Dartmouth teams up with Posse Veterans Program

By Emillia Baldwin

Dartmouth has become the third institution of higher learning to partner with the Posse Foundation as part of a program that aims to recruit exceptional post-9/11 veterans to various top-tier universities around the country, the College announced in early December.
The Posse Veterans Program, also in place at Vassar College and Wesleyan University, sends cohorts of 10 veterans to school with four-year financial aid packages and provides support throughout the college experience to ensure success.
The foundation focuses on recruiting students from diverse backgrounds, creating welcoming campus atmospheres and ensuring the success of students in the program, president and founder Deborah Bial said.
Bial said the foundation reached out to the College because of its high academic standing.
“Dartmouth is exactly the institution we want to partner with for this initiative because of the caliber of commitment to diversity and to supporting this kind of non-traditional student,” Bial said.
Many veterans express concern about starting college after service, as they are typically significantly older than the average college freshman, and have had the added life experience of multiple trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, Bial said.
The foundation plans on expanding the program to include 11 or 12 partner universities, Bial said, each with 10 to 12 veterans newly enrolling each year. The total number of post-9/11 veterans is approximately three million, she said.
Chad Rairie ’16, a veteran and outreach officer for Dartmouth Undergraduate Veterans Association, said that there are on average five or six veteran students per class year at Dartmouth.
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