Person of the Week: Jim Wright

May 25, 2007 — -- Jim Wright is the president of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., an esteemed academic institution that is well over 200 years old. Wright, however, wasn't always an academic. He used to be a Marine, and his military background inspired his recent work with the American Council on Education.

Wright has raised $350,000 with the council to hire college counselors for three of the largest military hospitals in the United States.

"Going to college was not something that I considered. No one in my family had ever done that. Four friends and I joined the Marines a couple of weeks after we graduated. It was my way of putting off going to work in the mines. I got out of the Marines and decided to go to college."

With Privilege Comes Responsibility

Wright believes that the members of the Dartmouth community -- himself included -- are privileged to have the opportunities given to them, and that with privilege comes responsibility.

For Wright, that responsibility became clear after the battle of Fallujah.

"I watched on television the accounts of what these young Marines were engaged in and I got to thinking: What can we do about all of these young men and women who are being injured over there?"

So Wright visited wounded Marines at Bethesda Naval Hospital to talk to them about their futures, and the possibility of starting over and going to college. He soon realized that injured soldiers and Marines who want to go to college face challenges that are unusual for most prospective students.

He explained, "By the second visit or so, I realized they had questions and it was not clear where they could get the answers -- if I go to this school near home, because I don't have any legs, are there elevators in all of the buildings?"

From the Battlefield to the Campus

With the help of the American Council on Education and the $350,000 they have raised, college counselors at the three largest U.S. military hospitals are answering some of those questions. They offer advice about academic institutions and online courses, depending on the needs and circumstances of the soldiers and Marines they meet.

And Dartmouth is going to benefit from this program as well, although that was not Wright's motivation. Three Marines, who have all earned Purple Hearts, will join the school's community next fall. "They will learn a lot here, the Marines who are coming, but we'll all learn a lot from them."

Wright also sends care packages to Dartmouth graduates serving in Iraq, including New Hampshire maple candy and a volume of poetry by Robert Frost, another Darmouth alumnus -- small reminders that they'll always have a home in Hanover.

Above all, Wright wants those injured soldiers to know that they are empowered and have future options that they might not know about, or may seem out of reach.

"Late at night when they're lying in a hospital bed, when everyone has gone home, when it's quiet on the ward, when the music has stopped, when the automobiles with the 'Support Our Troops' bumper stickers are in the darkened garages across America, I want them to be thinking about what it is they can do with their lives. I want them to be thinking about going to college. I want them to be thinking about going on to continue making a difference in the world."