Given the three excellent and extremely qualified Young Trustee finalists, Duke Diya had a hard time deciding which one to endorse. All of the candidates brought years of hard work and devotion to Duke and its students and each candidate had his or her own unique perspective to comment on.
After interviewing and carefully considering each of the three candidates, Duke Diya is happy to announce its support for Gurdane Bhutani as this year’s Young Trustee.
Gurdane’s professionalism and enthusiasm impressed our board, and we were further impressed by his ability to understand Duke as a whole. He understands that the quality of the Duke undergraduate program is not insular, but is impacted by all of Duke. We were also attracted to Gurdane’s wide range of campus experiences. In particular, we found Gurdane’s experience as the executive vice president of DSG as well as his work with the Office of Financial Aid to be especially impressive. He has also played a role in major campus initiatives, including STI testing on campus, the alcohol amnesty policy and Merchants on Points hours. We believe that his experiences in taking classes in Pratt, Trinity, the Nicholas School and Sanford and his interactions with members of the Duke hospital system, Fuqua School of Business and Duke Athletics have given him a diverse perspective of Duke in its entirety. We expect that this diversity will be invaluable to him as a Young Trustee.
Above all, we believe that Gurdane’s dedication to a multifaceted understanding of Duke and his deep knowledge of Duke’s numerous endeavors will make him a well-rounded Young Trustee, one who will draw from his diverse undergraduate experiences to help create an even stronger Duke. We wish all the candidates best of luck in this year’s election and look forward to its results.
Tara Iyengar, Trinity ’13
Co-president of external affairs, Duke Diya
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