Talya Lieberman ’07 Linguistics
Talya Lieberman ’07 Linguistics
I will never forget my first linguistics class at Duke, “Gender and Language,” with the incomparable Edna Andrews. I’ll admit it: I thought I was hot stuff. I thought I knew it all after having taken two linguistics classes…
Jesse Huddleston ’10 Sociology
Jesse Huddleston ’10 Sociology
I entered Duke in knowing one thing: I want to help people. Admittedly, I had no clear idea about how I would do so, but I reasoned that I would be committed to figuring out how I could adapt…
Bianca Forde ’05 Political Science
Bianca Forde ’05 Political Science
Long before setting foot on Duke’s campus, and possibly before submitting college applications, I had already selected political science as my undergraduate major. Not because of my interest in politics or my secret aspirations to be the next Hillary…
Detavio Ricardo Fikes-Samuels ’02 Political Science and African/African-American Studies
Detavio Ricardo Fikes-Samuels ’02 Political Science and African/African-American Studies
I’ve learned a lot since leaving Duke and, since I want you to be more amazing than I will ever be, I felt it important to capture the lessons I’ve learned in hopes that you will use them to…
Maneesh K. Goyal ’97 Comparative Area Studies
Maneesh K. Goyal ’97 Comparative Area Studies
In 1993, I was a wide-eyed undergrad at Duke, certain of only one thing: I wanted to help people in whatever I ended up doing. Initially, I decided to focus on comparative-area studies (a major that is no longer…
Anna Wu ’07 Program II
Anna Wu ’07 Program II
Honestly, if you asked me as a Duke freshman what I thought I would be doing in five years, I could not have imagined the life I live today. My life right now consists of photographing people who are…
Emily Modlin ’10 Psychology
Emily Modlin ’10 Psychology
If Duke undergraduates asked me for three pieces of advice, I would suggest the following: 1) Enroll in a service-learning course. You’ll come to better understand an important issue in our world—perhaps, for example, in our schools or hospitals—and…
Melanie McMinn ’02 Psychology
Melanie McMinn ’02 Psychology
I did not intend to become a physician when I entered Duke as a freshman. I was most interested in biomedical engineering, and had a side passion for English and religion. I thought perhaps I would develop new and…
Tori Hogan ’04 Program II
Tori Hogan ’04 Program II
I was supposed to be a geneticist. I was certain about that. Or at least I was as certain as one can be at eighteen. I’d spent years as an overachieving high-school student interning in research labs at the…
Mike Gale ’00 Psychology
Mike Gale ’00 Psychology
I began my undergraduate career absolutely certain that I would be a computer science major. I was a strong student in math and science in high school, and with all of the career options available in technology-related fields, it…
Sonny Caberwal ’01 Program II
Sonny Caberwal ’01 Program II
I started at Duke from a young age, as part of the TIP program, from seventh grade. While I always knew that I wanted to be at Duke, I didn't know what I wanted to learn. I started studying…
Roshan Bharwaney ’03 Psychology
Roshan Bharwaney ’03 Psychology
I graduated with a double-major in psychology and philosophy. I hadn’t studied either subject before college. I’d been a well-rounded student with more interest in natural sciences. After considering chemistry or biology and taking some classes in those departments,…
Dana Long Zenobi ’99 Music and Women’s Studies
Dana Long Zenobi ’99 Music and Women’s Studies
I came to Duke with a passion for marine biology. I was intent on working in the Marine Lab and pursuing a research career. My first year, I took full advantage of Duke’s curricular flexibility. My classes ranged from…
Margaret Yarbrough Hancock ’02 Art History
Margaret Yarbrough Hancock ’02 Art History
I recently heard an artist explain that the art world is divided into two roles: viewers and doers. I might have concurred, had it not been for my undergraduate studies at Duke. While working toward my art history major,…
Preston Whiteway ’04 Economics
Preston Whiteway ’04 Economics
I completely credit my education and activities at Duke to my path and success today. The support the university provided to pursue my passions was instrumental. When I arrived at Duke, I thought I might major in political science…
Sydney Thomas ’10 Public Policy Studies
Sydney Thomas ’10 Public Policy Studies
I arrived at Duke with only a general notion of what I didn’t want to study. My dad was a nephrologist, but after seeing the work he did, visiting patients with him on his dialysis rounds, and taking AP…
Leigh Spoon ’05 Cultural Anthropology
Leigh Spoon ’05 Cultural Anthropology
During my freshman year at Duke, I decided to take a variety of introductory courses to help me figure out what subject I wanted to pursue for my major. I had never even heard of cultural anthropology, but the…
Brence Pernell ’08 History
Brence Pernell ’08 History
Britney May was a short girl with a nose-piercing and multi-colored hair. She had a penchant for laughing and texting while I did my best to engage and challenge her and her classmates my first year teaching at a…
Kelly Fayard ’02 Cultural Anthropology
Kelly Fayard ’02 Cultural Anthropology
My first semester at Duke was also my hardest. Coming from a small school in lower Alabama, I had not heard of Advanced Placements classes, much less taken any. And unlike a lot of my classmates, I didn’t really…
Allison Cordell ’10 Public Policy Studies
Allison Cordell ’10 Public Policy Studies
During my freshman year, figuring out what to major in was more difficult than finishing my chemistry lab reports. In the haze of excitement of getting ready for college, I had signed up for courses that would fulfill some…
Annabel Schwedes Monaghan ’91 English
Annabel Schwedes Monaghan ’91 English
I chose Duke because it looked like a fantasy stage set for a place called “College.” Well, and because I was accepted. I immediately declared myself as an English major because I loved to read and write. I had…
Ryan C. Welsh ’05 English
Ryan C. Welsh ’05 English
Fall. Freshman year. General Chemistry 31L. I should have been paying attention to a lecture on protein-folding; I was busy admiring the language of my chemistry textbook. The adjectives describing chemical processes and the frequency of parallel syntactic structures…
Lauren Ward ’97 Biology
Lauren Ward ’97 Biology
When most people look at my resume or read my Facebook profile, they invariably ask about my improbable set of degrees. I have a major in biology and a minor in classical civilizations from Duke and an M.B.A. from…
Cheraine Stanford ’02 Literature
Cheraine Stanford ’02 Literature
I remember sitting mesmerized, watching the Eyes on The Prize documentary series about the civil rights movement, and fully understanding for the first time the power of the documentary form and the importance of capturing people’s stories. I was…
Jon Schnaars ’05 Literature
Jon Schnaars ’05 Literature
Even now, I think back on my selection of the literature program for my major as the happiest accident of my Duke career. One reason I chose Duke was for the breadth of academic opportunities that would be available…
Vikas Patel ’96, M.D. ’00 Biology
Vikas Patel ’96, M.D. ’00 Biology
I came to Duke pretty sure that I was going to be a biology major with the goal of medical school. My time at Duke included taking advantage of opportunities such as the Health Careers Internship Program, research assistance…
Monique Moultrie ’99 Religion
Monique Moultrie ’99 Religion
I entered Duke unsure of my future while being simultaneously excited and terrified. I knew I wanted to make a good salary, and I liked to debate, so I immediately became pre-law. I started as a philosophy major, as…
Daniel Machemer ’98 Biology
Daniel Machemer ’98 Biology
I found it much more difficult to decide what not to study at Duke than to choose what to study. In the end, I chose a path that matched my greatest passions, but also gave me enough latitude to…
MAJOR IMPACT: Photo Exhibit: First Floor, Allen Building April 18 - May 18, 2012
Major Impact highlights the journeys of Duke alumni who have found success while pursuing their intellectual passions. In this exhibit, and on the website, alumni share stories of struggle, triumph, and resilience, encouraging Duke undergraduates to pursue studies they care about. By channeling intellectual passions into professional pursuits, these alumni found joy in unexpected places, and discovered that there are countless ways to be successful and make a Major Impact.
Bianca C. Williams, co-curator
Jamaica Woodyard-Gilmer, photographer and co-curator
Special thanks to Lee D. Baker, Gail Hignight, and the Office of Academic Affairs; Sterly Wilder, Kim Hanauer, Robert Bliwise, and the Office of Alumni Affairs; Steve Nowicki and the Office of the Provost; Emily Bahna and the Trinity Office of Technology Services; Elizabeth Fox, Susan Kauffman, William Wright-Swadel, all Directors of Undergraduate Studies, and the Duke alumni who generously shared their journeys.