
Sanford students, both undergraduate and graduate, are always amazing. They come from all over the world, and just down the road in Durham. They start organizations, volunteer in the community, publish research, earn awards and develop friendships that have the potential to last a lifetime. If there was one word to describe this year’s graduates, that word would be “unstoppable.” Here are some of the stories of the Class of 2021.
Sophia Katz PPS'21

Katz combined her interests in markets and environmental policy in her thesis, Wasted Energy: Re-Directing Investment into Renewables through Environmental Policy, which received the Best Honors Thesis Award from the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Lauren Howell PPS'21
Howell won the 2021 Terry Sanford Leadership Award from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. The prestigious award, named for the founder of the Sanford School of Public Policy, is presented annually to a graduating senior.
Merlin Yunaniar MIDP'21

Graduation often brings to mind students donning their caps and gowns. Merlin Yunaniar—a 2021 MIDP graduate from Indonesia—has already worn many hats during her studies.
“In 2019, I came to Duke with my husband and my four-year-old son. In 2020, we had our second child, a baby girl,” said Yunaniar. “It was not easy to be an international student, a wife, and a mother at the same time.”
Added to Yunaniar’s responsibilities was her role as the wife of a Duke student. Her husband, Alfarisi Muslim, was an MIDP Fellow in the one-year accelerated program, 2019-20.
“My husband and I divided our roles to do the housekeeping and take care of the children. We also allocated a different time for us to do our papers and study for exams,” added Yunaniar. “We attempted to enroll in different classes. However, if my husband and I had to attend the same class, we would sometimes bring our son to the class thanks to the kindness of MIDP's professors and staff.”
Earlier this year, Yunaniar endured yet another challenge.
“In January 2021, we returned to Indonesia because my father-in-law passed away. The pandemic was a blessing in disguise for our family. I took remote courses, despite the huge time difference between the US and Indonesia. I participated in Zoom classes from midnight until early morning, since Indonesia is 12 hours ahead of the US.”
“I enjoyed my learning in Duke's MIDP Program,” she said. “Time flies, and two years studying is never enough. MIDP offers courses that are very relevant to the developing country's issues. It brings diverse perspectives from my worldwide classmates. Also, I learned a lot from the expert professors.”
Inspired by the poor conditions of farmers in her home country, Yunaniar’s Masters Project focused on the trade competitiveness of agricultural products, specifically coffee in Indonesia.
Yunaniar could not attend Duke’s in-person graduation ceremonies due to travel restrictions, but she plans to participate in the MIDP virtual graduation.
“Despite all of the challenges, finally, we made it. I am graduating,” she said.
After graduation, Yunaniar plans to continue working with the Central Bank of Indonesia where she is an assistant manager.
Batool Askari MIDP'21
Askari was born in central Afghanistan, a year before the Taliban took over. Soon, women and girls were banned from going to school, so Askari did her early education at home. She got her BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Asian University for Women in Bangladesh where she was introduced to the concept of development studies.

“I realized the absence of women in leadership and decision-making positions in the development of Afghanistan. So, I decided to study international development policy.”
Askari has been inspired by the women in the Sanford community such as professors (especially Professor Phyllis Pomerantz) and fellow colleagues. Even the Dean is a woman, she notes.
Askari plans to start the Afghan Women Vanguards, an association led by educated Afghan women who specialize in different sectors of development and policy making. She hopes women will have a voice in what the country will become. While some women are serving in leadership roles in the country, in the recent peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, there were no women at the table.
“That is unacceptable for me,” Askari says, noting that she watched the talks while taking classes in leadership, peace and conflict resolution and cross-cultural negotiation. “Afghanistan cannot achieve peace and stability without Afghan women.”
Romina Damini MIDP'21
Romina Damini MIDP’21 was a lawyer in Albania before she decided to pursue an advanced degree. When she was looking for programs, Duke stood out to her for its academics, and it stood out to her dad for a different reason. Her dad was an Olympic swimmer, and he was drawn to Duke’s prowess in sport, and he encouraged her to apply.
“My dad was obsessed with Duke,” she says. Coming here “was a shared dream between me and my dad.”
The Master of International Development Policy (MIDP) program is primarily comprised of international students. “We get to see how complicated and sometimes messy the public policy is in our home countries,” she says.

Damini’s father was planning to travel to North Carolina to watch his daughter graduate, but he passed away unexpectedly a month ago. Damini will cross the stage in honor of her dad, who was very proud of her being at Duke Sanford.
Yuexuan Chen PPS'21

Chen, also known as Chen Chen, is a dedicated journalist and storyteller who is passionate about public health and infectious disease. She was the Health/Science Editor at the Duke Chronicle when Covid-19 began to rage in 2020.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Chen wrote an essay for the Chronicle, “Wuhan is home and its doctors are family,” about the region in China where the disease first erupted.