In English a couple of weeks ago, our class was discussing a poem. (I don't remember which.) We had started this discussion late in the period, and since time ran out, we had to continue it on the following day. Sliding down the predictable path of self-righteous high school ideologues, we returned to the same juncture where Roger had raised his hand the day before. He raised it, now, a second time. “I'd like to agree with what I said yesterday,” he began. The class laughed, including Roger. Then he finished his second explanation, which turned out better than the first.

This may seem a trivial anecdote, but it reveals much about Rog (pronounced “Rodge”). Somewhere in the intervening twenty-four hours he had reconsidered what he said the first time, decided it was still true, and resolved to demonstrate this more forcefully. I don't want to say he is thoughtful, for it sounds like a platitude, but if one considers the word in its original meaning, without the jewelry that snobbery has affixed to it, that is truly Roger Wolfson. He thinks about things.

But what sets him apart is the direct connection between his thought and his action. He thinks about things that others forget to think about, or else he thinks more deeply about things that everyone thinks about, and then he acts. A notable example: our school held a mock election recently, and Rog persuaded school officials to allow him to distribute a survey to “voters.” The survey contained basic questions such as “Who is the Congressional representative from your district? With which party is he affiliated?” Using a computer database he designed, Rog tallied the results in order to determine whether high school voters knew anything about the election. His results (surprise): they didn't. Exactly fifty percent of the questions were answered correctly. He went further, considering the idea of making a pre-election survey mandatory in order to weed out ignorant voters, but decided that such a rule too closely resembled the Jim Crow laws of the post-Civil War South. He and I arrived at the same conclusion: a vote is the responsibility of the person who gives it; if a person chooses to evade the responsibility of knowledge and vote blindly, it is his choice and his right — a sad choice and a wasted right, but his.

One more thing you should know about Rog: his diminutive stature belies a mysterious power of leadership. He's president or captain of most of the school's intellectual clubs and teams. He's funny and appreciates good humor. People like him — a lot. When the orchestra sells candy bars for its annual fundraiser, people buy from him.

Of all the “smart people” in our “excellent” high school, there are only a few for whom I would want to write a recommendation. When I heard that Rog was applying to Dartmouth, I asked him to let me write this; I hope I have done him a service. I don't know enough about Dartmouth to recommend him specifically to your school, but I know enough about Roger to recommend him as a fine addition to any school he attends.