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Susanne M. Kandel '00: Dartmouth Alumni Award Recipient, 2011-12


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Susanne M. Kandel '00 (right) was presented the 2011-12 Dartmouth Alumni Award by Danielle Dyer '81, '89Tu during Class Officers Weekend 2012.


The first stop on your tour of colleges was Dartmouth. As it tends to do, the campus epitomized everything you thought a college should be, making your decision very easy. For the record, we appreciate you leaving your hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida, for Hanover, New Hampshire, sacrificing sunshine for snowfall--something you had never seen until your freshman year.

For those who know and love you, it is no surprise you thrived at Dartmouth and participated in a variety of activities. You were a member of Panarchy and Casque & Gauntlet and spent much of your time working for the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance, serving as co-chair for two years. Making the most of your experience, you spent a term in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the Foreign Study Program, excelled as a Presidential Scholar, double-majored in Middle Eastern languages and literature and religion, and earned a certificate in women's studies.

After graduation and a one-year fellowship in Boston with the Jewish Organizing Initiative working with social change community organizations, you shifted gears and attended New York University School of Law. Upon obtaining your JD, you began a successful career as a practicing attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison, currently in the real estate department

Thankfully, you have kept Dartmouth at the forefront of your volunteerism, continuously striving to make it a better place for both fellow alumni and current students. It all started with your involvement with the organization nearest and dearest to you, the Dartmouth Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Alumni/ae Association (DGALA). You served as president for five years, during which time DGALA successfully celebrated its 25th anniversary reunion, and currently you serve as vice president for the organization. Volunteering for the College broadened your exposure to other alumni you otherwise would not have met, and you enjoyed meeting fellow volunteers who are all motivated by the betterment of this institution. You then became a member of the Alumni Council, serving as chair of the Young Alumni Committee. For the Class of 2000, you took on the enormous task of co-chairing your 10-year reunion and were recently elected class president.

Between your two careers as a lawyer and Dartmouth volunteer extraordinaire, you are fortunate enough to have a strong support system at home in Jersey City with your wife, Michelle, and your two dogs and three cats.

American anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, "I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings." Susi, for all the contributions you have made to your alma mater, it is our great honor to present you with the Dartmouth Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award.

President,
Dartmouth Alumni Council
February, 2012