As I grew older, I noticed that most diversity programs for underrepresented fields seemed to focus solely on STEM. Now that I am at Duke, I feel the trend continues.
When I woke up on November 6th, I immediately checked my phone. Although I had a strong suspicion that I knew who America had elected as our president, I wanted to be sure. After I received confirmation that I was right, a small part of me was happy; my prediction was correct. However, I felt an overwhelming sense of disappointment and concern for my community.
As a lover of film and television, I often find myself struggling to find something to watch. Movies in theaters feel uninteresting or often retell the same stories with a new cast. Television is no better with eight-episode seasons becoming the norm. This is after fans are expected to wait years to see more of their favorite characters.
In 2001, Marcellus Williams was convicted of the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter, and on September 24th, he died by lethal injection. Williams’s story exposes the cracks in our justice system that will continue to spread if we do not take action.
The QS requirement is unnecessary, and doing away with it would give non-STEM students like me more freedom to pursue our academic and career interests.
Race-based affirmative action is the only remedy to a historically inequitable system.
Duke football may never surpass basketball in popularity, but we can become a school that supports our football team better.
Diversifying Duke is an issue of and not or. Striving for economic diversity does not mean we shouldn't also strive to make campus racially diverse as well.
As a self-proclaimed anti-STEM student, I started to see the benefits of pursuing the STEM path at Duke and how my own path lacked these advantages.
The pressure that doesn’t come from campus, classes, professors, extracurriculars or parents comes from ourselves, and I believe that is what pushes us to sacrifice so much.
