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Already winding down…

Posted by Anoush Arakelian at 11:11 pm No Responses »

Nov 072012

The bonfire during the day. Organizations add their own board with names of their members. The ’16′s ran around this up to 116 times that night!

And as per usual, the term has flown by! We are now in the last week with finals looming overhead. Two weeks ago was homecoming! This is possibly the most fun weekend at Dartmouth because all of the recent graduates return to campus to check out the bonfire and go to the football game. My friends who were on their off terms all returned and it was quite an enjoyable reunion. The traditions surrounding homecoming are what make homecoming. Each year the freshmen class builds a bonfire with their year on top. Organizations add boards with the names of their members and a huge structure is erected virtually overnight. Then, at night, it is lit and the freshmen are supposed to run around the bonfire 100 times plus their year of graduation. So, this year it was 116 laps, the equivalent of almost a half marathon! Believe it or not, many of the students do complete the feat, while others opt for only a few laps.

This past week I have been working non-stop on a student play called “True American Love” written by Laura Neill ’13. It is a work in progress and will be premiering this weekend. It is so interesting to be a part of this senior’s artistic process and be one of four people to premier the piece! It has been an experience that has truly made me value the talent of the people around me. A ’15 is directing, a ’14 is doing costume design, and the cast is made up of all grades. I am constantly impressed by my fellow classmates! It has also been cool because professors have come in and out of our rehearsal process to help us as actors, help Laura rewrite the script, and generally just show us how things come together in the theater. The experience has been an incredible process!

As for fun things – this past weekend I ran my first half marathon! I came a long way from my first 10K this summer. My friends and I drove down to Manchester as a part of D.E.R.T or Dartmouth Endurance Racing Team to the Manchester Marathon and Half Marathon. We ended up competing with many people from the New York Marathon, as it was cancelled due to hurricane Sandy! After finishing this, I am unsure if I will ever be able to run a full marathon, but the training has been a blast! Especially when you get to see views like the one below on your run each day!

The little things…

Posted by Anoush Arakelian at 9:13 am No Responses »

Oct 192012

A spontaneous photo in between classes. Look how pretty the leaves are (and Danny)!

It is the little things that can truly make your day at Dartmouth. After studying for two Neuroscience classes and spending the majority of my days in the theater department, it is nice to get outside and just enjoy the weather. It is easy to forget that people travel all the way to Hanover just to see the leaves turn, and we have the luxury of living right here! My runs into Norwich and Etna have gotten increasingly more enjoyable as the leaves have turned and the weather has stayed nice. My favorite thing to do is going on long runs every Saturday morning with my friend. It is a great start to the weekend and extremely beautiful!

I just got through working on the HOP 50th production called “Igniting Imagination.” Me and three other girls from my a cappella group – The Rockapellas – had the pleasure of introducing Aisha Tyler ’92 (from Friends and Archer) to host the evening. We re-wrote the lyrics to our traditional song as an introduction – Ella’s Song by Sweet Honey in the Rock, as Tyler was a founding member of the group. We also got to listen to performances by Rachel Dratch from SNL and Jennifer Leigh Warren from the original Broadway Cast of Little Shop of Horrors. It was even more amazing to be able to hang out with them after the show as we all celebrated the success of the two productions afterwards! We sold out the first show and the second show was filled almost to capacity. I have never had so much fun performing and being able to watch all of my talented classmates!

Me and many of the performers from Igniting Imagination!

I am also very excited about this upcoming week because my friend, Kelly, and I have been planning an incredible event for Women’s Forum! Kelly is on the women’s soccer team and really wanted athletes to start attending more of Women’s Forum’s events. She put together a discussion on Title IX and finding your feminism through what makes you passionate for this Monday, featuring comedian, Cindy Pierce. It has been incredible to collaborate with the administration and the Athletic Department and I cannot wait to see all of our work come to fruition!

Famous Faces at Dartmouth

Posted by KBradshaw at 4:03 am No Responses »

Oct 072012

One of the most undervalued opportunities at Dartmouth, I’ve found, are guest lecturers.

In the past two weeks, I got the chance to hear from Joe Biden, Richard L. Bushman, and Zainab Salbi, three individuals whose work has had a positive impact on the world.

I’m sure lots of people heard about the Joe Biden speech–or rather, Jill Biden’s gaffe that left the college-age audience chuckling unapologetically. The link can be found here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IKfH_E-NsFQ

Less well known, was a lecture given by one of my personal heroes, Richard L. Bushman, who is a celebrity within the intellectual Mormon circuit. He talked about Mormonism and American politics, which is of course relevant due to the whole Mitt Romney campaign. Bushman is best known for his meticulously-researched biography of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling. I had actually met his wife Claudia at a Mormon feminist retreat the weekend before, so I was not as terrified as I otherwise might have been to go introduce myself after the presentation (normally I’m kind of shy).

One of the most inspiring talks I’ve heard in a long time came from Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International. The story she told about her efforts to start an international organization to help women in war zones was incredibly inspiring and and reminded me why I came to Dartmouth in the first place–because I believed that with the right training and education, I too could make a difference. She offered profound advice–I’m paraphrasing here, but she said something along the lines of, “Saving the world is not a warrior’s journey. You must get off the horse and put the armor down–the world won’t change out of anger, only out of love.” I left the presentation feeling inspired and able to recommit to my sometimes exhausting service-oriented endeavors.

I’m so grateful that I have such amazing opportunities to listen to the voices of such amazing people who are finding ways of doing good in the world in their respective fields. Presentations like those mentioned above help me to become more and more cognizant of the fact that there are, in fact, plenty of other ways to have a meaningful, service-oriented career that do not, in fact, involve medical school.

Celebrities from a variety of different sectors visit Dartmouth, sharing knowledge and advice with students.

Everything But Classes…

Posted by Anoush Arakelian at 2:52 pm No Responses »

Oct 032012

And to no surprise it is midterm season already. I am a junior and I am still not used to how quickly these terms fly by! My time has been mostly devoted to the Theater department this term, which has been awesome. I am currently stage managing “The Lifers” by Maia Matsushita ’13. This is the same writer as the play that I stage managed this summer! She was granted a “Your Space” through the Bentley Theater. This means that she gets funding from the theater department to get props, rent the space, publicize, and put on a two night production! I was also cast in a student written show called “Contract” which will be produced in early November.

Another student organization I am involved in is called the Hill Winds Society. This is a group that was created to act as a liaison between alumni and students. I am also a connection student for the class of 1992 through HWS. Along with a current member of Hill Winds, I meet with the class of 1992 every time they come up to campus. This past weekend I met with the Class Officers who were up for Class Officers Weekend. The excitement that these alums have when they come up each year is just a testament to the fact that Dartmouth never leaves you. That is probably one of my favorite parts of being in Hill Winds and going to Dartmouth. The legacy and community left behind is quite incredible.

Words of Wisdom brought together women across all classes for a night of dinner and discussion.

Women’s Forum got off to a great start with our first meeting this past Monday. The term started off with a big dinner called “Words of Wisdom,” in which all the women’s groups on campus came together for a lecture and dinner. Wise words were shared by upperclassmen and it was a great chance for the ’16′s to meet some inspirational women on campus. We are looking forward to hosting some influential campus leaders and students in the coming weeks to discuss everything from Title IX to the elections.

Junior Fall!

Posted by Anoush Arakelian at 12:56 pm No Responses »

Sep 142012

With little to no transition time from sophomore summer, it is now my junior fall! I trained to become a UGA (undergraduate advisor) or an RA for a freshman dorm during the interim. My freshmen are truly revitalizing my view of Dartmouth and getting me excited to experience new things this term. I had almost forgotten that each term at Dartmouth promises change, new activities, and new friends.

My freshmen at Matriculation. The time when students shake the president’s hand and become true Dartmouth students!

I am most excited about a few things this fall. First off is A Cappella auditions! My group, the Dartmouth Rockapellas are back on campus and recruiting like crazy. Tomorrow are our all day auditions. There are five groups that girls can audition for and the auditions go for three round and 24 hours. It is so much time, but so much fun. Our group has been raising money for the past three years to go on a service trip to Nepal. This year, our work has come to fruition and we are leaving in November to backpack across the country! Secondly, Women’s Forum is back in full swing. We are working on our upcoming weekly dinner and discussion series which will premier next week. Some of the topics include Title IX and a speech by Anne Marie Slaughter, author of the controversial article “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All.” (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/) Lastly, I am SO excited about my classes. I am taking the Neuroscience of Mental Illness, Behavioral Neuroscience, and Costume Design. Each class has been equally as exciting and I cannot wait to dive further into the depths of my major.

The Rockapellas and Aires at an a cappella ice cream social.

Astronomy, Religion, Statistics OH MY!

Posted by MGarcia at 12:47 pm No Responses »

Aug 222012

Due to Dartmouth’s aspiration for a liberal arts education, the college requires all students to complete a set of distributive requirements before graduation. These requirements do not hinder students from taking the courses they want or force students to take a specific class they may not be interested in, but instead, the “distribs” (as students call them) allow students to branch out and encourage them to reach out of their comfort zone. The list of requirements that Dartmouth currently has is as follows: one Art; one Literature; one Systems of Thought, Meaning and Value; one International or comparative study; two Social analysis; one Quantitative or deductive science; two Natural or Physical sciences; and one Technology or applies science. In addition, students must take one laboratory class. The other side of the requirements is in terms of World Culture and requires one course in each of the following: Western culture, Non-western culture, and Culture and Identity. While this may seem like so many classes, many classes can fulfill both a subject and a culture distribution and many requirements can be fulfilled in surprising ways. For example, a music class can fulfill your technology requirement and nobody has to know how to draw or paint to get credit for the art distribution. Some of my favorite classes so far at Dartmouth have been classes I have selected to use to fulfill a distribution or just based on interest. Examples include Astronomy, Religion, Statistics, Multiracial Youth Development, Perception, Argentine Literature and more! As a Psychology major, the majority of my classes will end up in that department, but thanks to the distributive requirements I have been fortunate to get a taste of many other areas of study and learn bits and pieces of a variety of subjects.

Exploring the outdoors…

Posted by Anoush Arakelian at 11:01 am No Responses »

Aug 162012

One of the things that I am so happy about this summer, is the amount of time I have spent outdoors. Many of my other terms at Dartmouth have been too busy or too cold to spend as much time exploring as I had hoped. This term, I have done a fair bit of hiking and adventuring in the Upper Valley and New Hampshire!

Last week, my Theater 65 class met in Lyme, NH to have a BBQ with all of the actors and directors from our program.

BBQ in Lyme, NH with the New York Theater Workshop

It was not only held at the one of the most serene locations I have ever seen, but it was an incredible experience to be able to hang out with professors, actors, and directors alike. When else will you be able to chat about your family and future plans over s’mores with a professional actor? Sometimes a nice break from campus is needed to just forget about school work for a few minutes and enjoy the fact that we are living in such a beautiful place!

The view from our dinner!

A few mornings ago, my friend Kelly and I decided to be spontaneous and watch the sun rise! We had heard about a good spot where a lot of people go from Dartmouth called the Gile Fire tower. It is basically a huge fire tower that you can climb to the top of and have a view over the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. After waking up at 4:50 AM and trekking about 20 minutes in the woods, we reached the fire tower. By 5:30 AM we were watching the sun rise over the horizon and all of the surrounding mountains…there may have been some singing of Lion King as well. The early wake up was so worth it for the view we got. And, when we got down, it still wasn’t even close to time for our classes or our morning team lift. So, we went to Four Aces diner in Lebanon to enjoy the “Early Bird Special.” I don’t think I will ever be up early enough to buy that again!

The sun rising from the top of the Gile Fire Tower.

Empanada Reunion

Posted by MGarcia at 1:48 pm No Responses »

Aug 092012

This past spring I spent ten weeks in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the Spanish Department Foreign Study Program (FSP) with fifteen other Dartmouth students. The experience was absolutely amazing! While there, we took three classes at an Argentine university (UADE), lived with host families, and experienced culture events every week ranging from tango class to riding horses in the countryside to learning about Borges. One of my favorite parts of the program was a week long vacation in the middle to travel wherever we wanted in the gorgeous country. I was lucky enough to see Iguazu Falls (waterfalls that are more than three times the size of Niagara!), the glaciers down in the southern Patagonia region, and even to travel to “the end of the world” to the southern most city of Ushuaia.

While in Argentina, we tasted many new foods and all fell in love with empanadas. If you haven’t ever had an empanada, I highly recommend it! Imagine a small-scale calzone filled with ham, cheese, beef, chicken or vegetables but with a flakier crust. This past week, my group got back together for a reunion and cooking lesson with the professor that traveled with us in the spring. While we are all willing to admit our empanadas were not quite as delicious as what we remembered, it was such a nice evening to catch up with friends, freshen up our Spanish speaking skills (as to not let it get too rusty) and learn to make something that will always remind us of our time in Argentina.

I am a huge supporter of studying abroad in college and think it really helped me to mature and become more independent. I learned so much about myself while abroad and have a slightly better appreciation for other cultures after immersing myself for ten weeks. Dartmouth makes it so easy to study abroad and my own experience and those of friends all have been fabulous.

A Long Time Coming: Here, there, and everywhere.

Posted by Stephanie Abbott-Grobicki at 4:04 pm No Responses »

Aug 082012

Wembley Stadium!

SO I have been really bad at writing blogs for this page – for which I apologise! It turns out that being away from Dartmouth is just as busy as being at Dartmouth. Although it was sad leaving my freshman floor, it was really nice to go home, unwind, and take in everything that has happened this year. It has been a crazy collage of ups and downs (mostly ups!), excitement and discovery, meeting friends and taking interesting classes – I’ve loved every minute of it.

Your freshman summer is a little bit of a free for all. There are programs (like First Year Fellows) or FSPs (I know theatre and film are both during the summer) that some people do.

For me, I wanted to relax at home – no homework, or midterms, or finals for 3 months! But, I did think it might be useful just to get a short internship and start getting some experience in the field I am interested in going into. I approached my acting professor and asked him for advice and a recommendation. I also looked for Dartmouth alumni that could help me. Career Services is really awesome in that respect.

I am now working in London for four weeks for a Casting Director. I am really interested in Theatre – so discovering the theatre industry in London has been amazing. It’s such a cool opportunity to meet people in the business and also see how it all works. I also get to go see a lot of shows and meet some actors which has been great! My professors were so helpful in getting me this internship and although I’ve enjoyed relaxing this summer, it was a nice change. I’ve also had the added bonus of seeing some Olympics too!

Team GB for the win!

Dartmouth 12F is going to rock and I will hopefully be blogging more when I get back!

Still Exploring

Posted by Vanessa Trinh at 12:06 am No Responses »

Aug 072012

So I’m sitting here writing this blog post for you all from the Jones Media Center, a place I was not really acquainted with until this term. Not only is it my new super secret study nook, it has unbelievable resources and technology to help you with every class. The reason I found myself in here was because the other day I was doing research for my Economics Independent Study and needed to pull up large excel sheets at the same time as Stata for data sets– Jones could do it all. Also, it is conveniently located next to the Dartmouth Map Room, another new treasure of mine. Did you know they sometimes give away FREE MAPS? I think that’s super cool. I recently acquired some for my room decorations. Today, I’m in Jones writing a paper in response to a lecture by Todd Stern ’73, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, as part of my Leading Voices Government class. Leading Voices has given me the

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern ’73 at the Hop. Photo Courtesy the Dartmouth Flickr Photostream.

exclusive opportunity to meet speakers from all part of foreign policy and ask them questions about their careers, and about pressing matters like Global Health, Nuclear Profliferation, Womens’ Rights and now Climate Change. It’s been a unique experience that reminds me a lot of the Dickey Center’s Global Issues Scholars program that I was a part of during my Freshman Year.

Just when I though I was really knee-deep into my Dartmouth experience, I realize I’m still finding new things like it’s Freshman Fall.

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