Student Projects
The Hart Leadership Program has a long history of exemplary student work, and we are proud to showcase here a selection of student research projects, internships, and honors theses dating back to 2011. Below, you can explore nearly 400 student projects, filtering by project type, Hart program affiliated with the project, thematic topics, project locations, and project years. The database does not provide the full text of students' projects, but it does provide abstracts of student work wherever available, as well as more information including students' class year and, when applicable, the name of the community partner organization a student worked with to conduct their internship or research. We will continue to expand the database as our students continue conducting phenomenal projects. In the meantime, use the search function below to explore our incredible students' work, and get inspired!
Internship with You Can Vote; Thesis: “At Home or on Campus? How Duke Students Decide Where to Register to Vote”
Lucy worked with You Can Vote on a question of mutual interest to her and her community partner: how do college students decide where to register to vote, at home or at school? Through a survey and several qualitative interviews, Lucy analyzed how students choose their residence for voter registration. …
Exploring the Intersection of College Students, Social Media, and Political Participation
As a PEP fellow who also became Chair of Duke Votes during the calendar year 2021, Daisy did important work to build and expand the important educational work around voting that Duke Votes has accomplished over the past several years. Daisy was especially interested in student voting rights and also …
Building Community Among First Generation College Students
Kyle made finding ways to build community and voice among first generation college students his political engagement project. Inspired by current Twitch political commentator Hasan Piker, Kyle aimed to create better public awareness and organizing through storytelling. Using his own experiences as a starting point and teaching opportunity, Kyle worked …
Internship with NCAAT; Thesis: “Seeing Red: Exploring How a Communist Country of Origin Affects Republican Partisans in Asian American Immigrants,”
Amanda worked with NCAAT’s Voter Engagement Director, Shruti Parikh, to address some of the language and cultural barriers that suppress Asian American voters in North Carolina from turning out. Amanda’s project involved research into ways of expanding Asian American turnout across four cities – Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, and Raleigh – …
Voter Disenfranchisement and Climate Justice Discourse
Jack worked closely with PEP fellow Dora Pekec to track the plethora of restrictive voting laws that have been passed since the election of 2020. They created a website that mapped the varied laws across competing jurisdictions across the nation that were disfranchising citizens or making it harder for citizens …
Internship with Mediawise
Maya demonstrated her leadership as a PEP fellow by working with Mediawise, a News Literacy Project, to advocate for news literacy education for students in middle and high schools. Her senior thesis examined the relationship between the decline in local news resources (proxied using staffing numbers and advertising revenue) and …