Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health

In Fall 2008, the Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health co-hosted the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) week along with Millenium Campus Network [link to MCN] and the Dickey Center for International Understanding. The following articles on the MDG week speakers were written for Standpoints. A compilation of these appeared in Crossroads (Vol. 11, no.2), published by the Dickey Center.

MDG Week: Jane Goodall
By Daniel K. Whalen Jr. ’12
Dartmouth College was pleased to welcome highly acclaimed author and activist Jane Goodall to campus on Tuesday, November 11, 2008. Dr. Goodall began her talk by greeting the audience with the distance call of the Chimpanzee. She recounted the story of how she became the renowned woman that she is today. She attributed her success to the numerous people who helped her along the way. Dr. Goodall had always dreamed of going to Africa and living with the animals there, and was never discouraged by her circumstances. She finally got the opportunity to travel to Africa while working as a waitress. While in Africa, she met Dr. Louis Leakey and eventually was given the opportunity to go into the forest of Central Africa and observe Chimpanzees in their natural environment. It was during this observation that she made her first groundbreaking discovery; she observed a chimp using a stick to get ants out of an anthill. At that time, it was thought that one distinction between animals and humans was the latter’s ability to engineer tools. Her observation, however, was a direct contradiction and disproved the prevalent theories.
Throughout Dr. Goodall’s talk, her love and passion for chimpanzees was clear. She truly believes in the ability to learn about the human race from the study of chimps. Moreover, she is passionate about the conservation of all animals. Dr. Goodall continues her work through the Jane Goodall Foundation. According to its website, the Foundation serves to “increase primate habitat conservation, increase awareness of, support for and training in issues related to our relationship with each other, the environment, and other animals, and expand non-invasive research programs on chimpanzees and other primates, promote activities that ensure the well-being of chimpanzees, other primates and animal welfare activities in general by advancing the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things.”