Major Choices: The Duke University Major Fair
Choosing a major is an extremely important step in the undergraduate process, and Duke understands this is no easy matter. That is why Duke hosts a major fair, to help students become informed about what each major has to offer, its applicability to their interests and future goals, and how each major can be achieved. Check out some of these Duke undergraduates as they talk through their interests and the thoughts they have for choosing a major.
From the Field: Impact in a Small Ugandan Village
Through a signature fieldwork program of the Duke Global Health Institute, Duke students are working with low-resource communities such as this one in Uganda to address health disparities through health education, water sanitation, and much more.
Humanities Writ Large
Christina Chia in the Franklin Humanities Institute writes: Those of you in our social media orbit may have already seen the announcement of “Humanities Writ Large,” a major new Mellon Foundation Grant that promises to significantly strengthen the humanities at Duke, particularly in the area of undergraduate curriculum and research. The FHI Humanities Lab initiative is a key element of the grant, so we’re especially excited! Here are some highlights from the press release:
Durham, NC – A new endeavor at Duke University aimed at changing the role of the humanities in the undergraduate curriculum is being funded with a five-year, $6 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The “Humanities Writ Large” initiative also will support visiting scholars and new faculty appointments, undergraduate research efforts, humanities labs, and focused support for interdisciplinary collaborations across departments and institutions.
Click on the link below for the full story:
Computational Biology Student Wins Marshall Scholarship
Daphne Ezer, a Duke University senior who has already developed into a full-fledged computational biologist, has won a Marshall Scholarship to complete two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom.
Ezer, 21, of Norfolk, Va., plans to use her award to pursue a doctoral degree in genetics at the University of Cambridge.
“Daphne is the epitome of the deep intellectual accomplishment and potential that the Marshall Scholarship program seeks to recognize and cultivate,” says Duke computational biologist Alexander Hartemink, who supervised Ezer’s undergraduate research.
The Marshall Scholarships, which were established in 1953 to commemorate the Marshall Plan, are awarded each year to up to 40 “talented, independent and wide-ranging” young Americans to finance their study at institutions in the U.K.
After graduating from Duke in 2012 with a double major in biology and computer science, Ezer will work under the supervision of Cambridge researcher Boris Adryan to develop predictive models of how genes are turned on and off.
She said she hopes to use artificial intelligence technologies to “predict the biological impact of a genetic mutation that we have never observed before.”
For the full story on the newest Marshall scholar, click on the link below:
15 Undergraduates Selected for New Global Health Research Training Program
Duke’s Global Health Institute has chosen 15 students for its inaugural Student Research Training Program. Students will learn how to develop and implement a community-based project in global health and spend eight weeks in the field this summer conducting their projects. In its first year, the research-oriented field program has attracted undergraduate students from many majors, and with previous global health experience that spans the globe.
“We are delighted to announce the selection of the first group of students for the program,” said Lysa MacKeen, fieldwork coordinator for DGHI. “This impressive group has worked in China, Honduras, Egypt, Kenya, Mexico and Uganda, as well as many locations in the US. They bring to the program these experiences as well as their previous research and campus-wide global health activities.”
Students were selected for the program based on their scholarship, past experiences and their demonstrated commitment to global health.
Working in collaboration with DGHI faculty and established community partners in six project locations, students will spend the next six months developing project activities and then work to implement them in the field this summer. Once they return to campus next fall, students will participate in various workshops, debriefing sessions and a public presentation of their project to process and reflect on their experience. The six project sites are located in India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Costa Rica and the US.
This fieldwork model not only focuses on service to a low-resource community, but more importantly, teaches students how to use their research skills to work with community members to meet local health needs and work on making their impact sustainable. The program creates an opportunity for students to gain firsthand experience of the challenges and rewards of global health fieldwork while working to explore a research question and meet the goals of the communities they serve.
2011-2012 Students:
Sarah Berman, Cultural Anthropology, Global Health Certificate (Durham)
Saira Butt, Psychology, Global Health Certificate (Kenya)
Sabrina Darwiche, Middle Eastern Studies/Arabic, Global Health Certificate (India)
Joy Liu, Public Policy, Global Health Certificate (India)
Emily Jorgens, Biology, Global Health Certificate (Durham)
Brandan Metra, Neuroscience, Global Health Certificate (Tanzania)
Craig Moxley, Public Policy, Global Health Certificate (Uganda)
Joy Ogunmuyiwa, Biology, Global Health Certificate (Tanzania)
Genny Olson, Public Policy, Global Health Certificate (Uganda)
Alex Paul, Neuroscience or Cultural Anthropology, Global Health Certificate (Costa Rica)
Kathleen Perry, Religion, Global Health Certificate (Tanzania)
Kelly Schuering, Program II in Global Health and Child Development (Kenya)
Sarah Wang, Chemistry and Psychology (Kenya)
Daniel Wei, Neuroscience/Computer Science, Global Health Certificate (India)
Jianing Xie, History, Global Health Certificate (Costa Rica)
http://globalhealth.duke.edu/news-events/global-health-news-at-duke/15-students-accepted-for-intensive-global-health-research-program
Global Health Humanitarian/ Duke Alum to Speak Saturday
"What can you do right now? Develop habits of engagement. I won’t say get involved in what I do. Just get involved in something to make the planet a better place.” Paul Farmer 2008
Haiti After the Earthquake – A Conversation with Paul Farmer
Duke alum Paul Farmer T''82, a medical anthropologist and physician who has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world's poorest people, will sign books and speak December 3 from 3:00-4:40 p.m. in Reynolds Theater, Bryan Center. Farmer began his commitment to the sick and impoverished when still a student. He will be joined by Duke faculty members Laurent Dubois and Deborah Jenson who will respond to questions posed by the audience via Twitter. Tickets for the event have been distributed but people can watch a live streaming at http://www.ustream.tv/dukeuniversity. Questions for Dr. Farmer and the panelists will be accepted before and during the event. To submit a question, please email live [at] duke [dot] edu, post to the Duke University Facebook page, or Tweet with the hashtag #dukelive.
Duke Students Dig Immersion Program in Russia and India
Durham’s Herald Sun heralded the benefits of Duke’s pilot Duke INtense Global (DIG) program. Five Duke students studying Russian will actually go to Russia as part of their class.. “Within one calendar year, the students enrolled in DIG are supposed to reach advanced levels of language proficiency in terms of speaking, grammar, listening comprehension, reading and writing.”
Related story: Students to Immerse Themselves in Culture, Language of Russia, India A pilot project will allow Duke students to spend a year immersing themselves in the culture and language of Russia or India — and include civic engagement in the experience.
DukeJourneys dinner series with alumni launches with Hardy Vieux T’93
Join Global Advising for Dinner with Hardy Vieux T’93.
DukeJourneys is a dinner series that brings together Duke undergrads and a Duke alumnus who has a significant profile in global and/or civic engagement. You’ll have a meaningful interaction with someone who will share their story and communicate how their time at Duke influenced the journey they took toward a meaningful life.
Our first guest, Hardy Vieux, was a Public Policy Studies major at Duke. He was also president of Student Government, class president for his sophomore and junior years, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and a resident assistant. He says his experiences growing up in Haiti, Mexico, and New York City informed his thinking at Duke and the way he sees the world today. Currently an attorney in Washington, DC, Hardy has done significant pro bono work for international NGOs and was a JAG officer specializing in national security.
Thursday, October 20th, 6-8pm in the Nasher. Space is limited. You must register to attend. Learn more athttp://globaladvising.duke.edu. Sign up at http://tinyurl.com/DukeJourneysRegistration
Be a Part of History — Immerse Yourself in Civil Rights in Inaugural DukeImmerse program in Spring 2012
Noted Civil Rights Author William Chafe, Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History, and Karin Shapiro, a social historian of the American South and South Africa, will teach four related history/documentary seminars on “Black Freedom Struggles in the 20th Century: A comparison of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the Anti-Apartheid Struggle in South Africa.”
Students must take all four courses simulataneously, which satisfy Areas of Knowledge ( CZ, SS) and Modes of Inquiry (CCI, EI) requirements, and small seminars.
The program includes a three-week history field trip to South Africa over spring break with travel costs covered by Duke.
Students who are interested must talk to the professors before Spring registration in November. and
Courses: History 106S.02 20th Century South African History; History 106S.03 Civil Rights Movement; History 195S.06 –Racial Justice; DocSt 190S – U.S. and South Africa . They are crosslisted in AAAS, Public Policy, and ICS.
Duke Dancers Join Basketball Team in Kunshan
Duke’s basketball team isn’t the only Duke student group in Kunshan, China, this summer. Twelve student dancers will join them. The Duke University Dancers were invited to perform in numerous other Chinese cities as well, and Duke’s Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts sponsored their trip. This opportunity came about through an arts-focused DukeEngage program in Zhuhai, China in the summer of 2010, led by Prof. Hsiao-mei Ku, who is a violinist in the Ciompi Quartet, a faculty member in the Music Department and the faculty-in-residence in Pegram Hall.
The troupe combines traditional Chinese dance, break dancing, and modern dance — such an unusual mixture of styles in China that they were first asked to perform at the Universiade Games in Shenzhen. The students understandably rehearsed several times a week during the entire spring semester to prepare for their performance, says Vice Provost Scott Lindroth. More than 10,000 student athletes are competing in these games and the Duke University Dancers will be stationed front and center at the opening ceremonies.
Check out the student blog they’re using to document their tour:
http://sites.duke.edu/dukeuniversitydancers
Why Undergraduate Research Is So Popular at Duke
More than 50% of Duke undergrads complete research projects with professors from every department across campus. Find out why students say they feel so good about becoming experts on trailer parks, gospel music, lemurs, brain waves and weight loss.
Prof helps students write like researchers
Lab experiments are training students to be scientists, but lab reports are not teaching how to talk about it, says Duke professor Cary Moskovitz. Image courtesy of phillipmartin.info.
Duke Dance Group “Werq”-ing It
Though the construction site of K4 hardly seems like the ideal dance floor, Defining Movement (DefMo) transformed the area into the perfect venue to show off their dancing skills. Spearheaded by Freewater, the following video was filmed for DefMo’s 9th annual showcase, transcenDance.
Check it out:
Duke Research Student Blogger Nails Research Presentation at Duke TEDx
Vansh Muttreja, class of 2012, presented his research at the Duke TEDx conference earlier this month. When he isn’t reporting and writing for the Duke Research site, Vansh works with Duke engineering professor Romit Roy Choudhury on gesture-based communications using smart phones. What the Systems Networking Research Group has come up with is a “virtual whiteboard” that allows you to write on somebody else’s screen, even if you’re not in the same room!
“I don’t know about you guys, but I think this is magic,” says Vansh.
Composer/professor takes on hip-hop: Is it music?
In case you missed hearing Professor Anthony Kelley (and Faculty in Residence of Brown Residence Hall on East) speak this year during our Chautauqua lecture series, check out his “A Melody? Word” op-ed in from the April 1st issue of The Chronicle. He touches upon topics he covered in his original lecture “Musical Choice and Consequence” and as always, strives to make you think and question. Read more here.
Think Art Isn’t Research? Senior Project Shows Otherwise
Have you noticed a blanket of Keva Planks while passing through Perkins Library? Make sure you stop and play the next time you pass by – you’ll be helping a fellow student with her senior project! The display is a part of the Visual Studies capstone project of Duke senior and biology major Anamika Goyal. Titled “The Rediscovery of Wonder,” the project aims to get students to “rediscover a sense of wonder that is essential for true learning and creativity.”
Her project was sponsored by the North Carolina Consortium for South Asian Studies, the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and KEVA Planks. For more information, check out Anamika’s website about the project. The installation will be open until tomorrow – so stop by and take a picture of your creation afterwards!
Duke Student Govt Pres Visits Russia
Mike LeFevre traveled to Russia over spring break as part of a student delegation. A highlight was meeting Arkady Dvorkovoick, President Medvedev’s top economic advisor, and a Duke alum who earned a Masters in Economics in 1997. Check out Mike's slideshow.
Kenan Ethics’ Moral Purpose Essay Contest — Due April 22
In honor of its 15th anniversary at Duke, the Kenan Institute for Ethics has established an annual award to recognize an outstanding essay on moral purpose by a Duke undergraduate.
The award recognizes the critical role a liberal arts education can play in students’ exploration of the personal and social purposes by which to orient their future and the intellectual, emotional, and moral commitments that make for a full life.
Essays should address either or both of the following questions:
1) In what ways have your core beliefs and larger aims been tested, transformed, or confirmed during your time at Duke?
2) How have you had to defend or challenge prevailing ideas, social norms or institutions and what lessons have you learned from doing so?
One winner will receive an award of $1000.
Essay guidelines:
–Length: 500-800 words.
–Due Date: April 22, 2011
–Winner must be available to receive his or her award the evening of April 28th, 2011.
–Essays should be submitted via email to Stacey Meyers at stacey.meyers@duke.edu.