Christopher Paul ’05 is a Duke PhD candidate in Environmental Policy through a cross-disciplinary program between the Nicholas School and the Sanford School of Public Policy. He has been chronicling his experience at Duke this year through Instagram #mydukeyear and recently shared with us how important the Nicholas School Annual Fund is to graduate students like him.
“With the support of the Nicholas School, I have had the opportunity to be part of diverse teams of students and faculty working together, both at Duke and around the world, to improve people’s lives by influencing environmental policy. I am particularly proud of my dissertation project on the intersection of climate, water, and health in Ethiopia. In addition to fieldwork in rural Ethiopia, our team brought together policymakers at workshops in Durham and Addis Ababa. This experience has informed my teaching to Duke undergraduates and Nicholas master’s students and led to our team’s publication of an important paper on climate adaption and social capital in the journal Global Environmental Change.”
“In addition to my research, I have been active in several graduate student groups supported by the Nicholas School and the university, including the Global Environmental Health Working Group and GradParents, a group for Duke students raising children and completing their dissertations at the same time. As a father of two young kids, I value the support and diversity of the Duke community, and our shared commitment at the Nicholas School to make the world a better place.”
“Gifts to the Nicholas School Annual Fund make it possible for me and my fellow graduate students to take advantage of all that Duke has to offer, from extraordinary field studies throughout the world, to campus organizations that support us professionally and personally. These gifts enable us to gain the cross-disciplinary perspectives and experiences we’ll need to influence environmental policy and stewardship, whether in academia, business, government or the nonprofit sector.”
