While most Dartmouth students were watching a cappella performances and swing dancing during Dartmouth Up All Night activities last spring, summer Student Assembly President Jorge Miranda '01 was lying somewhere in the Collis Center, catching up on some much needed sleep.
Considering how involved Miranda is at Dartmouth, it's hard to imagine that he ever sleeps.
Since his first year at the College, Miranda has chaired the Ethnic Studies Steering Committee and headed the Student Assembly's Academic Affairs Committee and Student Organizations Committee. In addition, he is in charge of LEAD, a Tucker mentoring program and has coordinated numerous activities, such as DUAN and Visions of Dartmouth discussions.
This school year, he was a undergraduate advisor in Wheeler residence hall and will repeat the job in Russell Sage this fall.
Miranda won the Churchill Prize for outstanding commitment to the Dartmouth community last year.
Should Miranda have his way, Dartmouth will be seeing a lot of change in the near future. One of his projects this term and in the next school year year will be a concerted effort on part of the Assembly, the administration and the alumni to educate students on the history of Dartmouth in hopes of establishing a stronger tie between the students and the College.
Miranda said he has specific goals for the Summer term.
"I want the Summer Student Assembly to do things it's never done before. I want to have the Assembly get involved in programming with other organizations as well as community service projects," he said.
Among the projects he envisions are a sophomore version of 'ShmenCorps, entitled 'moreCorps, and a housing and telephone guide for summer students.
"Mostly though, I want to show people that there's a different way to run the Assembly and still have it be effective," Miranda said.
Josh Green '00, his close friend and former Assembly president, said Miranda "was the first person I knew I wanted on the Student Assembly."
Miranda explains his enthusiasm with modesty. "One of the things that keeps me involved is the small chance that maybe, just maybe, I'll leave Dartmouth a better place than when I first arrived."
As active as he is in the College community, Miranda spends what little time he has with his friends and when possible, his family. He said he and his mother are especially close.
"I really enjoy seeing my mom whenever I go home. The force in my life, if I had to name one, would probably be her. Her passion for education has spilled over to me," said Miranda, who is an education minor and currently is conducting an independent study course in the field. He said he currently plans to go into teaching after graduation.
This summer, in addition to juggling the Assembly and his other leadership roles, Miranda will be preparing for his upcoming year as Intern to the First Year Office, where his responsibilities will include organizing pre-Orientation and supervising Class Council elections.
Miranda expects to be even busier than before in the upcoming terms.
"I always do my best when I'm at my busiest," Miranda said.
While that might be the truth, don't be surprised if you see Jorge Miranda asleep in Collis, where he is working the information desk this summer in addition to the rest of his jobs.
