Investing $300,000 is usually an activity reserved for the comfortably wealthy. But beginning in February, a dozen Dartmouth students who join the newly formed Investment and Philanthropy Program can exercise control over that much money, without spending a dime of their own funds.
The program, currently accepting applications, aims to give participants practical experience in asset and portfolio management while making philanthropic decisions.
"What we envision for this experience is something a little different from the typical student organization," said Gordon Taylor, an associate dean and executive officer at the College. "The object is to give students this experience in as much a real-life setting as possible."
Students involved in the program will be monitored by an advisory board, composed of Dartmouth alumni with backgrounds in finance or investment banking. He stressed that the role of this board will be to educate, monitor and advise students, not to make their decisions for them.
"The main aim of this group is for the students to have fun," said David Russ, the College's chief investment officer. "The board will help to set up the program and then not interfere in the students's decisions."
This does not mean that the students will be left entirely to their own devices. The board will play a substantial role in educating students on how to be smart investors, Russ said.
"Our expectations of these students are going to be identical to the expectations we would have if they were working for us," Taylor said.
Students will work as a team to decide how to invest the budget. A certain proportion of the budget, not yet decided, will be donated to the school for projects of the students' choice. All profits from the program will stay within the program.
The program will be open to a wide variety of students, not solely those who plan on working in the financial sector upon graduation. Those who have an interest purely in the philanthropic side of the program are just as important as those who are interested in investment, Taylor stressed.
Applicant should be interested and motivated, Taylor said.
The program sprang from an idea put forth by Marco Tablada Tu '98, Vice President of Development Carrie Pelzel said. Tablada worked alongside Stephen Mandel Jr. '78, David Craver Tu '97 and Leslie Dahl '85 -- in concert with other Tuck and College graduates -- to raise money for and develop the program, she said.
A meeting about the program will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Collis Commonground. Applications, consisting of a resume and a letter of interest, will be accepted until the end of January.
