What would it be like to bump into your mother at The Loop or have your father teach your best friend's class?
That's a normal scenario for some Duke students with parents who also happen to be professors at the University.
Many professors said they enjoy sharing their workplace with their children.
Professor of English Marianna Torgovnick said that she has acquired a better understanding of the student experience at Duke through her daughter Lizz, a junior. For example, Marianna Torgovnick discovered that writing classes were difficult to find and, as a result, coded her contemporary fiction class as writing for this semester.
"I got to understand exactly how the [Curriculum 2000] matrix works by helping Lizz navigate through it," she said.
Associate Professor of Computer Science Gershon Kedem said that, by not visiting his children unannounced, he has tried to give them the same experience as if they went to colleges 500 miles away. His daughter graduated from Duke and his son Daniel is currently a sophomore.
But even as students of professors, some have not felt pressure to follow in their parent's footsteps. Mariana Schmajuk, a senior psychology major, studies in the same field that her father, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences Nestor Schmajuk, teaches. However, she said she will pursue interests unrelated to her father's work.
"My parents both work in the field of psychology. Luckily, it is such a diverse field and there are so many different ways to study the way the mind works that I feel very independent in my interests," Mariana Schmajuk wrote in an e-mail.
She added that, for ethical reasons, she would not feel comfortable taking a class with her father, although Nestor Schmajuk said he would like to teach his daughter and does not think her presence in his class would result in biased grading because teaching assistants in psychology classes tend to assign grades.
Lizz Torgovnick, who transferred to Duke after she learned about the University's visual arts major, said she would not consider participating in the Institute of the Arts program in New York City that her mother leads in the fall. However, Lizz said she would consider taking a class with her mother.
"I would be interested in taking a class with her because I think she is a natural teacher, but then I would not be able to get her to look over a paper or proofread," she said.
Duke provides tuition breaks to professors who send their children to Duke or another private school. The benefit covers three quarters of Duke's tuition, or up to 16 semesters total at another private institution. The benefit can be distributed among several children.
"The benefit allows our children to go to a private school that we would not have been able to afford otherwise," Gershon Kedem said.
Because of busy work and class schedules, though, many students and their professor parents find it difficult to meet up during the week.
"We joke that if I actually do want to see [my father], I have to make an official appointment because he can be hard to get a hold of," Mariana Schmajuk said.
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