Mackenzie Warren is a graduating senior with a major in Psychology and a minor in Education. She has served as a Trinity Ambassador for Psychology & Neuroscience. Trinity Ambassadors are student volunteers, nominated by their departments, to serve in this unique and important role.
We asked a few of the ambassadors from the Class of 2024 to share their favorite memories from Duke. The below interview has been slightly edited for clarity.
What was the most important thing you’ve learned at Duke?
A valuable lesson that I have learned during my time at Duke—and will certainly be taking with me into my adulthood chapter—is the importance of recognizing my personhood and worth outside of my academic and vocational achievements. This lesson has been advanced especially by me finding community that sees, understands, and appreciates me beyond my résumé, my grade in a class, or my career aspirations.
Who was one of your favorite professors and what was special about them?
One of my favorite professors was Dr. Sarah Gaither, and I took Social Psychology with her; what I especially appreciated about her was her palpable passion for psychology and how she would always connect lessons from class to the work she was doing in her own lab. She had an authenticity in her personality that made me incentivized to not just participate but to always be myself in her classroom. I also valued the way that she and I could relate over both being biracial and how her research advances the cause of mixed race peoples.
What was one of the most impactful classes you took during your time at Duke and why?
One of the most impactful courses during my time at Duke is one that I took during my last semester of college; it is a House Course called Gratitude Equation. The reason that this class is proved to be so meaningful is because the purpose propagated by the class encourages students to adopt an orientation to the world that allows for us to still recognize the things around us that are beautiful, awe-inspiring, and joy-inducing, even and especially in the midst of life's hardest and/or most mundane moments.
Department of Psychology & Neuroscience