Announcing New Veterans Alumni Group

If you look on the Dartmouth Alumni website, you’ll see they have affiliated groups, local clubs, and professional groups for architects, lawyers, and whatnot, but none for armed service members. Now that’s going to change.

Back in December of last year, I contacted Sarah Sinclair of Dartmouth Alumni Relations to ask about starting a “Dartmouth College Uniformed Service Association”. In terms of what such an organization would offer, I sent her the following list of things, in no particular order.

1. Advice and mentorship to students considering careers in the Armed Services (e.g. a designated career councilor for each service to discuss with students what training and life is like in the Army vs. Navy vs. USMC).
2. Peer-to-peer professional mentorship for those currently serving.
3. Moral support to young alumni (and their families) currently serving or in ROTC (sending care-packages, hosting holiday events for locally stationed members, writing letters, etc).
4. Fundraising for service-related awards and scholarships within the Dartmouth Community.
5. Fundraising for Dartmouth funds among service members generally.
6. Upkeep of Dartmouth war memorials/ hosting on-campus commemorations for Veterans day, Memorial day, retirements, and funerals.
7. Advice, assistance, and job placement for members transitioning out of the services.
8. Moral, medical, financial support for casualties of war and their families.
9. Professional networking generally
10. Raising Dartmouth's profile among service members considering attending college or graduate schools.
11. Non-partisan advocacy for issues uniquely affecting service members. (traumatic brain injury, importance of language training, academic support to professors in shaping coursework relating to the armed services.) 
12. Hosting on-campus academic lectures, conferences, and speakers on topics relating to the services, armed conflict, and foreign policy.
13. Collaborating with professors on research/publications relating to the armed services/foreign policy.   

The alumni relations people turned these ideas into a survey and sent it out to their lists of soldiers, sailors, marines, and law enforcement alumni in order to gauge interest. If you wear a uniform in the service of your country, please help us out by filling out their survey here. According to Sarah, we already have the requisite 100 members signed up, but the more members, ideas, and support we can get the better.