When my mother, a librarian, discovered my queerness through reading a Duke entry essay, she was concerned with the essay’s structure errors, rather than the revelation within the content. Out of mutual respect, she viewed me as an adult, which made the unintentional coming out so easy. My mother also Read more
It always felt like national politics were local politics. I felt surrounded by it growing up in the DC area... it was always kind of in the background. And then, too, my parents are avid readers of The New Yorker, so that was always on the kitchen table, and I Read more
I crossed the border when I was three years old - involuntarily and unconsciously. I am undocumented, illegal, an alien. Yet, I have been made American in the fullest sense. I pledged allegiance to the US flag from kindergarten to my senior year in high school - more than a decade Read more
"I’m actually writing my Undergrad Senior thesis right now, and I’m trying to figure how to intersect my experience at Sanford and my internship experience with finance. I feel like finance and public policy are so often at odds and one feels like they have to control or fight the Read more
@Z.j.bryant will be singing with @DukeUniversity’s premiere African Chorus, @amandla.duke, to introduce the former Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa Justice Dikgang Moseneke on January 21st. . “I went to Morocco and Tunisia with Duke in the Arab World. But then we studied Arabic in Rabat and we took a Read more
“My sophomore year, Barney Frank, a former congressperson and a pretty notable one at that [was here]. If I’m not mistaken he championed a lot of LGBTQ rights policies and was also just outspoken for his support for disenfranchised persons. . After a class he came out and sat at Read more
“Professor Ken Rogerson was like, ‘This is something that might interest you.’ I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know 100% what I am going to do after graduation, and it doesn’t hurt to have an advanced degree.’ So [the 4+1 program] seemed to make sense for me. I always took Read more
“Public Policy was a great foundation and really fit my interests well. On the team we definitely emphasize public service, and community service. One of the sayings that Coach Cut has is, ‘Leave the place better than you found it.’ So, when we do our community service activities, we think Read more
“I am currently taking a course through the Hart Leadership Program, “Border Crossing: Leadership, Value Conflicts & Public Life,” focused on leadership through reflective practices, such as thinking about why we make the decisions we do and what motivates us. The class involves a lot of self-reflection, including discussions of Read more
“So I’m currently enrolled in PubPol 301, one of the core classes for the undergraduate major. It’s taught by Deondra Rose, and specifically connects politics with policy. I think one of the most interesting points in this class is our memo assignments. Throughout the course, we have a few memos Read more
“I’ve never been subjected to this level of affluence before coming to Duke. I’m a lower-income first generation college student, so my public school education has really impacted my experiences at Duke socially and academically. I think a lot about how and why I’m here, and educational background really seems Read more
“It was titled the Constant Culture of Busyness on Campus. In my experience at Duke I’ve noticed that a lot of people just seem to be busy all the time and they love to talk about it and love to just do work. In my experience, people aren’t really that Read more
“I was pre-med cause I really liked helping people. I was shadowing in ERs and was really excited about it, but then I realized I wanted to help more people than just one-on-one patient care. It’s great, but there’s more that can be done. That’s what attracted me to Political Read more
“I noticed that Sanford played a big role in the [voting] process. Even though I had already registered and new the details of voting, Sanford helped me get more information about the candidates and the issues on the ballot. In one of my public policy classes - Democracy Lab with Read more
“When I was living there, I always felt like China was a very heavily regulated country, and I thought learning about economic and financial policy may give me more knowledge about how to navigate it if I went back. After graduating from Sanford I am going back to China, and right Read more
“Since it’s senior year, it’s very much decision time. The cool thing about being an undergraduate is you never actually have to commit to anything, right? I can major in neuroscience and computer science, but I can still be involved in extracurriculars that are public policy and politics and other Read more
“Public Speaking with Professor Byerly’s class changed my life. She’s amazing. It really helped me question me essence as a human being and basically my whole value system as a human being- what exactly are the things I care about and and what exactly am I Hoping to get out Read more
“I honestly didn’t know what I would major in my senior year of high school. But the summer before I came here, I watched all of Parks and Recreation. And I saw so much of myself and my personality in the main character, Leslie Knope, who’s a bureaucrat and a Read more
“The ethics class I took for the Public Policy requirements - we talked a lot about health outcomes and inequalities and Scrap Exchange tackles that. They try to engage low-income neighborhoods and the community around here. Seeing that has helped me to apply the ethics that I have learned. I Read more
“That’s kind of a foundational question of democracy - how, with a sprawling public that has a lot of different issues and people who assign different importance to different issues, how do you get people to a place where everybody has the same facts, everyone is operating with the same Read more