Scene Sixty-Two: INTERNSHIPS

From first-years to seniors, the word INTERNSHIP produces ebullient enthusiasm. Or sometimes severe nausea.

In preparation for our future careers in i-banking/consulting/(does anyone actually go into anything other than that?)/etc., and to avoid spending extended periods of time back in the nests that we have already flown, we tend to spend our off-terms in a career-oriented capacity.

Well, most of us.

I'm not one to do things the traditional way. This past summer I worked as a Residential Counselor for Duke TIP Summer Studies and had a wonderful time making door-decs, enforcing bedtimes, filling water balloons, and the like. This term, in addition to modeling for the Studio Art department and taking classes and doing everything else that I do, I have two internships.

The first is for OPAL as a Diversity Peer Leadership Program Intern. Essentially, I partake of weekly training under the guidance of Nora Yasumura and take the skills that I learn into the real world by facilitating discussions about gender, sexuality, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, religion, and ability in both formal and informal settings. Sometimes I am invited by a UGA to run a short workshop with a floor, sometimes it's something more informal over dinner at Home Plate. In any case, I get people engaged.

My second internship is with the nonprofit organization Global Grassroots. I work directly with founder and president Gretchen Wallace on a variety of projects. On schedule for this term are an annual report of Global Grassroots' progress from the previous year and a new business card for CVTS.

No, they're not traditional. But this is what I enjoy, and above all else: happiness. Perhaps if more of my peers agreed with me they would know far more ebullient enthusiasm and far less nausea.


*** Update 1 (15 June 2011): The Global Grassroots annual report for 2010-2011 is now available!

Scene Sixty-One: C'est my Vie

I make the most of every day, but some days are just better than others. This one, for example. That's not at all what I expected.

See, I failed my first Arabic midterm. And I don't use the term 'fail' lightly. I did not pass and I knew it when I turned it in.

It happens, moving on.

This morning after class Professor Kadhim called me aside to speak about it, which (although a bit embarrassing) was expected enough. What he had to say- that was unexpected.

"I'm not going to count this one, ok? But the next midterm that we have will count double for you."

Jaw drop.
Gratitude.
Grin and skip.

On to Shakespeare, where we're covering A Midsummer Night's Dream.

To illustrate the simple yet complex parallelism and contrast that weave Shakespearean yarns, Professor Gamboa read aloud Go, Dog! Go!- one of my favorite children's books. He even used the doc-cam to show us the pictures.

Then (as if this day couldn't get any better), I got an extra slice of sushi in my lunchbox from the Hop. Some days are just better than others.

© Copyright Callista Womick 2010

*** Update 1 (11 Nov. 2010): I made an A on my second midterm. : )

The Dartmouth: Group works to improve bonfire

Shared from The Dartmouth:

The typical Homecoming bonfire experience of heckling at the hands of upperclassmen, who insist that first-year students must "touch the fire" or are the "worst class ever," may be too intimidating for some, according to several upperclassmen currently trying to make the bonfire a more positive event for first-year students.

"I want Homecoming to be more mutually enjoyable," Callista Womick '13, a member of the group, said in an interview. "Upperclassmen have fun hazing, but freshmen don't necessarily enjoy it."

The group held an open meeting attended by 14 students on Tuesday night to discuss the issue.

Womick said she received over 50 responses in the first hour after sending an e-mail invitation to the meeting from people who wanted to be involved but could not attend that night, she said.

"There are a lot of people who didn't have a good time on their Homecoming night, and would be willing to see it change," said Billy Zou '12, who did not attend the meeting but who supports the group's efforts.

"Part of the problem is that a lot of people have a lot of different ideas about what [Homecoming] is supposed to be," Zou said. "We have to send a collective school message. Changing the whole thing to be entirely positive would be a much more meaningful experience."

New to the bonfire this year will be a lane used by students to bring water in or to help freshmen in need of help to exit the bonfire. These came as a result of the students' suggestions, according to Farzeen Mahmud '12, one of the students who originally proposed that improvements to the bonfire ceremony be implemented.

The official bonfire committee independently of the group has also decided to expand the circle where students run around the bonfire. While the distance between the fire itself and where students run used to be 40 feet, this year it will be 50 feet. The outer circle will be at the 150 foot mark. Group members said will improve first-year students' experiences.

Matt Dahlhausen '11, one of the original student organizers, said he has personally handed out water at the past two bonfires, but that Dartmouth Emergency Medical Services could perhaps handle water distribution this year.

Programming Board had already planned an event in Collis Common Ground for Homecoming night, which has been made into a dance party at the group's request, Mahmud said.

Involved students hope to encourage upperclassmen who were offended by the negative atmosphere who might not otherwise attend to instead help change the mood of the evening via their supportive presence, Womick said.

Students could personally provide paint with which upperclassmen may decorate themselves on Homecoming night, according to Mahmud. First-year students will thus be able to recognize the painted upperclassmen as specifically there to help them, Mahmud said at the meeting.

Toward the end of the night, upperclassmen will be encouraged to support freshmen by running with them for a few laps, Dahlhausen said at the meeting.

Like-minded upperclassmen could also cheer during the first-year student sweep, Mahmud said.

Students who led Dartmouth Outing Club first-year trips should also be specifically encouraged to cheer for the first-year students they know, the group suggested.

Some other ideas proposed during the meeting included free massages, positive messages written in chalk on sidewalks and boom boxes to play music as first-year students run around the fire.

Group members also considered talking to sports teams that they said were notorious for causing problems.

"Homecoming isn't about hazing '14's so they feel tight as a class," Zou wrote in a statement to The Dartmouth. "There are plenty of opportunities for that. It's about welcoming them to Dartmouth, and it's about feeling tight as a college. In many ways, it is a celebration of our togetherness in this transient four-year experience."

Some upperclassmen may intend for their negative feedback to gradually become positive as the first-year students continue to circle the bonfire, Zou said.

"Those [first-year students] who exit early never experience the positive moments, if such moments ever come, and upperclassmen get caught up in the jeering and forget to transition to positive things," he said

A difficulty of addressing the negativity of Homecoming is that it presupposes that the ceremony is indeed negative, members of the group said.

Garret Simpson '11, who attended the meeting, said he feels the group is composed of a loose association of people with a common interest, and is not a formal organization.

He was inspired to become involved in changing the Homecoming atmosphere when he considered how much more positive first-year trips were than the bonfire.

Several students interviewed by The Dartmouth also noted the discrepancy between their trips' welcoming atmosphere and the conversely negative atmosphere of Homecoming, but other students said they felt that the atmosphere at the bonfire was either not negative or not an issue.

"I don't think there should be a change," Austin Greenfield '12 said.

The students involved with the movement said they did not mind the varying degrees of commitment across campus.

"If people don't feel like this is a big issue, I don't think any less of them," Simpson said.

The movement is intended primarily to increase comfort overall.

"Dartmouth is home to everyone, and so everyone should feel at home," Womick said.

Scene Sixty: Milque and Cookies

Every term, Phi Tau holds a campus-wide event called Milque and Cookies. The purpose of this event, as you may have guessed, is to consume copious amounts of milque and cookies.

• What is milque?
• Where do the cookies come from?
• Who are these madcaps?

Excellent questions.

• Milque is a special, spiced, milkshake-esque mixture that Phi Tau prepares and serves by the vat (or, in this year's case, the pumpkin) specifically during M&C.
• The cookies come from three days worth of in-house baking. Yes, they're all homemade. Phi Tau provides the ingredients and the kitchen, brothers and campus at large provide the manpower and creativity. This year I made four different kinds of vegan cookie (the best of which were Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with raspberry jam filling, image below). Of the (literally) thousands of cookies, flavors range from bacon (an old favorite) to lace (a new favorite) to chocolate chip (traditionally delicious) to peanut butter curry (nontraditional, but delicious). It's a spectacle.
• Such are they.

© Copyright Callista Womick 2010

Have you ever eaten cookies under a disco ball?

© Copyright Callista Womick 2010

(The above is just one of several tables of cookies in one of three such cookied rooms.)

Scene Fifty-Nine: DartTalk

This weekend began with a blitz about BFAB @NOW, which would have been better if a shmob hadn't nomed all the chocolate chip pancakes before I stumbled to Brace with my fifoon and foco bowl in hand. It was chill, though, because one of my trippees was hosting a prospie so I got some facetime in with them at Homeplate and had no fewer than three pav cookies (how else am I going to burn all my DBA?). The prospie thought I was pretty crunchy, especially after I suggested we walk to the BEMA to see Robert Frost...

Wait, what?

Dartmouth has a vocabulary all its own: see to it.

Scene Fifty-Eight: Rush

Dartmouth has a very open Greek party scene, but this weekend not a single house will open its doors to freshmen, or anyone not interested in joining for that matter.

This is the weekend which Greek-aspiring upperclassmen (the college doesn't allow students to join before completing three terms on campus) have anticipated and dreaded. For the gents, it is a more relaxed process: they go to the houses that they like for as long as they like. For the ladies it's more regimented: they visit each house at least once for no less than 45 minutes in a tightly organized, tiered system.

H'orderves will be swallowed, yawns will be swallowed, egos will be swallowed, etc.

Once the dust settles some people will run crazy through Novack Cafe clutching their newly acquired bids while their less-blessed friends shy off to mope in solitude. It's a brutal process, for sure.

As for me, I choose to watch sorority rush from the sidelines. Earlier this week I attended Phi Tau's first night of rush and signed the book with my bestie Rebecca Drapkin. Later, as we sat in Novack, a horde of Taus decked in flair and bearing standards of the house (a Jolly Roger and a rainbow among them) stormed in, belting "Happy birthday to you..!" and attempting to light candles atop two homemade cupcakes.

"We like you, we like you! We really REALLY like you!" they chanted as they decked each of us with a bid-bedazzled fedora. Then, just as quickly as they'd come, they were gone.

Most remarkable about this display, though is that it wasn't particularly remarkable. Not one of the students studying in the cafe batted an eye. This is Dartmouth, after all.

Scene Fifty-Seven: Hey '14s, want to be me?

1. Do you go to Dartmouth?
2. Are you a member of the class of 2014?
3. Do you want to help convince other amazing people like yourself to come here?

Then apply to join the Admissions Bloggers and share your Dartmouth Experience. The application is super short and super easy, so what are you waiting for? We want you. We really do.

Scene Fifty-Six: JACKOlanterns

From gag blitzes about an "open house at Sphinx" to "Drinkin' Time", whenever something is amiss on campus we're wont to suspect The Jacko. So when my roommate told me yesterday that he'd received a blitz proclaiming that flooding had filled the Connecticut River with pumpkins and people were scooping them out by the armful.. well, naturally I was skeptical.

As it turns out, I should have gone.