Clubs

Question: How can you meet and interact with exceptional local students and help the College attract and matriculate excellent applicants?

Answer: Participate in your regional Dartmouth Club Book Award Program.

The Dartmouth Club Book Award Program serves as an important recruitment tool for Dartmouth. The program awards a selected book to deserving juniors at local schools. The program promotes the name of Dartmouth College among high school students, parents and guidance counselors, both those in schools familiar with Dartmouth and those who may not be. It's also an important way to give back to the local community by encouraging and recognizing talented high school students. It encourages high school juniors to apply to Dartmouth and introduces all the award winners to the writings of a highly respected author, often a Dartmouth author.

How does it work? In general the club book award chair works with local alumni to identify local high schools for participation. Both public and private high schools likely to send students to schools of Dartmouth's caliber are selected. The club leadership and program participants will also select the book to be given. Favorite titles are ThePoetry of Robert Frost, A River Runs Through It, dictionaries and books by Theodor Geisel 25 and Louise Erdrich '76. Funding for the books is often provided by alumni sponsorship or comes from the club's operating budget.

Each alumnus who has expressed interest in participating or sponsoring an award is matched to a target school in the area, given a sample contact letter and a role description. The alumnus contacts the school, explains the program, including guidelines from the club on the criteria by which the recipient should be chosen, and gets agreement from the school to award the book.

The school faculty meet to select its award recipient, provides the name and contact information of the book award winner to the alumni contact and indicates the date of the school's award ceremony.

The alumnus mails or delivers the book to the school for the awards ceremony. If external presenters are allowed the alumni sponsor is often invited to present the book to the recipient at the ceremony. If not, the alumnus is usually permitted to observe the ceremony and meet the recipient. The book award chair or award sponsor also writes a congratulatory letter to the recipient.

Information about the recipients is shared with club district enrollment directors and with Dartmouth admissions and alumni relations offices.

Book award programs are a wonderful and rewarding-experience for the students, parents, schools, clubs and Dartmouth. And, it doesn't have to end there! Clubs can maintain a connection with their award winners, inviting them to summer picnics and holiday luncheons.

Want to get involved? Your club book award chair would love to hear from you. Don't have a book award program but are interested in starting one? Your club would love to hear from you. A complete start-up kit for the Dartmouth Book Award Program can be obtained from alumni relations.

For information about this and other club activities in your area, contact your local club or affiliated group. They can be found on the Web from the alumni relations clubs page: http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/clubs. For a fun account and photos of the 2007 Club and Affiliated Group Officers Weekend, including annual award winners, go to http://alumni.dartmouth.edu. This column was written with Tom Andrews '60, book award chair of the Dartmouth Club of the Piedmont (North Carolina), and Dominique Huneycutt '92.

If you have suggestions for Club Notes, please contact me.

19 Debbi Lane Epping NH 03042;(603) 734-2804; Patricia.j.laughlin91@alum.dartmouth.ord