Each year, Student Marshals are carefully selected by fellow students for their citizenship, enthusiasm, positive impact on others, and integrity of character. The marshals carry batons engraved with their names as they lead their classmates to the Green during the Commencement academic procession.

2012 Senior Class Marshal Alden Adolph Thayer ’12

Alden Adolph (photo: Eli Burak '00)

Hometown: Metairie, La.
Degree: Bachelor of Engineering with a concentration in mechanical engineering, Thayer School of Engineering

After completing the bachelor’s program in December, Adolph began Thayer’s PhD program and has been studying ice, snow, and climate with engineering Professor Mary Albert. As an undergraduate, one of Adolph’s most influential experiences was participating in a research trip to the Greenland ice sheet, where she slept in tents in sub-freezing temperatures. Adolph has enjoyed working as an intern with a number of organizations and businesses, including Carbon Recycling International, the Sustainable Energy Resource Group, and MacLean Power Systems. She currently serves as a Thayer Fellow and is excited about her next position—beginning work as an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Fellow, where she will focus on polar environmental change.

2012 Senior Class Marshal Allison McKendry Thayer ’12

Allison McKendry (photo: Eli Burak '00)

Hometown: Emerson, N.J.
Degree: Master of Engineering Management, Thayer School of Engineering

The lasting relationships she has made with her peers and faculty have been most important to McKendry. After graduating from Bucknell University in 2009, she served as president of Thayer’s Master of Engineering Management Council (MEMC), facilitating programs focused on the professional, academic, and social development of her classmates. “This position allowed me to not only contribute to the program, but to also form close relationships with the diverse MEM student body,” she says. "What sets a Dartmouth MEM education apart is the opportunity to not only experience challenging and innovative courses at Thayer and Tuck, but also the option to compliment those with courses at the Geisel School of Medicine and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI), both of which I did. In addition to this, I found it really refreshing that Dartmouth recognizes there are other types of education that can complement a student's academic studies." Her favorite extra subject: a whitewater kayaking class. After finishing her coursework in the fall of 2011, McKendry moved to Boulder, Colo., where she works as a project engineer at Covidien Surgical Solutions, a global healthcare products company.