Senior Stories 2012

In the four years since the more than 1,600 members of the Class of 2012 arrived at Duke, they have been changed by their university experience in ways large and small.  Below are stories of nearly two dozen students who will graduate Sunday.  Some have discovered unexpected intellectual passions or talents for making a difference in the local community.  Others have had extraordinary experiences abroad. 

Five of these students were interviewed by Duke Magazine in 2008 about their hopes and expectations for a Duke education.  Four years later the magazine returned to these students and looked at how their experiences compared with their expectations.  Look for more about the Class of 2012 in the May 2012 issue of the magazine.

View a partial list of student awards and honors >

Ashwin Agarwal
Teaching Music to Durham Children

Michael Bernert
Social Entrepreneurship in West Africa

Lauren Brown
Setting a Higher Bar
for Herself

Natalie & Caroline Buck
Twins on Their Time
at Duke University

Taylor Clarke
Shaping the Digital Media Landscape

David Deng
Building Accessibility
to Safety Nets

Dan Forti
A Future in Multiethnic South Africa

Paul Harraka
NASCAR Driver Pursues the Pole Position

Lauren Hendricks
Sanford Experience Leads to White House

Nathaniel Hill
Theater Studies and Ragtime

Greer Mackebee
Duke Senior Scores in Jeopardy

Andrew Mang
At the Intersection of Technology and Business

Phyllis Mbewe
Engineering for Environmental Health

Sidney Primas
Getting Inside the Human Brain

Rachna Reddy
A Second Home at the Lemur Center

Emma Ross
Romance Studies Student Turns to Technology

Roshan Sadanani
Pratt Student Named Commencement Speaker

Paul Salem
A Veteran's Moral Imperative to Heal

Alex Sun
Repairing Cartilage Using Stem Cells

Becca Ward
Helping Consumers Choose Green Oil

Katrina Wisdom
A Dancer Takes an Engineering Spin

Previous years: 2009, 2010, 2011