Karsh International Program at Duke

KARSH INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP

About the Scholarship The Karsh International Scholarship was established in 2010 through generous support from Martha and Bruce Karsh. It provides: •

Full tuition, room, and board at Duke university, valued at over $315,000;

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Eligibility for up to $21,000 in enrichment funding for three funded summer experiences or opportunities during the academic year;

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And unwaivering support from OUSF Faculty and Staff

The Karsh Scholars program brings students from Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas to Duke University. In an increasingly interconnected but conflict-riven world, these students’ presence on Duke’s campus affords us the opportunity to learn about their backgrounds and benefit from their insights. At the same time, we have every intention of extending their intellectual and social horizons. The friendships and shared learning experiences that take place on Duke’s campus will, I hope, serve as a basis for greater compassion and a more nuanced understanding of the world. As faculty adviser for this wonderful program, I can say that it’s a great privilege to be part of this community.

Karin Shapiro, Ph.D. Faculty Co-Director, Karsh Scholars Program Associate Professor of the Practice, African & African American Studies

As Faculty Director of the Karsh International Scholarship Program, I had the privilege of interacting and mentoring extremely talented students from different regions of the world, from Africa, Europe, Middle East, South and East Asia, New Zealand to Central America. Their personal experiences, enthusiasm, and openness contribute to make Duke a more international and diverse campus. I am confident that Karsh Scholars will have a bright future and a remarkable impact on communities around the world.

Giovanni Zanalda, Ph.D Faculty Co-Director, Karsh Scholars Program Director, Duke Center for International & Global Studies, Associate Research Professor

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Karsh is a community

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Hieu Nguyen Vietnam, Class of 2022

What I love most about Duke is the campus

At first, making friends can be tough because

and the people. The professors are engaging,

of cultural differences, but as long as you try,

helpful, and they want their students to

you will find your community. I’m thankful

succeed. Being a Karsh Scholar at Duke

that I can always turn to OUSF staff for help

allows me to meet and learn from talented

and support since they genuinely care about

students coming from diverse backgrounds.

you and want you to excel.

I love my OUSF friends, and I love the Duke campus because it is so beautiful that I find happiness walking to class every day.

As an international student, I understand the difficulties that many international students face. I have been actively advocating for the well-being of the international community at Duke through my participation with the Duke International Association (IA). Moving to America and attending a university like Duke is a huge change, and it can overwhelm you. I hope you know that you don’t have to go through the transition alone. Please speak up and seek help from others.

“Being a Karsh Scholar allows me to meet and learn from talented students coming from diverse backgrounds.”

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Rachel Ji New Zealand, Class of 2022

There are great perks to being a Karsh Schol-

enthusiasts, and I learned from successful

ar beyond monetary benefits. OUSF hosts

entrepreneurs. I received invaluable

fun events during the year that allows us to

information that will help me in my

mix and mingle with other scholars such as

entrepreneurial ventures.

carnivals, dinners with faculty members, study breaks, and trips. There is also the

Karsh Scholars travel a long way to get to

enrichment funding that enables students to

Duke, which has allowed us to form a

pursue their interest during the summer.

special intimate connection. I made friends with all the Karsh Scholars, and I even

This summer, I used enrichment funding to

visited my closest friend from Duke at her

attend the RISE conference in Hong Kong,

home in Greece this year. The Karsh

Asia’s largest technology conference. I met

Scholarship gives me lifelong friends and

and networked with like-minded technology

memories to last a lifetime.

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Despina Chouliara Greece, Class of 2022

This summer, I spent six weeks with the

This experience allowed me to improve my

Duke in Berlin program. Duke in Berlin is a

German language skills and immerse myself

study away program that helps students

in German culture and German history. I

advance their German language skills,

traveled to cities like Hamburg and Dresden,

deepen their understanding of German

went to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,

culture, and broaden their grasp of the social

visited the German Parliament, and plenty of

sciences, humanities, and technology in

German museums.

German. I took a German language class and

The program organized weekly events that

another course examining Germany’s energy

enable the students and faculty in the

transition.

program to connect and mingle.

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KARSH BY THE NUMBERS Karsh Around The World

Karsh Statistics

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54

34

1M

Current scholars and alumni

Countries represented globally

Invested in student enrichment experiences

63%

78%

78%

Alumni with double majors at Duke

Alumni pursuing advanced degrees

Alumni with STEM degrees

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OUSF ALUMNI OUTCOMES The Karsh International Scholarship is one of the 10 Merit Scholarships at Duke University within the Office of University Scholars & Fellows (OUSF). OUSF provides support and mentorship through Merit Scholarship Programs (MSP) & Nationally Competitive Scholarships (NCS). Below are a few of our Merit Alumni outcomes.

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Awards & Prizes Tony Award

Nationally Competitive Scholarship Winners

22 16 37 Rhodes Scholarships

Marshall Scholarships

Goldwater Scholarships

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3

Truman Scholarship

Churchill Scholarships

Mitchell Scholarships

Pulitzer Prize Phi Beta Kappa Prospanica Scholar Forbes 30 Under 30 MacArthur Genius Grant Google Science Fair Top 100 Life Science Visionaries National Book Critics Circle Award

Graduate School Placement

Scholar-founded Companies

Caltech

Stanford

Axovant Sciences

Lucid Dream Virtual Reality

Cambridge

University of Amsterdam

Bodhi and Friends

Mytonomy

Columbia

University of California, Berkeley

Cresta

Partners in Health

Cornell

University of California, Davis

Darasami Group

Smart Metals Recycling

Duke

University of California, Los Angeles

Fashion Law Institute

The Muse

Emory

University of Chicago

Firefly Labs

Theorist Media

Harvard

University of Michigan

FundRx Venture Capital

Thrive Men’s Skin Care

Johns Hopkins

University of Pennsylvania

Guidestar

Twende Carpool

MIT

University of Toronto

Happywax.com

Voicing Pride

Northwestern

University of Virginia

Kaleidoscope Education

Women in Finance Peru

NYU

Vanderbilt

Karen Beasley Sea Turtle-

Oxford

Yale

Hospital

Princeton

Karsh Mentorship Initiative

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Milkie Vu Vietnam, Class of 2013

What advice do you want to share with Duke students?

Duke offers terrific opportunities to explore your interests and discover your passions. Be open-minded about your plans and look for programs and resources outside of your comfort zone. I never thought I would major in History and Cultural Anthropology: I didn’t even know what Cultural Anthropology was before I came to Duke. I took classes in these subjects in my first and second year, and I fell in love with them. With Karsh support, I studied abroad in the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and I traveled to France for three months during the summer for a research project that I cared for immensely. I never envisioned myself doing all these things before I started college.

What are you doing now?

I am doing my Ph.D. in Behavioral Sciences & Health Education at Emory University: where I am a recipient of the F31 National Research Service Award given by the National Cancer Institute. My dissertation examines the HPV vaccine and vaccine decision-making among Vietnamese-Americans. I work in the United States but plan to collaborate with international researchers on projects related to migration health, and HPV vaccine compliance globally.

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Isabella Kwai

Australia, Class of 2013

What advice do you want to share with the students?

Be brave, find yourself, and don’t question everything too much. Take life by the reigns, do you and don’t let other people bring you down.

After college, you’ll never really be around so many interesting, young, talented people in quite the same way again so it’s a special thing.

What are the things you wish you knew while you were at Duke?

I wish I’d stopped overthinking the future and took the opportunity to explore my identity, interests, and hobbies. College is such a rare and unique time where you can truly let loose and figure out what kind of person you are and what you want to do with your life. I’m happy with the way things turned up, but I wish I’d taken advantage of the school’s resources even more.

What did you do after graduation?

I stayed in the US and worked for a year, where I took on a fellowship at Atlantic Media to explore journalism. Afterward, I decided I wanted to pursue a career in journalism and eventually moved back to Australia to help The New York Times establish a new office there. I’m now working as a reporter for The New York Times in Sydney, Australia.

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Maria Arias Benitez Spain, Class of 2014

“The most impactful thing I associate with the Karsh Scholarship is the enrichment funding. It’s difficult to get funding for astronomy programs because the grants are exclusively for Americans.”

I am currently completing my Ph.D. in Astrophysics at Anton Pannekoek Institute of Astronomy in Amsterdam. My research paper is about Supernova remnants and how the remnants evolve with a galaxy expansion.

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At Duke, I majored in math and minored in physics, but I was interested in astronomy.

During my sophomore summer, I used the Karsh enrichment funding to attended NASA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute. I used enrichment funding again the next summer to attend the Arecibo Observatory. Enrichment funding I received as a Karsh Scholar gave me the opportunities and experience to pursue a career in astrophysics.

After graduating from Duke in 2014, I moved back to Spain, where I did a Master’s in Astrophysics, which led me to Amsterdam, where I am completing my Ph.D.

Louise Kendaru Great Britain, Class of 2018

Duke is a fantastic place. It will be a packed

me. When I declared a major, I assessed the

four years that will fly by faster than you

departments into which most of those classes

think! Everyone navigates their own

cross-listed. What emerged as a Bachelor’s of

experience, and there is no right way to do it.

Arts in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in

All you can do is enjoy the ride and appreciate Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies was how it will help you grow. My biggest advice

the result of curiosity and my willingness to

to the incoming and current students is to

see where it took me.

explore their curiosity and pay attention to their mental health.

Duke is challenging, and there are plenty of activities, so it’s essential to make

I took an unconventional approach to my

time for yourself. Self-care looks different on

academics at Duke. I was drawn to the liberal

everyone; for me, running and meditation

arts education because I was interested in a

were helpful. The Academic Resource Center

range of subjects from computer science to

(ARC) helped me build skills that were

feminism. For my first two years, I selected

essential in managing my workload and

classes based on what sounded exciting to

managing my time better.

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Notable Alumni

Junaid Arefeen, ‘16

Winnie Biwott, ‘15

Bangladesh

Kenya

Matheus Brum, ‘17 Brazil

Investment Banking Associate at Morgan

Co-Founder of Twende, a carpool App in

Special Situations Group at Goldman

Stanley

Kenya

Sachs

Michael Daou, ‘17

Kevin Fraser, ‘17

Joshua Foromera, ‘13

Lebanon

Canada

Zimbabwe

Software engineer at Tapad

Portfolio Analytics Analyst at BlackRock

Resident Physician at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

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Notable Alumni

Bochen Han, ‘18

Isabella Kwai, ‘17

Canada

Australia

India

Master’s at Johns Hopkins University in

Reporter at The New York Times in

Investment Banking Analyst J.P. Morgan

International Economics

Australia

Laxmi Rajak, ‘15

Ha (Milkie ) Vu, ‘13

Nepal

Vietnam

Ukraine

Research Associate at EL Education, Inc.

Ph.D. in Behavioral Sciences & Health

Software engineer at IVF AI for Clinics/

Education at Emory University

Google Brain

Maria Suhail, ‘19

Volodymyr Zavidovych, ‘14

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Smith Warehouse 114 S. Buchanan Blvd., Bay 8N Durham NC 27708 Phone: (919) 660-3070 Fax: (919) 681-7059 Email: ousf@duke.edu Website: ousf.duke.edu ©Office of University Scholars & Fellows