Duke University

Image result for duke logo

Freshman Traditions
“Making Her Way”

Camila Saavedra
Durham, NC
Fall 2018

Informant Data:

Camila Saavedra was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 2, 2000. She has lived in Charlotte for all of her life.  She attended Charlotte Country Day School for high school. She attends Duke University. At Duke, Camila is undecided about her major, but is considering the psychology major and is on the pre-med tack. Outside of her academics, Camila enjoys making Spotify playlists and sharing the music with her friends. Camila enjoys French cinema and some of the favorite movies include Indochine and Aurevoir Les Enfants.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context:

Duke is private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Duke was established in 1838. Duke is known for their strong academics and athletic teams. There are currently 6,994 undergraduates enrolled at Duke university.

Social Context:

There are certain criteria that the freshman experience entire year. Freshman usually undergo typical traditions like freshman orientation. Duke has special traditions and rites of passages to welcome the freshman into the community in addition to the social and athletic events. They do what they can to make the students feel welcome into the community during this huge transition in their lives. Still, orientation to college can be overwhelming and a little hectic.

Item:

At the beginning of the year Duke has an orientation week that is full of different activities for the students. Camila found this week super hectic and little overwhelming. The beginning of Duke was a bit lonely because it was hard to meet a lot of people. Camila finally felt incorporated into the school when she finally started recognizing people on campus and made some friends. This gave her a group of people to talk to and eat meals with which made her feel like she belonged. Second semester, Camila joined a Latina sorority which gave her another sense of belonging and another loyal group of friends. Duke’s basketball season helped students feel incorporated to the school because it bonded the student body. They all were supporting the same team and could bond over the team’s success. The basketball games are inclusive and very fun. For freshmen, there is a secret bucket list of things that they should complete. Camila did not participate in this rite of passage. The traditions at Duke are important because they help create a sense of community within the school.

Transcript:

“Everybody could bond over how well the team was doing and seeing all the students at the basketball games themselves and being part of that was so inclusive and fun.”

“A sense of community is essential for a school, especially on a college campus where everyone is away from their family and needs to create a sort of family or community for themselves.”

Collector’s Comments: 

Duke’s sports environment is very different from Dartmouth’s. Having such a famous and successful basketball team is a way to create school camaraderie. Freshmen at Dartmouth do not participate in Greek life until sophomore year, but I imagine Camila’s feeling in her Latina sorority is similar to how Dartmouth freshmen feel when they join clubs. A lot of Dartmouth freshmen find a good group of friends when they participate with the DOC. 

Caroline K. Jones
Dartmouth College
Russian 13
Spring 2019