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The David M. Rubenstein Scholars Program is designed to attract and support first-generation, low-income students financially, academically, personally, and professionally. It was named after David M. Rubenstein, the philanthropist and Duke alumnus who was the first member of his family to attend college.
Spotlight on Thang Lian
My name is Thang Lian (he/him) and I am currently a senior studying history and international comparative studies with a minor in Asian American & diaspora studies. For the past four years at Duke, I have dedicated my time to learning and writing about my community: the Chin people. We are a small, predominantly working-class community who were displaced and pushed from the mountains of western Myanmar by the military junta. A people whose history was not written but passed down orally. Who are the Chin people? Where do we come from? Where are we heading? Questions like these led me to take classes in oral history and creative writing. In the years to come, I intend to continue investigating these questions (and many more) by pursuing a PhD in either history or American studies as a Beinecke Scholar. My hope is that the stories my people have passed down to me can be shared with as many people as possible.