The Hart Fellowship funds recent graduates to engage in 10-months of research and action with organizations addressing complex social, political, and humanitarian issues.
Three seniors have been awarded the Hart Fellowship for 2025-2026, a prestigious postgraduate fellowship for recent Duke graduates, offered by the Hart Leadership Program in the Sanford School of Public Policy.
After graduation, the new Hart Fellows will travel across the United States and the globe to engage in 10 months of community-based research, forming deep connections in a community outside their own and partnering with a local host organization to conduct meaningful research on social, political, and humanitarian issues facing our world today.
The Hart Leadership Program exists to prepare students to practice the art of ethical leadership in public life. By providing students and recent graduates with opportunities to conduct research and action in partnership with community organizations, the Hart Fellowship develops skills of mindful reflection, purposeful collaboration, and applied learning.
“These Hart Fellows are a group passionate, thoughtful students committed to digging deep into complex topics and providing meaningful service to their community partners,” said Andrew Nurkin, Hart Associate Professor of the Practice and Director of the Hart Leadership Program. “We look forward to seeing where their Hart Fellowships take them and supporting their research and continued learning about leadership over the next year.”
Since its inception in 1995, 121 Hart Fellows have served community partner organizations in over forty countries across six continents.
The 2025-2026 Hart Fellows
Carina Lei (she/her)
Carina Lei is from Cary, North Carolina, graduating with an interdisciplinary Program II major titled “Toward Culturally Competent Care: Holistic Mental Health in Asian American Diasporic Communities.” Program II is a major track that allows Duke students to self-design majors that speak to interdisciplinary interests, as well as conduct research for a senior thesis. For her thesis, Carina examined differences between Asian American and non-Asian American mental health organizations through a values-based framework as part of the Duke Culture Lab.
On campus, Carina has spent much of her time working in community-building and student advocacy spaces as co-president of Duke’s Asian Students Association and co-director of the Asian American Studies Working Group. She is also heavily involved in health service organizations that provide peer-to-peer support for Duke students as well as social determinants of health services to the Durham community. Carina is passionate about the value of holistic community-based forms of care as integrated into systemic medical practice. In her free time, she likes to paint, dance, and play card games with her friends.
Carina will spend her Hart Fellowship year in Orange County, California, working with a local non-profit that provides joint mental health services and civic engagement programming to the community in addition to research and policy efforts. She plans to research how community spaces and alliances can be situated as access points for Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander mental health services and is excited to continue learning about how direct health services and community advocacy/social justice are in conversation with each other.
Sarine Krovitz (she/her)
Sarine is from the Los Angeles area and will graduate in May with a degree in international comparative studies with a concentration in Latin America, a certificate in human rights, and a minor in creative writing. Throughout her time at Duke, Sarine spent a semester in Chile studying social justice, researched human rights at a think tank in South Africa with Duke Engage, volunteered with economic justice work at the Community Empowerment Fund, and engaged in a variety of legal advocacy spaces. On campus, she can be found leading consent trainings with Duke SHAPE, volunteering with the Duke Law Civil Justice Clinic, and performing in comedy shows with Duke University Improv.
Over the past several years, Sarine has dedicated both independent research and her senior thesis project to researching muralism as a form of social action, political protest, and human rights advocacy in Chile. She is looking forward to returning to South America for her fellowship year to continue working with organizers at the intersection of art and social action.
Sadie Sheridan (she/her)
Sadie Sheridan is from Vernon Hills, Illinois, and will graduate in May with a Bachelor’s in History and Public Policy. Alongside her studies, Sadie spent the last year working on an interview-based research project on the effectiveness of non-enforcement public safety reforms. She is a part of the Duke Digital Art History and Visual Culture Research Lab where she conducts historical research on Nazi-occupied Krakow and is a member of the Duke Jewish Solidarity Movement. On campus, Sadie dances in Duke’s student ballet company, Devils En Pointe, and student contemporary dance company, Embodiment Contemporary Dance.
Sadie will spend her Hart Fellowship year partnering with a local non-profit addressing housing insecurities in vulnerable populations. The organization offers financial and educational support to and advocacy for community members experiencing housing insecurity.
To learn more about the Hart Leadership Program and the Hart Fellowship, visit our website.