All Thayer News

Portraits of Leadership: 2015 Class Marshals

Jun 16, 2015   |   by Joni Cole   |   Dartmouth Now

Class marshals are selected each year by their fellow students on the basis of good citizenship, enthusiasm, integrity, and positive impact on others. The marshals carry batons engraved with their names as they lead their classmates to the Green during the Commencement procession. [Meegan Daigler '14 Th'15 and Drew Matter Th'15 were two of the 16 marshals for 2015.]

Dartmouth Student Marshal Meegan Daigler '14 Th'15

Meegan Daigler '14 Th'15
(Photo by Eli Burakian '00)


Meegan Daigler’s engineering career aspirations reach back to her first roller coaster ride at age 8, after which she told her mother that she wanted to design a roller coaster herself. Since coming to Thayer, she has found a great appreciation for computer-aided design and a love of building. Daigler worked on teams that designed and built a wall-climbing robot, a hot pink diwheel that won the Spirit Innovation Award, a semi-prone bicycle, and other projects. Her favorite part of each project was working with her teammates. In the future, Daigler hopes to encourage more girls to pursue engineering and empower more women to work with their hands. After graduation she will work as a design engineer in New York City, and hopes eventually to start her own company with friends from Thayer.

Favorite place on campus: Mink Brook Nature Preserve; “There is nothing as exhilarating as a spring swim in the Connecticut.”

Dartmouth Student Marshal Drew Matter Th'15

Drew Matter Th'15
(Photo by Eli Burakian '00)

Drew Matter holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a master of divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He entered the MEM program at Thayer with experience in product design and manufacturing. Matter was awarded Thayer's Conrades Distinguished Fellowship in Entrepreneurial Development and was hired during his studies by the FreshAir Sensor Corporation, a Dartmouth-based startup, to oversee the production of its first sensor device. Prior to FreshAir, Matter worked for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, designing spacewalk hardware used aboard the International Space Station. Matter lives in Hanover with his wife, Susie, and their three children. He will continue to serve as vice president of manufacturing with FreshAir Sensor in Lebanon, NH.

Favorite place on campus: Dartmouth Regional Technology Center in Centerra Park, Lebanon, NH; "I love the vibrant, innovative spirit here and the amazing setting. A two-minute step outside to take in the view and I’m ready to reengage the engineering challenges of our product development."

For contacts and other media information visit our Media Resources page.