Oh, the Places He’s Gone
As the 17th president of Dartmouth College and the first Asian American to lead an Ivy League school, Dr. Jim Yong Kim is betting on the potential of undergraduates to change the world
By Frank Aum
Dr. Jim Yong Kim possesses a distinctly empirical approach to life. He peppers many of his opinions with references to studies that bolster his claims. Ask him, for example, about the merits of the Greek system, and he’ll respond, “Medical research shows that having close friends that you make when you’re young and keep for the rest of your life, is good for your health.”
This evidence-based manner reflects his scientific training in medicine and anthropology at Harvard University and has contributed to his formidable 20 years in public service and academia. The global health leader formerly served as director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS Department, is co-founder of the non-profit medical organization Partners in Health, and was concurrently chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, director of the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Health Hospital.
So Kim took an uncharacteristic leap of faith when he decided to become the next president of Dartmouth and the first Asian American president of an Ivy League institution.
“My gut instinct was that I could add value in this job,” said Kim, who is 49. Ultimately, Dartmouth’s unique commitment to undergraduate education aligned well with his own quest to prepare and train future global leaders. “[Former Dartmouth President] John Dickey said that there was a ‘sweetness’ in the way that you deal with one another at Dartmouth,” he said. “I think that’s true. I’ve been to many college campuses with top rate students, but I think there is a sweetness here that is wonderful and unique. Based on things like that, it tells me that I made the right choice.”
The presidential transition period has been particularly busy for Kim—the announcement of his selection last March occurred a few days after the birth of his and his wife Dr. Youn-sook Lim’s second child. The couple’s older son, Thomas, is 8. Since July 1, when Kim formally took office as president, he has been meeting with the Dartmouth community and acclimating to life in Hanover, New Hampshire, in advance of his inauguration on September 22.
Still, Kim spoke by phone last month with KoreAm’s Frank Aum (Dartmouth Class of ‘97) about the sweeping career change, his vision for Dartmouth, the glass ceiling for Asian Americans and his hopes for the next generation.
Congratulations on the birth of your second child. How has the presidential transition been with the extra responsibility?
Luckily, Nicholas is a happy child and he seems to have adjusted well. We’re getting adjusted to changing from being private citizens to being deeply embedded in a tight community. The trustees asked us if we wanted live away from the fraternities, but we want to be fully a part of the experience, including living right there on Frat Row. Some people have been concerned about the noise, but our suspicion is that our boys may make just as much noise as those fraternity guys.
At the WHO and Partners in Health (PIH), you were able to make a direct and immediate impact on social justice issues and medicine. Why did you decide to make the switch from the nonprofit/governmental sector to the broader role of college president?
Of all the projects I’ve been working on, the most important problem for me was to find young people who could actually go out and do the work in complicated situations—for example, delivering health and other social services in a southern African country. Some people have fantastic credentials, but when they get out in the field, they aren’t always good at managing complex situations with people from different cultures.
So I came to realize that I was in the people development business, but we were starting too late. We were getting people after they had graduated from medical school and had done their residencies.
I also wanted to engage in the science of execution around higher education goals. I had not an inkling that anyone would ask me or that I would become president of a major institution, let alone an Ivy League. When the head of the search committee, who was a new friend of mine, asked me to interview for the Dartmouth presidency, I went home and talked to my wife. She said, “[Interviewing] would be a good experience and there’s no way they would offer you the job anyways.”
What is your vision for the college?
[Harvard Professor Howard Gardner’s] catchy line was, “We have to go from the Three Ms to the Three Es”—from money, markets and me to excellence, engagement and ethics. The three Es are really good frames for a good education, and I throw empathy in there as well. We should ensure that the quality of our education is as excellent as it can possibly be, and I think that students have a role in that. Students should not settle for poor educational quality. Engagement is also critical. Engaging with people who are completely different from you and then working hard to find the deep connection that you have as fellow human beings, I think that’s a critical part of anyone’s educational experience.
When I talk about ethics, I give the example of the chair of our board of trustees, Ed Haldeman, who was appointed to head Freddie Mac. His reputation is that he cleans up ethical messes at financial institutions so not only is he a great investor and business mind, but he was brought in because he brings ethics to the table. We have an obligation to teach that and students have an obligation to seek out where they stand ethically on any number of major issues.
What has been your impression of the Dartmouth Greek system?
When I see that almost half of all Dartmouth students are part of the Greek system, the only conclusion I can come to is that people are voting with their feet. Just about every culture tries to find ways of getting a group of young people together to share living situations, to have intensive experiences together, to socialize, and to do those things that form bonds that last for the rest of their lives. So when I think [the fraternities and sororities] are doing great things, which they often do, I’m going to tell them how proud I am of them. And when things are not so good, then I’m going to tell them that, too.
I went to the famed Alpha Delta house [the basis for the movie Animal House] and had dinner there with the brothers, and it was a great experience. I found out that three-quarters of the brothers at AD rode in the Prouty bike race to raise money for cancer research and they had the second highest grade point average in the entire Greek system last semester. So these guys are doing great things. But I don’t know that I’d want to live in that house. I saw their basement.
What advice do you have for incoming college students?
One, you’ve got to find your passion. Finding your passion means that you found something that is so interesting to you that you are able to get past the frustration of the first 1,000 or 2,000 hours of struggling with something before you reach the point of mastery.
Second, you have to learn how you learn. There are a lot of different ways that people learn best—there is wonderful literature on how to do it in a way that fits you. Finally, I think it’s really important for students to take seriously the engagement and ethics part. You have to find something that makes you feel that what you’re doing has a transcendent quality, that will last forever because of its importance for this world.
Your selection as president defies the notion of a glass ceiling for Asian Americans. Do you think a glass ceiling still exists?
To be honest with you, I’m not sure. Does racism still exist in the U.S.? Yes. But things have changed. When I was a college student graduating in 1982, having an African American president was not even on the radar screen. The best thing I can say is that the existence of glass ceilings has never been a part of my consciousness as I plot my day or plot my strategy. And mostly it’s because I’ve been going after goals that are not for my personal advancement. But I think you’re seeing Asian Americans in a lot of leadership positions. The Koh brothers, Harold and Howard, they’re my very good friends. Look at what they’ve done. Not only have they pursued excellence in academics—Howard is board-certified in four different specialties in medicine and Harold was dean of Yale Law School—but they’ve always come back to public service. (Each was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate to work in the Health and Human Services and State Departments, respectively.) I think we’ve broken through major barriers in the last five to 10 years, and that Asian Americans should think there’s absolutely nothing they can’t do.
In high school in Iowa, you were a quarterback for the football team. What obstacles, if any, did you face as an Asian American male in the land of Hawkeye football?
I wasn’t a very good football player. We lost many games, and I didn’t start every game. I remember times when I was standing over center, looking at the defense of the other team. They would hurl racial epithets at me: “You bleeping chink!” It was just what they did to get at me and rattle me. But it was small-town Iowa, and I only remember one or two places that were like that. In many ways I think experiencing those things were good things for me. There’s a saying in Korean (that roughly translates as) ‘when you’re young, hardship is even worth paying for.’ That’s a great saying. I try to repeat it all the time and I try to give my son [Thomas] hardships, but he doesn’t have that many right now.
The racism that I experienced was personally uncomfortable but the tough experiences seasoned and flavored my understanding of the world. It gave me a greater capacity to have compassion for those who really have it bad as opposed to me just getting made fun of. I hope that Asian Americans who experience racism use that experience to rev up their capacity to have compassion for people who can’t eat, who don’t have health care, who can’t go to school.
What has South Korea’s response been to your presidency at a top college?
Prior to the announcement of my presidency, I had a conversation with Ruth Simmons, the president of Brown University. She’s the only other person of color who leads an Ivy or top 25 private institution. Ruth said, “You will be surprised at how much your community rejoices in your selection.” And the response in Korea has just been stunning. I haven’t gotten back there yet, but I look forward to it. I have a 95-year-old grandfather who’s still alive. He’s very happy and very proud. The Koreans that I meet in the U.S., they kind of pat me on the back as if to say, “Good job, we got your back.”
There were rumors that you were considered a leading candidate to coordinate President Obama’s global HIV efforts at the State Department. Do you see a federal government stint in your future?
It’s very hard to have an impact on an institution if you stay less than 10 years, so I think of this as at least a 10-year job. The appeal of going into government and having a direct impact and having your hands on the steering wheel, it’s there. I have to say that after watching the vetting process that some of my friends undergo, it’s been really brutal. There were various options I had in front of me that I can’t talk about, including the college presidency, and all I can say is that this feels like absolutely the right place for me for at least the next decade.
There are many fictional Dartmouth alums, including Stephen Colbert (his persona on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report attended the college), Michael Corleone from the Godfather and Meredith Grey from the TV show Grey’s Anatomy. Are there any fictional characters that you think best personify the ideal Dartmouth graduate?
In many ways, we don’t need fictional characters. We’ve got our own superheroes. Ed Haldeman is one of them. The last two Secretaries of the Treasury in the most difficult financial times, Hank Paulson and Timothy Geithner, are Dartmouth grads. The new U.S. Senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, is a Dartmouth grad. Some of the best CEOs in the country, Jeffrey Immelt at General Electric and John Donahoe at eBay, are Dartmouth graduates.
The Ochieng brothers, who came from a extremely poor situation in Kenya to become medical doctors, are now giving back by starting their own clinic. Dr. Seuss [Theodor Geisel], the person who created some of the greatest fictional characters of all time, is a Dartmouth grad. I think that some combination of all those folks is the ideal Dartmouth grad.
Let me also go further. It used to be almost all white men who graduated from Dartmouth. I met someone from the class of 1956, his name was Fred Chang. He’s Chinese American and his parents came here in the late 1800s. I hosted a breakfast for the members of the Class of ‘56 who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1959 and therefore were coming to Harvard for their 50th medical school reunion. Then it got around time for [Fred Chang] to speak.
He said this to me: “When I was at Dartmouth”—he used the term Orientals— “there were three Orientals and it was not easy for us. When I heard that they hired an Oriental from Iowa to be president of Dartmouth, I thought they have lost their minds. I’m the only one who can say this to you. But then when I heard you talk and I heard what people are saying about you, I realized that Dartmouth has changed a lot. I can’t tell you how proud I am of my college for doing this.”
So I think things have changed a lot. Thinking about the pioneer Korean Americans who came here in the early 1900s, how difficult it was for them. I hope I can meet a lot of them, and if I were to say anything to them, as would I say to the Fred Changs, I would say thank you. They really did pave the way by taking so much grief for being Asian. They really made it possible for crazy things like an Oriental from Iowa to become president of Dartmouth. I think we should not take that lightly.
So what I would say to the Korean American generation of today is that their steps have to be huge steps. They can’t be steps where your parents ran a food and vegetable stand and gave you a chance to go to Columbia, and you’re just gonna make a lot of money and live a comfortable life. That’s not what the intention was.
The intention was that we would do great things, not just for ourselves but for the U.S., Korea and the world.
This article appeared in the September 2009 issue of KoreAm.
