
If poetic language and artistic writing styles are your forte, this is the perfect class for you! Taught by the English/Creative Writing department, Introduction to Poetry is an incredible foundation to storytelling, introducing students to poetry styles from prose to ekphrastic and written to slam. The approach to teaching the course revolved around the strategies of Robert Frost, where the Poetry Room in Sanborn Library held our class, and students' chairs were arranged in a circle rather than in rows of desks. CRWT 12 is one of the most unique and fascinating classes I have taken thus far, and as a result, has become my favorite class I have taken on campus.
Niche classes and concentrations define a Dartmouth education, and before this term, I never intended on taking an Asian art history course, let alone one with such a defined focus. Taught through both the Department of Art History and the Department of Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages by Columbia University guest lecturer Seher Agarwala, this course contextualizes sacred architectural structures of the Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic faiths. I left this course with a newfound interest in the artistic practices of East Asian cultures and an appreciation for their diverse historical backgrounds and religions.
Unifying & Awe-Inspiring: The Full Coverage Eclipse of Vermont
With a solar eclipse sweeping across North America for the first time in nearly seven years on April 8th came a road-trip with hundreds of other Dartmouth students to a zone of totality near campus: St. Johnsbury, Vermont! Much like many of my fellow bloggers, I felt the need to write about this recent sensation near campus, an event that simultaneously stunned and unified Dartmouth students across New Hampshire and Vermont.
At 10 am following Monday morning classes, my friend and I joined busloads and car-fulls of other Dartmouth students setting out north along I-91. Our destinations: a plethora of Vermont cities scattered within line of the eclipse. For my friend and I traveling in our own vehicle, we directed our navigation to St. Johnsbury, Vermont, a small town approximately an hour north of campus and a central location for the eclipse's path of totality. Here, we joined nearly 15,000 people from around the world in a day of eclipse-related festivities.
A view of the St. Johnsbury eclipse crowds.
Between exploring the thrift stores, record shops, and bakeries in this new town and taking part in activities preceding the solar eclipse, our schedule for the day was jam-packed. Our first stop was Boule Bakery on the corner of Railroad Street and Portland Street for a refreshing breakfast after the drive: an iced matcha and cheddar jalapeno bagel!
For the next three hours, we explored the abundance of small businesses and historical structures that lined the criss-crossed streets of St. Johnsbury. At around 2:30 pm, we found a grassy, open area near other eager eclipse chasers and watched for the next hour as the street before us darkened and the air around us chilled.
My friend and I settled and eager for the total solar eclipse!
With digital camera in hand, I quickly snapped as many photos of the sun's total coverage as I could, in awe to have captured this unbelievable sight in such clarity.
The partial solar eclipse at 3:24 pm.
The total solar eclipse at 3:26 pm.
At around 5 pm, after stopping for some quick tabletop s'mores at a local cafe, The Campfire, my friend and I set off back towards campus, where hundreds of Dartmouth students and Hanover community members alike had gathered on the Green to view the solar spectacle as well.
Although my personal eclipse viewing was situated away from Hanover, the deep sense of community associated with Dartmouth's undergraduate classes followed across state lines. I couldn't be happier to have witnessed such an incredible natural phenomenon with other students from the Big Green.
