Duke Economics Celebrates the Class of 2023

A woman graduating

On Sunday, May 14th, at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke Economics celebrated the commencement of 330 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students.

The break-down of degrees was as follows:

18 - Ph.D. in Economics
8 - Master of Arts in Analytical Political Economy
76 - Master of Arts in Economics
27 - Master of Science in Economics and Computation
199 - B.S. in Economics
2 - Interdepartmental majors (B.S. Econ and Comp Sci)

Chair James Roberts welcomed family and friends of the graduates. “Congrats to each and every one of you,” said Roberts. “The world has made your experiences unique and challenges in ways we can’t fully appreciate, but you’ve made it, and for that you should be very proud.”

He also presented professor Emma Rasiel with the inaugural Gorman Award. Speaking about Rasiel, Roberts said that he’d never met anyone who is able to get as much done in 24 hours as she is, and spoke about how beloved she is among students, alumni, staff, and colleagues.

This year’s guest speaker was alumnus Kevin Marchetti (T’00), Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman of Lineage Logistics, the largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics REIT worldwide.

“It may feel like your Duke experience is coming to an end, but I assure you it’s just the beginning,” Marchetti told students. “Life is a journey, and it’s never about coming to the finish line.”

Student speaker Qi Xuan Khoo encouraged students to remember that “life is beautiful not because of the things we see or do, but because of the people we meet.” Khoo was recently awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and will be pursuing graduate studies in social data science and development economics at the University of Oxford.

Thank you for everyone who assisted in making this a special day for our graduates.

To view more photos from the event, click here.