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ZACH INGBRETSEN / The Dartmouth Senior Staff
/ The Dartmouth Senior Staff
In a public address to the Dartmouth community on his first day as College President, Jim Yong Kim said that it was the passion he believes Dartmouth students and alumni hold for the College that inspired him to forgo other career opportunities and accept the position of Dartmouth's 17th president.
"When I was first asked, there were other things in the wind," Kim said in his speech, hinting at another opportunity, which he called a "complicated" job in "very big city down South."
Kim told the students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered on the Green that it was his belief in the ability of Dartmouth students to take on global problems broader than those of his own work that led him to forgo those other career possibilities.
"It's a gamble for me but it's a gamble that I took knowing that we were going to win," Kim said, referencing his confidence in the potential of the College's students.
Since being announced as Dartmouth's 17th president, Kim has met with alumni, students and faculty, which he said has allowed him to understand the special bond that the College fosters.
"I was convinced that if I could do a good job, we together as a community would do things the likes of which the world has never seen," Kim said in his speech, adding later, "Every single [member of the Class of 2011] can change the world, and indeed must change the world and make it a better place."
In an address at the Tuck School of Business earlier in the day on Wednesday, Kim said he believes that Dartmouth offers the best undergraduate education in the world, pointing to the College's commitment to need blind admissions for all applicants as one of the College's particular strengths.
