New Trailblazer Scholarships Honor Two Acclaimed Alumnae
Historic financial aid gift continues celebrating groundbreaking achievements.
Award-winning authors Annette Gordon-Reed ’81 H’21 and Louise Erdrich ’76 H’09 are the latest members of the Dartmouth community to have a scholarship named in their honor as part of an initiative that recognizes pioneering Black Americans, Native Americans, women, and others underrepresented during much of the College’s history.
Established by a $10 million gift from an anonymous donor, the Trailblazer Scholarship program is one of the largest commitments to undergraduate financial aid in Dartmouth history. The gift is establishing two scholarships annually over five years, each named for a community member who has inspired others. When fully funded, the 10 scholarships will support 10 undergraduates each year. Students qualifying for financial aid from all backgrounds are eligible to receive funds from the program.
“Investment in endowed scholarships is essential for preserving Dartmouth’s ability to attract exceptionally talented students from the broadest socioeconomic diversity,” says Director of Financial Aid G. Dino Koff. “On behalf of Dartmouth, I want to thank the generous donor who established the Trailblazer Scholarship program. It also guarantees that future generations will know about these remarkable alumni who truly blazed trails at Dartmouth.”
Erdrich and Gordon-Reed, the fifth and sixth individuals recognized by the Trailblazer Scholarship program, have received national acclaim for sharing historical and contemporary perspectives from often-marginalized voices. Both alumnae have authored best-selling books, received a Pulitzer Prize, and delivered a Dartmouth Commencement address. Dartmouth Alumni Magazine included Erdrich and Gordon-Reed in its list of the university’s 25 most influential graduates.
Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, grew up in North Dakota and now lives in Minneapolis, where she owns Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore. She has authored more than two dozen works, including novels, children’s books, collections of poetry, and a memoir. Her novel The Round House received a National Book Award for Fiction, and The Night Watchman was honored with a Pulitzer Prize. Erdrich was named a Montgomery Fellow in 1992 and has been in residence three times.
“I am delighted and honored by the generosity of this scholarship,” says Erdrich. “I was a member of the first class of women to graduate from Dartmouth, arriving in 1972, and was there during the establishment of the Native American Studies Program. Dartmouth gave me the confidence to find out what my path would become and taught me the skill of persistence and the joy of inquiry. I hope the students who benefit from this scholarship come to feel the way I do—that anything is possible once you know who you are and how you want to use your extraordinary education.”
Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard, and she served as a Dartmouth trustee from 2010 to 2018. A legal scholar and historian, she received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. She has been honored with a MacArthur Fellowship and a National Humanities Medal.
“The news that a scholarship has been named in my honor fills me with such happiness and pride, along with gratitude for the donor who made this possible. What a supreme honor,” says Gordon-Reed. “And what a lovely way to become even further attached to Dartmouth, a place that has meant so much to me over the years. I benefited from a named scholarship while a student at the College. So, I know firsthand what that kind of help means. I so wish my parents were here to share this experience. How overjoyed they would be!”
The anonymous donor who established the Trailblazer Scholarship program was inspired by three concurrent 50th anniversaries in 2022: Dartmouth’s transition to coeducation; establishment of the Native American Studies Program, now the Department of Native American and Indigenous Studies; and the founding of the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association. The four alumni previously honored by the program are:
- Susan Dentzer ’77, the first woman to chair the Dartmouth Board of Trustees
- Edward Mitchell, Class of 1828, the first Dartmouth Black graduate and the first to graduate from any of the universities now known as the Ivy League
- Laurel Richie ’81, the first Black American to chair the Board of Trustees
- Daniel Simon, Class of 1777, the first Native American to earn a degree from Dartmouth