Rachel Wald Richardson, Texas Double Major: Political Science and Spanish Language
Maybe if she had known what would result from the e-mail she sent to an eminent Duke professor, Rachel Wald might have been nervous. Instead, Wald, who was studying in Spain, simply asked for a research assistantship with a top figure in her major field.
His reply: "Call me in January when you're back."
"I had no idea how special this experience would be and how lucky I am," she says. "This is the best experience I could have asked for as an undergraduate."
When she returned to Duke from her study abroad in January 2006, Wald was among a number of students interviewed by Bruce Jentleson, a professor of public policy studies and political science and former director of Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. Despite his prominence, Jentleson turned out to be very approachable, Wald says.
He was looking for two research assistants for a new book, tentatively titled Profiles in Statesmanship: The Courage and Vision to Build a Better World. Inspired in part by President John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, it will examine the difference made by individual statesmen, such as Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev, who took personal or political risks in the name of leadership.
Wald won one of the assistantships and has spent months working on the book. First, she studied the career of Mandela -- reading books, journals and articles and interviewing several people who know the Nobel Prize-winning former president of the Republic of South Africa. (Student colleague Jimmy Soni, '07, won the other assistantship and was assigned the Gorbachev chapter.)
She didn't have to go far for one top expert. Without leaving campus, she was able to speak with James Joseph, professor of the practice at the Sanford Institute. Joseph has had a career ranging from civil-rights organizer in Alabama in the early 1960s to an appointment by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to the post-apartheid South Africa, where he worked with Mandela. "That was a wonderful thing for him to do and it was a terrific interview," she says.
The opportunity to collaborate on a significant project with a faculty member is one Wald says she will always appreciate. She knows it is the kind of "engagement" -- to use Duke President Richard Brodhead's word -- that the university prides itself on offering its students.
"Professor Jentleson is phenomenal, a wonderful mentor and teacher," she says.
Wald has also used her interests in language and international diplomacy in other ways. The summer after her sophomore year she worked for the Mexican government as an intern in its office of Human Rights and Special Affairs in Washington, D.C. "The job at the embassy was not high level, but I did get to attend a number of congressional hearings, including the high profile Guantanamo Bay hearing, and get good exposure."
Wald eventually plans to go to law school and to earn a master's degree in international relations, but first expects to work for a year or two.
"I need, and I quote here, ‘some life experience,'" she says with a smile.