
I had the pleasure last week of meeting Stuart Lord, Dean of the Tucker Foundation and creator of the SEAD Program. He shared with me some of the successes of the SEAD Program. For example, three hundred eight-one sophomores participated in the program last summer! That’s about 1/3 of the class. The SEAD participants come from schools with a 49% college attendance rate, but they attend college at a 76% rate. Keep in mind that they start in the program after their freshman year in high school, a time when only 2 of the 36 participants this year said they thought they would make it to college. Finally, the program is in no way intended to find kids that could attend Dartmouth. It’s intended to show the participants that college is something they should aspire to. That there is another path they could take. Nevertheless there are two SEAD graduates attending Dartmouth right now! Both have over a 3.5 average, one has a 3.9!
I thought you’d appreciate a little more info on this project. I’ll admit that while I supported it, I didn’t know much about its value to Dartmouth or the world at large. Now I do. Sometime in the future I’ll try to arrange an interview with Dean Lord and get you all some more info on the program that we support as a Class Project. In the meantime, check out the website.
You can support the SEAD Project by adding a donation to your Class Dues payment, as shown on your dues card.