学生电台|爱上美国杜克大学，不止因为全美Top10

秋风飒爽的季节里，环境政策硕士专业第二届学生已经来到美国杜克大学，开启他们在美国的新旅程。在第一届学长学姐的经验传授下，他们更快地适应新的学习生活，也在这里写下与杜克的独家记忆，分享给即将来到美国杜克大学的学弟学妹们。

01

文：王紫安，2020届  

对于第一次来到美国，进入杜克校园的iMEP新生来说，在结束一年充实学习和紧凑实习生活之后，适应新环境是比学习和工作更紧张的一件事。

从居住的小区出发，沿着Erwin Road往西，穿过围绕在茂密树林间的马路。这条不算长的上学路上，我们可能遇到如下几种生物里的一种或多种：对你无动于衷的大尾巴松鼠，排队过马路的兔子全家，蓬松的香喷喷的小奶狗。在这里，我们无需担心精神世界不够满足，首周的orientation上，我们接触到了来自Wilson recreation中心开展的各种文娱活动，游泳健身，登山攀岩，瑜伽插花，学习下厨做饭则是需要排队抢订的热门活动；此外，在Duke Performance购买观看演出可以享受属于学生的优惠价格。

大尾巴松鼠

&超萌小奶狗

挑选周末前往的超市也是一门学问：Costco货仓丰富新鲜，带着全家前往可以囤积一到两周的存量；沃尔玛有各种难以预估热量但保证幸福的蛋糕零食，出门左转的Best Buy可以买到经济范围内的贵价产品；但如果你需要十三香和老干妈等中国留学生的生存必备品，黎明超市则是探宝的最好去处；奶茶和川菜馆永远是中国留学生间不会停止的热门话题，小区的鲜芋仙和成都菜配送每日络绎不绝；远一些的Southpoint，丝芙兰和梅西百货总可以让人精神愉悦；Amazon和eBay当然更是大家心照不宣的淘货市场。

作为环境专业的学生，森林和海洋永远是我们渴望探索的自然家园。iMEP项目和Duke University也为我们提供更多野外活动的机会。我们拥有专属于自己的Duke Forest和 Marine Lab观光游览，也可以参加学校组织的野外活动；本周的campout中，我们可以选择与同学组成队友进行野外露营的比赛活动，获胜者有机会抽取整套全季的篮球赛门票；而各种掺杂在课程中的field trip也时常令人惊喜：下一周的课程突然被安排在教学楼后面的森林里进行，一双便于行走的鞋子更方便应对突发情况。

除此之外，这里也并不缺乏获得知识的各种途径。无论你是一个想要获得交流写作机会的社科学生，还是一心钻研技术的理工科怪咖，或是对自然保护抱有浓厚兴趣的野外爱好者，Nicholas和Sanford总能为你提供契合的课程（有时候新事物也会带来意外惊喜）；图书馆的Workshop对全校开放，我们可以选择感兴趣的计算机语言进行初步学习，同时还有寓教于乐的分享讨论；向教授或助教求助从来不是一件令人羞愧的事。带着问题并鼓起勇气，总可以得到答案。

在这里你会感到被足够关照：教师的帮助从生活到学习直到工作。开学时我们就收到了Professor Pimm热情地邀请，去他家品尝他骄傲的“local BBQ”。这不是故事的结局，一同前去的Professor Pizer和Professor Weinthal紧随其后对远道而来的我们发出了更多邀请，而专为international student服务的社团组织也在紧锣密鼓地筹办各种活动：你当然可以在这里享受中秋和春节，并与来自其他各国、有不同文化背景的同学交流；在Sanford学院连轴安排的Workshop上，你可以了解兴趣领域的工作方向，并与更多专业人士讨论宗教、性别及能源相关的一切政策话题。

在这里我们是被欢迎的。被接纳和被理解，令我想要将这种理解和包容传递给更多人。

02

文：陈萦婕 2020届  

The second cohort of students from the international Master of Environmental Policy (iMEP) program has settled down for their study abroad experience at Duke this semester. All thirteen of them are here to start the second year of their master’s program. They spent their first year on the Duke Kunshan University campus, completing iMEP’s intense core curriculum in environmental economics, policy-making, environmental science, statistics and more to fill their environmental policy-making toolkit.

They travelled more than seven thousand miles away from home across the largest ocean in the world to get here, and for many iMEP students it’s their first time in the U.S. One student has returned home, rather than left it. Kameron Schroeder, Duke Alum Class of 2018, is the only U.S. student in this cohort, and he is spending this fall semester at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC. With the information and experience passed on from their peers in the first iMEP cohort and a week and a half of orientation activities, they seem well prepared and have hit the ground running. Yingjie Chen shares her experience of acclimating to life at Duke. Through her story we read how exciting and challenging an iMEP student’s life can be.

Maria - Kees van Dongen, 1907-10. 

This picture was taken at the MET.

If I had the opportunity to talk to myself in early August, I would definitely comfort the girl who was too anxious to welcome the coming excitements. Once I worried what if I forgot to take some important stuff with me, what if I encountered danger in an unfamiliar country, and what if I cannot mingle very well with my foreign classmates… I felt like standing on the edge of my comfort zone, counting the last “safe and sound” days.

The dusk outside my window

Even though illusions sort of overwhelmed my mind, I as planned took on the flight (from PVG to JFK), spent five days in New York, which is the most famous metropolitan in the world, and finally arrived in Durham on August 10th. Soon I realized living in North Carolina, or more specifically by the Duke campus, was not a “to be or not to be” question. It is more likely an exploration to both the outside world and the introverted self, upon the premise that you are safe and you could live well.

iMEP Orientation at Sanford

Picture credits to Yidan Chu

The orientation weeks were really helpful. We firstly took many orientation activities designed for international students. For instance, through an orientation fair, student committees and other organizations like iHouse provided students with important information and living necessities. I got to know the Duke transits and the school buildings through a campus tour. I received the GoPass, which allows Duke Students to take all the buses in NC freely. With a dinner followed, I also made an acquaintance with a PhD student studying here, who just can’t wait to impart his hand-on experience to new comers.

Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, 

a fascinating Global Connections Working Event

The Nicholas and Sanford School orientations welcomed iMEP students in a more academic way. As a second year graduate student, this manner actually gave me a warm and homey feeling. We listened to the speeches of deans from both schools. We had a library workshop guided by the librarians from both the Sanford and Nicholas school. We enjoyed free lunches and chatting with other students from various backgrounds. The characteristics of my peers from the environmental school and public policy school are quite different. This fact keeps reminding me that iMEP is an interdisciplinary program and we should be equipped with diverse skills, including how to communicate with many kinds of people.

The scenery on my way back home

If you are a future iMEP student, I suggest living right next to campus because you don’t really want to get up early. There are some good options along Erwin Road: Trinity Commons, Lofts, and Flats. It will take you less than 10 minutes to walk to the Nicholas classrooms, and about 15 minutes to Sanford. The Duke van service is also available after 5pm if you live in these communities. During the first several days of your arrival, the restaurants and cafés in the neighborhood can save your life. But after a while, cooking could be a better choice. Personally speaking, when I was in China, the elementary cooking skills I had resisted me from cooking anything complex. However, now I believe cooking is merely another “start or not” problem. In other words, your decision determines what you will encounter. I have even learned to think of cooking as a recreational activity. It helps release the stress of studying and appease any bad moods. Strangely, I might never have had the opportunity to rethink trivial things in life if I did not go abroad and study at Duke.

After shopping in Costco

Supermarkets and malls are basically tolerable distances from Duke. Having your own car can certainly bring convenience, but public transportation almost covers every place that you might visit. For example, I go to the downtown area in Durham on a Duke bus. Walmart is a little bit further but the No. 400 bus can reach there within half an hour. The mall (I would say the real downtown district) is in Southpoint. Take the No. 6 bus, and you will arrive at Macy’s an hour later. The transportation I mentioned above are all free for students with GoPass, so I cleverly take advantage as a Duke graduate student and enjoy a lot of activities every weekend.

Dinner with Duke Faculties,Professors are Billy Pizer, Stuart Pimm, and Elizabeth Losos,(from left to right)

Apart from figuring out routines, life here is full of surprises. The range of recreation activities is beyond my imagination. As part of the Nicholas School orientation week, our iMEPers went to the notable Duke Forest, a vast university-owned secondary forest for research, civil science, and sightseeing. We were also invited to attend a dinner party with Professor Stuart Pimm, where we also chatted with other prestigious Duke faculties such as Billy Pizer, Elizabeth Losos, Erika Weinthal and Dalia Patino-Echevereii. My email inbox is usually filled with advertisements about diverse workshops, conferences, seminars and field activities. Hiking, surfing, and camping…I wish I could have Hermione’s time-turner because I do not want to miss any of them.

Duke Chapel

I hope you could come here in person and experience even beyond what I have depicted. I will end right here with the lyrics of Duke’s Alma Mater (under the dome of Duke Chapel we sang together, one of the most touching moments I have so far): “Dear old Duke thy name we’ll sing. To thee our voices raise. To thee our anthems ring, in everlasting praise. And though on life’s broad sea, our fates may far us bear. We’ll ever turn to thee, our Alma Mater dear.

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昆山杜克大学环境政策硕士专业（international Master of Environmental Policy, iMEP）是国际首个集成环境管理与公共政策核心课程的硕士项目，由美国杜克大学尼古拉斯环境学院和桑福德公共政策学院共同授予美国杜克大学硕士学位，旨在培养环境领域新一代的领军人才。

杜克大学环境政策硕士专业 2020年秋季学期 已于2019年9月开放申请。

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