The Mirror 07/25/14

7.25.14

MIRROR

editor’s note|2 MIN KYUNG

Names| 2

Introverts| 3

Sophomore Slump| 4 ROBBIE NEUHAUS / JIN LEE // THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

2// MIRROR

What’s In A Name?

EDITOR’s NOTE

story

JIN LEE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

When I should have been springing forth with vivacity this past spring, I found myself falling out of love with Dartmouth. In an agonizing contrast to my high-spirited, over-zealous freshman fall persona, I had burnt out my flaming enthusiasm for literature and languages, laden with an intractable sinus infection the whole term and slumping under the weight of homesickness.

With a respite of a mere few weeks in between spring and summer terms, I dreaded the Coach ride back to Dartmouth, my supposed home away from home whose tranquil greener y now threatened me with crippling thoughts of solitude. More than halfway through the term, however, I have been fortunate enough to gradually awaken once again to the silver linings of this place — the inspiring professors, the dedicated friends, the enormous allure of the knowledge promised within the halls of decades- and sometimes centuries-old buildings.

This issue of The Mirror sheds light on ways to step over the proverbial sophomore slump, but it also highlights the stories of individuals whom many assume unwilling to talk about their problems. It is about the labor and pain of speaking out but the necessity of doing so. It is about naming our fears and speaking our doubts aloud, so that in the process, we may find the silver linings to keep us dreaming when our reckless optimism fails.

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MIRROR R MIRROR EDITORS MIN KYUNG JEON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LINDSAY ELLIS PUBLISHER CARLA LARIN

EXECUTIVE EDITOR CHARLIE RAFKIN

B y MAGGIE SHIELDS

In one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, Juliet, the heroine engulfed in a deadly affair with a family enemy, laments the surname that confines Romeo to the role of her nemesis: “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Though Juliet’s sentiment rings true — names cannot possibly define the whole of an entity — what we decide to call ourselves, or how others refer to us, can significantly influence our identities and self-perceptions.

When I was 5 years old, I decided I needed a change. I think I was experiencing a mid-childhood crisis or something. At any rate, I started kindergarten by introducing myself to the class as Margaret, my full name, instead of Maggie, the nickname I had accepted until that point in my life.

While my experiment with the more adult-sounding name only lasted about a day, others make permanent changes to their names to reflect their new sense of self.

Penelope Williams ’16 said she chose to substitute Penelope for her former diminutive, Ellie, toward the end of high school.

“Everything in my childhood and family is Ellie,” she said. “Penelope is the part of me that struck out on her own.”

While awaiting our deliverance from our mothers’ wombs, we do not have the agency to select our names, but even the designations given us by our parents can express aspects of our personalities.

Casidhe-Nicole Bethancourt ’16 said that Casidhe, which means “curly-headed warrior” in Gaelic, accurately describes her temperament. She noted that there is not an abundance of Casidhes, musing that just like the name, she stands on her own and commands a strong, independent mind.

The meaning behind our names sometimes does not align completely with our personas. Tierra Lynch ’16 said that her father suggested the Spanish word “tierra” as her name because both of her parents thought it sounded pretty. Lynch’s grandparents, however, strongly disliked the name, as “tierra” translates to “earth” or “dirt.” When Lynch studied in Buenos Aires this past spring, local residents often teased her about her name.

“I like it now, but when I was little, I hated it, and I wanted to change my name,” Lynch said. “I like that it’s different. When you

Creative Writing Professor: You all are the horniest class I’ve ever taught. ’16 Guy: Gender is a spectrum, but facial hair is not. You grow it or you don’t.

JIN LEE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Our names sometimes contain a long genealogy of corrections and contractions. are introduced, it is a topic of conversation, something different about me right away.”

Other names, besides being unique, are visually and audibly appealing. Veri di Suvero ’16 emphasized this quality of her name.

“I like that it’s short, that it has a lot of points visually to it,” di Suvero said.

Di Suvero’s surname also contains a story. Her father belongs to a line of Italian aristocrats who fled the country because of Mussolini’s persecution. Her ancestors stayed in China for some time before finally immigrating to the U.S. When they

“Everything in my childhood and family is Ellie. Penelope is the part of me that struck out on her own.”

- PENELOPE WILLIAMS ’16 arrived during World War II, they did not want to associate themselves with Italy, a member of the Axis. Therefore, they chose the surname di Suvero, which means “from Severen,” a place in Austria where some of her ancestors lived. Di Suvero likes that her last name connects her to her ancestors although she has not met many of them.

John Damianos ’16 also has a rich history behind his last name. His ancestors, the Kokorogiannis, were wrapped up in a violent feud with another family in Greece.

His grandfather finally immigrated first to England, then finally to the U.S., where

16 Girl: I’m trying to finagle my way into this Greek Men of Dartmouth Panel.

’16 Guy: The only time I’ve ever been to BG I saw a UFO. So I don’t go back anymore.

he changed his last name to Damianos in honor of his uncle, Damian. Damianos especially likes the connection this name gives him to his Greek heritage.

“My heritage is extremely important to me,” Damianos said. “It’s a huge part of my identity. The first thing anyone knows about me is that I’m Greek. It is just a name but it also carries with it heritage and culture.”

Others connect to their family by their first names. Pauline Sydney Allard ’16 was named for her two grandfathers, Paul and Sidney. She goes by Sydney, joking that her parents wanted to make things especially complicated.

Allard did not know either of her grandfathers. Her family has told her that she exhibits some of the same characteristics as one of her grandfathers.

“We eat bread in the same way, rolling it into little balls,” Allard said.

Other parents pick their kids’ names in more spontaneous ways, rather than naming them after family members. Di Suvero’s father had a dream in which a girl appeared saying that she was his daughter Veri.

Bethancourt’s father liked the name Cassidy after the talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford named her daughter exactly that.

And Williams was supposed to be named Madeline, but her father switched his mind after watching a black-and-white film featuring a Penelope two days prior to her birth.

Names are often the first thing people know about an individual. Although many people go through phases of wanting different names for themselves, we come to realize that we can’t really see it any other way.

“There are definitely names that don’t fit me,” Allard said. “I could never be a Maggie. I’m a Sydney!”

’16 Girl: Are there read receipts on Grindr?

’16 girl: Someone needs to die to avenge my breakup.

MIRROR

Solitary Strength story

Trending D @ RTMOUTH

B y aimee sung

At Dartmouth and other colleges nationwide, where corporate recruiting sends us into a frenzy and professors emphasize class debate, the loud, more often than not, prevail over the reserved. When confidence and assertiveness border on arrogance and obtuseness, the voices of the Waldos and Eeyores among us tend to go unnoticed.

But in an environment that encourages extroversion as a vehicle of academic, career and social success, introverts are quietly overcoming hurdles and car ving out their own paths to thrive.

During a week-long training session in D.C. during the Rockefeller Center’s First-Year Fellows program, Curtis King ’16 was the quiet guy no one knew much about — until he revealed his comedic side when he performed as a condescending snob in a skit.

King recalled that fellow participants with whom he had not previously exchanged a word approached him after the skit. He added that introverts have the advantage of selectively revealing themselves to people.

“Being an introvert isn’t a permanent label,” King said. “It’s uneven ground that differs in individual relationships, an unknown entity.”

Though introverts are sometimes stereotyped as “disinterested” or “anti-social,” they often possess the ability to break through and develop stronger one-on-one relationships, self-described introver t Xanthe Kraft ’16 said.

“Introverts know what it’s like to feel spent, and they tend to be more sensitive to community and inclusivity,” she said.

Jiyoung Song ’16, who serves in a leadership position in the Agape Christian Fellowship, said that leadership is an “inherent skill” separate from being an introvert or an extrovert. Being introverted, she said, should not become a source of insecurity.

Some introverts with whom I spoke described academic environments as particularly tough for those who do not want to speak up.

Kraft said she has difficulty participating in class, especially in larger ones that exceed 20 students. In her contemporar y American fiction course this term, she said, some people speak “authoritatively,” whereas she feels unable to synthesize her thoughts into a “mini speech” as they do.

“Professors tend to tr y to understand what I’m saying and roll with it,” Kraft said.

King had a particularly challenging academic term his sophomore fall. In a discussion-based political economics class, he struggled to vocalize his opinions. He would usually wait until all eight of his classmates had spoken before he pitched in a final comment.

“It’s like diving off a cliff,” King said.

“You’re glad you did it, but you’re constantly thinking about it until you do it.”

Song remembers a high school teacher who referred to the introverts in the class as “sponges” who merely absorb the ideas that others contribute.

Song characterized her first-year writing classes at the College as “competitive” and stressful. The extroverts seemed to stand out right away, and she said she could not

demonstrate the full extent of her capabilities in these classes.

Song said she feels more comfortable in her current Latin class, which consists of a small group of students with whom she has taken Latin classes since freshman year.

She has also taken three different classes with the professor.

Alice Wang ’16 said that reticence should not be equated with an inability or unwillingness to offer valuable opinions.

“It’s dangerous to assume that because people aren’t speaking in class, they don’t have anything significant to say,” Wang said.

For other Dartmouth introverts, coursework poses less of a problem than social endeavors do, particularly on a campus where Greek affiliation remains the norm.

While Madeline Parish ’16 deems herself an introvert, she has no problem talking in

“It’s dangerous to assume that because people aren’t speaking in class, they don’t have anything significant to say.”

- ALICE WANG ’16 class. But when faced with “high-intensity social situations,” like when she is surrounded by a large number of extroverts, she feels over whelmed.

As much as she loves being affiliated with Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority and enjoys the company of her sisters, she finds weekly meetings challenging, she said, noting that the noise often causes her to leave.

Though she enjoyed rush overall, Parish has witnessed other introverts get lost in the Greek system, especially during rush, she said.

Kraft, a member of Sigma Delta sorority, found recruitment exhausting because of the amount of time devoted to making small talk with strangers. The “invigorating” moments for her surfaced when sisters of certain houses led her to more private locations for deeper conversations.

Even now, Kraft prefers unofficial social events organized on a whim via her house Listserv, like those that gather small groups of members for midday tea breaks, FoCo dinners, movie nights or hikes.

In part, Song did not consider rushing because she believes that recruitment is mostly based on first impressions.

“It’s difficult for me to feel comfortable and put my best foot forward in a very highly socially charged environment,” she said.

For King, one of the groups around which he feels most comfortable is his cross countr y team, a tight-knit social circle.

“You immediately get 10 to 25 guys you spend at least two to three hours with each day,” he said. “You become friends whether each person is an introvert or an extrovert.”

King said he tends to “ease into” relation-

ships. Though he may not usually be the one to initiate conversations, he can be very outgoing once he has “built momentum.”

During the first month of his freshman year, King was frustrated when he could not seem to get past shallow introductions each time he met a person. Each meeting was a repetitive, meaningless exchange of “what’s your name,” “what’s your major” and “where are you from,” he said.

“Going out and meeting people to build the number of people you know and managing that seems draining to me,” King said.

Instead, he prefers to maintain a small pool of close friends and organically let that pool grow larger as he joins a new group or activity.

Wang thinks that college has made her more extroverted. As she grew closer to her freshman floor in the River cluster, she became accustomed to always having people around. She said that she realized she actually gains energy from social interactions.

Sophomore year constituted a “jolting experience” for her because she no longer had the ready, constant support of her freshman floor.

For others, alone time is their way of “refueling,” Parish said.

Song said after spending some time alone, she feels “more prepared” for the next time she is around people.

“I expel energy around people,” Kraft said. “But that makes ever y interaction ver y meaningful to me because it’s special time and energy I have.”

Parish said she likes socializing, but that she keeps her room exclusively reser ved for alone time. In addition, she described introversion as a “spectrum.” Depending on the situation, she can adopt more extroverted qualities.

“People tend to confuse being introverted with shyness,” Parish said. “I’m an introvert, but I’m definitely not shy.”

In her French classes, Parish has experienced drill instructors on different points of the spectrum. When the instructor belongs to the more energetic side, she tends to withdraw into herself and get frustrated by drill. She meshes better with “calm” or “chill” instructors, whose attitude opens her up more, she said.

Serving as an Italian drill instructor, Parish said, was one of her favorite activities so far at Dartmouth.

“I love jobs where I get to work with people,” Parish said. “I love being social, but like ever ything else, in moderation.”

When Song went on the classics foreign study program to Rome her sophomore fall, she spent 10 weeks with the same group of 13 students. While abroad, she formed deep bonds with some of these students, especially with other introverts. Because she frequently chose to stay in the apartment for solitar y moments as opposed to hitting up the town, she held intimate conversations with people she would not have gotten to know other wise.

“I find it easier to open up to other introverts,” Song said. “I can feel the sincerity in their intentions, and their quietness is an appealing characteristic especially in a state of opening up and vulnerability.”

ENGS 3

midterms They always catch us unaware.

corporate recruiting

What is business casual again?

frolicking on the green

With temperatures hovering over 90s, we cannot resist the Green’s allure.

visiting parents

Be prepared to pose with the Dartmoose — like that’s a thing.

BADLY-THEMED PARTIES Can we please get more creative than “beach bums”?

summertime naptime Summer afternoons make for perfect naps.

//3

4// MIRROR

Surging from Sophomore Slump B y josh koenig Let’s suppose you’ve never heard of the socalled “sophomore slump,” a drop-off in academic performance that occurs among second-year college students. To get up to speed, you pull out your laptop, open a Google search engine, and hit enter. “Pity the sophomore,” proclaims The New York Times. “The reality of college hits sophomore year,” offers The Denver Post.

You keep clicking, and the punch lines keep landing. There is always another page of search results to read.

In the non-virtual world, among New Hampshire’s warmth and greenery, Dartmouth College is known as much for its academic excellence and intensity as it is for its robust social life. This shouldn’t come as a surprise — after all, Dartmouth is a college that rejected nearly 89 percent of the students who applied for admission last year. So if the sophomore slump is a synonym for lagging academic performance, perhaps it’s not surprising that students at Dartmouth don’t want to talk about the sophomore slump. In fact, the first six students I attempted to interview for this story turned us down. When I finally found a student to chat, he was quick to mention that the sophomore slump didn’t apply to him and that it might only be affecting his friends. And instead of isolating any overarching factors, he

“A lot of it has to do with students being betwixt and between.

Frequently we find sophomores a little disengaged with academics.”

- stuart hunter, executive director of national resource cneter for the firstyear experience and students in transition at the university of south carolina

chalked up lagging motivation to sophomore summer as much as academic fatigue. I kept looking for students with whom to chat, without further results.

Perhaps I had begun our search with the wrong terminology. When I talked to Brown University deputy dean of the college Chris Dennis, asking him about the phenomenon at our Ivy League peer, he suggested that “slump” might not be the correct phrasing.

JOSH KOENIG/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Sophomores participate in Sophomore Trips, a replica on a smaller scale of Dartmouth Outing Club first-year trips.

“I think for most students, slump is not the right word,” Dennis said. “But there is no doubt there is an effect. It’s different than the first year.”

At Brown, Dennis said, a lack of core requirements helps alleviate some of the lagging motivation often associated with the sophomore slump, as students remain “energized” by an ability to explore widely in various academic fields. But, Dennis noted, pressure to choose a major does in some way contribute to sophomore year’s challenges.

“I think they feel that pressure to make the right deal,” Dennis said. “There’s gathering anxiety about making the right choice and knowing that time is dwindling — they’re not going to be able to take all 2,000 courses in our catalogue.”

This pressure to choose a major is often associated with sophomore slump by experts who study the subject, like Stuart Hunter, associate vice-president and executive director of national resource center for the first-year experience and students in transition at the University of South Carolina.

Some of the staying power of the sophomore slump, Hunter noted, comes from its alliterative resonance. But semantics aside, there are numerous reasons the sophomore slump remains part of the national conversation on advising, Hunter said.

“A lot of it has to do with students being betwixt and between,” Hunter said, referencing the gap between the excitement of first-year courses and the academic focus that comes with declaring a major. “Frequently we find sophomores a little disengaged with academics.”

Since major declaration is mandated at Dartmouth by the end of the fifth term of residence — which often occurs during students’ sophomore year — it’s possible that this lack of first-year starry-eyed excitement and the drive that comes with a major might play a role in creating the sophomore slump.

In a conversation with Mark Montgomery ’84, president of Montgomery Education Consulting, I came across another possible explanation for the phenomenon. While recognizing several factors that impacted sophomore slump, Montgomery pointed to an aspect of the slump not as widely discussed — the glamorization of the college experience.

“This is going to sound grandiose, but part of it is the cultural pressure we put on the whole idea of college,” Montgomery said. “By the time sophomore year rolls around, the fact is that the bloom is off the rose.”

College, Montgomery said, is just another place where we continue to grow up. It’s not perfect. But this leaves some feeling like they’ve

DENNIS NG/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Academic advising occurs in a suite in Carson Hall, in Baker-Berry Library.

been cheated, like college hasn’t lived up to everything that’s been advertised. This, in turn, plays into the sophomore slump.

Of course, colleges aren’t turning a blind eye to the motivational struggles faced by sophomores. At Brown, Dennis said, sophomores receive tailored advising focusing on balancing their course load, meeting with sophomores in small groups and special sophomore advising guides.

And at Dartmouth, while the Undergraduate Dean’s Office could not be reached for comment on July 24 to specify the programs offered and the Dean of the College’s office redirected us to the undergraduate deans, sophomores receive continued advising through weekly check-in blitzes, expanded outreach from the Center for Professional Development and the selection of a major advisor.

This seems, at least from a cursory glance, to be the right type of tactic — it’s increasingly important, Hunter said, for colleges to encourage students and faculty to recognize challenges faced by sophomores. Institutions should examine what programs are offered for sophomores and ensure that programs meet their needs. At Dartmouth, the D-Plan may offer students an additional way to combat academic fatigue, Montgomery said.

“If you’re feeling slumpy, you can take time off,” Montgomery said. “You can go do something different and then come back. You don’t have the same kind of semester march that you have at other schools — there are a lot more coming and going.”

But while colleges can act to combat sophomore slump — and while we keep looking for students to chat with — sophomore slump continues outside of the academic world. You can keep clicking through the pages of search results and keep reading for days: Katy Perry has barely avoided the sophomore slump, President Barack Obama has faced it in his foreign policy in the Middle East and hipsters as a cultural movement are feeling its effect.

Keep clicking for days. Let your work fall to the wayside.

When we recall that the word “sophomore” itself has been cited as a compound of the Greek words sophos meaning wise and moros meaning foolish, the moral of the story seems to distill into a somewhat disconcerting fact.

As much as we would like to consider ourselves so much cooler than freshmen, we are still a vulnerable contingent, full of inner contradictions and fears. Perhaps we will one day consider the “sophomore surge,” when we ascend to our rightful places as no-longerslumpy college students.