12
e elephant that’s not in the room Students who apply to Tufts today are superbly qualified and highly sought after; admission has become more selective than ever. But each year, Tufts cannot accept a portion of its applicant pool solely for the lack of sufficient financial aid resources. SPRING 2012 FOR TUFTS UNIVERSITY

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Page 1: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

The elephant that’s not in the roomStudents who apply to Tufts today are superbly qualified and highly sought after; admission has become more selective than ever.

But each year, Tufts cannot accept a portion of its applicant pool solely for the lack of sufficient financial aid resources.

SPRING 2012

F O R T U F T S U N I V E R S I T Y

Page 2: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

2

News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Spring 2012

The work being done in physicist Cristian

Staii’s lab may one day help prevent

disease, help a paralyzed person again

use his or her limbs, or lead to a deeper

understanding of the wiring of the

nervous system.

Generous support from the Knez Family

Charitable Foundation helped recruit Staii to

Tufts and start up his lab with an atomic-force

microscope—capable of imaging neurons 10

millionths of a meter and proteins a billionth

of a meter in size—that facilitates his research

at the interface of biological physics and nano-

technology. [See story below]

Now a new $1 million gift from the Knez

Family Charitable Foundation will be used to

recruit and launch the careers of additional

talented junior faculty like Staii at the School of

Arts and Sciences.

The gift engineered by foundation trustees

Debra Smith Knez, J82, A09P, and Brian Knez,

A09P, establishes the Knez Family Faculty

Investment Fund, which will support salaries,

startup costs, and laboratory renovations asso-

ciated with the successful recruitment of junior

faculty to Arts and Sciences.

The Knez Family Fund will become part

of a larger Fund for Excellence in Teaching

and Research dedicated to faculty recruit-

ment, retention, research, and career develop-

ment in the School of Arts and Sciences. In the

future, the university may expand the Fund for

Excellence in Teaching and Research to other

schools.

“We hope the launch of the Fund for

Faculty Excellence will serve as a catalyst, moti-

vating others to invest in Tufts’ extraordinary

scholars and educators,” Brian Knez says.

President Anthony P. Monaco says: “I am

most grateful for Deb’s and Brian’s leader-

ship support, which represents an important

milestone for me as the first transformative gift

during my presidency of Tufts. Their gift sig-

nificantly strengthens our ability to attract out-

standing young scientists who will build their

careers here, and in doing so foster a robust

research environment at Tufts.”

The Knez Family Charitable Foundation

supports education and children’s causes in

the greater Boston area and Vermont. In 2007

the foundation gave $300,000 to establish two

three-year term junior faculty professorships in

the School of Arts and Sciences, used to recruit

Clay Bennett, assistant professor of chemistry

(profiled in a Blueprint feature, “Focus on New

Knowledge,” Winter 2009), and Staii, assistant

professor of physics.

“As a Tufts graduate, I always have valued

the caliber of the professors I had,” Debra Knez,

a university trustee, has said. “Tufts believes in

creating a great environment for its professors,

an environment in which they are passion-

ate about their teaching and research and feel

supported by the university in their work. Who

benefits? The students!”

Cristian Staii, assistant professor of physics, launched his teaching and research career at Tufts in 2009 with support from a junior faculty profes-sorship created by the Knez Family Charitable Foundation.

He told Blueprint that Tufts has enabled him as a physicist to strike up valuable interdisciplinary partnerships with colleagues in both biomedi-cal and electrical engineering, and to involve students in the resulting research enterprise. Of seven undergraduates who work in his lab, five have presented at international conferences.

Physicist thriving on balance of interdisciplinary research and undergraduate teaching

Fund to help recruit, retain, and develop scholars, educators

For the record:An item in the Winter 2012 edition of Blueprint incorrectly reported that Tufts lacked a registered dietitian. It should come as no surprise to any reader who has enjoyed the many and varied healthy (and delicious) food offerings here on campus that Tufts Dining Services, of course, does have a registered dietitian on staff, and has for many years. Blueprint regrets the error.

Johnson to lead Advancement Eric C. Johnson has been named vice president

for University Advancement, effective April

1. He has served as acting vice president since

March 1, when Brian Lee left Tufts after 25 years

to take a position as vice president for develop-

ment and institute relations at the California

Institute of Technology. Johnson has 28 years of

fundraising experience, 24 of them at Tufts. He

started his Tufts career as associate director of

development for the School of Arts and Sciences

and subsequently was promoted to director of

development for the school. He helped lead suc-

cessful capital campaigns to complete the Tisch

Library and the Gantcher Family Sports and

Convocation Center as director of principal

and leadership gifts and as executive director

of development. He managed principal and

leadership gifts, worked closely with the Board

of Trustees and key volunteers, and worked

in partnership with the president through the

successful completion of the $1.2 billion Beyond

Boundaries campaign last summer.

Staii gestured in the direction of David Kaplan’s biomedical engineering offices across the foyer of the Science and Technology Center. “Good collaborators are vital, and I have a great deal of expertise right next door,” he said.

He currently is partnering with Kaplan, Stern Family Professor and chair of biomedical engi-neering, on an exploration of how neurons grow and form the connections that enable them to communicate with each other. Neurons are cells that transmit electrical signals between each other, conveying messages governing learning, speaking, memory, and movement, among other things. The research has potential applications in the treatment of spinal cord injuries in which the connections between neurons have been severed but the cells are still alive.

In other research, Staii is investigating how pro-teins—sequences of amino acids, which perform most biological functions in cells—change shape and function. “Most cancers and other diseases in humans result from misshapen proteins, which don’t perform the functions for which they are intended,” he said. “If we learn how the sequence of amino acids influences shape and function, we could, in theory, reconfigure the amino acids and prevent disease.”

Page 3: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

Chair, Board of TrusteesJames A. Stern, E72, A07P

PresidentAnthony P. Monaco

Provost ad InterimPeggy Newell

Vice President for University AdvancementEric Johnson

University AdvancementTufts University, 80 George Street, 200-3 Medford, MA 02155 USA 617.627.3200 • [email protected]

3

Scholarships made it possible for all eight of the stu-

dents spotlighted in the following pages—and others

like them—to bring their stories to Tufts. From here

they will bring their unique talents to the world. While

there are no “typical” financial aid students at Tufts, all

share this in common: they contribute at least as much

to the university as they receive.

However, as you know, the rising cost of higher educa-

tion has routinely outpaced the Consumer Price Index and

today is an issue of national concern. Higher education has

long opened doors for individual opportunity, and in our

knowledge-based economy it is more important than ever,

playing a critical role in the job market and national competi-

tiveness. I share the concern that in the face of tuition increases,

applicants and their families may find higher education out of

reach. For many, indebtedness from student loans will be too

significant a factor in deciding career choices. Unfortunately,

we are not exempt here. Each year we must withhold the prom-

ise of a Tufts education from superb applicants—candidates

like the students in the pages that follow—solely for lack of

sufficient financial aid resources.

Though the challenge is national, some solutions may be

local, and we are entirely committed to doing all that we can

at Tufts to ease the financial burden on current and future stu-

dents. We are taking a fresh look at our cost structures—so that

we can ensure that as much as possible of the university budget

directly supports our teaching and research, and keep tuition

increases down while continuing to deliver the transformative

educational experiences for which we are known.

Student financial aid remains our number-one fundraising

priority. It is a cause that is important to me personally: I was

able to become a first-generation college graduate because of

generous financial aid. Scholarship dollars are critical to closing

the college affordability gap. Students arrive at Tufts each

year from all corners of the globe and from all backgrounds,

bringing rich and diverse perspectives that will enrich our

educational community. Financial aid opens the door.

We welcome your support—both for the students repre-

sented in these pages and for other students we will know in

the future as a direct result of your continuing generosity.

On behalf of all of us, thank you for all you do for Tufts.

Best wishes,

Tony Monaco

Tufts is full of remarkable students. In this issue of Blueprint you will meet eight of them.

Put simply, they would not be among us, were it not for financial aid.

Page 4: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

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News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Spring 2012

Angelo Yoder grew up separate

from the world while also

engaged in it. In the Amish

Mennonite community in

Kansas where his father is a

senior pastor, he was raised

with plain clothes, a tradition of non-

participation in war, and no radio, tele-

vision, or movies. “We had a sense we

were a community apart,” he recalls.

At the same time, their branch of

the Amish Mennonites had a strong

missionary tradition. His parents served

in El Salvador, where he was born. His

father now travels often to India.

While no longer part of the com-

munity, he says, “I very much value—

and always try to remember—where I

came from.” His parents’ international

work sparked a desire in him to experi-

ence the world beyond Kansas. After

working for a time as a stone mason,

he applied to community college—and

then, successfully, to Yale.

He was working in South Sudan

with an international relief organiza-

tion when he met his future wife, Anna,

a nurse. “She came looking for cholera

and found me.” Expecting their first

child, they hope eventually to return to

East Africa.

“One of the things I love about

Fletcher is that everyone has his or her

own amazing tale,” he says. “I feel very

fortunate to be here. A Fletcher Board

scholarship covers 75 percent of my

tuition. I was raised to be leery of too

much debt, and thanks to this scholar-

ship, I will leave with a relatively small

amount. For that I am hugely grateful.”

Bernard Simonin, professor of

marketing and international business

at Fletcher, says, “If ‘change is the only

constant,’ as is often said, Angelo is the

solid constant in the act of change. His

own transformation is methodic and

inspired. I cannot wait to see him enter

the international business arena; he will

make his mark with brio.”

Angelo Yoder is supported by the Fletcher Board Scholarship.

“ I very much value—and always try to remember—where I came from.”

Angelo Yoder F12

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Page 5: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

Spring 2012 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude

5On Kristen Davenport’s first day at

Tufts, she didn’t have time to be

nervous—the farm girl with a pet

goat named Charisma had not

only just wrapped up working

the state fair and an internship,

she had also just beat out 33 other girls

to become the New York State Dairy

Princess. With only a day to pack and get

to the Hill, Davenport says “it was wild”

but she’s used to diving into experiences

head first—and keeping busy.

“It’s sort of been a trend in my life,”

she says. From Leonard Carmichael

Society tutoring to late nights with her

biochemistry books; from playing pic-

colo and “crashing cymbals here and

there” in pep band to giving campus

tours; from applying to work in Facilities

(“I missed mulching”) to making friends

who constantly surprise and educate

her (“like learning how to keep a Kosher

kitchen”), “Kristen is perpetually in

motion,” says Mitch McVey, associate

professor of biology and Davenport’s

advisor. “She approaches each of her

experiences as a unique learning oppor-

tunity and embraces diversity.”

Davenport has given her all these

past four years because it’s her nature

and, says the future D.V.M. and micro-

biologist, because she was given a gift.

“Being at Tufts surrounded by people

your age but with totally different back-

grounds,” she says, “that’s just a huge

learning opportunity, and I think we

need to make sure that everybody who

deserves it can get their hands on it.”

Kristen Davenport received financial aid made possible by the Tufts Fund.

Kristen Davenport A12

“ Being at Tufts surrounded by people your age but with totally different backgrounds, that’s just a huge learning opportunity.”

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Page 6: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

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News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Spring 2012

Philip Chan didn’t have to look—

or walk—too far to find his

path to becoming a doctor; the

son of Chinese immigrants,

he grew up just down the road

from Tufts University School of

Medicine (TUSM) in the South End

near Chinatown, Boston. Proximity

to the medical issues that impact the

Chinatown population has been crucial

to understanding those he treats, as was

the tragic passing of his father to cancer

when Chan was only 12 years old.

Helping to act as a translator for

his mother during those long, strained

hours in the hospital eventually fueled

Chan to pick up a stethoscope, with a

focus on bridging the language and cul-

tural gaps between recent immigrants

and the medical system, and working

with underserved immigrant popula-

tions. Mentorship as a Big Brother and

time spent shadowing doctors in high

school and as a Tufts undergraduate

also pushed him to pediatrics.

Financial aid is “amazing,” adds

Chan. “It gives me so much more free-

dom. With the amount of money one

pays for medical school, it’s hard to jus-

tify choosing family medicine or pediat-

rics as a career, but I have the option to

pursue what I love.” Having this option

will help this future family doctor keep

families like his own healthy and whole.

Says TUSM professor James

Schwob, M.D., “Phil is simply a stellar

individual—smart as a whip, hard-

working, and a fantastic lab-mate/col-

league. Tufts is lucky that he is on his

way to becoming a ‘double Jumbo’.”

Philip Chan has been supported by the Stern Family Endowed Scholarship, Paul and Elaine Chervinsky Endowed Scholarship, and the Charles J. Preefer, M.D., and Beatrice B. Preefer Scholarship.

Philip Chan A10, M15

“…it’s hard to justify choosing family medicine or pediatrics as a career, but I have the option to pursue what I love.”

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Spring 2012 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude

Raised in Honduras by two

professors of agriculture, with

plenty of fresh fruits and veg-

etables at the kitchen table,

Johanna Yvonne Andrews from

an early age not only under-

stood the benefits of healthy living, but

formed a passion for policy.

At the Friedman School of

Nutrition Science and Policy, Andrews’s

international roots and continent-

hopping (she gained a bachelor’s

degree in Texas and a master’s degree in

Sweden, as well as research experience

in Central America) regularly come

into play. “Johanna’s experience and

knowledge of Latin America are prov-

ing invaluable to our research project

on program sustainability in Bolivia,”

says Dr. Beatrice Lorge Rogers, profes-

sor of economics and food policy, and

director of the Food Policy and Applied

Nutrition Program. “She was able to

become an active, contributing member

of the study team from her first day.”

But her heart is still in Honduras.

“One of my main interests is health

policy in Central America, because I’m

from the area,” she says of her doc-

toral studies as a Gerald J. Friedman

Fellow. The fellowship was created

by the Gerald and Dorothy Friedman

Foundation to support future change

agents like Andrews. “You hear a lot

about Mexico and Colombia producing

violence and drug lords, but if you look

at a map of who’s in between and who

suffers the most it’s actually Central

America. I think we’re going to see

many more issues that have to do

with nutrition and access to health

care there.”

Johanna Yvonne Andrews is a Gerald J. Friedman Fellow.

N13 Johanna Yvonne Andrews

“We’re going to see many more

issues concerning nutrition and

access to health care [in Central

America].”

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Page 8: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

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News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Spring 2012

During high school, Meagan Rock

was required to perform com-

munity service to graduate. She

resigned herself to doing her 80

hours at a nearby animal shelter.

Fifteen years later, she recalls:

“I never left.”

By the time she graduated high

school, the Stoughton, Mass., native

had clocked some 1,600 hours at

the Massachusetts Society for the

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

(MSPCA) shelter in Brockton. She kept

working at the Brockton shelter dur-

ing her summers as a Tufts undergrad.

After college she went to work full time

for the MSPCA, eventually serving five

years as director of the MSPCA Animal

Care and Adoption Center in Boston.

“At the Boston shelter we took in

6,000 animals a year, including some-

times more than 40 cats a day in the

summer months,” Rock says. “It wasn’t

just kittens. We literally saw every com-

panion animal you could imagine: dogs,

cats, gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, huge

birds, small birds, snakes, lizards. Each

animal received individualized care.”

Currently she is co-president of the

Shelter Medicine Club at the Cummings

School. “The shelter is a place where you

can do something every day to make a

difference,” says the owner of two pets

from the Animal Care and Adoption

Center, a Boston terrier, Rose, and a

domestic longhair cat, Sprocket.

Dr. Emily McCobb, V00, VG02,

director of shelter medicine at

Cummings, says: “Meagan is thoroughly

committed to improving animal lives

as a career. She also is a natural-born

leader who can tackle complex ‘people’

problems with grace and style, and who

jumps right in when there is work to be

done.”

This summer Rock will be work-

ing on a research project evaluating

the nesting behavior of lab mice to

ensure their conditions are comfortable.

Animal welfare, she says, is “a huge part

of who I am as a person.”

Meagan Rock has received the Carlos P. Echeverria Scholarship and the Aurelio M. Caccomo Annual Scholarship.

Meagan Rock

“ The shelter is a place where you can do something every day to make a difference.”

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Page 9: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

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Spring 2012 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude

Alice Lee is heir to her parents’

American dream. Her mother

and father, immigrants to

Boston from China by way of

Burma, didn’t have the oppor-

tunity of a higher education.

“They always told me, ‘Work hard in

school so you can get into a good col-

lege and get a good job so you can buy

your own house,’” says Lee, who has

wanted to attend Tufts since visiting

campus on a sixth-grade field trip.

Four years from now, she says, she

imagines herself writing complicated

computer code for the hot video games

she loves to play. But before she lands

her dream job, she must first get past

some pretty serious math, physics, and

electrical engineering courses.

Thanks to Bridge to Engineering

Success at Tufts (BEST), the computer-

science major is well on her way. Lee was

among 11“BESTies” in the Class of 2015

who enrolled prior to their first semes-

ter in the six-week summer program

for aspiring engineering students from

diverse backgrounds who would benefit

from extra academic preparation.

The aim is to attract and retain

members of populations underrepre-

sented at the School of Engineering,

with a focus on first-generation college-

goers with high financial need. “BEST

gave me the confidence to do well even

when courses are challenging,” says

Lee, who made the Dean’s List her first

semester with a 3.2 grade-point average.

Lee stands out for her great sense of

humor and willingness to try the unfa-

miliar, says Travis Brown, who directs

BEST as program manager of Tufts’

Center for STEM (Science, Technology,

Engineering, and Mathematics) Diver-

sity. “Alice is an enthusiastic learner who

takes challenges in stride,” he said. “She’s

just the kind of student we look for.”

Alice Lee receives financial aid made possible by the Tufts Fund.

“Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts gave me the confidence to do well even when courses are challenging.”

Alice Lee E15

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Page 10: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude Spring 2012

10

For Mark Rafferty sometimes the

Hill just isn’t high enough; on a

sunny day, you can usually spot

the international relations major

perched in the comfiest campus

trees, where he often camps out to

study, chat with fellow climbers, hum a

tune from Anchord a cappella rehearsal,

or literally, just hang. Since moving

from a small town in Pennsylvania to

Medford, Rafferty’s found a niche in

making a place for himself in exotic

locations.

In only three years, Rafferty’s

taken an independent research trip to

Bangladesh to study poverty alleviation,

participated in an Iraqi Parliament co-

sponsored trip to Kurdistan, and spent

a semester abroad in Jordan. “Political

science is my passion,” says the avid

cellist who’s now proficient in Arabic.

“I want to pursue diplomacy in the

Middle East, because I really want to be

involved in the most constructive way.

And I’m really grateful to Tufts for these

hands-on experiences.”

Says Kathleen Devigne, assistant

director of the international relations

program, “The first time I met Mark

I was struck by his energy and enthu-

siasm for life and learning. That was

three years ago and he continues to

amaze me. Not only does he enroll in

the most rigorous courses here at Tufts,

he has made the world his classroom.”

Mark Rafferty is a Martin/Bacow Term Scholar.

“I want to pursue diplomacy in the Middle East, because I really want to be involved in the most constructive way.”

Mark Rafferty

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Page 11: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

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Spring 2012 News of Giving, Growth, and Gratitude

A physician’s daughter, Urvi

Ruparelia decided to study

biomedical engineering so she

eventually could help cure or

prevent illnesses at their source.

“I wanted to find solutions

that would help or treat more than

one person,” she says. She first thought

about dental medicine when she took

a course on biomedical engineering in

dentistry in which local dentists gave

presentations on prosthetics, implants,

and the like. Ruparelia had received

an implant herself when she cracked a

tooth down to the root her freshman

year at Georgia Tech; she says she was

“completely intrigued.” As a student at

the School of Dental Medicine, she has

taken that interest to new levels. In 2009

she was one of only two dental stu-

dents nationally chosen by the Howard

Hughes Medical Institute to take part

in the HHMI/NIH Research Scholars

Program at the National Institutes

of Health campus in Bethesda, Md.

Her independent research project on

immunology was inspired by the medi-

cal courses at the foundation of Tufts’

dental curriculum. She says: “Tufts is

really good about teaching you to not

just look at the mouth.” Her next stop

is the University of Washington, where

she will be doing a general practice

residency in dentistry this coming year.

A Tufts faculty mentor, Dr. Kanchan

Ganda, a physician who is professor

and director of medicine in the depart-

ment of public health and community

service, says: “Urvi is critically astute,

approaching questions in a scientific

manner. With her patients she is per-

sonable and approachable. She is going

to make a great dentist.”

Urvi Ruparelia was awarded the Drs. Ann M. Sagalyn, D79, and Suzanne Rothenberg, D41, Endowed Scholarship.

D12 Urvi Ruparelia

“With her patients she is

personable and approachable. She is going to

make a great dentist.”

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Page 12: Tufts Blueprint Spring 2012

University Advancement 80 George Street, Suite 200-3, Medford, MA 02155

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PA I D BOSTON, MA PERMIT NO. 1161

Inspired partnership

A story in Blueprint has helped

inspire a $25,000 gift to the Gerald

J. and Dorothy R. Friedman

School of Nutrition Science and

Policy as part of a new partnership with

an alliance dedicated to humani tarian

assistance to Africa.

The story on the late Leah

Horowitz, N06—a food-policy research

analyst for the International Food

Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) who

died tragically in Ghana and became

the namesake of a humanitarian award

created by the Friedman School Alumni

Association—came to the attention of

Aid for Africa, a partnership of charities

devoted to promoting grassroots devel-

opment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Aid for Africa’s $25,000 gift estab-

lishes an endowed scholarship at the

Fried man School. The Aid for Africa

Endowment for Food and Sustainable

Agriculture will support a Friedman

student’s research in Africa into the

ways agriculture and nutrition may

be used to improve food security and

reduce poverty.

“Like Leah, I had worked previ-

ously at IFPRI. At the time that I saw

her story, we had been seeking a link

with an academic institution. With its

interdisciplinary focus on nutrition,

agriculture, and policy, the Friedman

School seemed a very good match,” says

Barbara Rose, executive director of Aid

for Africa.

“The Friedman School is a school,

not a department, yet it’s small enough

that we can have a voice,” Rose says. “It’s

unique, and we’re unique as well. We

felt we could make a difference here.”

When Tufts created what is now the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Deb Jospin became a founding mem-ber of its national advisory board, which she now chairs. In this role she recently led a university-wide appraisal of Tufts’ 10 Boards of Advisors, formerly Overseers: the new

name reflects members’ roles not only as advisors to the schools, but also as advocates and ambassadors for the university. A former director of AmeriCorps, Ms. Jospin, also a Tufts University trustee, lives the mission of active citizenship in both her professional and private life. She is a founding partner in sagawa/jospin, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting group that provides expertise to foundations and nonprofit organizations. Ms. Jospin is president of the Daniel A. Dutko Memorial Foundation, established in memory of her late husband. Through its Dutko Fellowship program, outstanding Tufts graduates interested in public policy got their critical “first job” in Washington, D.C., working in politics, in media, or for a nonprofit organization. Ms. Jospin was also a leading force in creating Tufts’ Active Citizenship Summer program. While at Tufts, Ms. Jospin played varsity tennis and was a long-distance runner. She earned an M.Sc. in public policy from the London School of Economics in 1983 and a law degree from Georgetown in 1989. In 2009, Ms. Jospin received the Light on the Hill Award, the highest honor that the undergraduate stu-dent body bestows on Tufts alumni. Blueprint asked her to share her perspective on active citizenship.

Q. How does an idealist adapt to getting things done in Washington’s corridors of power? Sharp elbows?

A. Maybe I am the biggest idealist of all, but I still think a sharp mind gets you further than sharp elbows! Before you can get anything done in Washington, you need “hands on” experience with the issues that matter to you. You also need to do your homework, to understand all sides of the issue, including why people may disagree with you. And always be respectful—a little graciousness goes a long way these days.

Q. Public service can be an expensive privilege when one is tens of thousands of dollars in debt after college. What can we do to not only encourage but enable young people to put their talents to good works?

A. Tufts is already doing it. The Tufts Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) helps Tufts graduates working in public service repay a portion of their annual Tufts-incurred education loan debt. Believed to be the first university-wide program of this kind in the country, LRAP encourages and enables Tufts grad-uates to pursue careers in public service and reduces the extent to which their educational debt is a barrier to working in comparatively low-salaried jobs in the public and nonprofit sectors. I am super-proud of this program and the fact that we are a leader in this area.

Q. What is most gratifying about your work with the Tisch Board of Advisors?

A. The most gratifying thing about my work with the Tisch Board is getting the chance to support the amazing civic engagement work of Tufts students and faculty. I also love working with the talented and committed staff of Tisch College, and with my fellow board members, all of whom are the most active citizens—they inspire me every day.

Deborah Jospin, J80, E14P, chairs the Tisch College Board of Advisors

An Advisor’s perspective…