Imagine a room filled with chairs dangling from the ceiling, a bright purple sofa, and an electronic flying shark. This is the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University. Since this summer, I have been conducting research here as part of the mentorship program at my school. I entered the lab filled with postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, full-time researchers, and even a world- famous behavioral economist. Then there was me, a rising high school senior...
My mother is a monster. A Rosemonster. She received her undergraduate degree at a small women’s school, Rosemont College, located in a suburb of Philadelphia. To this day, she remains close with her fellow “Rosemonsters,” a group of eight women. I have witnessed the bond they share even after all these years. I’ve heard them discuss the advantages of attending a small liberal arts women’s college, things like intimate class sizes, daily access to faculty, a supportive administration, and an instilled sense of empowerment for women...
As a student at NCSSM, I have had the opportunity of becoming well acquainted both with Duke and Durham. Since this past summer, I have been doing research with the Center for Advanced Hindsight at the Fuqua School of Business under Dan Ariely. I have greatly enjoyed my experience within the lab and seek to work with the colleagues I have made there as an undergraduate...
I’m not a nitpicky person, but an event in October forced me to be. After finishingmy last class of the trimester, I came skipping back onto hall with my spirits high. I needed to only get through two exams (the other classes had papers and projects) before trimester break. After class, I barged into my friend Grace’s room and we bounced up and down with excitement...
There is a phenomenon often discussed in expatriate bars in Malawi called the “Africa Bug.” It bites everyone who is fortunate enough to have an opportunity to visit the continent. Some people are allergic to it; they get sick and vow never to come close to the region again. Others are overcome with excitement, fascination, and a strange feeling of being at home in a land farther away from home, both literally and figuratively, than they have ever been before. Once upon a time, I was fortunate enough to be bit by this bug...
I am not that kid in class-- the one who talks back to the teacher or circumnavigates the rules, smart yet unruly. While teachers dislike those students, they recognize their inherent aptitude. I have never been that kid. I was always the quiet girl who did whatever the teacher asked. Unfortunately, my timid behavior was mistaken for lack of intelligence...
As a new teacher with Teach for America in Baltimore, Maryland, I worked with hundreds of high school students who had been forced into a failing school. Only 50% of the students were predicted to graduate, and those who did would have the average reading level of a fourth grader. I went into a dangerous neighborhood every day for three years because my students needed someone who was willing to show up and believe in them. I would lay awake at night thinking, “How am I going to motivate her to improve? How am I going to help this child understand?”..
I only knew my father as a sick man. He was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) before I was born, but despite his physical barriers, he maintained a private legal practice and numerous positive personal relationships. Having a parent with a chronic disease certainly was emotionally challenging. Sadly, it became exceptionally difficult during my first year of college, when my dad experienced an MS episode that forced him to stop practicing law and become confined to a hospital bed within our home...
I would contribute to the diversity of the class of 2015 because of my educational and professional background, experiences I have had in my personal life, and because of my ethic heritage. First, spending three years as a High School Teacher in West Baltimore exposed me to a plethora of problems, including issues involving schools, teachers and administrators, social services, special education, law enforcement, child abuse, local government, race relations, gang violence, drug abuse, and juvenile criminal justice...
Music has always been a huge part of my life. As an eight year-old I was singing in the family band “Lyonsrock,” with my four year-old brother on drums and my dad on guitar. While over the last nine years I’ve gone from soprano to bass, my passion for music hasn’t changed. I have worked hard to integrate music into every aspect of my life, using it not just for personal enjoyment, but also passionately to help others...
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