Dean Kull sent a letter to GRAD Alumni to give an overview of the new School and outlining our vision as we look to the future. In case you missed it, you can read it here.
Dear Dartmouth Graduate Alumni,
Happy New Year and greetings from Hanover! As 2018 gets started, I wanted to write and thank you all for your support of Dartmouth’s graduate programs, and also let you know what we are working on here at the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.
As you know, the Trustees voted in 2016 to formally establish the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, the first new school established at Dartmouth in over a century.
The signal they sent with that commitment should not be understated. While we’ve been awarding graduate degrees since 1885, by forming the School Dartmouth’s commitment to educating graduate and postdoctoral scholars has reached a new level. It’s a commitment felt by both students and faculty.
Part of the power of the School is that it exists alongside departments in the Arts & Sciences, Thayer, Geisel, and Tuck. That means we can offer our students customized training for their career of choice – and customization of graduate education is not a buzz phrase, it is becoming the new reality.
As you know, today’s graduate students often need to be trained in a number of different disciplines in order to realize their research goals. In fact, a student in my lab is working on a project to design, synthesize, and test small molecule drugs to combat cholera and other bacterial diseases. To do this, she needs training, not just in structural biology, but also in synthetic organic chemistry and microbiology. So, she is working in three different laboratories, at two of Dartmouth’s schools.
This is just one example of our vision for the future of all Dartmouth’s graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. We will enable them to get the training they need, in whatever disciplines are required, and Dartmouth wants to provide that training in a seamless and efficient manner.
With Dartmouth’s commitment to our 550 PhD and 300 Master’s candidates, as well as over 200 postdocs, Dartmouth is entering a new era in which we can increase the impact and scope of our scholarly work.
We’ll harness strengths that are distinctly Dartmouth: our commitment to the power of the liberal arts, and our success with the teacher/scholar model. We’ll train our students, not just deeply in their chosen field, but also broadly. We’ll empower them to approach problems from multiple directions, to look at issues in an ethical and societal context. And then they will shape the world as advocates for facts, the scientific process, and the power of education.
And whether their paths lead to academia, industry, entrepreneurship, policy, or somewhere else, they will be thoughtful leaders, spreading the impact and influence of Dartmouth across the globe.
All our initiatives and accomplishments, as well as numerous events, are described in detail on the GRAD website. I highly recommend checking it out and I hope you will regularly visit it to keep up on all of the news from Dartmouth’s School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.
I hope you join me in my excitement about what the future holds, and I hope you will consider supporting the School by donating to the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies Alumni Fund.
All the best for a happy and productive 2018!