Rising junior Virginia Dillon is taking bold steps–her first solo global travels, acclimating to life in Nepal, and working as an intern for the U.N. World Food Programme. Read her initial reactions to life in the Katmandhu valley and her reflections on what ideal international aid looks like in her first entry to the 2013 internship journal. Virginia will be sending updated thoughts and photos throughout the summer.

If you’re having a hard time keeping up with all of the student travels and engagement throughout the summer, bookmark our student engagement journals hub for links to all of the past and current journals exploring ethical quandaries the world over.

Our far-flung Kenan Summer Fellows Cece Mercer and Christine Delp have written their first reflection journals for their summer projects exploring what it means to “live an ethical life.”  Be sure to read these and continued posts through the summer on the KSF journal page.

Together with a faculty mentor, the two undergraduates formulated projects that incorporate research and personal reflection. Cece is a Korean adoptee exploring the culture of adoption, both through interviewing other adoptees in the U.S. and through traveling to Korea to understand how the adoption process is viewed from the other side. Christine will be in Greenland, exploring the ways in which changing environmental and economic climates are affecting the lives of indigenous Inuit communities.

KIE Senior Fellow Luke Bretherton was recently awarded the 2013 Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing for his book Christianity and Contemporary Politics: The Conditions and Possibilities of Faithful Witness. The prize, awarded to works which change the theological landscape and offer new viewpoints grounded in pastoral growth, was presented to Bretherton by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams of Oystermouth at a ceremony May 28th. For more information, read the official press release  or an article in the Anglican newspaper Church Times.

At a recent Duke Forward event in Washington, D.C., KIE Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong gave a presentation to Duke alumni on how to make an effective argument. The five main points he shared were a distilled version of his online Coursera course “Think Again: How to Reason and Argue,” co-taught with UNC’s Ram Neta last fall. The Coursera course will be offered again beginning in August and is open to all.

The Kenan Institute for Ethics has chosen two members of Duke’s 2013 graduating class for the Stephen and Janet Bear Postgraduate Fellowship in Ethics, Michaela Dwyer and Nathan Nye.

Dwyer is a Chapel Hill native whose recent studies at Duke included English, art history, documentary studies, and dance. She has recently stepped down as the editor of “Recess,” the arts section of Duke’s Chronicle newspaper.  Dwyer first became aware of the Kenan Institute for Ethics through participation in the DukeEngage: Dublin program, which focuses on migrant issues in Ireland’s capital. Nye hails from White Lake, NC, and studied English, women’s studies, and policy journalism. For the past four years, he has been a member of Team Kenan, the Institute’s student-organized program to create ethical dialog on campus. He has also acted as a leader in the pre-orientation program Project Change.

Acting Director for KIE Suzanne Shanahan shared her excitement in welcoming the two incoming fellows, whom she knows will “bring great creative energy, insight and engagement to the Institute.”

The Postgraduate Fellowship in Ethics allows recent Duke graduates the chance to partner with the Institute to develop, design and administer programs on campus, as well as promote engagement with the local community. Brianna Nofil, the first graduate to fill the position, has spent the last year working with the United Nations working group on business and human rights. As part of her fellowship, Nofil traveled to Mongolia with the working group. She discusses the impending mineral boom in that country and its human rights conflicts in her reflections on the trip.