Whitman College

Well, We Have to Complain About Something...

...but actually, the dining halls are great. Whitman hosts 3 cafeteria style eateries and one made-to-order cafe. The dining halls offer multiple options at each meal - including hot options, always with a choice of pasta, vegetables, a vegetarian option and a meat option for carnivores, and the menu changes for each meal. Dining hall constants include a gluten-free station, a cereal bar, a dessert bar, a salad bar, a drinks bar, and a deli sandwich/wrap station. Also, we have soft-serve machines! The best thing is that you can take tupperware in and fill it up with food for later, if you like snacking or late night meals. Cafe 66, the made-to-order option, has three stations: a pizza bar, a grill bar, and "taste of" bar, that rotates themes like "taste of Sicily" or "taste of Mongolia," offering a truly create-your-own option - you choose exactly what meat, vegetables, pasta, sauce, etc. makes up your order. This cafe also has an expresso cart for odd hour food and coffee cravings.

Walla Walla: the Place So Nice They Named It Twice

But really. Despite a relatively small population, Walla Walla has a lot to offer. Aside from normal things like movie theaters and mini golf, Walla Walla also has community theater productions and town events, like the rodeo. Main Street is charming, and many of the restaurants are budget friendly. My favorite is Sweet Bazil, which offers artisan thin crust pizza 2 for $4 with a student discount. Walla Walla's rural location is a surprising bonus - the wheat fields make a gorgeous location for picnics, bike rides, or impromptu photo-shoots with friends, and the town is close to several outdoor attractions. The school offers a free ski bus to a nearby slope, and camping, hiking, and rock climbing locations are close by as well. Even the Snake and Salmon rivers in Idaho and Oregon are only a few hours away for those who love rafting.

History as a Means of Exploration and Connection

At Whitman, the History department has its own distribution requirements - including geographical distribution and subject concentration. I was initially skeptic, as I have very specific interests within history, but was surprised to find out how much I've been able to relate these classes. I also love the required class for the History major - Historical Methodologies. It focuses on different aspects of a historian's 'toolbox' - primary source analysis, secondary source analysis, historiography, etc. The course culminated in a 25 page term paper. I was scared of it at first, but we were able to choose our own topics, and I soon became so entrenched in mine that I actually wrote over the number of required pages and then had to trim it down. I'm now using this subject as a starting point for connections in other history courses, like the geographic distribution ones, in hopes of broadening my subject and analysis for senior exams.