Guests including a Vermont nurse mid-wife, a New Hampshire forester and key-note speaker Eurmon Hervey encouraged about 170 students and professors to give back to their communities during a dinner called "If Your Dream Job Is Helping People" in the Collis Center last night.
Hervey, founder of REACH, the Revitalizing Educational Awareness for Change Institute, a program for under-privileged high school students, and five of his students shared their hopes for Dartmouth graduates' futures before the dinner.
Hervey, who was raised in the Mississippi Delta, said he always knew he would give back to the community and encouraged Dartmouth students to do the same.
"REACH was born of my passion and frustration with education," he said.
Hervey said he escaped guidance counselors who told him to consider carpentry or masonry as a career despite his outstanding academic record -- he was a straight-A student, class president, drum major and member of the track team in high school -- and went on to achieve a B.A. and M.A. in mathematics, and finally a masters in education from Harvard.
"If you are liberated by the degrees you receive, others can be liberated as well," said high school sophomore Tionanasha Newell in her speech last night.
Leonette Henderson, a sophomore who spoke after Newell, told the audience that if Martin Luther King were here today she would say to him, "I have made it to the promised land -- I am at Dartmouth."
Hervey has used his degrees to mentor students like Newell, and said he hopes other college students will take advantage of their educations.
"You don't have to change your life or your major," Hervey said. "Just drop by an elementary school and read for an hour."
The audience included more than 25 other professionals who are using their degrees to improve their communities. These guests spoke individually to students over dinner about their jobs and about volunteering for organizations including the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests to post-graduate work in the Peace Corps and Teach for America.
One guest, Dartmouth Education Professor Randy Testa, said he is an advocate for the Amish and helps to preserve their farmland in Pennsylvania.
He said he believes the College "does not present enough viable and successful [career] alternatives" and, "until we institutionalize service" at Dartmouth, few students will choose service-oriented careers.
Testa said he encourages students to spend their leave terms doing extended community service and would like to see service incorporated into the curriculum.
The five students who came to Dartmouth with REACH won their spots in a speech competition, Newell said.
In addition to college trips, REACH students also participate in workshops about a variety of colleges and universities and information sessions on topics such as financial aid.
The program, which is run entirely by volunteers, serves more than 100 Mississippi students.
Hervey said he has long-term regional and state-wide goals for growth and would welcome efforts by Dartmouth student volunteers and interns to establish a relationship between the Tucker Foundation and REACH.
Hervey's visit was suggested by History Professor Bruce Nelson and coordinated by the Programming Board. Hervey and his students will continue on to the Boston area and visit Harvard and MIT later this week, although the group will only speak at Dartmouth, Hervey said.
Last night's dinner was part of the Collis Center's monthly Community Dinner Series.
