Whelan '03 scores big on class council
Having hit a home run in the recent 2003 Class Council elections, Class President Tim Whelan is getting ready to load his bases yet again for another winning season at the College.
When it comes to class council, Whelan said he has a "build it and they will come" attitude. He has great ambitions for Dartmouth programming and events that are anything but dreams.
Whelan, a Wayland, Massachusetts native, attended Belmont Hill School and when choosing colleges came around, he stuck to advice close to home plate.
"My father and uncle, both '74s, went to Dartmouth ... [which] definitely had a big influence on me," Whelan explained.
"But I also wanted to play baseball at a college level, so I talked with coaches too," he continued. And soon his options became apparent.
"Dartmouth had the best to offer academically; it was a great confluence of my academic priorities and extracurricular interests." So like others in his family before him, Whelan signed on to the Big Green.
"Sure, my plans are a little unclear at this point, but I am leaning toward an I-Banking or consulting trajectory," Whelan said of his post-Dartmouth career.
"I could definitely see myself in a similar role as my father one day, a little bit of an off shoot of him," Whelan added. His father majored in history at the College and is an investment banker.
As for the rest of Whelan's family, his mother was a corporate lawyer who turned full-time homemaker when the Whelan abode became a little league of three high-energy children.
His involvement in leadership roles took shape beginning last spring, when he co-chaired the 2003 Family Weekend.
"I was ready for Dartmouth baseball from the first day I came up to Hanover," Whelan said. But after a year playing, he had to choose between commitments. "I was putting five to six hours a day in the Winter term for training," recalled Whelan.
"Something had to give, and I realized that I came to Dartmouth for study and student leadership more than anything else," he added.
Returning to campus in the fall, Whelan pledged Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity "to stay together with my best friends, even though I'd not be on the [baseball] field with them."
Sophomore winter brought additional council opportunities. With 2003 Class Council President Dan Chang '03 abroad in Spain, the council wanted to elect an interim president. In the end, two MVPs were found and a co-presidency was made. "I was thrilled to work with Jessica Walters as a co-president," Whelan said.
In discussing council activities, Whelan said he is particularly proud of "a fantastic charity event [a bachelor and bachelorette auction] that benefited four charities, ranging from a homeless cause to relief for victims of natural disasters."
According to Whelan, wasting time is one thing that's not on his agenda.
"Getting started with this important job right away in the summer allows us to get a great head start," he said.
"This summer, we are pulling everyone together," Whelan explained.
"You know, sophomore summer leads directly into our junior year, which means we are faced with the challenge of many students thinking of traveling abroad. Next year, we may, as a class, be literally all over the world. So it's important to get that class unity going with more momentum now," he added.
Over the summer and into next year, Whelan said he hopes to focus "on building up communication between student groups and administration."
He also hopes to engage his classmates more directly in the council.
"For a change, we're taking a bottom-up approach for our events that we are planning," Whelan commented.
When asked about his relationship with the vice president, Svante Horn '03, a native of Sweden, he had nothing but positive words. "Lots of teamwork. A great partnership, which is really going to matter," Whelan said.
In the end, however, Whelan said he is hoping to make his team larger than just the council's officers by reaching out to everyone. If this is the case, maybe Dartmouth is the perfect place for the athlete scholar's field of real dreams.
