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(12/03/13 12:06pm)
I am privileged to have made many mistakes, endured a lot of failure and encountered much disappointment in my nearly four years at Duke University. I like to think these blunders have taught me much about life and my place in it. I glance at the past often and wish away my decisions, but also recognize that the wishing itself prepares me for a better future. As a columnist who has written frequently about failure, however, I often step back and also wonder if my unabashed optimism and regular recasts of the past have misled my own trajectory. Perhaps I am just as millennial as all the baby boomers say, self-assured that any failure is just a roadblock to inexorable impact and success. Maybe I yearn for meaning from my failures far too much.
(11/19/13 10:00am)
Despite tremendous campus policy achievements over the past four years, from online course evaluations to a Red Mango in the Bryan Center, there are still many places where Duke can do better. Ever motivated by opportunities for marginal improvement, I have kept a running list of campus problems I have identified, solutions I have heard from others or devised myself and policy examples that work well at other schools. As a senior, I still have a few months left to change policy, but I fret the ideas I never get to address will remain only thoughts forevermore. So I list some of my favorites here, hopeful a proactive student or administrator will pick them up and make them a reality. Some of the ideas are audacious, some are straightforward—but I firmly believe all are actionable within a year and would make Duke a better campus.
(11/05/13 8:37am)
My maternal grandfather taught college English most of his life. He was a lifelong source of advice, especially when it came to my schooling, and he was invaluable when I began applying to college. When he passed away on my birthday during my first semester at Duke, my mom and I had long conversations about his important influence on our lives. I mentioned that being at Duke when he died reminded me of one of his lessons I had previously disregarded: “Learn for its own sake.” I entered my second semester at Duke with different motivations, inspired anew by this retrospection, convinced that credentialist pursuits were beneath me.
(10/22/13 8:15am)
On April 11, 2012, the University of California, Berkeley’s student senate met to discuss an executive order issued by their student body president. Her order had overturned a referendum that increased student fees by $2 in order to close The Daily Californian’s budget deficit. After a video of the meeting was posted online, a link to it was sent to me, and I shared it widely with my fellow student government junkies. The meeting was not itself controversial, or even very entertaining, but it was an inspiring example of the way a student senate should operate. In that senate meeting there was substantive discussion from the beginning to the end, discussion that was balanced and determined, but never divisive. It is a video I still discuss with members of student governments across the nation, because I am envious and wish all universities had political institutions that operated with such diligence.
(10/08/13 8:00am)
I am a huge fan of the The Hunger Games trilogy. It rivals my early enthusiasm for the Harry Potter books, and I frequently invoke references to it in conversation. I am clearly not the only one with this obsession—the trilogy has sold tens of millions of books, the movie spinoff has earned over $600 million, and thousands of young adults and children, inspired by the heroine’s deadly skill with a bow, have taken up archery classes. The trilogy is incredibly entertaining, which might surprise some, given that the entire series is about kids killing kids. In each book there is an arena, the location where the competitive killing takes place, which grows more expansive with each book—from an isolated forest in the first to the entire country by the end of the third. Death is a constant theme, and the series does not have an incredibly satisfactory ending.
(09/24/13 8:00am)
In 412 B.C., Diogenes of Sinope, the founder of the Greek Cynic movement, was asked where he came from. His response, “I am a citizen of the world [kosmopolitês],” founded the ethical framework of cosmopolitanism. The central tenant of cosmopolitanism is that all humans belong to a culturally diverse world community that ascribes to a common set of moral, political and economic ideologies. Martha Nussbaum writes of the Greek Stoic conception of cosmopolitanism: “Each human being dwells in two communities—the local community of our birth, and the community of human argument and aspiration.” Cosmopolitanism has guided my own policy views, especially in regards to immigration. A policy is ethically justified if it correlates with the ideals of the world community—ideals that are decided through a democratic process with the world as the constituents. Human rights and justice come from humanity’s commitment to universal respect and hospitality, and that commitment is solidified through international laws.
(09/10/13 7:16am)
Individuals who want to impact the public sector should turn their efforts to municipal government. Cities are generally free from the brinkmanship of national and state politics, and by the year 2030, 60 percent of the people in the world will live in cities. Whether the issue seeking impact is environmental or technological, small improvements in cities will yield big returns across the world.
(08/27/13 6:57am)
During my first week at Duke, my advisor asked me, “What is one thing you want to accomplish during your four years here?” My answer came without hesitation: “I want to be in a long-term relationship.” I arrived here tired of high school relationships, freed from parental oversight and optimistic that love was waiting for me in college. It seemed inevitable that love would find me in a place of peers who checked all the boxes I had: intellect, drive and personality. But, three years later, I still have not accomplished that ever-elusive goal. I am single, with a few relationships behind me, and unsure if I have ever been in love.
(04/16/13 8:23am)
Every semester, undergraduates give Duke Student Government approximately $120 in “Student Activity Fees” as part of their tuition. In the aggregate, this $120 from each student funds DSG’s budget, which is then reallocated to groups and programming events through the Student Organization Finance Committee and the DSG Senate. If the hypothetical Duke Basketweaving Society (let’s call them “BS”) wanted to raise awareness via a “Stop Pottery” concert in Page Auditorium, they could approach SOFC with a funding request to cover the rental costs of the venue. SOFC would only fund the event if BS promised to keep the event free and open to all undergraduates. The idea is that undergraduates have already paid for the event via their tuition—if they were required to purchase tickets they would essentially pay for the event twice.
(04/02/13 6:53am)
If you are ever around my siblings and me there is a good chance you will hear an obscure reference to a video game. This past weekend, my family visited my sister Grace (who is a first-year at Duke) and me, and in many of our conversations, we discussed the newly released video game, “Bioshock Infinite.” My brother Peter, a junior in high school, had already completed the game, and Grace and I jealously asked for details about the gameplay and narrative. Friends who witnessed these moments of explosive obsession found them endearingly awkward. I am never quite sure why others find our penchant for gaming odd. Maybe we defy the stereotypes of what a gamer looks like. Or maybe the subject seems cultish, eccentric and isolating. Perhaps it is because gaming itself is an unassailable hobby for those who are not hooked.
(03/19/13 8:20am)
I have been seeing a therapist since my sophomore year of high school. Not because I have any particular mental problem, just to have someone objective to speak with (it’s unfortunate I have to qualify that). Years of therapeutic dialogue have made me very self-aware. I value therapy because it provides objective commentary, feedback that is often missing from even my most well intentioned family and friends. My penchant for dialogue correlates with many of my on-campus activities: Common Ground, the Duke Colloquium and even Duke Student Government. I have seen the value in dialogue, not just in myself, but also in others. So it would be an understatement to say that I recognize the utility in constructive conversation.
(02/19/13 10:20am)
Three-and-a-half years ago, I received a call from Duke admissions telling me that I’d gotten off the waitlist. Duke was better than my other options in nearly every way. I might have accepted on the spot, but I was nervous. I had come out as a sophomore in high school, and I wanted to go to a college where I didn’t have to worry about my sexuality. Before I enrolled, I scoured the Internet for some hint about Duke’s LGBT life. I was surprised to discover that Duke has had a rather dynamic history: In 1999, the Princeton Review labeled Duke one of the most homophobic schools, but seven years later Duke turned around and was ranked one of the friendliest schools for LGBT students by The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students. I reached out to some LGBT Duke students who were active on Facebook and asked for their perspective. They all assured me that Duke was a great place to be LGBT.
(02/05/13 11:59am)
Since September, Duke Student Government has been working to codify an official bill of rights in the DSG constitution. The bill received the required two-thirds vote in the Senate and was moved for a referendum vote by the student body. This Thursday, Feb. 7, students will have the opportunity to vote on this bill of rights.
(01/22/13 7:23am)
Last April, I attended the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU), a yearly meeting “where students, youth organizations, topic experts and celebrities come together to discuss and develop innovative solutions to pressing global challenges.” I was invited for my social entrepreneurship, in recognition of an application called “Uhuru” that I crafted after working for two summers in refugee resettlement organizations in Washington, D.C. and Amman, Jordan. Uhuru, the Swahili word for freedom, crowd-sources the entrepreneurial activity of refugees and advertises them to local customers. Frustrated by unsustainable subsidies to refugees that bred dependency, I saw Uhuru as a mechanism to facilitate refugee entrepreneurship. At CGIU, I was told President Clinton found my application as exemplary of the creative problem solving integral in public service.
(11/27/12 11:32am)
Uganda’s parliament plans to pass a law before Christmas that imposes harsher penalties on same-sex acts. Over the past two years, dozens of LGBT Ugandans have fled the country and sought asylum out of fear of violence and persecution. Uganda’s law would augment the plight of LGBT refugees and put many in imminent danger. As President Obama prepares to select a new secretary of state within the next few months, I have one request: Nominate someone who will expand the State Department’s response and aid to LGBT refugees.
(11/13/12 10:02am)
President Harry Truman kept a walnut-wood sign on his Oval Office desk engraved with the words, “The buck stops here.” The words referenced Truman’s belief that he was ultimately responsible for managing the United States. Policy decisions, and the consequences of those decisions, were his burden. The sign was emblematic of his leadership, and Truman referenced the words in his 1953 farewell address: “The president—whoever he is—has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.”
(10/30/12 9:46am)
Last Friday I sat on a student panel that discussed DukeEngage with parents visiting for the weekend. I’d been invited to speak about my experience with the DukeEngage in Jordan program, where I taught English to Iraqi, Syrian, Libyan and Palestinian refugees. Even though I received the moderator’s questions before the panel event, I hadn’t prepared at all. So I stumbled when I was asked, “How have you applied your summer experience now that you’re back at Duke?” I rambled at first, because I realized on the stage that I didn’t know the answer. I’ve spent several months back in the United States, and I’ve since reflected and processed my summer in Jordan. But, even after months of processing, the answers to questions about my summer are so incredibly difficult to articulate.
(10/02/12 6:42am)
Last Saturday, I attended the gala for the launch of the capital campaign, christened “Duke Forward: Partnering for the Future.” It was surreal—Cameron Indoor Stadium was converted into a posh, laser-beam club. But the party atmosphere wasn’t the best part. Throughout the night, I met several Duke alumni who had pledged and donated their money to our University. Some donated because they wanted Duke to blaze a new path forward to the future. Others donated because they wanted to ensure that no financial boundaries prevented qualified students from attending Duke. But most wanted to give back to an institution that had given them (or their children) so much.
(09/18/12 3:09am)
This week our nation mourned the death of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, killed last Tuesday in an attack on the American Embassy in Benghazi. During the past summer, I worked in Jordan through DukeEngage. While there, I met Libyan refugees who spoke highly of Ambassador Stevens. They respected the ambassador because they believed that with his guidance they had a chance to return to a stable, welcoming and democratic home. Those Libyans had the sort of hope that was inconceivable for Syrians, elusive for Iraqis and jaded for Palestinians.
(09/04/12 7:03am)
Two years ago, I ran for Bassett’s House Council and lost. I subsequently ran for a Duke Student Government (DSG) Senate seat and lost that, too. On the night of that second loss, I retreated to my room and sat against the frame of my bed, overwhelmed by my failures. In high school, I had succeeded at nearly everything, and now I was stunned—intimidated by an atmosphere where I was no longer the best, brightest or most accomplished. I didn’t want to lose anymore, and I was tired of trying. Most of all I was embarrassed, and I was dreading the “Did you win?” questions that would come the next day. I’d give a positive spin to my answer, I’d change the subject. But I also made a decision—I’m done trying. And I might have stuck with that choice, had I not received an email that night from former DSG President Pete Schork.
