The year was 2002, two years into former President George W. Bush's first term in the White House. The massive crowd outside Boston's City Hall in the pouring rain was rallying for increased funding to combat both the local and global AIDS epidemics. One of the speakers was a passionate young doctor who electrified the soaking students when he declared that it was time for students to tell their leaders, "We are going to make your life miserable until everyone gets food and housing and medicine."
Let's fast-forward to sophomore summer 2009. That young doctor global health pioneer Jim Yong Kim is now the president of our beloved College, which was recently awarded $250,000 by the National Institute of Health to do just that: impassion students to go out and make their voices heard for those whose own voices have been silenced or ignored. President Kim has arrived at a key point in the College's journey as an undergraduate institution. Dartmouth students have the opportunity to raise the bar for what an undergraduate education can mean.
It is my ardent belief that there has never been a more exciting time to be a Dartmouth student. Today more than ever, each of us has the tools to put the opportunities that we have been given to use where they might have the greatest impact. No matter our majors or our individual talents, Dartmouth is making every effort to offer us the chance to truly put ourselves out there and rally behind a cause that seeks to take the world's problems onto our own shoulders, as former President John Sloan Dickey said. Through its programs in Hanover and Tanzania, Dartmouth's Global Health Initiative has already demonstrated what can result when two like-minded institutes collaborate. The Global Health Initiative's approach focuses on making the fruits of medical science available to those who need them most while building local expertise. A new tuberculosis vaccine developed especially for HIV-coinfected patients and a collaborative pediatric HIV clinic that provides the best care for children free of charge are two concrete examples of what a partnership forged in solidarity can accomplish. Earlier this year, the GHI was granted a $250,000 to expand these programs by opening up a number of new fellowships and courses to undergraduate students interested in applying their education to the world's biggest issues surrounding health and poverty.
So where do we go from here? Our new President has already begun to get involved with those efforts already underway at Dartmouth to contribute to the discussion of global poverty issues. Every group from the medical school's programs in Tanzania to the student advocacy clubs is excited to see what possibilities the College's new administration could offer. Dartmouth's previous administrations and current faculty have laid the groundwork for what has the potential to become the most globally focused undergraduate education in the country.
The College hosts a number of incredible speakers each term that give students the chance to interact with some of the most influential thinkers in the fields of global health and human rights. But none of these experiences will have any real impact if we as students do not apply them outside the Hanover bubble. Collaboration and exchange are the most powerful tools when pursuing any social cause let us continue to forge bonds between Dartmouth and other institutions that share our goals. President Kim brings a wealth of connections to the biggest forces in global health and social justice let us work to partner with many of them in the movement for healthcare as a fundamental human right.
These administrative cogs are now in motion; the ball lies squarely in our court as the student body. It is time for us to show our new president that he made the right choice in coming here that we are ready to seize the opportunities that Dartmouth has provided. Join an activist group on campus for a cause that matters to you. Apply for a Dickey or Tucker service internship. Take one of the many global health or international development courses. Drive to Boston or D.C. and help other impassioned students to demand food and housing and medicine. Let us show that we are ready and willing to help President Kim to galvanize the movement for health equity and to serve as a vox clamantis for the destitute sick.
