Towerview September 2018

TOWERVIEW

SEPTEMBER 2018 | VOL. 20 | ISSUE 1

Duke’s first black football players, 50 years later

Chronicle File Photo

2 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

TOWERVIEW

The Chronicle

‘It just seemed like an impossible dream’ 50 years after enrolling, Duke’s first black football players reflect on their experiences on campus

By Hank Tucker Towerview Editor

Fifty years ago, during one of the most turbulent times in American history, Ernie Jackson and Clarence “C.G.” Newsome enrolled at Duke in the fall of 1968 with little fanfare.

When the two football players arrived as Duke’s first African-American scholarship athletes, The Chronicle made no mention of the historic milestone, but the duo set about leaving a lasting imprint on the school. Their success paved the way for hundreds that have followed them in the last half-century.

Jackson became one the Blue Devils’ alltime greats on the field, getting enshrined into the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986.

Newsome struggled with injuries during his playing career, but stayed at Duke to earn master’s and doctorate degrees from the Divinity School and served on the University’s Board of Trustees from 2002-18.

“I ended being an All-American, C.G. ended up being a big Academic All-American,” Jackson said. “From a test-tube like situation, we both turned out pretty well.”

‘An impossible dream’ Both Jackson and Newsome were prepared to be pioneers at Duke after finishing high school at predominantly white schools. The “freedom of choice” policy prevalent in the late 1960s in the South gave children the option to transfer to the formerly all-white schools in their districts, and Jackson and Newsome chose to do so for their junior and senior years.

Jackson grew up in Hopkins, S.C., in the shadow of the University of South Carolina, which did not recruit any African-American football players until after he arrived at Duke.

Jackson starred at Hopkins’ predominantly white Lower Richland High School, but was harassed due to his race wherever he played.

Jackson said he was motivated to go to Duke and try to change its culture after reading a story that referenced the poor treatment UCLA basketball great Lew Alcindor—who later changed his name to Kareem AbdulJabbar—received when he played at Cameron Indoor Stadium in 1966.

“I couldn’t have experienced anything worse than what I experienced in South Carolina,” Jackson said. “I remember going into stadiums, and other than the janitors, I was probably the only black person in the entire stadium, and I was called the n-word.”

Duke caught Newsome’s eye at an earlier age after he watched its football team on TV when he was 13 years old growing up in Ahoskie, N.C., about 130 miles northeast of Duke. He first remembers watching the Blue Devils play in 1963,

Chronicle File Photo

Clarence Newsome earned a doctorate in religion from Duke after finishing his undergraduate studies while playing football in 1972.

the same year the University’s first five African- and basketball, and Duke assistant coach American undergraduates enrolled, though he did Harold McElhaney visited Ahoskie to recruit not know about that at the time. him in the spring of 1967.

“While I fell in love with Duke and Duke “I was in band practice there at Ahoskie High football, I didn’t bother to say anything School, and I got word that the coach, Coach to anybody because it just seemed like an Vaughn, wanted me to come to his office,” impossible dream,” Newsome said. “I just knew Newsome said. “To my great and wonderful I felt it. I never denied it.” surprise, a Duke recruiter had shown up at Newsome was talented enough to start as Ahoskie interested in me. It was really like a a freshman at Robert L. dream come true.”

Vann High School and We basically would stand When Duke head played against a team coach Tom Harp visited in Williamston, N.C., on each other’s porches to just before Christmas in coached by Herman survive because there was 1967 during Newsome’s Boone. Boone was later senior year, Newsome portrayed by Denzel really no other teammate. signed to become a Washington in the classic ernie jackson defensive end for the sports movie “Remember DUKE FOOTBALL PLAYER FROM 1968-72 Blue Devils. the Titans” for his 1971 season when he coached the ‘Always had to be alert’ integrated T.C. Williams High School team in Jackson and Newsome did not meet until Virginia to the state championship. they got to Duke for preseason camp in 1968, Newsome later transferred to the but they quickly became close in a tense racial predominantly white Ahoskie High School, climate. Newsome remembers the first time the where he won state championships in football team played on the road at Clemson.

“These cheerleaders were carrying a flag—they came out right ahead of the team.

They went to the center of the field, and they unfolded the biggest Confederate flag I’d ever seen in my life,” Newsome said. “Clemson’s band struck up Dixie, and everybody in the stadium came to their feet, including the Duke fans. I looked at Ernie, Ernie looked at me, we looked around the stadium, we looked over in the direction of our locker room and we saw a black maintenance guy.

“I remember focusing on that person for just a minute and just feeling in a setting where we had to be alert. And we always had to be alert.”

At Duke, Newsome said the two steered clear of some fraternities that were “more likely to express racist attitudes” than others, and there was some distance between them and their white teammates.

“We basically would stand on each other’s porches to survive because there was really no really other teammate. I mean, you knew other Photo Courtesy of the Duke Archives guys, but you didn’t know them that well,” Jackson About 75 students in the Afro-American Society were met with tear gas after occupying the Allen said. “There was not really any existence as far as your relationship other than football.”

Building for 10 hours on Feb. 13, 1969.

Newsome and Jackson could confide more in the African-American students on campus, many of whom participated in the Allen Building takeover of Feb. 13, 1969. About 75 students, organized by the Afro-American Society, sat in Duke’s main administrative building for 10 hours and presented 13 demands to help black students at Duke.

The students were met with tear gas from the police when they exited the building and were disciplined harshly by the school. Newsome and Jackson did not occupy the building, and Newsome said the student leaders of the protest urged them not to so they wouldn’t jeopardize their scholarships.

“That led to a lot of kids either leaving school or being kicked out of school,” Jackson said. “I think it was probably 15 to maybe 20 of us left after that situation.”

‘I just raised my game’ With few peers on campus, Newsome felt the effects of racial prejudice at times in the classroom as well.

“I had a faculty person stop me on my way out of the classroom one day and say to me that blacks couldn’t write, looking me right in my face. I don’t know where that came from or why he said it at that moment. And then he said black boys especially can’t write. I was stunned,” Newsome said. “I got about my business to prove him wrong and just made it impossible for him to not recognize my ability. I got early drafts of my essays and all that kind of stuff together and I then had two or three people read it and edit it. I just raised my game.”

A couple of years later, Newsome was appointed the acting dean of black affairs in 1973 while he was in his master’s program at the Divinity School. One of his duties was to oversee Duke’s pre-college summer transitional program, and he said one day, that same professor walked into his office and asked for a job with the program.

“A lot of people tend to think that I said no. I said yes, but only after he and I talked, because I revisited that story that I just shared with you, and I shared with him how I felt that that was not reflective of the best pedagogy,” See FOOTBALL on Page 3

The Chronicle

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 | 3

FOOTBALL

But Jackson struggled to remember his on-field heroics fondly, instead expressing FROM PAGE 2 some disappointment that he didn’t feel as Newsome said. “After we talked extensively, I appreciated as he deserved during his time was persuaded that he got it.” at Duke.

“It just seemed to me that they were so ‘Window dressing’ interested in going that particular direction, Both men were cheered and admired by the it was almost like window dressing,” Jackson African-American fans at their games, whether said. “Black people were just there to say, they played at home or away. Newsome said ‘Yeah, we have black people,’ but not really every time he ran onto the field at Wallace capitalize on it.”

Wade Stadium, he looked up at the unofficial Jackson went on to have an eight-year NFL black seating section career, mostly with the in the top right corner I had a faculty person stop New Orleans Saints, across from what is now before going into business Blue Devil Tower. And me on my way out of the and retiring to follow his when he suffered a knee classroom one day and say to daughter Jamea Jackson’s injury that ended his professional tennis sophomore season on me that blacks couldn’t write career. He now lives near the road at Virginia, he Memphis, Tenn. clarence newsome did the same.

DUKE FOOTBALL PLAYER FROM 1968-72 ‘True blue’ “When the trainers helped me from the On the other hand. field, all the black students in Scott Stadium Newsome remains closely connected to Duke. up at the University of Virginia stood up He became the first African-American to and gave me a standing ovation,” Newsome give the school’s student commencement said. “That gives you some sense of the kind address in 1972, and after staying to earn two of unity among black students at all those more degrees, he became the dean of Howard predominantly white schools.”

University’s divinity school, the president Newsome hurt his knee again during of Shaw University, and most recently the their senior year in 1971, but Jackson became president of the National Underground recognized as the team’s biggest star playing Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. both offense and defense as a cornerback While he served on Duke’s Board of Trustees, and tailback. He scored two touchdowns in a Newsome was part of the search committees to victory against his hometown school South hire head football coach David Cutcliffe and Carolina—one on a punt return and another Kevin White, vice president and director of on an interception return—and he ran another athletics. Last year, the area outside the Yoh interception back for the only touchdown of a Football Center was named the C.G. Newsome 9-3 win against Stanford.

Players Plaza thanks to an anonymous gift in The Blue Devils finished with a 6-5 record his honor, and he was elected a trustee of the for their second straight winning season in Duke Endowment in May. Mike McGee’s first year as head coach after “There isn’t anybody who loves Duke he took over for Harp, and Jackson became football more than I do,” Newsome said. “I’m the first African-American ACC Player of one of those persons who you might say is truly the Year. true blue.”

Chronicle File Photos Ernie Jackson was an All-American and became the first black ACC Player of the Year as a senior in the fall of 1971.

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4 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Building community or breeding solitude?

Independent and affiliated students discuss housing reform at Duke

By Shannon Fang Towerview Managing Editor

Duke’s changing infrastructure, disparity in housing amenities and large proportion of students in selective living make housing reform a difficult case.

Dissatisfaction in housing was brought to light by the Duke Students for Housing Reform, a group created in February 2018 to address the negative housing experiences of students. According to DS4HR, a 2017 Duke Office of Student Affairs survey disclosed that just 56 percent of graduating Duke students reported that their on-campus housing provided a “sense of community and belonging.”

Yet, many students interviewed expressed overwhelming satisfaction with their firstyear housing experience in particular.

Many of the reasons cited include forging relationships with people from different backgrounds and perspectives, feeling a sense of class affiliation and not having barriers to social interactions.

The Chronicle discussed what students hope to see for the future of housing at the University.

Is Duke’s housing system inadequate?

Duke’s biggest issue with housing is divisiveness, according to junior Leah Abrams, a co-founder of DS4HR and the former opinion managing editor of The Chronicle. She believes that Duke’s housing system silos people into separate corners, leaving many students feeling isolated.

“People are not happy in a system of housing that reinforces social divisions, and seem to prefer the freshman year experience—where social divisions exist, but are not exacerbated by a restrictive housing system,” Abrams wrote.

She acknowledged that everyone deserves to live in a space where they feel comfortable and welcomed. Yet, if those spaces impede the ability to engage with others, then Abrams thinks the space must be modified.

Similarly, co-founder of DS4HR Kelsey Graywill ‘18 is concerned that housing is tied to social selectivity. While students may naturally separate into cliques similar to their fraternity, sorority or selective living group, it is not acceptable to institutionalize selectivity, she said.

Graywill lived independently in Sherwood, which she said was one of two independent houses at the time that had community. Without a good community in most independent houses, Graywill said

Sujal Manohar | Photography Editor

West Campus dorms are divided between independent houses and sections for fraternities, sororities and selective living groups. many of her friends sought refuge in her began talking about how we can provide house because they felt isolated. an alternative program for sophomores on “I think people don’t realize how lonely West who aren’t involved in selective groups that is,” Graywill said. “It’s spending your days and to also counter the stigma of living in going to classes and meetings, and coming independent housing,” Pate said. back and staying in your dorm room because Kilgo Rush is a way to bring together Kilgo you don’t know your residents—including neighbors, and there’s People are not happy in affiliated students— no motivation to hang and counter the out together because a system of housing that stressful environment it’s just an independent reinforces social divisions. of rush season, Pate house, right?” explained. She said the Senior Miriam leah abrams rush events have had DUKE STUDENTS FOR HOUSING large attendance and Levitin also said she REFORM CO-FOUNDER that many freshmen knew many people who felt lonely in preferenced Kilgo after independent housing, which pushed them to attending rush events. rush again sophomore year to find a living However, Interfraternity Council community.

President Matthew Conley believes it is Levitin said housing has tainted her Duke difficult to determine if the University has an experience. She was never able to find the issue with housing because its future policies community in housing that she experienced are unknown. her freshman year, even after living with her Senior Emily Davis, also a writer in sorority. Levitin is no longer in the sorority The Chronicle’s sports department, said and now lives off campus because she says that while her housing experience on West Duke did not provide the housing experience Campus was not what she hoped, she does she hoped for. not believe there is an issue with housing.

In 2017, Kilgo began a Kilgo Rush, when the Davis, affiliated with a sorority that lives on dorm held “fully inclusive, no pressure” events Central Campus, lived in a block in West during the month of rush, said senior Sabriyya Campus dorms.

Pate, who helped found the program.

She was surprised by the lack of community “The idea came about when the RAs compared to her first-year dorm—there were fewer open doors and people willing to meet each other—but she attributed that more to the students than the University.

“There wasn’t as much of an openness because people were more well-established on campus, compared to when you’re a freshman and more open to making connections,” Davis said. “I think that once people start to establish their groups, it makes sense to cultivate those relationships you consider long-term.”

Jonah Sinclair | Associates Photography Editor

First-years are randomly assigned into houses on East Campus and now have the option of linking with their dorm into a section on West Campus.

Should Greek organizations and SLGs have their own living space?

Greek organizations and selective living groups are a prominent part of Duke’s housing culture. Approximately 34 percent of Duke students are Greek-affiliated, and about 15 percent of the class of 2018 was affiliated with a selective living group, according to data The Chronicle collected.

According to Joe Gonzalez, assistant vice president of student affairs and dean for residential life, of the students living on West or Central Campus in the Fall 2017 semester, 63 percent lived in independent housing, 21 percent lived in Greek-affiliated housing and

16 percent lived in SLG housing. 1168 students lived off campus in the fall of 2017.

Abrams feels that Greek organizations and SLGs create community, provide comfort and fill social gaps. However, she does not believe these organizations need a living space to be a community.

“These groups can exist and be strong without revolving around housing—I know because I feel so strongly tied to my SLG, despite the fact that I have never lived in its section,” she wrote.

Abrams explained that rush rewards extroverted personalities over others, and personality type should not dictate the housing experience of a student.

For instance, Levitin said she felt pressure to rush freshman year because her friends were rushing, so she worried about having a place to live and people to live with in independent housing. She joined a sorority and lived on Central Campus, yet she resented her sophomore year.

Graywill also felt that she had to rush— despite wanting to be independent—in order to have a family at Duke. She believes many people who did not anticipate rushing ended up doing so because they assimilated to the University’s selective culture.

“People have normalized selectivity in our social life so much that they accept it as an integral part of where we live,” Graywill said.

Graywill and Levitin both believe Duke’s best option is to decouple housing and selective groups, and Levitin noted that many people in these groups already do not live in their sections.

Davis is a proponent that Greek organizations and SLGs should have their own housing. Living together facilitates better relations between individuals in a selective group than if they did not live together, she said, adding that rather than only seeing each other at designated or required events, living together allows spontaneous interactions and creates more sincere bonds.

“While we don’t have a big house for our sorority, we still have our Central section, and I think that it’s really good for the community of the organization to be able to say that this is my community,” Davis said.

Davis added that when she lived in independent housing, she often spent time in her section on Central. If Duke houses affiliated people into independent housing with non-affiliated students, she believes housing will still lack community because the affiliated students will leave the dorm to connect with their group.

Senior Stephanie Wiehe, president of the Panhellenic Association, noted that she has not met a panhellenic woman who joined a sorority solely because of housing.

“We need to consider what our whole community wants, and what is best for the future students, not just ourselves,” Wiehe wrote in an email. “Greek Life/SLGs do make up a significant portion of the undergraduate population, so I do believe Greek life should have a seat at the table when discussing housing reform.”

Conley also believes that fraternities have more to offer than housing. He has enjoyed the option of selective housing, but he hopes reform will happen with input from those it will affect the most. Conley believes an equal housing experience should be the goal, whether it be independent or selective.

“If selective housing in its current form does more harm than good from our student body’s perspective, then we should be willing to change as a university,” he wrote. “If students feel strongly that this system should stay, then we should find a way to ensure it does.”

See HOUSING on Page 5

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Of the students living on West or Central Campus in the Fall 2017 semester...

63% 21% 16%

Lived in independent housing.

Lived in Greek-affiliated housing.

Lived in selective living group housing.

Chronicle File Photo Central Campus allows apartment-style housing for affiliated and unaffiliated students but will stop housing undergraduates after this school year.

re-directed to the regular housing process interest of some type.” because no one else linked.

Conley is in favor of the House Linking FROM PAGE 4 All first-year dorms this year will be offered Program because he believes that more the House Linking Program. freedom of choice for students is beneficial.

Is the new House Linking program beneficial?

The goal of the pilot program was to get a The link also allows larger groups of first-year The House Linking Program allows the sense of how many students would choose to friendships to continue compared to blocking, opportunity for students in a freshmen dorm link and ensure they could be accommodated, he noted. to be housed together on West Campus if Gonzalez said. Even if all dorms had the However, Abrams does not think the they opt into the program. The program same participation as Brown, Gonzalez program will be effective unless it is was piloted by Lizzie Speed ‘18, former vice feels confident that housing will be able to mandatory for everyone. If the goal of the president of campus life, and Gonzalez. accommodate everyone program is to maintain In an email, Speed said she hopes the who links. the community of I hope that our solution is program addresses the inequity that affiliated Students who link the first-year dorm, students are able to live in groups upwards of do not know which not simply to model the next but only a fraction 30 people, while independent students can dorm they will live in era of housing off of another of the dorm links, only block with up to six students. on West until housing then it “defeats the “The House Link program was designed assignments are released. university’s system. entire purpose of the to aid continuity of the special communities They also do not have randomly generated matthew conley community,” she wrote. that are so unique to East Campus houses,” the option to rank INTERFRATERNITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT Speed wrote. “I hope that students who feel dorms. This decision Graywill echoed drawn to rush because they do not want to fixes an issue that arose a similar sentiment, live independently, but who otherwise do not 10 years ago, when Duke had a similar linking calling linking a “halfway solution” because feel that selective groups are right for them, program. The old program predesignated rush occurs before the House Linking will feel that they now have an alternative where each freshman dorm was matched on option, so few students will choose to link. community-based housing option.”

West Campus, so students chose to link largely She also noted that although East Campus Last year, the House Linking Pilot based on location. communities are often romanticized to be Program was offered to three dorms on East “Using the houses as the community basis very close, many students feel distant from Campus. According to Gonzalez, Brown makes great sense because they’re so diverse their dorms. had 25 students, Giles had 11 students and and they’re randomly formed,” Gonzalez said.

Blackwell had one student opt into the “We’re not as interested in larger blocks that Should Duke adopt a residential college Link Program. The Blackwell student was forge more from a social group or common system?

The residential college system randomly assigns students into a residential college, where they spend all four years. The colleges are microcosms of the school and often hold their own events and have their own dining halls. Peer institutions like Yale and Rice institute this living system with hopes to promote cohesiveness.

Abrams liked the idea of a residential college system because it provides the opportunity for communities consisting of randomly grouped individuals to develop throughout several years. She wrote that the system is not restrictive and can facilitate friendships outside of the residential college as well.

Davis agreed her housing experience would have been more fulfilling had she lived with her freshman dorm all four years.

“It’s not just a community I affiliated with, it’s not something I chose but something I created,” Davis said. “I think that’s a special thing—to meet a bunch of strangers and be really good friends with them by the end of the year—and I think it would be more special if you had more time to engage with those conversations and get to know them.”

However, she acknowledged that the David Xian | Contributing Photographer system would be hit or miss because many Duke Students for Housing Reform was established last spring to advocate for improvements to the students did not enjoy their first-year housing experience.

University’s current housing structure.

HOUSING

Conley had concerns about how Duke would ensure equal standards of living given the differences in dorm quality and location, and Graywill expressed similar concerns, explaining that West Campus dorms are large with small common rooms, and they lack characteristics such as separate dining halls.

“I do not believe Duke has the infrastructure to support a residential college system in the same way as institutions like Harvard and Yale,” Conley wrote. “I hope that our solution is not simply to model the next era of housing off of another university’s system. We can create a new system that fits our University perfectly.”

What are the future hopes for housing?

Graywill hopes that students are vocal about the need for housing reform.

“The voice has to come from the students and that has to be loud, because otherwise administrators will continue to operate on their own timeline,” Graywill said.

She noted that many administrators assume they know what is best for the University because they look at long-term outcomes, whereas students consider short-term effects.

Yet, many students are dissatisfied with the current housing model that makes them feel isolated and lonely.

Gonzalez noted that housing matters, and the conversations on campus pose important questions and ideas.

“Whether this leads to strategies to strengthen the current model or a new approach, ultimately we want to continue building the strongest residential experience possible,” he wrote.

Abrams and Levitin both stated that they just hoped for change. Because students are only on campus for four years, Levitin said implementing change may be difficult for current students, but would benefit future classes. For example, Duke’s decision to make East Campus an allfreshman campus in 1997 faced resistance, but it is now one of the defining features of the school, Levitin said.

Given the University’s unique campus qualities, Conley and Wiehe both hope that Duke considers the input of all students to create a housing system that is particular to Duke.

Davis hopes Duke continues to facilitate community in whichever system it decides to pursue.

“It’s really easy to get lost in the sea of thousands of undergraduates and large campus, and it’s very easy to feel overwhelmed by that,” Davis said. “My freshman housing experience showed me that if you live with good people, you have the opportunity to make Duke feel a little bit smaller.”

6 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

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Tinder and turbines: How sophomores balanced personal and professional growth last summer

By Yuexuan Chen Staff Reporter

There’s no serious pressure to do research, coursework, an internship or volunteer project.

You haven’t even declared your major, and jobs and careers are a world away from East Campus. It’s sophomore summer.

“We have two more summers before we start working, and then summer’s not a thing anymore,” sophomore Kemunto Okindo said.

These are some stories about how Duke sophomores spent their summer.

‘Stumblin’ around the streets of Cusco’ Okindo built wind turbines on an independent DukeEngage project with Windaid in Trujillo, Peru. On a long weekend, Okindo and her two friends took two planes, a bus and train to Cusco and Machu Picchu.

“I don’t know if it was stomach flu or food poisoning,” Okindo said. “I got to Cusco at 7 a.m. and threw up a bunch of times. I slept the whole day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and missed exploring the city.”

Hussein Ali, another volunteer at Windaid, happened to be in Cusco at the same time.

He knocked on their door and told Okindo that they were going to a market and that she should come for good bargains. Okindo said she wasn’t feeling well, but Hussein called her a baby and persuaded her to make the most of her only day in Cusco. “‘I was stumblin’ around the streets of Cusco,” Okindo said.

Cusco is at 11,000 feet above sea level, which means being sick, tired and hungry all day made walking around a struggle. They got to the “huge open market that had everything: food, clothes, random electronics, counterfeit stuff,” and Hussein looked over at Okindo and said, “I probably shouldn’t have made her come out of the room.”

Hussein then piggybacked Okindo all the way back to the hotel and up the six flights of stairs to Okindo’s room.

Photo Courtesy of Kemunto Okindo

Sophomore Kemunto Okindo (seventh from left) spent her summer exploring Cusco and Macchu Picchu in Peru.

The two girls went on a food tour through Birthright, eating cereal for most meals in order to have money to eat at nice restaurants for dinner.

It was also her third summer working at The Cabana.

“It’s one of the most popular spots in Long ‘It’s okay to be at home’ Beach,” Thursland said. “It was really fun seeing Sophomore Ali Thursland, who writes for my elementary school teachers blacked out The Chronicle, went to Israel on Birthright and every Saturday.”

‘Got really sweaty, got a bit of a tan’ waitressed at The Cabana, a Mexican-American She said that everyone should try Sophomore Amory Williams spent his bar and restaurant at home in Long Beach, N.Y. waitressing at some point because it builds summer working at Shelby Bottoms Park at “I’m half Jewish and wasn’t raised Jewish, so good people skills.

“I felt self-conscious at the beginning of home in Nashville, helping maintain and build I learned as I went,” she said. trails along the Cumberland River.

Going to Israel also marked her first time summer, but I’ve learned that it’s okay not to “I got really sweaty, got a bit of a tan, spent out of the country. Birthright gives the option have a really cool internship,” Thursland said. time with my brother’s big ol’ great dane Bernie, of extending the duration of the trip, but “It’s okay to be at home, make money and spent time with my siblings, connected with an Thursland was unsure about traveling alone. spend time with friends.” old friend named Brooke from high school, On a night out in Haifa, she met a friend on fought with Mom once or twice and met a girl the trip who also wanted to extend and didn’t ‘Burnt nuts smell horrible’ on Tinder named Amanda Raye whose head have anyone to extend with. So, 12 hours before Every summer for the past five years, was shaved like mine,” Williams said. “We got their original flight home, they got their trip sophomore Erin Crumpler has spent three along, hit it off, watched movies together, went extended and found an Airbnb together. weeks working as a counselor at a kids’ tennis camp at home in Dallas.

“Working with kids can be very difficult, especially in 100 degree heat at nine in the morning,” Crumpler said. “They sometimes accidentally hit each other with rackets and they cry, and it becomes difficult.”

It’s hard keeping control of 14 children younger than 10 years old, she said.

She also worked at a cupcakery, painted a lot and took an online chemistry course to prepare for chemistry at Duke because the last time she took the subject was her sophomore year of high school.

“I like working when it’s not necessarily a lot of brain power, and you get to see your friends,” Crumpler said. “I frosted so many cupcakes. So many. And I got hella good at it.”

In her chemistry class, she found out that “fatty nuts are hard to light on fire” and “burnt nuts smell horrible in a closed room” during a calorimeter experiment. The experiment was conducted in the craft room Photo Courtesy of Kemunto Okindo with the door closed so the cats couldn’t get Kemunto Okindo helped build wind turbines in Trujillo, Peru on an independent DukeEngage project into dangerous chemicals. with Windaid.

to the adventure science center, very quickly got comfortable around one another, had a very nice time doing nothing.”

Raye came to visit Williams last weekend at Duke.

“We miss each other a lot,” Williams said.

‘You wanna take a peek at this spine?’

Sophomore Rohin Maganti stayed on campus doing radiation oncology research for the summer. His project has continued into the school year and he studies a gene that is known as a radiation sensitizer—meaning that the gene could potentially make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation. This allows for lower radiation levels for treatment, and less healthy tissue death.

“It’s not going very well,” he said. “It’s hard to come in every day, including the weekends.”

Maganti also rock climbed at Wilson Gym a lot and volunteered at a pediatric bone marrow transplant ward.

“It was sad because kids are on super high levels of medication,” he said. “A kid was shaking all the time and kept holding my hand. His lip was quivering and didn’t say anything the entire time. The nurse said it was normal.”

He also saw spine surgery and was surprised at how relaxed the operation room was, with one of the surgeons saying, “Alright Rohin, you wanna take a peek at this spine?”

Maganti is a biomedical engineering premed student and said that his medical school mentor taught him to be more relaxed.

‘Not just objects of society but subjects’ Sophomore Anwulika Okonjo described her summer at home in Lagos, Nigeria as a “very emotionally intense holiday.”

She worked with sexual assault survivors and also spent time on her research project about African feminism for the Duke Social Movements Lab. Her project started off as a documentary and is now developing an online platform for African women to tell their narratives.

“I was just in Nigeria, and women my age in Nigeria were coming forward about their experiences with sexual assault,” she said. “It was guys that I knew…. It hit very, very close to home.”

“Are you one of them?” her ex-boyfriend messaged at 3 in the morning. His friend’s sister See SUMMER on Page 7

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SUMMER FROM PAGE 6 was sexually assaulted, and Okonjo replied that she was not.

“This led to conversations with parents and other parents,” Okonjo said. “These were really big growing experiences, very tough conversations.

Within a week, we formed an activist group called We Will Not Be Silenced.”

They quickly organized a march in Lagos of 300 people and worked to create safe spaces for victims. We Will Not Be Silenced partnered with African feminist groups and helped connect girls to psychologists.

“It’s cool seeing [movements like MeToo] happen in the West, but African stories are just as valid and just as prominent,” Okonjo said.

“We are not just objects of society but subjects.

We are very tuned in and sharing from this knowledge. African women have contributed

TOWERVIEW

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 | 7

so much to development…. Why do we never hear about this?”

‘You’ll always end up right where you belong’ I spent my summer solo traveling in China and Alaska. When my Duke in Alaska biology course ended, I didn’t book a ticket out and ended up staying in Alaska until the end of July.

On the evening of July 8, I was sitting by the Chokosna Trading Post, thumb ready and backpack serving as a stool, waiting for a ride on McCarthy Road in Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska. The dirt road sat still with not one car passing by.

Surrounded by mountains and armed with bear spray, I had one question on my mind: “How did I end up here?”

Nick, a guy I met climbing in Valdez, gave me a ride to Tonsina where the road into McCarthy starts, and I stuck my thumb out for the first time in my life. With dumb luck, Photo Courtesy of Ali Thursland Sophomore Ali Thursland toured Israel on her Birthright trip and extended her stay there before returning home to work at a Mexican restaurant in New York.

an old beige-white Ford truck with a black stripe and two blue barrels for gas in the back stopped just as Nick pulled away.

The driver Jenny popped her door open and moved her dog to behind the seat. She told me to hop in and said that she could give me a ride to mile 30. Jenny is a wildlife firefighter and was on the way to see her dying father-in-law.

Jenny dropped me off at Chokosna Trading Post, leaving me her phone number and telling me that if I couldn’t get a ride, I could stay at her place for the night and catch a ride tomorrow.

Next, a red van stopped for me, and a mom came out to rearrange the groceries in the trunk to make space for my pack. She Photo Courtesy of Yuexuan Chen dropped me off at mile 50, where Matthew Sophomore Yuexuan Chen spent part of her summer hitchhiking across Alaska after taking a biology met me on his motorcycle. Within 30 course there for Duke. minutes, I had made it to my host family’s

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beautiful lodge at mile 56.7.

On an empty Alaskan dirt road, sitting in complete silence at Chokosna Trading Post, I had this profound feeling that I was on my own, but never alone. I went to Alaska knowing zero people there, but I somehow made friends and always had someone there for me. I came with no plans or expectations and left with stories and adventures that I never could have imagined.

Sophomore summer was about personal growth to help us find our way on West Campus and into the professional world. As summer turns into fall, the carefree sophomore summer is replaced with the dreaded sophomore slump and the anxiety of choosing a major.

In the face of stress and uncertainty, I’ll remember what Jenny told me: “You’ll always end up right where you belong.”

The Chronicle

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8 | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

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