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On the Job

President Jim Yong Kim spent his first days in office making dozens of visits across campus and meeting more than 1,000 members of the Dartmouth community. Vox presents excerpts from his remarks at those events. Click here to watch the highlights video.

"I didn't come here to be a president. I came here to be more effective at making the world a better place, and you can believe that's how I'm going to run this presidency."
July 2 visit with Development staff members

In his first official appearance as Dartmouth's president, Jim Yong Kim (far left) addresses hundreds of staff members at a Welcome Breakfast on the morning of July 1. (photo by Joseph Mehling ’69)

"I want to spend a year learning what your aspirations are. My whole life has been spent going into organizations, saying, ‘What are we doing now?' and then asking, ‘What are your greatest aspirations?' If you could make this institution into whatever it is you wanted, what would that be? And when they tell me their greatest aspirations, we add 20 percent to that."
July 1 Welcome Breakfast for staff members

"What I hope is that we can engage in the project of taking Dartmouth College and applying, again, the lessons [the Tuck School of Business] teaches every day. So while we have great research, great faculty members, great students-can we improve so the way we execute around the goal of higher education here at Dartmouth College is so good that we are going to change the game? That's what I'd like to do."
July 1 visit to Tuck School of Business

F. Jon Kull '88 (right), associate professor of chemistry, shows President Kim protein crystals during a July 1 visit to Kull's laboratory. "We spoke with President Kim about my lab's project dealing with proteins that activate virulence in cholera," says Kull. "We are determining the proteins' structure to figure out how they work and how we can inhibit them, which could possibly lead to a treatment for cholera. As President Kim has a background in the disease from a clinical perspective, we had a great conversation about this." (photo by Joseph Mehling '69)

"There's just something about competition-being with others, working together-that is incredibly addictive. I consider what you do to be a critical part of the growth and education of our students. My job is to [enable you] not only to win games, but to create those leaders who are going to take on all of these other problems and take the lessons from your coaching with them for the rest of their lives."
July 2 visit to Dartmouth Athletics

"My hope is that I can support you and learn from you in a way that, whenever we think about accomplishing the social goals that we cherish the most-health care, higher education, social welfare, sustainable energy-your systematic ‘knowledge to know-how' approach can inform what I do, what we do here at Dartmouth College, and can continue to have such an impact in the world."
July 1 visit to Thayer School of Engineering

As I meet the students and as I meet the faculty, I am even more sure that we as a community are going to take on the most difficult problems-and as [Dartmouth President] John Sloan Dickey [Class of 1929] said, "Make the world's troubles our troubles."
July 1 Community Welcome on the Green, addressing members of the Class of 2011

"I am going to wake up early and I hope to see late third shift and early first shift people all the time. I hope to work as hard as you all do, and I hope we can find among us the right kind of aspirations that will make us wake up every morning and feel excited about what we are doing."
July 1 Welcome Breakfast for staff members

President Jim Yong Kim (far right) tours the campus with Admissions guides (from left) Raymond Rodriguez ‘09, Katherine Pine ‘11, and Benjamin Young ‘10. "President Kim spoke at length about the incredible passion he saw in Dartmouth students and how it influenced his decision to take on the role of president," says Young. (photo by Joseph Mehling '69)

President Kim met more than 1,000 members of the community at the dozens of events he attended during his first week in office. The events included:

• Community Welcome on the Green
• Three receptions with faculty
• Welcome Breakfast for all Dartmouth staff
• Visits to Thayer School of Engineering, the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth Medical School, the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center
• Lunch with the 2011 Class Council leaders, a meeting with varsity and club athletes, and a dinner with graduate student leaders
• Visits with staff, coaches, and students at the Athletics Department
• Visit with staff at the Office of Development
• Undergraduate classes in drawing and in digital culture and environmental art
• Visits to arts and sciences laboratories and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center
• A tour of the campus with student Admissions guides