The 14th annual Ivy+ Summit - a meeting of student government leaders from all the Ivy League Schools and MIT - was hosted by Brown University over the weekend of September 30 to October 2, 2016. The summit at Brown comes a year after Dartmouth successfully hosted all the Ivy+ delegations for the 13th Ivy+ Summit. This year’s Dartmouth delegation comprised four Graduate Student Council (GSC) executive board members: GSC President Kyla Rodgers, Academic Chair Juana Nantez, Service Chair Evelyn Zablah and Graduate Studies Activities Coordinator (GSAC) Preetha Sebastian.
A dinner reception on the opening evening afforded an opportunity for the delegations to introduce themselves and their responsibilities as student leaders. After a hearty breakfast the following morning, the GSC’s four Dartmouth delegates took part in breakout sessions with their closest counterparts, sharing developments in the Dartmouth GSC, discussing potential areas for advancement, and catching up on the developments of the other Ivy+ GSCs over the past year.
Talking about the breakout sessions, GSAC Preetha Sebastian said she hopes to convey what she learned from the summit with the graduate student community through conversation as well as through the implementation of positive changes with the help of the GSC’s executive board members. “Speaking with student leaders from the other Ivy+ Schools, especially because we have such similar historical backgrounds, will surely add to our respective councils’ growth in the future,” Sebastian said.
At lunch, the Dean of the Brown Graduate School, Andrew G. Campbell, gave a talk about his experiences with the Brown Graduate School. Academic Chair Juana Nantez drew inspiration from Campbell’s speech, particularly regarding the role of GSCs, saying “I really believe, as Dean Campbell said, that as a graduate student council we can act as mediators between the administration and the student body. We have to make sure that graduate student potential is always utilized and I hope to do that in my position as academic chair.”
Service Chair Evelyn Zablah said the talk inspired her to work on increasing graduate student presence in life on campus as well as in the Upper Valley community. “I hope to facilitate a greater appreciation for graduate students at Dartmouth going forward,” Zablah said.
Later, all the delegates convened for the “State of the 9”, wherein the council president of each school talked about the developments in each school and the graduate student community as a whole. GSC President Kyla Rodgers shared the development of formation of the new School of Graduate and Advanced Studies. Rodgers also shared developments in the GSC, including the new events held for graduate students, and newly established student groups and resources.
The GSC President saw the Summit as a tremendous opportunity to learn about how graduate student councils at peer institutions operate. “It was especially interesting to hear about the resources available to graduate students at other institutions, how the respective GSCs connected students to these resources, and how they managed their approaches to student advocacy,” Rodgers said. “We were able to share the great things we're doing here at Dartmouth, and came away with ideas for new approaches to optimize the graduate student experience here as well! This was our first Ivy + as a graduate school, and we've learned a lot about how we can fit into the new structure.”
After a discussion-packed schedule for a day and a half, a dinner and mixer was held for all the delegates for their last night in Providence, Rhode Island. The following morning, the delegates shared breakfast and left for their respective institutions with ideas to improve graduate student life in their communities. The 15th Ivy+ Summit will be held at Harvard next year.
