Mags Alexander

Hometown: Lusaka, Zambia

Phyllis Mbewe's journey from Lusaka, Zambia, to Durham, North Carolina, began when she and her three older siblings lost both parents to illness. With help from their mother's side of the family, the children worked the family farm, growing crops and raising pigs and goats. They scraped together the mandatory fees to attend school.

When most classmates began dropping out to take whatever manual-labor jobs were available, one of Mbewe's teachers recommended that she apply to the Pestalozzi International Village Trust, a school in East Sussex, England, that educates exceptional young people from the developing world who could not otherwise continue their studies. After three days of in-depth interviews and exams, she was offered admission.

At Pestalozzi, Mbewe lived with students from six countries. She became accustomed to international cuisine, diverse cultural norms, and a stimulating academic environment.

When a Duke admissions officer came to Pestalozzi, Mbewe for the first time began to consider attending college in the U.S. It seemed a world away, she says,
but Duke's engineering program was a strong inducement. Mbewe, a University Scholar, is determined to help Zambia strengthen its infrastructure, particularly its roads and highways.

Two Rock Media, Inc.

Hometown: Wayne, New Jersey

Paul Harraka is fast—a fast talker, a fast thinker, and most of all, a fast driver. In his first professional go-kart race as a nine-year-old, he captured first place in the New Jersey state championships in the eight-to-twelve-year-old age bracket. Since then, he's racked up 158 wins, including the World Karting Association Triple Crown, thirteen national championships, and six go-kart world championships.

He made the transition to cars in 2005 and, last year, he was named the All-American Speedway's NASCAR Rookie of the Year.

Harraka plans to major in mechanical engineering but will continue to race professionally—his ultimate goal is to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series—while maintaining a demanding course load.

Needless to say, he has already endeared himself to Duke's Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Competition team, a student-run group that designs and builds open-wheel racecars to compete in the annual national competition that attracts more than 140 colleges.

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