Class Note 1988
Issue
January-February 2025
As we draft this update, many of you are preparing to descend on Hanover to enjoy the Homecoming bonfire, fall foliage, an epic tailgate hosted by Aldo and a decisive victory over Harvard on the football field. We implore you intrepid tailgaters to send news and photos we can include in a forthcoming newsletter!
On October 6, the Fifth Annual Omondi Obura Peak Bag for Mental Health & Suicide Prevention set new records! More than 600 classmates, students, faculty, family, and friends walked, hiked, strolled, swashbuckled, barnstormed, and cheered to remember our classmate Omondi, raise awareness of mental health challenges, and mobilize resources to meet them. Across seven continents and 14 countries, 224 undergraduates joined Peak Bag events along with 168 classmates. In Hanover President Beilock, chief wellness officer Estevan Garcia, Dartmouth Counseling Center staff, and faculty hosted a picnic to celebrate. Peak Bag has now raised $300,000 for the Obura Fund, which supports the Campus Connect mental health and suicide prevention programming.
On a related note, the holidays are approaching—for some of us, and possibly all of us at some time or another, the holidays aren’t happy so much as cold, lonely, and filled with reminders of sunnier times and people we miss beyond words and beyond measure. Remember: Help is available and you’re never alone. The new 988 national suicide hotline is accessible by phone or text 24/7. Your class of 1988 Hearts & Hands volunteers will also connect you in confidence to a classmate—maybe someone who has faced similar challenges—who can provide a supportive, sympathetic ear. Contact heartsandhands@dartmouth88.org to connect.
One place where it won’t get too cold is Birmingham, Alabama, where Tim Mitchell moved recently to become president at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, a state-funded public school focused on arts, math, and science. Tim is exuberant in discussing the school, students, curriculum, and results: Ninety-one percent of graduating seniors win university scholarships. “I love this,” he says. We’ll have what he’s having!
Finally, a warm shoutout to Laurie Adams, who just concluded seven years as president and CEO of Women for Women International (WfWI). It’s a humanitarian nonprofit that helps war-affected women rebuild their lives and communities. Laurie, who served previously as the U.K.-based charity Oxfam’s first women’s rights director, has led the organization with vision, rigor, and grace. As Forbes wrote in its August 2024 “50 Over 50” list of remarkable women, “Under her leadership, WfWI’s reach has expanded from eight to 17 countries, bringing critical aid to active conflict areas such as Ukraine, Sudan, Palestine, and Israel.” Laurie is stepping down to make way for a new president with roots in a region WfWI serves as part of a transformation process she led.
We love hearing from you. Send us a line about what you’re doing, thinking, reading, writing, questioning, or how you’re using artificial intelligence to do all of the above or not.
—Sarah Jackson-Han, 6213 Winnebago Road, Bethesda, MD 20816; smjhan2@gmail.com; Bill Bundy, 442 Cedar Lane, New Canaan, CT 06840; bill.bundy@mac.com
On October 6, the Fifth Annual Omondi Obura Peak Bag for Mental Health & Suicide Prevention set new records! More than 600 classmates, students, faculty, family, and friends walked, hiked, strolled, swashbuckled, barnstormed, and cheered to remember our classmate Omondi, raise awareness of mental health challenges, and mobilize resources to meet them. Across seven continents and 14 countries, 224 undergraduates joined Peak Bag events along with 168 classmates. In Hanover President Beilock, chief wellness officer Estevan Garcia, Dartmouth Counseling Center staff, and faculty hosted a picnic to celebrate. Peak Bag has now raised $300,000 for the Obura Fund, which supports the Campus Connect mental health and suicide prevention programming.
On a related note, the holidays are approaching—for some of us, and possibly all of us at some time or another, the holidays aren’t happy so much as cold, lonely, and filled with reminders of sunnier times and people we miss beyond words and beyond measure. Remember: Help is available and you’re never alone. The new 988 national suicide hotline is accessible by phone or text 24/7. Your class of 1988 Hearts & Hands volunteers will also connect you in confidence to a classmate—maybe someone who has faced similar challenges—who can provide a supportive, sympathetic ear. Contact heartsandhands@dartmouth88.org to connect.
One place where it won’t get too cold is Birmingham, Alabama, where Tim Mitchell moved recently to become president at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, a state-funded public school focused on arts, math, and science. Tim is exuberant in discussing the school, students, curriculum, and results: Ninety-one percent of graduating seniors win university scholarships. “I love this,” he says. We’ll have what he’s having!
Finally, a warm shoutout to Laurie Adams, who just concluded seven years as president and CEO of Women for Women International (WfWI). It’s a humanitarian nonprofit that helps war-affected women rebuild their lives and communities. Laurie, who served previously as the U.K.-based charity Oxfam’s first women’s rights director, has led the organization with vision, rigor, and grace. As Forbes wrote in its August 2024 “50 Over 50” list of remarkable women, “Under her leadership, WfWI’s reach has expanded from eight to 17 countries, bringing critical aid to active conflict areas such as Ukraine, Sudan, Palestine, and Israel.” Laurie is stepping down to make way for a new president with roots in a region WfWI serves as part of a transformation process she led.
We love hearing from you. Send us a line about what you’re doing, thinking, reading, writing, questioning, or how you’re using artificial intelligence to do all of the above or not.
—Sarah Jackson-Han, 6213 Winnebago Road, Bethesda, MD 20816; smjhan2@gmail.com; Bill Bundy, 442 Cedar Lane, New Canaan, CT 06840; bill.bundy@mac.com