Ben Abram Chapel Hill, North Carolina Double Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public Policy
A lot of important things happen for Ben Abram around the dinner table.
It was over dinner at his parents' house in Chapel Hill that Abram's mother, a psychologist, suggested he take more science classes. "I told her okay, but only if it's applied science." That was one reason why Abram switched his major from social sciences to civil and environmental engineering. "And I'm loving it."
Abram is now the senior class president of the engineering school. He's also studying public policy at the Sanford Institute, where he is a teaching assistant in an introductory class.
Every Wednesday night, Abram "packs as many friends and future friends as I can" around the dinner table in his small apartment for conversations with distinguished speakers. The guest list has included David Folkenflik, a correspondent for National Public Radio, Edward B. Fiske, publisher of the eponymous college guide, and Sonal Shah, vice president of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Other speakers have been from Duke, including Samuel Wells, the noted religious educator and dean of Duke Chapel. Abram remains impressed that one guest, Matt Gross, The New York Times' "Frugal Traveler," hopscotched around the world in 96 days and for just $4,000.
The dinners are not only exhilarating, but they are free for Abram and his classmates. The funds for them and other programs to connect students and faculty come from Duke President Richard Brodhead, who sets aside $100,000 to encourage such intimate social and intellectual contact.
For Abram, the weekly chores of setting up dinner and picking up food -- recently it was barbecue from Durham's Q Shack restaurant -- are well worth the gains for him and fellow students. "Having a connection, a real connection, with faculty members means so much," he says. "Having a solid conversation -- ‘Where are you headed?' ‘What's going on with your work?' -- is very, very important. It helps. We are all so busy that it's really hard to connect."
Tall, lean, and charged with energy, Abram is committed to environmental causes and progressive politics. Guest speakers may have to stand next to his mountain bike or push aside hiking boots to mingle with students. In 2004, he printed up and sold or gave away 1,500 politically themed T-shirts. He hoped to work with Virginia Gov. Mark Warner until Warner decided not to run for the presidency. He preaches engagement with issues and campus dialogue and for that reason is promoting the nonpartisan CampusProgress.org.
Ben, whose grandfather Morris Abram was a civil rights advocate and president of Brandeis University, is engaged in other ways. That includes keeping up with a homeless 12-year-old youngster who lives with his mother and four siblings in a local motel through a Durham housing program. They met through Abram's FOCUS program at Duke.
Abram says students should be adventurous in their Duke careers and be willing to take more risks. Last summer, his interests in travel, engineering and good works came together in Uganda through Engineers Without Borders. He was part of a group that worked on improving water supply and quality in two rural villages where waterborne illness and silted-in wells were frequent problems.
"We studied the water supply system from source to use and worked on wells," he says. "We learned that villagers sometimes got sick even when the water was clean. It isn't enough to boil the water if you're using contaminated containers."