#MyDukeMoment

When Elliott Johnson ’11 learned that he and fellow classmates Edwin Alan Coleman and Nikhul Arun had won the Duke Alumni Association’s annual photo recreation contest called “My Duke Moment,” he immediately began practicing his pose.

That’s because Johnson’s pose is actually a jump—and five years after jumping for the original photo, he wanted to make sure he could stick it again for his professional photo shoot during Reunions Weekend last April.

Since the inaugural “My Duke Moment” contest in 2015, DAA has invited alumni returning for their class reunions to submit a photo of their favorite campus memory and then selected a handful of winners to participate in a modern recreation.

During their senior year, Johnson, Coleman and Arun staged a simultaneous jumping shot on East Campus during the Hindu spring festival of colors known as Holi. In India and Nepal, participants douse each other with brightly-colored powders as an extension of friendship. In the trio’s photo, the friends are jumping side-by-side—their expressions of joy showing on their powder-covered faces.

While this trio of Duke alumni are now spread across the country, Coleman says when they see each other again, they pick up right where they left off.

“We don’t experience the lack of love or we don’t experience the void of friendship,” Coleman says. “Because it’s there. Having this photo occur again in a way proves it. It’s a tangible proof that it never left.”

Hallie Harper Giuliano '96, returning to campus last year for her 20th class reunion, rallied six out of seven of her friends for their photo shoot. The six alumnae laughed as they pretended to toss graduation caps above their heads--one alumna, Lindsey Tyler Argalas '96, from San Francisco, sticking out her tongue to mimic the original photo. Giuliano said being able to meet up at Reunions Weekend to recreate the group's graduation photo was special considering the long-lasting and close ties the alumnae have shared over the past 24 years.

"We hailed from Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Nebraska—but met each other on the floor of our former dorm, Hanes House, as wide-eyed freshmen," Giuliano wrote in her "My Duke Moment" photo submission. "In the twenty years since graduating, we have gotten together at least twice every year despite living all over the globe. Seven marriages, multiple graduate degrees, several career changes, 15 babies, seven 40th birthday celebrations and phone calls too numerous to count have enriched our lives beyond anything we could've imagined when we made the life-changing decision to attend Duke."

Visit MyDukeMoment.com to submit a favorite photo of you and your friends from your Duke days.