Earlier this month, the Sherman Fairchild Foundation permanently endowed the Paganucci Fellows Program with $3 million. The program, which started in 2006 and is directed by the Tuck Center for Leadership, is an undergraduate development initiative that provides students with opportunities to participate in immersive learning projects.
Paganucci program director Richard McNulty said that while such an endowment would not necessarily shake up the Paganucci Fellowships in the short term, it has potential longer term effects.
“When something’s endowed, it increases the gravitas of the program,” McNulty said. “It makes us all that much more committed to doing good work, because now the program is forever, and it’s received the attention associated with that.”
The most recent cohort of Paganucci fellows, comprised of six students, developed strategies to support the Dandelion Project — an organization that works with the Dandelion School in Beijing, China to combat educational disparities among school-aged children.
The Dandelion Project was started by Mary Peng ’15, who was coincidentally a previous Paganucci Fellow. The Dandelion School provides English language training and other support services to the children of migrant workers, who are not otherwise entitled to public education.
“When we took on Dandelion as a Paganucci project, the idea was, ‘How do you take a good program and make it sustainable?’” McNulty said. “So from Tuck’s perspective, that’s what we bring to the table. It’s key that the organization will benefit from a business perspective.”
Kieran Sim ’17, a fellow from the most recent cohort, said that being able to travel abroad and work with the Dandelion Project was an incredible experience. He added that his team sincerely felt like they took ownership of their work and provided valuable recommendations.
“I loved the program because it took the liberal arts ideas I was forming here at Dartmouth and allowed me to apply them to something that I’m very passionate about,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to grow not only through the academic realm, but also through taking action.”
Lorie Loeb, a computer science professor and advisor for the Paganucci program, added that getting students “out into the world” to add social value can be highly beneficial.
“Social entrepreneurship at its best is using a design-driven business approach to help people think about their business models and help them understand how they can do their work better and more sustainably,” she said.
Economics professor Andrew Samwick, another program advisor, said that the Paganucci Fellowships align well with College President Phil Hanlon’s framework for experiential learning.
“The program is really a chance for students to complete the active learning pedagogy in a way where they have a lot of good of support,” he said. “The Dandelion Project, I felt, was a good example because it also included an intercultural competence component.”
McNulty said that the Paganucci program lasts for eight weeks in the summer and typically has five undergraduate fellows. The recent endowment, he said, increases the degree of flexibility that the program can have with various projects.
“I can imagine that in some years, we might take on a project where we actually need one sub-team working in Latin America, and one sub-team working in South Africa,” McNulty said. “And instead of only taking on five fellows, it could be six, with three in each area.”
Samwick also said the endowment grants stability because the program no longer has to compete for annual funding.
McNulty said that, in his estimation, Tuck students do team-based work more often than undergraduate students at the College. Tuck has increased its focus on experiential learning in recent years by launching programs like a global experience requirement.
Sim said that he would like to see expanded outreach from Tuck to undergraduate students to increase access to the “amazing amount of resources they have to support students in creating positive impacts.”
The Paganucci program is named in honor of Paul Paganucci ’53 Tu’54 — a former professor and associate dean at the school.
The Sherman Fairchild Foundation is a charitable foundation that focuses on providing support for higher education, fine arts, cultural institutions, medical research and social welfare. Established in 1955, it currently has over $435 million in assets under management.
