SPRING
2017
FROM DARTMOUTH PEAK PERFORMANCE AND DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC SPONSORS
+ CHAMPIONING DARTMOUTH
STUDENTS +
THE LITTLE
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GREEN BOOK
color in
business
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laser FOCUS
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growing the network
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oUT OF THE
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ACADEMIC NOTES
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BEST OF THE EAST! The Big Green wrapped up the 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships with a fourthplace podium finish and solidified their season-long domination of Eastern skiing with eight different skiers earning All-America honors. www.dartmouthsports.com
DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC
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EDITORIAL
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CRUISING TO THIRD Dartmouth’s men’s indoor track program proved to be a worthy adversary at the 2017 Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track & Field Championships with one of its best point finishes since 1997. Pictured is senior Nico Robinson who earned All-Ivy League honors for his second-place finish in the men’s heptathlon and was a crucial part of the Big Green’s success. www.dartmouthsports.com
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DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC
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Contents
DARTMOUTH MEN’S BASKETBALL SOPHOMORE EVAN BOUDREAUX MADE HIS PRESENCE KNOWN ON THE COURT THIS WINTER AND WAS HONORED WITH A PLACE ON THE ALL-IVY LEAGUE SECOND TEAM FOR A SECOND YEAR IN A ROW. EVAN, IVY ROOKIE OF THE YEAR IN 2015-16, WAS A KEY PLAYMAKER FOR THE BIG GREEN AS THEY NARROWLY MISSED A CHANCE TO PLAY AT THE INAUGURAL IVY LEAGUE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT THIS SEASON.
www.dartmouthsports.com
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in this issue 8
CHAMPIONING DARTMOUTH STUDENTS
Even with a schedule jam-packed with work, travel and philanthropic endeavors, nothing stops Brian Conroy ’86 from giving back to Dartmouth student-athletes.
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THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK
For members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball alumni network, it has always been more than just connecting with each other – the Little Green Book is just one of the many ways these former players are helping set current athletes up for success.
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GROWING THE NETWORK
Former Big Green softball captain Kara Curosh, and current Chief of Staff at Vanguard, knows that her team’s alumni network is young, but she is doing her part in helping to make it grow.
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COLOR IN BUSINESS
President of the Dartmouth Minorities in Business Association, junior women’s rugby player Ashli Cook has been actively working to help build a minority alumni network.
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LASER FOCUS
Dartmouth Peak Performance 6083 Alumni Gym Hanover, NH 03755 EDITOR Drew Galbraith SENIOR WRITER Bruce Wood ADVERTISING Sam Hopkins ASSISTANT EDITOR Karen Shu PHOTOGRAPHY Rob Bossi, Mark Washburn, Gil Talbot, John Risley, Mike Scott, Nate Barrett, Tom McNeill, Andy Mead, John Strohsacker and Karen Shu Problems or Accessibility Issues? dp2@dartmouth.edu © 2017 Trustees of Dartmouth College
ON THE COVER A perpetual force for the Big Green, Australian men’s tennis senior George Wall has played a key role this season in helping Dartmouth clinch matches with his steady singles demeanor.
A sophomore on Dartmouth’s football team, Matt Shearin is focused on school, sport and Wall Street.
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Out of the Mainstream
While a major in architecture isn’t offered at Dartmouth, that hasn’t stopped junior rower Nora Masler from exploring this particular career path – with the help of the Athletics Career Mentor Network, of course. PEAK | SPRING 2017
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Walking on to both the Big Green football and baseball teams, Brian Conroy ’86 learned what it means to be a good team member and translated that to success in the business world.
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CHAMPIONING DARTMOUTH STUDENTS brian CONROY ’86
B
rian Conroy ’86 can remember those Saturday excursions to Hanover with his father Peter Conroy ’56, like they were yesterday. “We would drive up from the Hartford area for round trips when I was a boy,” he recalled with a faraway smile. “Mom would say, ‘Take the kids and we’ll see you for dinner,’ so the old man would load us into the Chrysler and head north. “If Dartmouth lost, not a word was spoken on the trip home. For two hours. I have vivid memories of the old man pounding the dashboard on the way home recounting plays in his head. He was a passionate Dartmouth football fan I can tell you.” It wasn’t just Dartmouth football that mattered to “Cube” Conroy, his son will tell you. It was the college itself. “My father had a passion for being a member of a team, for being loyal and for Dartmouth. It was what I grew up with. It was part of who we were as a family. Dad was involved with his class, mini reunions and things of that nature. Dartmouth was a part of who we were growing up.” And it has remained a huge part of his son’s life. An engaging Wall Street veteran, Brian Conroy has been a highly regarded career consultant, adviser, mentor, confidant and dear friend to dozens upon dozens of Dartmouth students and student-athletes. Even three decades removed from his days in Hanover. Even 3,000 miles away in London, where today he serves as the president of Fidelity International. As Dartmouth would in his college years, Connecticut’s Avon Old Farms School and its athletic fields helped shape Conroy, who grew up in the shadows of the school. “I was fortunate to go to a really supportive boys prep school,” recalled Conroy, who would serve as the school warden – or student body president – as a senior. “I was never a great athlete but it was the kind of school that encouraged you to try, and to go out for
teams. It didn’t matter whether you were varsity as long as you were participating. As long as you were grinding you were respected. “I ended up starting my senior year in football and baseball, and being captain of each sport, never having started a game prior to that.” His career as a practice-field-grinder would continue at Dartmouth, which wasn’t alone at the top of his list of college destinations as a young boy. “Ironically, for most of my life my first choice was West Point,” he admitted. “But I had pretty bad asthma as a kid and West Point wasn’t going to work out. So I quickly switched to my ‘1B,’ Dartmouth. It was the right place for me. “The right school,” he added, “finds the right people.” Conroy majored in religion at Dartmouth, walking on to both the Big Green football and baseball teams. In four years he would get into just two varsity football games on kickoffs, and collect just one hit on the diamond. “My whole life I have been kind of a walk on,” he said. “So when I got into Dartmouth my attitude was, if they are going to let me go out for the team and stick around, I was staying. Why? Because I love sports. I love being part of a team. I loved the energy around sports programs at Dartmouth at the time, especially football, the centerpiece of what was played on campus. “I have always been an underdog. My attitude was, it was fun to do. You are surrounded by great people. And there was always the hope and chance that maybe I would get on the field. Maybe something would happen. I knew that if I wasn’t there it would never happen. More importantly, what I learned is to be a good team member along the way.” Dig out the Dartmouth football media guide from Conroy’s senior year and there are bios of the “Leading Contenders” for that year’s Big Green team, players like linebacker Len Fontes, wide receiver Scott Truitt, offensive lineman Slade Schuster and placekicker Craig Saltzgaber, all on their way to first-team All-Ivy PEAK | SPRING 2017
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League recognition. And there are bios of others who would barely “I ended up walking into the program there the way I walked see the field. onto the Dartmouth football team,” he said. “I was fortunate enough The only mentions of Conroy are in tiny print on the page to be hired without an MBA. They were looking to take a chance on with the previous year’s junior varsity statistics – he had two punt a non-MBA in their training program back in 1987.” returns for a total of five yards – and in the green roster pages in the Conroy spent 12 years at Goldman, rising to the role of vice centerfold of the booklet where he is listed as a 5-foot-9, 180-pound president before moving to JP Morgan as managing director. Then defensive back. it was on to Head of Trading for SAC Capital Management before Now flip through the next year’s media guide. Among the six years as Head of Global Equity Trading for Fidelity Investments. “Letterwinners Lost” is one Brian Conroy, listed this time not at He served as President of Fidelity Capital Markets, the institutional defensive back but as a defensive lineman. That wasn’t a typo. trading arm of Fidelity Investments, for almost four years before As a senior on the junior varsity, it wasn’t uncommon for Conroy assuming his current role in London in January, 2015. to line up against players 100 pounds heavier and six or more inches It was in his early days at Goldman that Conroy’s lifetime of taller. And he did it voluntarily. helping Dartmouth students began after he “I played nose guard on the Scout struck up a friendship with Tom Morrow Team because we ran out of them,” he ‘92. The former All-Ivy League linebacker said almost matter-of-factly. “I didn’t had arrived in Hanover just a couple of years care. I just loved being on the team. after Conroy graduated but they didn’t meet “That year the varsity line was all until working together. seniors. I would go up against Bob “He had been hired at Goldman and Saylor and Bob Rech. I would run we decided one day to start recruiting for around them to get to (quarterback Goldman at Dartmouth,” Conroy said. “That Brian) Stretch. It would tick them off. led to different things. I got to know (then We had some good fights in practice. head football coach) John Lyons when my I remember screaming at Bobby Rech dad passed away and I asked him, ‘Where saying, ‘I don’t get a chance to play do you need help?’ And he said, ‘These kids Harvard on Saturday. All I can do is aren’t well-prepared.” make you better.’ It was awesome.” And so Conroy did what Conroy does. He That love of the game and sense volunteered to help. of loyalty had been firmly instilled He talked with players in the weight room by Cube, a regular presence filming above Davis Varsity House about resumes, games standing from the jayvee interviewing and careers. Wanting to do sidelines, always with an oversized more, he developed a friendship with Monica videocamera on his shoulder. Wilson, who oversees employer relations “I knew someday it would end,” in Dartmouth’s Center for Professional Conroy said of sticking it out far from Development. She has welcomed him back Brian Conroy played a versatile role on Saturday afternoon headlines. “I didn’t to campus to meet with student groups the Big Green football team and truly care. My father told me a great story many times since, and all these years later embraced a “whatever it takes” mentality about how enthusiastically applauds his tireless efforts in helping his teammates succeed. JFK, whether it was true or not, was helping Dartmouth students and recent captain of the Harvard JVs as a senior. graduates explore and land internships and I figured, ‘Heck, if it’s good enough for jobs. JFK, who am I to complain?’ ” “Brian has been an amazing resource for our office and for many When Conroy separated his shoulder in a junior varsity game Dartmouth students over the years,” Wilson offered. “He brings as a senior it did come to an end of sorts as his focus shifted from a wealth of insights, advice and genuine caring and support. His playing to coaching. unbridled enthusiasm and his love for this institution is incredible.” “My whole senior year I would go in to the football office in the While he’s been generous with his time with any Dartmouth morning to help the coaches break down film for the defense,” he student who comes to him, Conroy has taken a special interest in said. “When I got hurt I started to run the Scout Team just to free helping student-athletes navigate the transition from college to the up one of the coaches to work with the varsity. That’s when I got the business world. coaching bug.” “Of course I have a special affinity for the athletes given the time constraints they face and the fact that they are not able to take nsure what he wanted to do after graduation, Conroy advantage of the career services offerings to as full an extent as nonconsidered teaching but instead chose to give football athletes,” he said. “So I want to make sure I do as much as I can to another year at Princeton, where he served as the Ivy League’s support them.” version of a graduate assistant coach. His life’s journey would And it is not just athletes with hard-core backgrounds in take a turn, however, when he met the person who would hire economics and finance that he mentors. him at Goldman Sachs while visiting Dartmouth classmates in New “As my career progressed, I was a true believer that there is a York City. spot for liberal arts in investment banking or any profession, and
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I wanted to help build that bridge,” he explained. “At first it was with the college in general but the more I spoke to (Deputy Athletic Director) Bob Ceplikas ’78, Coach Lyons and eventually (Baseball coach Bob) Whalen, I saw a chance to help our players. . . . You see the advantage Harvard kids have being close to Boston, and Columbia and Princeton being striking distance from New York. I always just felt we needed to do what we could to help our players.” One of the football players Conroy helped was quarterback Brian Mann ’02, who first met him after one of those talks in Davis Varsity House. “I was drawn to him right away,” said Mann. “Anybody who hears him talk typically is. I introduced myself to him but didn’t see him again until Coach Lyons put me in touch with him after my junior year when I was trying to find a job.” Mann landed a JP Morgan internship with help from Conroy. “I had been benched and stripped of the thing that mattered the most to me during my junior fall,” the former quarterback said. “But Coach Lyons saw that I kept coming to practice every day with a good attitude, that I was working with the young QB’s, and playing scout team QB. Brian said that was all he needed to hear. “For Brian it’s not about helping someone find a job. It’s about putting people in a position to succeed and to find their passions. So they get up every day and they are excited about what they are doing, they are learning and they are getting better and making the people around them better. He started as a mentor and I have been lucky enough over the years where I have gotten to know Brian and his family in a way that I consider him much more than that now. Whenever I have a big decision in my life, or am questioning something he is still someone I go to because of the way he looks at life.” Ashley Hines ’09, a field hockey captain who walked onto the Dartmouth lacrosse team as a sophomore eventually to be selected a co-captain of that sport as well, worked under Conroy at Fidelity. Like Mann, she considers him an invaluable asset for the college and its student-athletes as well as a role model. “He’s a powerful leader but you would never know it because he is so humble,” she said. “He’s the kind of leader that I would want to be. He never judges me for any of the decisions I have made. He has supported me and all the decisions I have made.” That includes the decision to leave Fidelity in favor of business school at Columbia. Fully aware the move would cost him a valuable employee, Conroy gladly wrote Hines’ business school recommendation. Like Mann, she continues to use him as a sounding board, even sending a “Save the Date” note to London in advance of her upcoming wedding. “Any time I am making a big life decision, a work decision, I am reaching out to him,” she said. “I tell people he supports me just about as much as my parents, and my parents are very supportive. I think it is telling that he helps everyone out, not just important people. “You know the kind of schedule he is on and the traveling he does and yet he always makes time for me. It might be, ‘Hey, Ashley, it can’t be right now,’ but if I said, ‘Brian, I really need to talk to you,’ he would make the time.’ I just can’t speak highly enough of him.” Nor can head football coach Buddy Teevens ’79, Conroy’s football camp quarterback coach as a junior high schooler up from Connecticut for the Joe Yukica camp in the late ’70s.
“For Brian it’s not about helping someone find a job. It’s about putting people in a position to succeed and to find their passions.” “He has not forgotten where he came from,” said Teevens. “It’s wonderful to see the success he has achieved in the business world as one of our own football and baseball guys. But he is just a down-to-earth, approachable person who has been very helpful making recommendations for players regarding job opportunities or interview opportunities. “Whenever he has a chance to come back on campus he will meet with individuals, small groups, or large collections of people to talk about the road he took. He’s just an all-around good person. Thoughtful. Considerate. Supportive. Encouraging. Optimistic. Upbeat. You choose the adjective, that is Brian Conroy. Everyone you speak to who is in contact with him will say the same thing.” For Conroy, whatever he can do to help those who came after him to the Hanover Plain is a labor of love because his “1B” college choice and those who followed him there will always be in his soul. “We have a special place,” he said. “It forms your heart and your mind as you go through the four years. We all have a responsibility that it stays vibrant and alive and true to this balance. “I remember when I was applying to Dartmouth. My best friend went to Harvard to play football. The way he said it was, everyone he met at Dartmouth was well-rounded. Pretty smart. Good athletically. Different interests. All that kind of stuff. At Harvard he found that the class was well-rounded, but not necessarily each of the individuals. “That’s a special part of Dartmouth that I think lives on today, and it is up to all of us to help foster and contribute back so it continues.” That’s why when Dartmouth calls, Brian Conroy answers. “The take away is we, the passionate alumni of Dartmouth, have a variety of ways to continue to foster the camaraderie that we have on the athletic fields in today’s world,” he said. “There are a legion of Dartmouth athletes and students that benefit from our collective involvement but in the end you get back far more than you give.”
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The Little Green Book B david gardner ’05
eing a two-time MVP of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team with an All-Ivy League citation on his resume meant that 6-foot-10 David Gardner’s search was a little different than most of his Big Green teammates when it came to landing a job after graduation. “I was in a bit of a unique position because I was being pursued by a few sports agents to sign with them so they could represent me as a professional player,” said Gardner, whose Dartmouth career helped him land a contract to play in Germany after graduating in 2005. Although Gardner’s classmate Steve Callahan is seventh alltime at Dartmouth in three-pointers made and 10th in assists the pro game wasn’t in his future. Like his teammate, however, the investment advisor at Goldman Sachs thanks his time in a Big Green uniform, at least in part, for helping get his post-collegiate career started. “My teammate Mike Liddy’s ’05 dad was incredibly helpful,” the two-time Dartmouth captain said. “He helped me get a job at JP Morgan in New York prior to business school.” Like Callahan, Jason Meyer ’06, would probably have jumped at the kind of opportunity Gardner had to play overseas. But while his promising career was crippled by a couple of season-ending injuries, the senior director at IBM Watson Health is yet another veteran of the Big Green program who can point to Dartmouth connections for helping him get started in the business world. “When I graduated, an ‘06 rower who was already in consulting in D.C. reached out to me and referred me to a job at Booz Allen,” he recalled. “I subsequently was given an offer and that kicked off my career. After leaving Booz and joining IBM Watson Health, one of my mentors at the company is a Dartmouth ‘73, and we have a tight bond heavily influenced by our shared experiences in Hanover. ” The three former teammates, whose 2004-05 Ivy League season record hasn’t been surpassed by a Dartmouth team since 1998-99, share not just a close friendship but also a profound appreciation for all Dartmouth and Big Green basketball have done for them after college. They have chosen to pay it forward by doing what they can to help Dartmouth basketball players in the business world. In addition to holding an annual meeting with players on campus to talk about career options, and making themselves
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available via phone and email, they are compiling what they have decided to call the Little Green Book, a directory of basketball alumni ready and willing to offer career guidance and opportunity to current players and recent alums. The Little Green Book is an adjunct to the effort the three friends began several years ago. “We’ve been doing an alumni reunion for four years now that includes a mentoring session with current players on the Sunday morning of the weekend,” explained Callahan. “I think the first year some of them were, ‘What the heck is this?’ But then they started to realize, especially the guys who saw us year after year, that it could be a really beneficial and powerful tool. Conor Boehm ’16 really bought into it. David helped get him an internship in Chicago. I had a number of conversations with John Golden ’15 and got him connected with another alum in New York who he ended up interning for between his junior and senior year. So a lot of guys have really bought into it. “Having continuity year after year allowed the players to start feeling more comfortable with us and to see we were there to be helpful. They realize we are not there to judge them if they have no idea what they want to do, but can help them figure that out.” Like some of the players he meets with on a Sunday morning each season, Gardner wasn’t sure while still a student-athlete specifically what he wanted to do if he didn’t get a pro contract. It would turn out that an internship at a branding agency in his hometown of Minneapolis that he will admit today he brought ambivalent feelings into changed everything for him. “Definitely if there was a spark that was already there for me,” he said, “it turned into a flame and now it’s certainly a roaring fire.” Today Gardner is the founder and CEO of Chicago creative tech positioning agency ColorJar. He was honored at the White House in 2011 as one of the “Top 100 Under 30 US Entrepreneurs,” and at the United Nations in 2014 as one of the “Top 100 Under 35 US Entrepreneurs,” and last year brought senior guard Mike Fleming to ColorJar for an internship. A huge believer that lessons learned in competitive sports are invaluable in the business world, Gardner feels the Sunday morning career sessions and Little Green Book add up to a win-win-win proposition.
MAJOR: Sociology TEAM MVP: ’04 & ’05 Second Team All-Ivy League
THE RECRUITING VISIT OF DAVID GARDNER ’05 WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE GENEROSITY OF MR. & MRS. GORDON WILLIAMSON ’62 AND THE DARTMOUTH CLASS OF 1968 THROUGH THE ATHLETIC SPONSORS PROGRAM.
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“We wanted to bring the database to life and really put it on the players’ doorstep. We want to show that we are willing and active and want to support you, and we’ll do whatever we can to open doors” “As an alum,” he started off, “I get a lot of joy from connecting with the team and I also get a lot of joy out of connecting with the other alums. Over the last four years of doing these reunions I’ve found we have a heck of a lot in common even with people who played 20, 30, 60 years before we did. So the first benefit is from the alumni perspective, connecting to other alums, but also connecting to the players and the tradition of Dartmouth basketball. “The value that we are trying to add from the player perspective is to really help them from a career and mentoring standpoint. To create a bridge, really, between the current players and the former players. Yeah, there’s a database of us but we wanted to bring the database to life and really put it on the players’ doorstep. We want to show that we are willing and active and want to support you, and we’ll do whatever we can to open doors. There is no other group of people that I would feel more confident opening a door for than a Dartmouth basketball player. “The third thing is, I think it’s a huge win for Dartmouth basketball. I can’t help but think of the world from a brand strategy perspective and I believe that this program will become, and is already becoming, a recruiting differentiator that we can win at. If Dartmouth basketball is synonymous with success after graduation it will give us a leg up against other Ivy League teams. It’s one thing to say it and another thing to do it, and we have started to do it.” Interestingly, Gardner – who traffics in the high-tech world – is excited about taking a step back from the Internet and social media and putting the Little Green Book on paper. “We’re going old school on this and are working on a physical book, not a digital book,” he said. “The whole idea is to make this feel really tangible. Think of it as a yearbook where you can see where people live, their area of expertise, their career path, and maybe a couple of lessons that they’ve learned. This will be something that each of the players gets. “It will be something that Coach McLaughlin, when he is making a recruiting visit, can set on the recruit’s coffee table and kind of flip through. That’s why our vision is of a physical book that gets updated regularly.” Meyer is fully onboard. The booklet, he believes, “gives the coaching staff another data point to point to (to have such a strong and devoted network of alums available to mentor and support) when recruiting young men across the country, hopefully resulting in even greater talent joining the program. “(It) opens up more avenues for alumni to give back to the program in addition to financial support, to further strengthen the ties back to the program. And it helps those of us managing teams or running companies by giving us access to a group of highperforming young individuals who would be a welcome addition at 14
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our companies.” Callahan has been pleased by the reception the effort has received from the Big Green’s first-year head coach, who didn’t even know the alums behind the Little Green Book a short year ago. “Coach McLaughlin has been very open and proactive in reaching out and saying, ‘This is all of your program and I’m a steward of it,’ ” he said. “He’s been very active in trying to bring folks back. He is really embracing the alumni. “We have made a conscious, focused effort that this is an alumni thing so that it will last. But it’s been refreshing to have Coach McLaughlin really buy into it. He said anything we need from him to just let him know and he will do anything he can to push it along.” McLaughlin couldn’t be happier about what his young alumni are trying to do and sees a clear benefit in the “old-school” approach of a printed Little Green Book. “That’s the essence of it, that it’s a real thing,” he said. “Everyone talks about, ‘Hey, we have great alumni connections. We have people in these fields.’ But here’s something we can legitimately pass along and say, ‘Take a look at this.’ Maybe there’s a couple of players sitting in your office during the day and you are talking about nonbasketball stuff, talking about life or classes or whatever interests them. You can open it up and look at some alumni who played here that are in the field that interests them. “Or maybe someone is talking about graduate schools and why they are looking at certain schools. Then it can be, ‘Let’s look at people who have that same background and maybe you can talk to them about that. Maybe they have a connection with the graduate school you’re looking at.’ ” Like the three main principals in the development of the Little Green book, the coach is confident it will be an invaluable tool. Not just for his players, but in his efforts to bring top-level talent to Hanover. “You have young men and their families visit here and instead of just talking about alumni connections you can show them,” he said. “I think it would definitely stand out and make a point and bring some reality to what is such a special opportunity set forth from our alumni to current, past and future players. “On home visits or school visits you can bring it with you. You can say, ‘Hey, this is what we are all about. This is real. We have alumni that are using their own time and their own resources and want to help you understand the value that they can bring to your postgraduate experience. They were in the same exact seat where you are now. They were recruited by the Dartmouth program at some point and were making the kind of decision you are making. They enjoyed their career and time at Dartmouth so much that they are willing to give back.’ ”
DARTMOUTH ATHLETIC
SPONSORS WHO ARE THE ATHLETIC SPONSORS?
Athletic Sponsors include more than 1,000 Dartmouth alumni, parents and supporters who love Dartmouth, who love sports, who either played or watched athletics as undergraduates, and who feel that Dartmouth should be a leader in the classroom and on the field. We are men and women in our 20’s and our 90’s and we are represented by nearly every class. WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO?
We know that success on the playing surface begins long before the contest starts... it has its genesis in recruiting. Without outstanding talent, success can only be an occasional dream. We are therefore committed to providing Dartmouth coaches with the resources they need to recruit exceptional student-athletes. We also know that Dartmouth has a unique and powerful trump card. The campus is close to irresistible when experienced in person. That’s Dartmouth’s edge! The trick is to get impact scholar-athletes face to face with this great institution to make a decision for Dartmouth. That’s the primary focus of what we do. We fly student-athletes to Hanover and send coaches to their homes. HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS TO THE COLLEGE?
Very! While the NCAA allows one paid visit to campus, the Ivy League legislates that those expenses cannot be budgeted items. That’s where we come in. We provide the non-budgeted funds. Every year we fly in nearly 300 potential impact athletes, and of those recruits accepted by the Admissions Office, the vast majority (about 90% ) decide to enroll at Dartmouth. WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?
Satisfaction and pride! You’ll be kept up-to-date on Dartmouth sports through our official newsletter, the award-winning Big Green Sports News, and your name will be listed in the next season’s home football programs. If you choose certain membership levels (see next page) you will also be informed of a specific athlete whose recruiting trip your donation made possible, so you can follow his or her progress through four years at Dartmouth. Most important, all Sponsors share the rewards of helping young men and women make a decision to embark on the very special “Dartmouth Experience.” That’s the real reason our program has grown from 6 members in 1955 to more than 1,000 today!
Sponsors and Friends enjoy the complimentary pre-game tent overlooking Memorial Field at each home football game
MEMBERSHIP LEVELS
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
$300-$599
Assigned a recruit every 3-4 years
$600-$1199
Assigned a recruit every 1-2 years and listed on our Leadership display in Alumni Gym
$1200-$4999
Assigned recruit annually, Leadership display & special recognition in football program
$5000 & up
Assigned recruit annually, Leadership display, special recognition in the football program & VIP Reception at Homecoming
To contact the Athletic Sponsor Program office, please call 603-646-2463 or email Sponsors@Dartmouth.edu
Growing the Network kara curosh ’14
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ust about anywhere you look in the corporate world there are Dartmouth football connections. With more than 100 players on the team each year in a program that the Big Green has fielded for more than a century, that shouldn’t be a surprise. Nor should it be surprising that another sport Dartmouth that has played at the varsity level only since 1996, one that has a roster of just 18 players this spring, doesn’t have the same presence in the business world. That’s one of the reasons why former softball co-captain Kara Curosh ’14 can’t credit a Dartmouth diamond connection for helping steer her to the internship that led her to a career at Vanguard, the investment management company headquartered in Malvern, Pa. And it’s why the Vanguard Chief of Staff feels it is important that she and other softball alums step up and do what they can to open doors for current and future Big Green players. “When I was at Dartmouth, Vanguard didn’t recruit for my program,” Curosh explained, “so I found out about it through a family friend. She works here and said, ‘Hey Kara, you are an Econ major, you play Division I sports. I think Vanguard would be a really good fit for you.’ “I didn’t really know anything about Vanguard, mutual funds or the retirement industry and investments in general until then.” The former All-Ivy League infielder wants to make sure current Dartmouth athletes and students do. “One of my former teammates was interviewing here and was offered a position,” Curosh said. “She decided to go elsewhere but I was the point of contact for her. There have been a couple others that (DP2’s Ali Hart) has sent my way and I’ve been happy to share with them information on what we’re all about.” Curosh is optimistic that with Vanguard’s relatively new investment focused rotational program and with several alumni friends at Vanguard making a push to recruit talented students out of Hanover there will be more of a Dartmouth presence in suburban Philly down the road. She’s doing her part as well. “I’ve done recruiting training so I have made myself available to do that in the future,” she said. Curosh is excited to see the Dartmouth softball career network continue to take shape under third-year coach Shannon
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Doepking. “I talked to her about that when I was back to watch them play a couple of years ago,” Curosh recalled. “She said a big focus of hers is to kind of connect the alumni base. I know Molly Khalil, who was a ’12, has done a great job sending out a newsletter doing that. “It’s such a young program. It’s only 20 years old. So the more that we can kind of create this community around softball the more it will help. I can’t wait to see that continue to grow, especially as the program continues to get better and grab more attention.” Curosh credits her studies in economics and Italian at Dartmouth as well as her days on the diamond for helping make her a more valuable commodity in the business world. It’s why she favors bringing more Big Green athletes both into the Vanguard fold and the corporate world as a whole. “There are two kinds of skill sets I have taken from Dartmouth,” she said. “One is from an academic standpoint. It’s not what you think, it’s how you think. I have a kind of curious mindset and feel like I am able to learn much more quickly because I had to do that Dartmouth. I don’t really use my Italian major here, but it is how I thought about what I was learning that stretched me by putting me out of my comfort zone that has been very applicable here. “From another perspective, I see what softball and sports in general taught me. Leadership skills. How to work with other people really well. How to work hard to succeed. So both from an athletic standpoint and an academic standpoint Dartmouth has helped me so much since I started in the corporate world.”
THE RECRUITING VISIT OF KARA CUROSH ’14 WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE GENEROSITY OF GEORGE JACOBUS ’53 AND FREDERIC ESCHERICH ’74 THROUGH THE ATHLETIC SPONSORS PROGRAM.
ashli cook ’18
Color in Business J
unior Ashli Cook wanted a Cook will be working this summer in change of pace. investment banking at Bank of America No, we’re not talking Merrill Lynch. She’s hoping that leads to about her switch from a permanent offer, something she had a sprinter on the track team hard time imagining when she arrived on to wing in rugby, a sport the campus. Upper Darby High School “I wasn’t sure coming in as a freshman product from Drexel, Pa., knew what I wanted to do and how to get there, precious little about before rooming and I had difficulties finding the right with a member of the rugby club people to talk to,” she admitted. “I was lucky as a freshman. This change of pace because Donnie Brooks was the career goes back to her decision to leave the advisor for DP2 and a great resource for Philadelphia area to attend college me. He was able to connect me with a lot of in an area that sometimes feels like opportunities although I wasn’t fully able a world apart from where she grew to take advantage of them because I didn’t up. know how to prepare properly for what he “I really wanted to experience brought to the table. something different because I’m “I feel like there are now more from Philly, so I am really used to programs in place geared toward helping the city,” she said. “I definitely wanted minority students with that, whether within Junior women’s rugby player Ashli Cook to go somewhere that was smaller, DP2 or Dartmouth in general. But I still emphasizes the importance of creating a where I could really get that onedon’t think there has been enough progress. on-one attention and experience a minority network to help current students of That’s why I am so engaged with it.” different setting for my four years in It’s why she is determined to build a color navigate the world of business. college because I know that I’m going stronger bridge between students of color to be in the city for most of my life.” and alumni of color, particularly those from With the move to rural New recent classes. Hampshire have come the challenges for a person of color living “We want to target those alumni and say, ‘Listen, we understand and studying at Dartmouth. It’s why, the treasurer of the college’s what you went through and we really want to make the process Afro-American Society said, as part of a panel meeting with alumni easier for students who look like you, who are coming through this she stressed the importance of bringing more minority faculty to program now,’ ” she said. the College. Although she hopes eventually to return home and do graduate And it’s why, as president of the Dartmouth Minorities in studies at Penn’s Wharton School, she remains eager to help those Business Association, she’s actively trying to build up a minority who follow in her footsteps at Dartmouth, and she’s determined to alumni network to help students of color enjoy more and better get more recent alums to do the same. opportunities after graduation. “A lot of it is relationship building,” she said. “Being able to have “I feel it is so important to have people that look like you, who someone you can call that can give you constructive criticism with can speak to your experiences,” she said. “I think there’s definitely a an understanding of where you are coming from. lot of value in receiving advice from Dartmouth alumni of all colors, “I think those first few years after I graduate will be really but I think it’s kind of impossible to put yourself in someone else’s important, whether that’s me visiting campus and sitting on a shoes, especially if they are a different race. You can try your best to panel or doing whatever is needed because being fresh out of the understand what they have gone through, but I think the minority experience I’ll be able to speak to the interviewing process and experience, especially at Dartmouth, where it is so small and is so everything like that.” isolated, can leave you feeling like you are on your own.” PEAK | SPRING 2017
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matt shearin ’19
M
Laser Focus
att Shearin’s approach to his Shearin had to take an additional class Dartmouth football career and in the winter and an extra class in the his eventual business career are spring. He’s fully aware that on top of identical. the heavy course load he will miss out on The 5-foot-6 and 165 Sophomore Summer, a special time for pound walk-on running back Dartmouth students. And that’s not all he who will be a junior in the fall will miss. lives by the philosophy espoused by one “I’m making some sacrifices,” he Abraham Lincoln: I will study, I will admitted. “I didn’t go home last spring prepare myself and then some day my break. I won’t go home this spring break. chance will come. I won’t be able to see my mom and sister “That’s one of my favorite quotes,” until Thanksgiving, so it will have been the personable Shearin said. “It’s been almost a whole calendar year since I have my idea ever since I got here, and it seen them.” will continue to be until the day I die. His sister, his mom Wyanett Powell, I know I will keep putting in the work his uncle Gary Rayford Sr., and his in the weight room, on the field and extended family have been motivating in the film room, and my chance will forces for the laser-focused Shearin, as Sophomore Matt Shearin is come when the time is ready. I just have upbeat and enthusiastic a member of the to make sure that I am ready when that football team as you will meet. taking Wall Street by storm with opportunity presents itself.” “The drive comes from being pushed by his charm and focus on growth. Anyone who has watched him squirt my mom and uncle but at the same time through the line and turn on the jets knowing that I have the opportunity to do won’t be surprised if he enjoys success something that nobody in my family has when he gets his chance. Although he hasn’t yet had a carry at done, and that I have the opportunity to make all of our lives the varsity level he opened eyes when he reeled off the longest better,” he said. “My mom and my uncle did their best to make run in the preseason game at Harvard last fall when he went on sure I had clothes on my back, there was food on the table and a to top the Big Green junior varsity in rushing yards. roof over my head. Those were the essentials. The whippet-quick graduate of California’s El Cajon Valley “How can I give back to them? I have the opportunity to High School outside of San Diego isn’t letting any FieldTurf grow do that tenfold. I can be a great example to all the little cousins under his feet when it comes to his career ambitions either. running around back home. I feel like it would be a disservice to A year ago he did the JP Morgan BA Early Advantage them and my family to get here and not be a success.” Program in Chicago in April and then the Goldman Sachs On and off the gridiron. Undergraduate Camp in New York City in May. He spent the “You get challenged in life all the time,” he said. “How you summer as a Mortgage Lending Intern with the Navy Federal deal with challenges is where you find yourself as a person and Credit Union back home and followed that up by petitioning establish your character. Being an undersized player here at Dartmouth to be off campus this summer so that instead of Dartmouth, a Division I school, it was an obstacle but I knew taking classes he can return to JP Morgan for a full investment that I could overcome it. banking internship. “It is the same thing in life with the drive that I have to make “Being a sophomore intern in investment banking is not rare, a better life for the people around me. I know it is going to be but it’s not common,” Shearin explained. “It can slingshot me tough, but I know that I can do it because it is so important to forward in terms of exposure, networking, knowing people at the me.” firm.” To clear the way to spend the summer on Wall Street
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nora masler ’18
Out of the Mainstream
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ardon the pun but you might say and I heard that he was interested in it as a career. Nora Masler isn’t exactly rowing in But it’s definitely not mainstream, which is why the mainstream. I’ve been in Ali’s office so much.” A junior member of Dartmouth’s While the network of alumni architects varsity eight from Santa Monica, won’t soon be compared with the alumni finance Calif., Masler is a psychology major network, she’s found those Dartmouth graduates tentatively planning on a career in the field eager to be helpful. in architecture. For what it’s worth, that “I called quite a few alums who were in happens to be a major offered at Yale, architecture and met with one in Boston who Columbia and Cornell among others – but owns his own firm,” she said. “He gave me a tour of not at Dartmouth. his firm and took me out to lunch. What I found “My interest in architecture has grown was, once I talked to one alum, he would lead me since I came to Dartmouth,” she explained. to another and then another.” “I came in knowing that I had an interest, In fact, it was a young alum who helped Masler but wasn’t really sure what path I wanted set up an interview with his firm in San Francisco. to take.” Ultimately, though, she chose to spend the winter Standing at the intersection of Two years later she’s discovered an interning closer to home in a small Los Angeles psychology and architecture, intersection of her psych major and concern recommended by a family friend who had architecture that she hopes to continue to been an architecture school classmate of the head junior rower Nora Masler has explore in graduate school for architecture. of the firm. Among her responsibilities during the found the alumni network to be “There is a new sort of budding field of winter was putting the skills she honed creating extremely helpful in defining pro bono architecture that really interests graphics for The Dartmouth school newspaper to potential career paths. me,” she said. “I am not really into math or work developing presentations for client proposals. engineering, but I am definitely interested in While she couldn’t point to Dartmouth how people’s environment can affect them, and how the built world connections for helping her land the Los Angeles internship, it was can have a direct impact on mental state.” a conversation with a young alum the Big Green rower has to thank That understanding has developed in her role as a Dartmouth for how she will be spending her summer. Not on the Charles River, Presidential Scholar under Dr. Robert Santulli, the Dementia Probut right next to it. grams Advisor for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Aging Resource Center. “He talked to me about how Dartmouth has a really broad “Working with (Santulli) has helped me realize how aesthetics, education but a lot of times grad schools in architecture want a visual things, can really affect people with Alzheimer’s, just as it specific portfolio,” Master said. “So he did the Harvard Career can with healthy people,” she said. “That’s the psychology side of it. Discovery program in their Graduate School of Design. I applied to Realizing the structures that we live in affect how we act, how we that and will be going there this summer.” behave and what goes on in our life.” And come fall she will be back on the water, another kind of Masler hopes to concentrate on the budding field of pro bono classroom. “What I have gotten out of rowing throughout my life is architecture after grad school and to that end she’s working learning about how to persevere and how to work hard,” she said. “I hard to explore the field and build up her resume with guidance know those sound like clichés but once you push yourself to physical from Ali Hart, Dartmouth’s Assistant Athletic Director for Peak limits that you didn’t think that you could, it doesn’t feel quite as Performance. Given no dedicated architecture program at the hard pushing yourself to study for a test or to get a project done.” College and the relative dearth of classmates she’s come across who Or, she might have added, to prepare for a career in architecture are thinking about pursuing the field as a career, the rower has been at a school without an architecture major. networking in largely uncharted waters. THE RECRUITING VISIT OF NORA MASLER ’18 WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE “There’s an alumni Facebook group that one of my professors GENEROSITY OF FRANK & MARYELLEN HERRINGER ’64 DP AND JOHN UNKLES, told me about, but you just kind of hear about it here and there,” Masler said of student interest in architecture as a career. “I know JR. ’52 DP THROUGH THE ATHLETIC SPONSORS PROGRAM. one of the lightweight rowers was taking Architecture One this term PEAK | SPRING 2017
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