Eight Stories of Exploration from the Duke & DKU Class of 2025
Jenny Green
Pratt School of Engineering
Jenny Green didn’t come to Duke hoping to pursue a career in academia. As an electrical and computer engineering and math major, she expected to graduate and enter the workforce.
However, her experience as a teaching assistant for the Signals and Systems (ECE 280L) lab for the last four semesters helped to change her mind. She saw how passionate her professors and graduate students were about teaching, and she caught the bug.
I enjoy the experience of sharing what I am passionate about with students ... and I like seeing students become more passionate about those things.
Jenny Green
When she wasn’t working with engineering students, Green has been an active member of Hoof ‘n’ Horn, the student-run musical theater group.
After graduating from Duke, Green will start a Ph.D. program in the fall in applied mathematics at the University of Washington.
“I decided to go for applied math because I thought it combined the things I am interested in academically well,” she said. “It provides some of the rigor in thinking that I found math classes give me, but it’s still all grounded in and motivated by applications, which is important to me.”
Read the full story at the Pratt School website.
Andrew Trexler
Sanford School of Public Policy
In an age awash with digital content and 24/7 news cycles, how well does the information we consume actually equip us for democratic life? This critical question lies at the heart of the research conducted by Andrew Trexler, who is graduating with a Ph.D. earned through the joint program in public policy and political science. Trexler studies the interplay between political communication, the news media, public opinion, and the health of democratic norms in the United States.
“I am particularly interested in the contemporary information environment: how people get news information, how news information affects their attitudes and behaviors, how the information environment both affects and is affected by policy decisions of governments and civil society,” he said.
“Much of my current work is centered on who U.S. political news is written for (and who it is not written for), analyzing the media’s faltering capacity to provide the broad public with news information that is critical for democratic accountability — and identifying what could be done to improve that capacity.
In the fall, he will join the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an assistant professor of political science.
Read the full story on the Sanford School website.
Billy Cao
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Billy Cao, a 2025 graduating Trinity senior with majors in literature and biology, is interested in where the humanities and science meet.
Cao’s coursework allowed him to explore this relationship. Cao said that Antonio Viego’s literature class, Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory, presented him with new ways to consider the human mind and how mental disorders are diagnosed and categorized. Cao then became interested in the history of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
In his senior thesis on the topic, Cao explores the ways these standardized disorders occurred within different places and times. He argues that historical fiction, such as Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno,” can offer insights into the dilemmas of psychiatric research.
Cao also notes that in the past, the male-dominated fields of psychiatry and psychology ascribed certain disorders disproportionately to women. “There's been a lot of feminist scholarship that tries to reclaim psychiatric labels such as BPD,” Cao said. “Some people are now using these labels in a colloquial sense to describe themselves.”
Cao works in the lab of Professor Lucia Strader, where he studies plant hormone signaling pathways. He’s planning for a career in molecular biology and credits the study of literature and theory with broadening his perspective about the filters through which we view scientific discoveries.
Read the full story on the Trinity College website.
Samantha Bernier Bermudez
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Samantha Bernier Bermudez is a Trinity senior graduating in 2025 with a major in mathematics and minors in education and cinematic arts.
What is a favorite tradition or experience that makes Duke special to you?
One thing about Duke is their traditions. Whether it’s burning a bench after beating UNC at home or attending seniors-only midnight breakfast on east campus, Duke really tries its best to be one-of-a-kind (and I think it succeeds).
Who is someone from your undergraduate years that has made a positive impact on your academic life?
This would have to be Kristen Gerondelis, who used to be the teaching coordinator for the Duke mathematics department. Kristen first hired me as a T.A. for Calc 122 back in Fall of 2022 and, since then, I’ve gotten to do what I love every single week – help undergraduate students on math problems.
Read the full story on the Trinity College website.
What are your plans after graduation?
After graduation, I’ll have the privilege of teaching middle school math in the county I grew up in! I applied to Duke wanting to become a math teacher, and that’s exactly what I achieved.
Annie Zhu
Duke Kunshan University
Canadian by passport, raised in China and shaped by a global mindset, Annie Zhu came to Duke Kunshan University with a mission: to become a bridge between cultures. It wasn’t easy at first. She arrived during a pandemic with just a handful of other international students on campus.
But Zhu persisted. As president of the Psychology Club, she replaced lecture-style seating in the room with circles, allowing conversations to flow more freely. It wasn’t just psychology that was of interest, but also what goes on inside the brain. That led her to the neuroscience lab, where she joined a study on sleep deprivation and motor learning.
She trained as a peer mentor and served as an orientation captain welcoming first-year students.
“There’s something magical about watching people make their first college friends,” she said. “It feels like witnessing the very beginning of their journey — and getting to walk alongside them.”
Her journey hasn’t been just about science. She also has been a member of the a cappella club, singing with students from around the world.
“A cappella demands the same focus as research,” she laughs. “Precision, teamwork and the secret ingredient — creativity.”
As she prepares to graduate, Zhu looks forward to pursuing her graduate studies in global health at Duke University.
Read the full story on the Duke Kunshan website.
Jenna Yeam
Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
Jenna Yeam doesn’t see death as a taboo subject. In fact, talking about death is what she plans to do after she graduates later this month.
Although it’s not what she came to Duke thinking she would do after graduation, Yeam plans to become an end-of-life doula — a non-medical professional who provides support, companionship, and guidance to people facing a terminal illness or imminent death.
She came to Duke with a plan to major in psychology. During her sophomore year, Yeam became a research assistant at the Center for Advanced Hindsight. While working on a project on financial resiliency in Latin America, she learned about a developing qualitative research project focusing on end-of-life doulas.
That same year, through the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Yeam took what she learned from her research on end-of-life doulas and put it into practice.
Read the full story on the Kenan Institute for Ethics.
She and others formed a student-led research and action lab at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, the Regenerative Futures Lab. Her team hosted a death café where Duke students shared their thoughts on death, loss and dignity.
After graduation, she plans to travel as an end-of-life doula, attend death cafés, and bring more young people into the Death Positive Movement.
Destiny Benjamin
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Destiny Benjamin is a senior from South Carolina majoring in African & African American studies and minoring in political science and sociology.
During her time at Duke, Benjamin served as chief of staff of the Black Women’s Union and co-treasurer for United in Praise Gospel Choir.
What is one of your fondest memories as an undergraduate student at Duke?
All of my fondest memories as an undergraduate student have occurred in the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. From meeting my best friends, building a support system and community with the staff, and cultivating new opportunities, every day at The Lou is a day full of memories.
What is something you love about Durham?
I love Durham’s rich Black history and the diversity of its community. In my years at Duke, I’ve enjoyed supporting Black-owned businesses in the area, attending church at The River, and engaging with organizations working to eradicate systemic issues.
What are your plans after graduation?
After graduation, I’m going to graduate school to get my Ph.D. in Black studies.
Read the full story on the Trinity College website.
Steph Bossert
Sanford School of Public Policy
Steph Bossert came to Duke to learn about public policy but is leaving in hopes of changing a law she believes will help people like herself — dependents of service members disabled or killed in action, as well as former POWs/MIA.
A Gold Star daughter, Bossert was led to the Master of National Security Policy program at the Sanford School of Public Policy by her desire to pursue an advanced degree in national security.
She’s pursued her degree while also an active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force, serving as a director of operations in Air Force Special Operations.
“Duke is a fantastic school, and the opportunity to go to grad school while also working full time was just too good to pass up,” she said.
She ran into a personal challenge, however, when she learned that because she was on active duty, she did not qualify for VA Chapter 35 education benefits. She penned an op-ed calling for change, which ran in Stars & Stripes. Now she is working with her Texas senator on a bill to change the law and extend Chapter 35 benefits to active-duty service members.
After graduation, she heads to Colorado where she will teach at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Read the full story on the Sanford School website.