Celebrating Scholarships
and Fellowships at Duke
Each year, Duke holds a special event to recognize and celebrate scholarship and fellowship donors, honorees, and student recipients.
Last year, for the first time, the student speaker for the event was selected through a competitive process. Building on the success of last year’s competition, the Student Advisory Council for Duke’s Financial Aid Initiative sent an email to all sophomore, junior, and senior financial aid recipients inviting them to enter the competition. Staff members and volunteers working on the Financial Aid Initiative reviewed applications and selected the winner.
Congratulations to the winner, Mimi Kim, and to the five other finalists. On this page, you can listen to Mimi's winning speech (above), listen to President Brodhead's remarks, and read excerpts from the finalists' speeches.
Richard Brodhead
President, Duke University
If you see any group of six or more Duke students in any context, you may be sure that I would never be able to tell looking at them which ones of those students were here on their parents' dime and which ones were here with the assistance of financial aid.
The 2007 Scholarship Dinner Speaker Finalists
Jane Yumi Chong T'09
Elk Grove, IL
Duke recognizes that it’s as painful for one person to buy a plane ticket to school as it is for someone else to write out a check for a full semester’s tuition. Our needs vary, just as our backgrounds vary, and to think that I am here with thousands of other students, many of whom can easily pay their way and some of whom struggle with just their ticket and their textbooks, gives the words diversity and equal opportunity a whole new personal dimension.
Alfredo Garcia T'08
Miramar, FL
Through my financial aid package, I was given the ability to claim Duke. I was given a chance, a starting capital if you will, to do something great. Sitting there with my parents, looking over the numbers and all the other details that a Duke education implied, I realized that I was tremendously lucky. Strangers that I had never met—and most likely would never get to meet—were contributing to my education.
Celeste Jackson T'10
Langhorne, PA
The Duke financial aid team took the time to talk with me about my situation, to get to know me, and to understand my struggles. Duke was the only school that truly evaluated my situation and committed to ensuring that I was able to matriculate.
Valerie Tornini T'10
Port Chester, NY
My high school had limited resources. At Duke, I’ve completed a historical interview with Ari Patrinos, played with the pep band at Madison Square Garden, observed wild horses near the Duke Marine Lab, heard Maya Angelou speak, gone to a conference with Francis Collins, explored my faith at a religious retreat, and worked at a Medical Center lab working on a vaccine for AIDS—all in just my first year.
Matt Williams T'09
Northville, MI
I have been given an opportunity—an opportunity to learn and grow,
an opportunity to live life to its
fullest, an opportunity to both learn about and appreciate life’s diversity and differences, an opportunity to excel in the career of my choice and to someday give back to those who have helped guide me along the path of life. And perhaps most importantly, I’ve been given an opportunity to make a difference in this world.
Last Year's Scholarship Speaker
Listen to last year’s winning speech by Diana Perez T’07 here.