The Dartmouth Mirror 2/28/18

MIR ROR 2.28.2018

OF THIS ALTERNATE UNIVERSE | 4

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: SOCIAL SPACES | 5

UNCONVENTIONAL PEDAGOGY | 7 SAMANTHA BURACK/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

2 //MIRR OR

Editors’ Note

Mirror Asks: Alternative What’s your favorite alternative band?

Christopher Cartwright ’21: Passion Pit. Annie Farrell ’21: The Strokes.

Jacob Maguire ’21: Banners! I discovered this artist on Spotify and I was really impressed. The songs “Someone to You,” “Shine A Light,” “Start A Riot” and “Half Light” are all really good!

Eliza Jane Schaeffer ’20: Anderson .Paak.

What’s the best alternative use of a DDS meal swipe?

JM: I haven’t done this yet, but I would really like to participate in Swipes for Hunger.

EJS: Hot take but definitely the sandwich/chip/fruit/drink combo at Novack.

Timothy Yang ’21: Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

Where are your favorite alternative study spots?

CC: College Park — and it was just decided that they won’t build dorms there! Yay! AF: The greenhouse in the Life Sciences Center.

JM: The Feldberg Business & Engineering Library located between Tuck School of Business and Thayer School of Engineering was a great place to study back when I lived in the River, and it tends to not be crowded.

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

It’s the last Mirror issue of the term, and we decided to do something different. Something unconventional. Something alternative. Millenials have a tendency to romanticize individuality. Hipsters, tattoos, alternative bands, indie movies, pink hair, latte art — the list goes on. But are hipsters really “hip” anymore? Isn’t getting a tattoo of an infinity sign more a sign of your infinite basic-ness? And let’s not even get started on trite Instagram captions. We get it, you have many #wcw, at least you’re not posting #tbts — the horror.

We value originality, individiualism and difference from the crowd. We aim to deviate from what is the status quo. However, is there a limit to how much society will tolerate one’s differences? Is there an acceptable amount of difference?

Society frowns upon those who go far beyond what is considered “normal.” When does different become alternative? And what does it mean to be “alternative”? Alternative to what? What happens when one is trying to be alternative but ends up being mainstream? In this issue, the Mirror explores the concept of “alternative” and how it applies to our daily lives at Dartmouth.

Vanessa Smiley ’21: Basement of Novack, underneath the staircase.

TY: Fairchild Hall, the Stacks and tiny study rooms tucked behind the common rooms in McLaughlin Cluster.

What would you study if you could make up your own major?

CC: Folklore and urban legends.

JM: If I could make up my own major, I would probably pick a collection of courses from the social sciences, particularly the government, sociology, economics, education and psychology departments that address how to solve current problems in American society and around the globe.

EJS: Decision-making.

VS: Ufology — I read accounts about alien abduction experiences in my free time, and I know that some universities have begun to offer a degree in the study of UFOs. TY: Personality studies, an interdisciplinary major of psychology, humanity, philosophy, anthropology, sociology and much more. Or travel.

Who would you be in an alternative universe?

CC: Edward Gorey, an illustrator I admire.

EJS: I would definitely be a what, not a who. Maybe a compsognathus.

follow @thedmirror 2.28.18 VOL. CLXXIV NO. 191 MIRROR EDITORS MARIE-CAPUCINE PINEAUVALENCIENNE CAROLYN ZHOU EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RAY LU PUBLISHER PHILIP RASANSKY EXECUTIVE EDITOR KOURTNEY KAWANO PHOTO EDITORS TIFFANY ZHAI MICHAEL LIN

CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth. com for corrections.

MIRROR //3

Peters: Worth It COLUMN

By Marley Peters

At Dartmouth, students often a competitive job economy and face a significant amount of there is a need to pay bills after we pressure to leave this place with graduate. Some students face more a finished product. This product economic responsibilities than must show your peers, professors, others, and some students want to family and local community that be financially independent. We all your education was worth it. With have our own very logical reasons that product, you can now point for our feelings. As a graduating to something that will validate senior, I am surrounded by peers your time and investment into that are constantly worried about your schooling. Just graduating their next step. Some of them is no longer are genuinely something most “Often, this pressure excited about people believe is their jobs, “good enough.” reduces the time graduate N o t o n l y d o spent struggling school or students need to f e l l o w s h i p s, and working to graduate on time, while others they also have achieve the entity feel like to do so with a that validates one’s getting the two-year plan for degree should afterward. The time at college: the be enough. pressure to have diploma.”

Most students your “next big recognize that ste p” outlined there will be and secured a “next step,” is intensified, but some want as that is what to take more people use as time to figure a m e a s u re o f it out. success. The T h e question college p e o p l e t h at students hear, possibly as early as want to take their time are still junior spring is, “So what’s next?” surrounded by a majority that Not having an answer to that feels like being in senior winter question can feel like you have not without a job is outrageous and done enough. Often, this pressure even embarrassing. There are reduces the time spent struggling people that are happy with finding and working to achieve the entity a job within the couple of months that validates one’s time at college: after graduation. Yet, the need and the diploma. common expectation to have an The pressure makes sense. It’s end product that you can point to as

COURTESY OF MARLEY PETERS

your next big step can undervalue the immense significance of graduating with a college degree.

Because college tuition has become so expensive, the need for an end product that will start returning on your investment is immediate. Many people cannot afford to take time after school to regain their footing. Some students do not have the privilege to choose a lower-paying job over the corporate one or to recover from possibly traumatic experiences in their time in college.

I feel the stress, and I know I am not the only one. The time spent wondering whether you made the right decision to come here, whether college really was worth it and whether you need to have a set post-graduate life can leave you blind to the immense accomplishment of leaving college with a degree. As someone from a small town, I decided to enroll at Dartmouth College, knowing a lot of people questioned whether this incredibly pricey liberal arts education was worth it or not.

Everyone has their own answer to that question, but to me it was worth it — not because of my end product. Coming here has helped me grow in ways that my small town did not allow me to.

I want to take a second and say to my peers that in the end, you know what is best for you, in terms of post-graduation plans. Try to ignore everyone else and focus on yourself. It’s an accomplishment to graduate from college, no matter how long it may have taken you, and it is good enough.

4// MIRROR

Of This Alternative Universe FEATURE

By Laura Jeliazkov

If the sun and the moon and the stars were all to align themselves differently, what would we find?

In this alternate universe, how many roads would Robert Frost take? Instead of just two, five roads would diverge in a blue wood. He would travel down all five and be five travelers as once. He would stand and look down one road as far as he could to see where it bent in the undergrowth. One day,

somewhere ages and ages hence, he would tell with a sigh of how his step trod black the leaves that

covered the five roads. He would recount how the travel stretched him right weary, and how as he traveled on, he wished he could have chosen to be one instead of five. But knowing how time turns into time, he doubted he should ever return. Five roads diverged in a blue wood, and he — he took all the five, and that has made all the difference.

And in this alternate universe,

time will turn into time as minute pours into minute. There will not be clocks on the wall; time will not

move forward; time will not march chronologically along the tick marks of a straight-arrow timeline, no. Instead, on the wall will be buckets, and the passing of time will be measured as they fill. The tides of time climb drip-by-drip up the walls of the ages. If a clock becomes slow, the second hand is misaligned with the seconds that pass, and this is a fact that cannot be helped. But if a bucket becomes tipped — the water level runs the same line along the horizon.

In this alternate universe, what if people were blue with envy instead of green? And turquoise with sadness, or sienna with innocence, or tickled maroon. The colors could fall any way that they pleased.

Perhaps they all mean everything.

Or perhaps they all mean nothing.

If they all mean nothing and all is the same, then every color is just as bright as the other at the same time that every color is just as dull as the other. The lines and the frameworks and the distinctions that guide our world fade, and we are left with nothing but a flat surface.

The sky would not look down at the earth. In this alternate universe, the flat surface of this earth would look down, rather than up, at the sky. The butterflies would flutter underfoot. The grass would grow in the direction away

from the bottoms of our feet. With the universe flipped in this way, it would seem we are always on the precipice looking down. The valley of sky and solar system would stretch away before us, in all of their glory — but farther from our minds than before. We find we are not concerned with what lies below. Attention is grabbed by things higher by things more immediate. There is no worth in digging below. And so time is not spent looking down, instead we look up.

There, in this alternate universe, the hands are in the brain, and the brain is in the hands. We gesture to the axons that run through our bodies, we orchestrate like a conductor with a baton the coordination of our muscles and fingers and toes. Our brains, in our hands, send electrical impulses through the spines of the air. They

and four right corners of equal angles. And yet the sculptures created become something much beyond these boundaries. The two-dimensional becomes threedimensional. The flat gains a depth. In this alternate universe, knowledge of the world is a folded paper crane on a shelf in the big China cabinet in the back of the mind.

And so as Frost walks slowly down these five roads and through the blue forest, his gaze is intent on a piece of paper which he folds. His feet trod back the leaves beneath his feet. He twists and creases and turns with his mind and with his hands. The currents of electricity shimmer in the soft air around his body and the branches. A symphony shimmers alongside at the waving of the hand’s baton.

The sky is one with the forest above him.

touch and bounce back to us from the pieces of our world. From this, we read the corners and the angles and the nuances — just as bats with their echos. The vibrations rippling through our skulls.

With the hands of the brain, we fold paper origami. We begin with a single sheet of paper.

Nothing more. No cuts, no glue, no markings. Whatever is constructed comes from the flat dimensions of that paper: a paper bounded by four straight sides of equal length

The flat piece before him slowly takes a life of its own. It becomes so much more than it was. Slowly, but surely, it grows edges. It finds shadows. A color that does not typically exist in this alternate universe starts to seep into it. A definition. A tangibility. And then — movement. We lift our hand to the sky. The paper origami lifts its wings and flutters away.

In this alternative universe, I take a walk through a garden of the kaleidoscopes of consciousness.

MIRROR //5

Best of Both Worlds: Social Spaces at Dartmouth STORY

By Nikhita Hingorani

Social spaces are integral to a Dartmouth. Sure, I got a haircut well-functioning college. If you and some new clothes, but when think about the places that we given the opportunity to completely frequent on campus, more often reinvent what constituted my than not they are social spaces. In person, the version of myself I classrooms, we have meaningful wanted to put forward in the new conversations and discuss new ideas and exciting college social setting with our professors and classmates. was not far from the person I had In dorms, we reflect on our days always been. and imagine our futures with Rogers offered a reasoning for our roommates and floor-mates. these sentiments.

In study areas, we reinforce class “We have this socialization material and expand our knowledge experience where we start to learn base with our friends and peers. how other people label us, how Every day, people interact with other people see us and what other others in a number of different people expect us to do or not do,” locations. she said. “In the new spaces that we Dartmouth’s small student body go into, we are always going back to and emphasis on tradition makes that sense of self established when it easier for there to be a perceived we were younger and either filling “norm” as to how to navigate social it with more ideas that fit with what life. For many students, social is already there or, if something scenes are dominated by Greek new comes in that is in conflict life, accompanied by the occasional with those ideas, figuring out what night in town or College-sponsored is more authentic to us.” event. When we’re choosing how to In terms of social interactions, spend our free time, or in a broader Dartmouth students’ connections sense what social interactions we with others in the Upper Valley want to engage in on a day to day are few and far between. Rogers basis, it is important to consider highlighted the fact that there are what impacts our decisions. “few people in students’ age bracket Sociolog y that they can readily professor Kimberly connect with outside "... but if you're Roger s conducts of school.” research on how within an Therefore, people use cultural institutional creating safe beliefs about social spaces in town that g ro u p s t o m a k e space, such as support diver sity judgments about on Dartmouth's and inclusion can social norms and how be a challenging local hierarchies are campus, the endeavor. Luckily, able to form in small more local there are various group settings and cultural context groups on campus interactions. Rogers that are working notes the importance can have a big toward solving this o f “ r e f l e c t i v e effect." challenge, offering appraisals,” which new and exciting are our perceptions ways to interact with of how others see -KIMBERLY ROGERS, other communities. and evaluate us, on SOCIOLOGY Fo r ex a m p l e, how we determine Collis Center's h o w t o t h i n k , PROFESSOR Programming behave and feel in Board is a studenta particular setting. run org anization “In a lot of that works to create situations, we usually use the social and entertainment events broader societal cultural context on campus, such as concerts, as a barometer, but if you’re within comedy shows and spoken word an institutional space, such as on performances. Jane Gerstner ’18 has Dartmouth’s campus, the more been involved with Programming local cultural context can have a Board since her freshman winter big effect,” Rogers said. and now operates its logistical and When making the transition to managerial aspects as executive college, people often told me that director. According to Gerstner, it will be “the time that [I] can be one of the most important aspects whoever [I] want to be.” To me, of planning an event is marketing this meant that I had to make some the event as early as possible. drastic revision as to how I perceived “We’re always trying to think of myself and how I thought others new ways to advertise our events,” perceived me. Looking back, I have she said. “If we didn’t get the word noticed that many of my intrinsic out about the event to the same qualities, such as my personality, extent that we planned it, it’s not a sense of humor and values, haven’t successful event.” actually changed since coming to One of her most memorable

events as a Programming Board member was Echo Brown ’06’s 2017 spoken-word performance of “Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters,” which she described as “an event that really made people think after leaving” the performance as opposed to some of the more light-hearted and casual events that are thrown throughout the year.

W h e n a s k e d a b o u t w hy Programming Board means so much to her, Gerstner shared similar opinions as Rogers regarding the importance of establishing a variety of social spaces on campus that can cater to as many students as possible.

“There is a stigmatization behind alternative social spaces since they are labeled as ‘alternative,’” she said. “You shouldn’t have to choose one or the other. A lot of Programming Board members are affiliated, myself included, and are also passionate about bringing events on campus that could appeal to a more diverse group of people.”

Friday Night Rock is another organization on campus that is entirely student-run, bringing artists from around the country to Dartmouth’s campus to perform for students on Friday nights.

FNR selects artists from a range of genres, such as rap, indie rock, electronic and folk, to appeal to a

wide range of audiences. It was managers that are responsible for initiated in 2004 as a solution to creating posters, weekly blitzes and the sheer lack of music scenes in Facebook events.

Hanover.

According to Lafontaine, FNR is Seeing FNR as a good way to not like anything else on campus. It continue her passion for live music provides students with a unique way in college, Samantha Lafontaine to spend a Friday night relaxing, ’18 began her involvement in the socializing and enjoying good program her freshman year as music. venue manager. Since last year, she “Friday Night Rock has been a has been the general manager of big part of my time at Dartmouth,” Friday Night Rock, she said. “I think it is leading meetings a really unique group and overseeing the "Friday Night on campus. Having general functioning Rock has been music playing in a of the group. fraternity basement W h e n a s k e d a big part of is not the same as a b o u t wh at t h e my time at what FNR offers.” process of getting Dartmouth Dartmouth." an artist to students’ social come perform in lives can flourish Hanover consists -SAMANTHA in a variety of of, Lafontaine noted places on campus: that artists often LAFONTAINE '18 in the depths of a reach out to the fraternity basement, organization to fill at a Coffeehouse tour dates because of Dartmouth’s Concert in Collis, in the line at prime location.

King Arthur Flower or even in a “[Dartmouth] is a good stopping study room in the library. No matter place between Burlington and the location, having a multitude of Boston or Boston and Montreal,” social spaces on campus to choose she said. from is a privilege that we should Like Gerstner, Lafontaine also not take for granted. These areas stressed the importance of making give us the opportunity to meet sure events are well-advertised new friends, reconnect with old in order to reach out to as many ones and make memories of our students as possible. According to time at Dartmouth that will last a Lafontaine, FNR has two publicity lifetime.

6 //MIRR OR

Spring Break for Social Change STORY

By Timothy Yang

Every year, students may elect to worship, including Islamic Jum’ah, participate in an alternative spring Jewish Shabbat, Hindu Puja, break trip to Washington D.C., Sunday Christian church worship organized through the William and a Buddhist seated meditation Jewett Tucker Center. Students practice. The students will also on this year’s trip are prompted to visit several museums, monuments explore the intersection of “Race, and historical sites around D.C. to Faith, and Justice,” a theme that examine the national narratives seeks to explore the narratives around race and justice as well and issues of race and justice as engage with professionals to that are present in the capital’s further discuss the issues of race, metropolitan area. faith and justice.

“The trip is almost like a T h e s t u d e n t s w i l l m e e t pilgrimage ­— it’s a quest for congresswoman Ann Kuster ’78 [students] to better understand and the staff members of some their own values around religion congresspeople in order to discuss and their own values around how values inf luence policy race,” Leah Torrey, the multi-faith making, especially in regards to advisor at the Tucker Center, said. racial justice, according to Torrey.

Students of all religious, Furthermore, some civil rights spiritual and moral backgrounds lawyers will meet with the students are welcomed on the ASB trip. to talk about how their values have “When we say ‘religion’ around helped them pursue careers in the Tucker Center, we have a very justice. broad understanding of what that Torrey said that there are three means,” Torrey integral explained. “So “We’ll visit five pieces to there are people the ASB trip on the trip who different houses of experience. a r e a t h e i s t s , worship, representing F i r s t , i t ’s there are people important for who are agnostic five different religious students to and there are traditions and we’ll get first-hand people who experiential also visit people have particular knowledge of practices. It’s across D.C. ... to what worship a very diverse understand how l o o k s l i k e, g roup that is particularly g o i n g o n t h e their values intersect i n trip.” communities with their pursuits of Students and for justice, particularly participating students to i n t h e t r i p around racial justice.” recognize will have the the diversity opportunity to w i t h i n explore race and -LEAH TORREY, WILLIAM religion justice through JEWETT TUCKER CENTER a n d a c ro s s discussion. religions.

MULTI-FAITH ADVISOR “The entire Second, time, the students get students are a chance to being asked under stand really tough the national questions.” narratives Torrey said. “They also do group around race, including through reflections, and they do individual monuments and museums. Lastly, reflections where they do some free students examine how these writing. It is a deeply reflective understandings are played out activity.” in a person’s vocation and how Throughout the trip, students someone takes those into the world reflect upon their engagements and enact justice. with various organizations that “So, they get to explore not only deal with issues of justice, race religious rituals and practices and and faith. community and values, but they “We’ll visit five different houses also get a chance to understand of worship, representing five how people put their values into different religious traditions, and vocational practices talking about we’ll also visit people across D.C. justice, particularly racial justice,” ... to understand how their values Torrey said. intersect with their pursuit of M a k i s a B ro n s o n ’ 2 0 , t h e justice, particularly around racial student coordinator of this year’s justice,” Torrey said.

ASB, added that reflections and Torrey explained that this year, discussions would be prompted the group will observe five forms of during the trip for students to

better internalize the values behind amazed by U Street in D.C., as it the intersection of race, faith and is vital to the history of the city’s justice.

African-American community and “We’ll talk about what do the discussions about gentrification racial dynamics in the space look issue and community resistance. like, why do Being able to they look like “I would say as a meet with both that, what Sen. Kirsten n a r r a t i v e s whole, the trip really Gillibrand of race exists tries to tie in all parts of ’88’s staff and in the city,” Ku s t e r ’s s t a f f B r o n s o n ... educating ourselves was an exciting s a i d . “ N o on these really experience, she matter what important and relevant said. space we “We got to see a r e i n a t issues, and then putting how the dynamic a n y g i v e n those education of the capital was moment on functioning or the trip, we sessions and this new what not, and are always knowledge into action.” just kind of try to going to be be an active part thinking of that process,” about how -MAKISA BRONSON ’20 Bronson said. “I those three would say as a t o p i c s whole, the trip intersect and really tries to tie collide and in all parts of, you how they know, educating affect one ourselves on these another.” really important E v e n and relevant before spring break, the students issues, and then putting those who are going on the ASB trip education sessions and this new are already engaging in reflection knowledge into action.” and discussions. Every week, the Coming from a background students take two hours to examine with little interaction with religion, one religious tradition or explore Bronson reflected that it was only one aspect of justice or race that after coming to Dartmouth and they will encounter through pre- being exposed to many more trip workshops. religious and faith-based lifestyles “During every week of winter and experiences that she started term, they need to prepare for the to contemplate more on the issues heavy topics that of faith and will be discussed justice. She and engaged with “Race is an issue where applied to later on,” Bronson we haven’t seen justice the ASB said. “So, it is a lived out in the United program really powerful in the fall experience that States, so I feel really term of her they get to have called into help repair freshman once they get to year because inequities and to use D.C.” she knew B r o n s o n what privilege I have to the trip participated in an would help protect a better world ASB trip herself her explore ... ” last year. topics that “It was a s h e h ad a really amazing growing t r a n s fo r m at i ve -LEAH TORREY, WILLIAM interest in. e x p e r i e n c e , ” JEWETT TUCKER CENTER “[The Bronson said. trip] was MULTI-FAITH ADVISOR “ [ I t ] p ro b a bl y probably [was] one of the one of most eye-opening the most experiences that powerful I’ve had in that experiences period of time.” that I’d B r o n s o n ever have,” enjoyed spending time at Howard Bronson said. “And not just University — a historically black because of a place that we visited, university — because it impressed or the conversations that we had, her that its space was drastically but also because of the outstanding different from the space that people that also went on the trip Dartmouth presents. She was also with me.”

Bronson explained that she got involved as the student coordinator for ASB this year because of the connections she made, the conversations she has had with the friends she made on the trip and the experience of the journey itself.

“The fact that this experience was so important and powerful for me that were really what motivated me to see if I can continue being involved with this experience,” Bronson said. “And hopefully to help create as amazing an experience as I had for the people that would go on the trip for the future.”

Two students who are attending the ASB trip this year, Ameena Razzaque ’21 and Sirajum Sandhi ’21, expressed their excitements and concerns as well as what they hope to gain from the trip.

“For the ASB trip coming up, I really can’t expect anything, because so far from the conversations I have had with [Torrey], she said that it’s just a time of really deep personal growth and function for a person,” Razzaque said. “And so I’m really excited to go through that.”

Razzaque has never been to Washington D.C. before and is looking forward to exploring the capital city for the first time, in addition to getting to know her trip mates and having in-depth conversations about religion and identity. Moreover, she is excited to meet with people from Capitol Hill.

Sandhi said that growing up in Bangladesh, she was surrounded by people who share the same faith in a homogeneous society.

She hopes the trip will help her better understand where others are coming from and why they believe in what they believe in.

As the multi-faith advisor, Torrey noticed that one common thread across all religions is a call for contemplating and enacting justice. Therefore, in organizing this year’s and the two previous years’ ASB programs, she dives into the issues concerning racial justice.

“Race is an issue where we haven’t seen justice lived out in the United States, so I feel really called into to help repair the inequities and to use what privilege I have to protect a better world, to create equity, to create a world where we recognize the dignity of every person fully, for full-human dignity,” Torrey said. “So I think that’s a question a lot of students are asking themselves too: How can they be a person who helps repair the world, particularly around the issues of race?”

MIRROR //7

Unconventional Pedagogy STORY

By Alice Zhang

In a 2016 announcement about ’19 previously took.. the “Liberal Arts Imperative,” “The idea was for us to study College President Phil Hanlon the transformation of Poland from said that Dartmouth “serves under communism to a market as a laboratory for intellectual economy,” she said. “We did innovation.” Each course at some general work on transition Dartmouth fulfills this mission economies and different kinds of differently. Some, in departments economies. [However], we focused ranging from economics to Asian more on Poland itself.” and Middle Eastern Language Halfway through the term, and Literature, students in Econ achieve this 70 split into m i s s i o n b y "The final groups of four and incor porating projects and the started research an innovative, p ro j e c t s a b o u t midterm projects a c t i v e the successes p a r t i c i p a t i o n [for Chinese a n d ch a l l e n g e s a p p r o a c h t o 62.01, ‘Chinese of the economic learning. transition. “ I t h i n k Calligraphy’] were “To be able to people should all ... working up to then go to Poland try to take talk to real a specific character and advantages of people about courses … that that you were these issues and a r e k i n d o f perfecting.” to see where they project-focused were happening and handsreally made things o n ” M i c h a e l -MICHAEL real for us,” she Harteveldt ’19, said. “I think that HARTEVELDT ’19 a government our conclusions and Chinese c h a n g e d major, said. dramatically Harteveldt has taken Chinese because seeing the context just 62.01, “Chinese Calligraphy,” really helps you understand.” which was centered on completing Sload noted the possibility of projects and experimental practice hearing from conflicting narratives in calligraphy. from the people her group talked “ I t d ef i n i tely w as a ver y to. unique class,” he said. “The final “It didn’t present necessarily a projects and the midterm projects single picture, because obviously were all … people are working up “To be able to then different,” Sload to a specific said. “But it go to Poland and character really helped us that you were talk to real people under stand the perfecting. It about these issues complexity of was a very what we’ve been cool way of and to see where studying and assessment.” they were happening helped us see more He stated of the nuance.” really made things that one of Vibhor Khanna his favorite [in Economics ’19 is another parts of the 70, ‘Immersion student who has class was the taken Econ 70. h a n d s - o n Experience in U n l i k e S l o a d ’s i n s t r u c t i o n Applied Economics class, Khanna’s that Asian class focused on and Middle and Policy’] real for China’s economy.

E a s t e r n us.”

K h a n n a ’s c l a s s languages traveled to the a n d Szechuan province l i t e r a t u r e s -AMANDA SLOAD ’19 of China, where professor students talked We n X i n g to officials and provided, which eventually helped learned about economics in a Harteveldt place parts of Chinese communist regime. In addition, culture into context during his he talked to people who had language study abroad program lived through China’s Cultural in Beijing.

Revolution during the mid- to Another class that incorporates late-twentieth century and learned unique teaching methods is more about their experiences.

E c o n o m i c s 7 0 , “ I m m e r s i o n “I learned things … that I Experience in Applied Economics definitely wouldn’t have learned and Policy,” which Amanda Sload by reading a textbook,” Khanna

said.

Environmental Studies 11, “Humans and Nature in America,” which is currently being taught by professor Terry Osborne, aims to establish a greater understanding of humans’ relationship with nature and help students understand their personal relationships with nature.

Students evaluate the themes related to humans and nature in America in texts like the journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and novels by award-winning author Toni Morrison. They then apply these concepts into their own experiences in nature during class walks in campus’ own College Park. There, students are encouraged to contemplate on their experiences in the thematic context. Previous ENVS 11 classes have required students to write a report on the now-defunct proposal to build residential halls in College Park with these themes and their personal experiences in mind.

Jessica Kittelberger ’18, who is currently taking ENVS 11, has taken many classes that incorporate experiential learning.

“For me, I had never gone to the College Park area so there was a spatial aspect as well as getting to know a place on a perceptual level,” she said. “I was able to get

to know to this place better than characters to model and then we any textbook could offer.” have to figure out effective ways For Kittelberger, the connection to model them using a software to nature and the deeper levels of program.” analysis and Malakar said self-reflection “... actually going that by being she gained pushed to figure to a place and from this out concepts c o u r s e w a s seeing a process, for herself, she s o m e t h i n g event or actively is able to better that was under stand the only attained [learning] in the concepts. t h r o u g h given environment The students in complete these four courses does so much more immersion tended to agree with t h e cognitively and t h a t p r ov i d i n g material. a kinesthetic emotionally.”

Computer experience Science 22, i m p rove s t h e i r “3D Digital -JESSICA KITTELBERGER understanding of Modeling” is their respective ’18 yet ano th er subjects. Not only class that can it add further requires full dimensions to engagement with the assignments. their education, but it also allows “[Computer Science professor students to internalize and apply Lorie Loeb] gives us tutorials on their learnings to the world. As how to use certain tools and what Hanlon said, this innovation “will they would be good for, [but] it’s prove an essential part of a liberal up to us to decide what tools to arts education.” use for our own models and how “It is one thing to read an article to use them to create our objects,” or listen to a lecture,” Kittelberger Aritrika Malakar ’21 said. “The said. “But actually going to a class is very hands-on because we place and seeing a process, event mostly work in the lab, modeling or actively [learning] in the given … the class is innovative because environment does so much more we get to design rooms, objects and cognitively and emotionally.”

8// MIRROR

Choices, Choices PHOTO

By Michael Lin