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Emerging Leaders to watch

You’ve already heard from several of the participants in the 2014 Emerging Leaders Institute: Jordan Schermerhorn shared her experience with the powerful Human Patterns self-assessment, Emily Roberts recounted the story behind her team’s development of the Think Beyond Internships website, and Aaron Towers explained the value he found in the ELI experience. Learn more about our first graduating class of Emerging Leaders through their profiles, and watch for their impact in the weeks and months to come. We expect great things.

Summer suggestions for professional development, part 2

Sculpture by Professor Efraim Rodriguez Cobos of the University of Barcelona. http://efraimrodriguez.net [CC-BY-2.0]
Sculpture by Professor Efraim Rodriguez Cobos of the University of Barcelona. http://efraimrodriguez.net [CC-BY-2.0]
We all look forward to summertime during graduate school–but the livin’ isn’t as easy as Gershwin and Heyward suggested. You might feel that you finally have time to focus on your research, without the demands of coursework or teaching. It may be a time for field research or international conferences that take you away from campus. Long as your summer to-do list may already be, let me suggest one more item to add: cultivate a hobby.
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The power of first person

Perhaps you caught the piece “The Magic Word” by Duke’s own David Jarmul on Inside Higher Ed this week. Contrary to what your mother may have told you, Mr. Jarmul asserts that the magic word for academics is the first-person pronoun I. Leveraging the power of personal experience, combined with disciplinary expertise, is, he argues, a compelling formula for engaging the public in op-ed articles.
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What’s next?

You may have begun graduate school for a variety of reasons—a love of research, a passion to make an impact through your work on a particular topic, the chance to study with an inspiring scholar among our faculty, a career aspiration that requires a master’s or doctoral degree, or simply a recognition that a graduate degree opens many more professional doors than a bachelor’s degree does. And if you’re a Duke graduate student, you probably had the chance to choose Duke over several other competitive options. You’re a goal-driven, ambitious, forward-looking person.

After Duke, what’s next? (more…)