Correction appended
College officials have chosen four recent Dartmouth graduates to serve as the inaugural Presidential Fellows in Global Studies and Higher Education under new College President Jim Yong Kim, Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt said in an interview with The Dartmouth on Wednesday. The fellows will work with Kim and other administrators to research and assist with projects throughout the Dartmouth community, Folt said.
Molly Bode '09, Daniel Lee MPH'09, Alessandra Necamp '09 and Jesse Silberberg '09 were chosen as this year's fellows, Folt said, following a "very competitive" application process involving around 50 applicants taken from both the College and Dartmouth's graduate schools.
Silberberg is the former publisher of The Dartmouth.
Folt said she interviewed applicants for the position with the help of Megan Steven '02, assistant dean of faculty. The decisions were made in close consultation with President Kim, Folt said, adding that the goal was to try to find graduates with both a talent for research and the ability to effectively communicate and work within a team.
"We were looking for people who were really excited about higher education and global studies... someone for whom this [fellowship] looks like an opportunity, or could be a launching pad into something that they were excited about doing," Folt said.
Folt did not enumerate what projects the fellows will work on, but said that more decisions about the fellows' work will be made in the coming months. Although some of the projects to which the fellows may be assigned remain in formative stages, Folt said that several of the fellows would likely be involved in assisting with aspects of Dartmouth's upcoming re-accreditation.
Each fellow will be matched with projects based on his or her particular strengths, Folt said.
Folt stressed that the program is not intended to replace the involvement of current Dartmouth students in the affairs of the College, but rather to allow the fellows to see the College from an administrative perspective and to gain useful experience for their future careers.
"We'd be much more likely to involve these fellows in projects that we don't normally have students involved in," she said, noting that the fellows are no longer students, but instead "interns."
The fellows will receive compensation from the College -- along the lines of a graduate stipend -- and will hold their positions for one year, Folt said.
