Office of Undergraduate Education

It’s an unusual claim to fame. Swathi Padmanabhan, a public policy major from Columbus, Ohio, has read every one of Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times columns since she was in the 10th grade. No wonder she was so excited to attend the fall lecture and booksigning at Duke of the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who often writes on global health, poverty, and gender issues in the Third World — and to attend a reception for him hosted by the Baldwin Scholars and WISER programs. Padmanabhan, a Baldwin Scholar herself, has dedicated her Duke research experience to getting a less expensive cervical cancer vaccine to Indian women.

Kristof didn’t disappoint. Here’s Padmanabhan’s take: (more…)

After graduating from Duke in 2007, Rachel Weeks went to Sri Lanka on a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue her interest in ethical fashion, a subject she explored in her Women’s Studies senior honors thesis, “The Wonder Bra: Theorizing Globalization, Women’s Labor, and Consumption for Twenty-First Century Feminism,” a study of the intersections between fashion and academic feminism. But her interest in the topic wasn’t just academic…  You can listen to Rachel recount her own story in a recent radio interview on “The Story with Dick Gordon.” You can also read Rachel’s own words in this month’s Duke Women’s Studies newsletter.

Duke this spring hosted 400 high schoolers for four days of intense debate and diplomacy surrounding a mock international crisis — the drug cartel problem in Latin America. The students gave the Model UN conference rave reviews. They even created a Facebook fan page for the secretary general – Duke student Jin-Soo Huh. Here Jin-Soo shares secrets for a highly successful conference and how the Duke International Relations Association added to his Duke experience:

The MUN conference has been around for a long time (it was our 28th conference this year), but when I first joined the Duke International Relations Association (DIRA) in 2005, the conference was kind of thrown together. Many students from my year actually left DIRA, which is composed of students from all sorts of majors – those studying international politics and pre-meds interested in global health, to engineers involved in groups like Engineers without Borders.  Many, like me, had hoped to find a strong MUN program at Duke through which to continue the work they’d enjoyed in high school. The next two years saw a marked improvement in the conference and we were a good conference. This year, we moved from being just a regional conference attracting North Carolina schools to one that has a national reputation. (more…)

Preliminary numbers from an annual survey of Duke University’s graduating seniors indicate a drop of about 10 percent in the number of students who will be leaving Duke with a job in hand.

The survey, taken by Duke’s Career Center, appears to indicate that a drop in offers from the financial and consulting sectors are a major reason for the decline. Final numbers, expected to be available later next week, will show just how significant the decline is from previous years.

“There’s no doubt that this group of seniors is graduating into a tough job market,” said David Lapinski, associate director of Duke’s Career Center. “Numbers are down for new graduate hires not just at Duke, but all across the country, and in industries almost across the board.

“That said, there are jobs available. They just might be in geographic locations, smaller firms or industries graduates weren’t originally considering.” (more…)

A house-warming calls for gifts and good wishes. Both were plentiful on Thursday afternoon when more than 150 men, women and children gathered in the warm spring weather to dedicate Duke’s first Center for Muslim Life, located in a renovated building on Swift Avenue between East and West Campus.  School officials such as President Brodhead and Chapel Dean Sam Wells spoke of contributions of Muslim academics to the university, after two soaring prayers led by a Duke law student and a community member.

Numerous students attended, including Menak Aziz, a Pakistani senior from Fayetteville, and Shama Milon,  a Bangladeshi sophomore from Florida.  Aziz had donated a hand-made wallhanging from Pakistan. Milon (pictured) had painted a picture  of   Musjid al Haram — the largest mosque in the world, the  holiest site in Islam. Aziz said she is so grateful for the presence of the center, as well as for Abdullah Antepli,  Duke’s first full-time Muslim chaplain, whom students fondly call their “Turkish Delight.” “He is doing incredible outreach,” Aziz said, noting how rare it is for U.S. colleges to have full-time Muslim chaplains and student centers. “I’m kind of sad to be leaving because being a Muslim student here has just improved so much every year.”

BY MATT GOAD : The Herald-Sun

Feb 22, 2009

DURHAM — The best way to show girls they can excel at science, says Duke junior Jennifer Chen, is to get them in labs and have them learn it.

That’s exactly what the FEMMES — which stands for Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science — Program does, using Duke’s resources to reach out to Durham fourth- and fifth-grade girls. The program presents science and math subjects in a fun way.It includes a once-a-week after-school program, as well as Saturday’s event that drew 250 girls to campus to learn directly from Duke faculty members. (more…)

Talking about racial or gender differences in a respectful way — and really trying to understand where people from different perspectives are coming from — are some of the very hardest things to do in life. Duke’s student-run Center for Race Relations does an incredible job of helping people achieve these goals. One of its programs is Common Ground, a weekend retreat at which students discuss issues of race, gender and sexuality — and that participants testify leaves them transformed. Another project, launched in 2008 with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), is the  “Me Too” blog,  designed to encourage students to share “fears, strengths, stories, feelings, and experiences” anonymously.  More than just a blog, it seeks to address the myth of effortless perfection at Duke – that is, the perception that all other students are free from struggle. Most students, individually, admit that they do sometimes struggle, but think that others do not, which can make it hard open up about personal difficulties. The “Me Too” Campaign, according to its website, stresses that, whatever issues a particular student may be dealing with, he/she is not alone.

The Duke Immersive Virtual Environment (DIVE) is looking for a team of undergraduates to build a 3D animation of the human heart. The Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy wants to pay two students to assist in genome sequencing.  Duke’s Center for Science Education has funds for student projects that focus on K-16 science education research or outreach.
(more…)