April 16-21, 2005
Thank you Dave Allen. Dartmouth Partners in Community Service, Tucker Foundation Board and Staff, Valued Students, Distinguished Guests, thank you for the privilege of sharing with you the Tucker commitment to the work of Dartmouth Partners in Community Service. Ten years ago, the Class of 1959 in conjunction with the Tucker Foundation dared to extend its vision to working with Dartmouth alumni in helping students find mentors. Thus, Dartmouth Partners in Community Service arose to meet this important need. Their mission?
To inspire Dartmouth students to join with Dartmouth alumni and their families in addressing problems facing our society.
Launched with the help of Dr. C. Everett Koop in 1995, the mission is needed as much today as it was then, and indeed, the vision of those founders has made it possible to develop a long-term, sustainable program where Dartmouth Students interface with Dartmouth Alumni. In turn, they are able to serve communities in need and apply the lessons of the classroom to real life human interaction.
We would not be able to continue this excellent program without the fine work of our Dartmouth Partners in Community Service Board. They have shown steadfastness and direction through these ten years, and have demonstrated a commitment to excellence and character that is impossible to reflect in a few brief comments. Thank you for your continued dedication to this program; only you know what it has taken to bring DPCS to this milestone, and position it for success beyond.
I also would like to acknowledge the many alumni who have opened their homes, given direction to our students and shown themselves to be examples of just how excellence in academics can translate into integrity of humanity. Thank you for taking the time to make yourself available, and for providing direction, guidance and support for the program and the students you have had opportunity to mentor. Thank you most of all for caring, for showing Dartmouth students as well as the community that the heart of soul of Dartmouth College is alive and well.
Of course, I dare not forget the students, through whose eyes community service becomes vibrant all over again. Their enthusiasm for the opportunities presented to them and their level of involvement in the lives of others not only is an encouragement for them, but reminds us all of the vital need to be an active participant in the local and global community.
The Tucker Foundation continues to provide enthusiastic support to this program through our Department of Fellowships and Internships in more than just in its development and coordination. The Fellowships and Internships Director, Lynn White Cloud and Coordinator, Becky Windt, provide support and assistance even after the fellowship is completed. I want to thank Lynn and Becky for a professionalism that excels, and for providing leadership to this program on a daily basis.
Student development post-fellowship plays an important role in assisting the students to embrace the fellowship opportunity in both the academic and experiential spheres. As a result, the fellowship becomes a means to merge the textbook with action. This nurturing of the heart and soul of Dartmouth College, this building on the development of the mind and skills with an ethical framework is at the very core of what we at Tucker seek to do, and why this partnership with Dartmouth Partners in Community Service is so prized by us.
Today, the need - both globally and locally - for the Tucker Foundation is greater than ever. Its work developing citizens of the world committed to values of freedom, tolerance and justice, willing to serve their community and country, and able to navigate a challenging, pluralistic world is increasingly critical. The Tucker Foundation with its civic and spiritual mandate, is an institution uniquely suited to help Dartmouth students and the broader community rise to meet so many of the challenges that we as a nation are now facing together. The heart and vision of DPCS are clear and assist the Tucker Foundation in meeting its stated goals in preparing student to be ethical leaders and responsible citizens.
As we are engaged in the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, we are pleased to be able to showcase the efforts of Dartmouth Partners in Community Service as one project that exemplifies what Tucker does. Our part of this campaign is made more tangible by the work of DPCS and the manner in which it enriches the loves of Dartmouth students.
Programs like DPCS at the Tucker Foundation ensure that Dartmouth College graduates students with a conscience committed to the common good who are not satisfied with the unfinished agenda of our nation and who want to work for change.
I would conclude by saying we look toward ten more years with DPCS, but that would be too shortsighted. May this cooperative effort live for many years to come, until the children of our DPCS Fellows see their children involved, active and serving. May each day we live be an opportunity to inspire others to address the problems facing our society by actually being the solution that our society needs.
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