Office of Undergraduate Education

This article by Jim Rogalski originally appeared in DukeMed Alumni News:

Durham, NC — Johanna E. Bischof, T’05, MSIII, remembers well her first experience observing brain surgery: The open skull. The pulsing of the exposed brain. The blood.

“I got sick,” the irrepressible Duke medical student says with a laugh. “Well, not sick-sick, and I didn’t pass out, but I was very queasy and spent a lot of time leaning against the wall.”

Forgive her the un-doctorly decorum: She was just a Duke undergrad at the time and not fully confident that she wanted to become a physician. Observing in the operating room is a rarity in undergraduate education in the United States, and that day proved to be a powerful and defining moment for her.

“Seeing the brain moving in front of you is an incredible thing. I was awed by the experience,” she says.

Bischof is a former All American Blue Devil field hockey player and current rising star in the Duke University School of Medicine. She is the consummate example of the type of student—driven, high-achieving, and goal-oriented—that Duke neuro-oncologist Henry Friedman, MD, HS’81-’83, and Chief of Neurosurgery Allan Friedman, MD, HS’74-’80, (no relation) began targeting 10 years ago when they germinated the idea for a unique Duke mentoring program. (more…)

Originally published in On Campus with Women, a publication of the Association of American Colleges and Universities:

In the spring of 2009, a woman was elected the next student government president at Duke University. Most wouldn’t consider this an earth-shattering feminist breakthrough: women have led college student governments for decades. Although there is a glass ceiling for women in politics, it typically does not appear quite so early in an aspiring politician’s career. At Duke, however, Awa Nur’s election was greeted with jubilation, especially by women, because Awa is the first woman to occupy the role in ten years. (more…)