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The Chronicle T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
WWW.DUKECHRONICLE.COM
XXXXXDAY, MONDAY, JANUARY MMMM 27, XX, 2014 2013
ONE ONE HUNDRED HUNDRED AND AND EIGHTH NINTHYEAR, YEAR,ISSUE ISSUEXXX 73
Duke STEAM Faculty debate over new master’s reignites winners announced by Shanen Ganapathee The ChroniCle
history repeated itself at an Academic Council meeting november 2013, when proposals for new master’s degrees reignited a debate from 2010. Master’s degrees have been featured prominently in the recent meetings of the Academic Council, with five new programs approved for next Fall. The proposals for the new degrees were met with debate—a situation not unlike the Spring of 2010, when five new master’s degrees were approved. A number of faculty members expressed concern in 2010, noting that the proliferation of graduate programs could have adverse consequences for the University, and a Master’s Advisory Council was established in order to provide a more thorough review of new degree programs. The recent debate has caused the Academic Council to take a second look at the role of master’s degrees in the University’s academic environment. Provost Peter lange explained that new programs go through a rigorous review process which includes approval by the Master’s Advisory Council, the executive Committee of the Graduate Faculty and the Academic Council. The Master’s Advisory Council was created to provide a more uniform process for
by Emma Loewe The ChroniCle
The first annual Duke STeAM challenge prize was awarded to a group of four undergraduates working to curb dehydration caused by diarrhea in northern india. The STeAM initiative calls upon undergraduate, graduate and professional students to create an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving by combining science, technology, engineering and math with the arts. This year’s winning team designed a program that implements puppetry as an educational tool to depict the benefits of oral rehydration therapy. At a judging Jan. 18 at the nasher Museum of Art, the team was awarded a $10,000 prize. The group’s members—sophomores Saffana humaira, Suhani Jalota, rebecca lai and Kehaan Manjee—chose to tackle this global health issue after researching diarrhea’s detrimental effects on child health in Bihar, india. All of the members, except lai, are international students from South Asia. “People were either not aware of or simply not using oral rehydration therapy to treat diarrhea, even as thousands of children died each day due to the disease,” Jalota said. Their initiative to combat dehydration focused on educating school-aged girls so they can pass the information down through family generations. The group tried to theorize a creative way to communicate their message to the target audience, as girls are more likely to play a larger family role, humaira said. “if we want people to listen to us, we need to adopt their methods of delivering information,” Jalota said. “Adolescent girls are more engaged with cartoons and visual representations.” Jalota spent this year’s winter break working with schools in india to implement a trial run of her group’s educational puppet show. She collected feedback from local officials, teachers and students that her team used to See STEAM, page 5
ILLUSTRATION BY SOPHIA DURAND/THE CHRONICLE
See MASTER’S, page 8
premed students must plan to go abroad by Ryan Zhang The ChroniCle
Despite a long list of required pre-health courses, many students seeking a career in medicine are able to enjoy study abroad experiences. Pre-health students are encouraged to study abroad if they want to, but doing so requires careful planning that starts early, said Dan Scheirer, associate dean and chief prehealth advisor at the office of health Professions Advising. on average, he estimated that more than half of pre-health students study
abroad at some point—in the overall student body, between 43 percent and 46 percent of students will have studied abroad by the end of their time at Duke. “From the perspective of the pre-med portfolio, [study abroad programs] provide a number of competencies that medical schools are looking for,” Scheirer said. “First is diversity—not in the sense of racial or ethnic diversity, but in the sense of visiting another culture, perhaps learning another language, living with a host family. it also provides them with communication skills, and
there’s the academic aspect as well.” one obstacle facing pre-health students is that prerequisite courses taken at foreign institutions are generally not accepted by medical schools, Scheirer said. As a result, many students take summer courses to catch up on requirements they missed during the school year. “not only do we have to worry about our individual major requirements, but we have to fit in all of the pre-health See PREHEALTH, page 5