Adria Brown

Adria comes to Dartmouth from Saint Louis, Missouri, where she attended Ladue Horton Watkins High School. She plans on being an Anthropology and Art History double major. This spring term, she's taking her First Year Seminar: America's Indian, Anthropology of Health and Illness, and Intro to World Architecture. On campus, she works with the LDSSA, as an intern in the Financial Aid Office, is the Socio-economic Class liaison for the Inter-Community Council, an Eating Disorder Peer Adviser and went on an Alternative Spring Break to the Dominican Republic. Besides activities, she practices yoga and hopes that one day she'll actually be able to do the splits.

The End

 Posted by Adria Brown at 9:17 pm  2 Responses »
Jun 152012
 

Isn’t that daunting? The end of freshmen year. No longer full of so much newness and excitement. No longer a time for firsts of everything. Like, the first time you walk around campus realizing you’re actually at Dartmouth? The first time you get disappointed, or feel inadequate at this place. Or the first time you discover you’re at home? I finished about two weeks ago, and as nostalgic as I am about everything, I’m glad I’m moving forward to sophomore year. Freshman year was filled with surprises, realizations about myself, and successes and failures. It was imagining I would love Government and actually loving Anthropology. It was finding that the friends I made were so different than my friends at home and deciding I was completely good with that. It was learning how to order Collis Pasta and not making a fool of myself. But, Sophomore year will give me a study abroad to Italy and leading an alternative spring break to D.C.. It will be trying new things so that I don’t feel comfortable, but always challenged. Getting to know new people, which leads to me the fact that  I am so excited to meet you ’16s! You’re pretty awesome, I hear. I know that freshman year seems a bit scary, but thoroughly exciting and I hope to meet you during trips! (Maybe I’ll be leading some of you? :) ) People will be giving you advice, I don’t know how many people told me roommate horror stories or advice on how to spend my money wisely. I could give you a million pieces of advice, but really freshman year is about the unexpected. Advice will do you good, but the mistakes, the loss of expectations and the addition of new ones will be what makes Dartmouth wonderful for you. My advice then, however cliched it is, is be yourself. Never try and imitate another’s Dartmouth experience because it seems cooler than your own. Make sure your decisions are making you happy, and you’re set.

 

Wow. I actually did end up giving advice. Dang it. :)

Outside my Comfort Zone

 Posted by Adria Brown at 11:14 pm  No Responses »
Feb 212012
 

I’m going to be real. And I hope that’s okay with you. This term has been hard! Settling into college definitely doesn’t come instantly and learning that things will happen unexpectedly is something that I’m only beginning to understand. As I’m getting ready to embark on an Alternative Spring Break trip to the Dominican Republic through the Tucker Foundation, I realized how much Dartmouth has changed me the few months that I’ve been here. Not that I was particularly shy during high school, but I certainly did not speak up at every moment and express my feelings to strangers. I didn’t necessarily want to know everyone at my high school and thought that sticking with what I knew was the best option. Coming to Dartmouth was a step for me since I originally told all my friends I was going to another college that was familiar and close to home. I picked Dartmouth not because it was perfect, but because I knew that I would learn something new and unexpected here. So, why am I sharing this with you wonderful prospective students or admitted ’16s? I think that I needed to share that despite certain campus events that might disturb you, what draws you closer to Dartmouth is the chance to go outside your comfort zone. Did I think I would be traveling outside the country for the first real time in my life in a few weeks? No! Did I think that I would become a Native American studies major and try to comprehend what being Native means to me? No way! And, did I think that I would participate in a flashmob with the Hairspray cast as a representative of the Inter-Community Council? Haha, definitely not. But, that’s the beauty of being open to what Dartmouth has to offer. It’s crazy. It pushes you. It makes you think. And it’s beautiful.

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Ramblings in the Frigid Weather…

 Posted by Adria Brown at 4:51 pm  No Responses »
Jan 042012
 

As Ajay pointed out below, this winter is brutal. I’m from the Midwest and I know what cold is. Or at least I thought I did. And then, I come back to Dartmouth and my oh my, I have now realized what it means when people say your hair will freeze. Plus leaving your fingers exposed to cold air for a few minutes makes you understand what frostbite might just feel like. But, now that I have sufficiently scared you, I do have to tell you brilliant prospies, about how awesome winter term is shaping up to be!!!

Not to say that I didn’t love Fall Term. Fall term made me think of Dartmouth, finally, as home. And over break, I felt that even more. I missed everything from going to classes to Late Night Collis milkshakes to 2am studying in the Dr. Seuss room. But, winter term is so different and maybe, even better? I get to see old friends, make new ones, and basically learn more and more about all the wonderful people who come to Dartmouth and how they ended up here.

And that’s why despite this weather and despite being bundled up in the most obnoxious snow gear, I’m also happy. So far my classes seem really interesting, and I’m far too busy interning at the Financial Aid office and training to be an Eating Disorder Peer Advisor, but it’s exactly what I want to be.

In one degree weather. :) *

 

*I meant to take a picture, but then realized it hasn’t snowed and it’s sunny. So it looks like 50 degrees outside when in actuality, it’s below freezing.

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CONGRATS 16s!!!

 Posted by Adria Brown at 2:11 pm  No Responses »
Dec 092011
 

Yo 16s. You’re looking fine. I see you.

Okay that’s a tad creepy, but congratulations on getting into Dartmouth!!!!!!!!!! Looking back, senior year was certainly a dramatic year for me. I didn’t know where I was supposed to go, and I really felt that there was one place meant for me. Cue getting into Dartmouth regular decision and I realized how perfect this place was for me! Kudos to you for realizing how awesome Dartmouth was way before I figured it out! Seriously, I’m at home right now in Saint Louis and I miss the Green, my friends and the bell-tower waking me up in the morning. And I can’t wait for that to be YOU!!! In 9 months you’ll be going on trips, meeting tons of people during orientation, feeling homesick, and wondering why you ever thought, for a second, another place could’ve been better!

 

Now go tell that one person who makes you want to smack them, that you got into the best school!***

 

***Okay this results in loss of coolness so be kind when you tell people. Some people haven’t gotten into their dream schools and are feeling pretty low. Plus bragging is really un-classy. And who wants to make 16s un-classy?

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Dartmouth Community: Basic Genealogy

 Posted by Adria Brown at 9:03 pm  No Responses »
Dec 022011
 

Okay, hopefully there is one person who gets the title of this post. Anybody seen Community? Well then, I’ll just move on. Right now, Dartmouth students are in the midst of reading period. No classes, just straight studying and living in sweatpants. Tomorrow commences the actual finals, and if you’re lucky (unlucky?!) enough you’ll get to see the standard streaking person. So in true procrastination form, I started thinking about my first term here at Dartmouth. It started with DOC trips and the beauty of not showering for five days to Orientation Week where you feverishly made as many friends as you could to Homecoming Night where we ran (supposedly) 115 laps around the bonfire to the first snow before Halloween and so on. It’s been a ride, for sure, but what I have come to love more than anything is the sense of family here at Dartmouth. I work in the financial aid office as an assistant and next term as an intern, and many times I have to help panicking students and parents work through paying for college. Last year, during college applications I remember trying to figure out how to sum up myself in 5 words (I am so sorry if this question is still on a certain college’s application) and the problem of expressing your need to be in a college in approximately 250 words. I wouldn’t give up that stressful time because at the end of the day I ended up at a place where I feel like I’m at home. In the picture above, my church group kidnapped me and drove me to a diner blindfolded where we then played Truth or Dare. It was honestly one of the best days so far, because I was dressed in flair (crazy clothing), with my best friends, driving to an unknown destination and then eating french toast. So, yea. I am stressed sometimes. Newsflash: FINALS ARE STRESSFUL. People can be mean, bigotry still exists but, as fellow bloggers have talked about before, it’s in those special moments at Dartmouth that you know you have people to turn to who are pretty darn close to being family.

Regaining the Awe

 Posted by Adria Brown at 6:20 pm  1 Response »
Oct 062011
 

Last year, I visited Dartmouth through a prospective Native American student program. The Green, the lights on Dartmouth Hall and the picturesque library enchanted me. I asked myself the question “How could I ever be adequate enough to be in the presence of such a beautiful campus?”

And, this year I jumped off the bus from the Lodj, and began my journey into this exquisite campus. After the flurry of orientation activities and the increasing pressure to explore the multitude of clubs on campus, it’s been easy for me to look down while I rush to my Anthropology class. It’s been simple to ignore our gorgeous foliage when it seems to drop ten degrees every day. But, as I hosted prospies (prospective students) from the same program I attended last year, I learned how to look up again.

The prospies exclaimed their surprise at the architecture and the sheer greenness of the campus. Does Dartmouth lose its beauty with time? Does it relinquish its charm to only prospective students? It still remains enchanting, but is often forgotten by many of us as we rush to class in the pouring rain. It seems to slip our minds when frustrations arise, or when we write a last minute paper. And, of course, the first few weeks of college contain highs and lows: points where you feel surrounded with excitement and points where you seem completely alone. And to say that one’s college homesickness will be cured with one look at your surroundings is naive, but Dartmouth still can woo one with its mixture of extremely inspiring people and gorgeous nature.

So as I return from the library late at night, maybe for once I will look up at the stars instead of the ground, and remind myself of the first moment I saw Dartmouth and how I consider this my new home.

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