“Since I was a child, I have always participated in the same family traditions year after year like running a turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning or baking and cutting into vasilopita (a traditional Greek cake) on New Year’s Day. I went to the same school from 7th to 12th grade and found a similar sense of community and love of traditions there, so I decided to get involved in planning those events through the Student Council. When touring colleges, I was drawn to schools with a strong sense of community and long-standing traditions. Dartmouth definitely checks both of those boxes.
I get a lot of questions as to why I am a Sociology major if I am planning to attend medical school after college. I took my first Sociology class during the fall quarter of my freshman year and was immediately drawn to the thought process of sociologists. I found solace in a field where my curiosities about social change and human interactions were backed by qualitative and quantitative reasonings. I hope to someday use my sociological reasoning as a doctor to contextualize individual patient stories within larger patterns of how social structure and culture impact health.
I am a fast moving and energetic person who often gets slowed down in conversations or presentations for talking too fast. While I love staying busy and filling my calendar to experience as much as possible, I wanted to slow down this summer. I worked on being more intentional with my time and slowing down to find moments of joy in the mundane. When I think back to my favorite moments of the summer, I remember sunset dinners at Wilson’s Landing, strolling around the Norwich Farmers Market, or running along the Connecticut River through Pine Park.”
– Katherine Takoudes ‘24