The Chronicle

Issue date: 4/20/06 Section: News
Last update: 4/20/06 at 6:35 AM EST

Media Credit: HOLLY CORNELL/THE CHRONICLE Baldwin Scholars, who live together in a Crowell Quadrangle section, are the only all-female living group.

A year after the Baldwin Scholars moved into Crowell Quadrangle as a selective living group, the 18 sophomores have deemed the new residential component-and the program-a success.

The inaugural group of Alice M. Baldwin Scholars was selected in Fall 2004, after a Women's Initiative Steering Committee determined that female students suffer from a decrease in self-esteem upon entering college.

"After spending my entire senior year [of high school] in sweatpants, I was worried that I was headed to a university where this would be taboo," sophomore Baldwin Scholar Rachel McLaughlin wrote in an e-mail. "I wanted to be part of a group that bucked the norm and sought to create lasting change. I did not want 'effortless perfection' to be part of my vocabulary."

The four-year Baldwin program is an opportunity for women to experience single-sex education within Duke's larger co-educational setting. Members of the program are selected as freshmen after undergoing a process of applications and interviews.

"I noticed a lack of an informal women's network system here, and I felt disadvantaged," sophomore Andrea Dinamarco said about her decision to become a Baldwin Scholar.

Sophomore Sarah Gordon said she joined the program so she could meet women with similar goals and interests.

"My first couple of weeks on campus, I was reaching out to find more female friends and women leaders in my life, and this filled that niche," Gordon said.

McLaughlin said the group started with a blank slate. "We had to learn to work together to create a leadership structure," she said.

The group developed a constitution, which will continue to be implemented in future years.

During the spring of their first year, the women participate in an interdisciplinary seminar, and during their remaining years at Duke they collaborate on community service projects. "The class was the first group experience they had together, and then they moved that experience into the residence halls as sophomores," said Colleen Scott, assistant director of the Baldwin Scholars Program. "The supportive environment that seminar creates definitely feeds into the environment they live in together."

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