Alumni Share Congratulations, Advice with New Graduates

As the members of Duke's Class of 2016 prepare to graduate, Duke alumni from all over the world are offering them words of wisdom for navigating the post-graduation life. 

In the weeks leading up to commencement ceremonies May 13-15, more than 450 alumni representing Duke's undergraduate, graduate and professional schools offered advice.

Those alumni sentiments were transformed into handwritten notes with the help of Bond, a company founded by Sonny Caberwal '01 that uses robotic handwriting machines to turn typed text into inked script.

The Duke Alumni Association will assemble the notes on a wall during Class Day on May 13, an annual celebration for Duke seniors, and invite the students to take one.

Alumni offered wisdom from personal experience that included encouragement ("It's Okay not to go to law school," wrote Victoria Bright '10) to survival tips ("Cap'n Crunch is not just for breakfast," wrote Brian Knox '91) to tips on restarting ("If like me you did not have enough fun in college, make up for it in grad school. Harvard Business School is a blast!," wrote Lisa Banov '86).

Emmeline Zhao '11 wanted her reader to remember graduating didn't mean saying goodbye to the Duke community.

"Remember your Duke family," she wrote, "They'll be there for you every step of the way. The Duke family post-grad is even more spectacular and loving than on campus."

Inga Peterson, assistant vice president of alumni affairs who leads DAA’s campus engagement efforts, said the senior notes project is an echo of what the alumni association is trying to instill more broadly among Duke students -- "a sense that the community is there, that it cares about what their paths are going to look like going forward."

Many alumni who participated encouraged graduating students to continue on the path of life-long learning.

"As you pack your bags, pack in your heart the lessons of respect for others and seeing the beauty in the world around you," wrote Anne Bavier '70. "Your quest for knowledge has not ended."

And that quest for knowledge may find a stop with alumni. The majority included their contact information to encourage students to reach out in the future. 

That outcome couldn't be any better for a project designed to engage the campus and to remind students of the resources available to them as they take their next steps, Peterson said.

"It would be incredible if there are organic opportunities for community that come out of this," she said.