Duke University | Baldwin Scholars Program

Kristen Stortz admits that she was not a normal kindergartener.  Instead of playing with plastic dinosaurs and constructing macaroni necklaces like other children, she chased birds.  She didn’t just storm a flock of geese and send the squawking in all directions.  She targeted one bird…for hours.  “When bird after bird had eluded my precisely executed ambush, people would eye my grass-stained t-shirt and say, ‘Kristen, you’re never going to catch one.’  While many saw my passion as a silly childhood fixation, I look back on it as an early display of optimism, determination, and confidence.”

Her mom has been one of her biggest role models throughout her life challenges and goals.  Kristen asserts, “She has taught me that to have confidence and to believe in myself is ultimately my choice, and no one but me can make that decision.”

Kristen, from Edina, Minnesota, is a member of the Class of 2009 Baldwin Scholars.  She graduated in May with a Political Science major, Sociology minor, and Markets and Management certificate.  During her last semester, she researched the topic of women and mentoring as an independent study and made recommendations for the creation of a new program for undergraduate women at Duke.

Kristen was an active member of Baldwin Scholars and Pi Beta Phi sorority and was the Campus Campaign Manager for Teach for America.  She studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain during her junior year.

She will be a Financial Analyst with J.P. Morgan, where she completed her Baldwin Scholars internship.  Kristen reflects, “I’ve chosen to follow my passion for the markets and take a job in sales and trading even though it is a profession that is still largely dominated by men.  In doing this, I’ve stayed true to who I am and to my talents and potential. It is through making these types of decisions and not being afraid to challenge myself that I have come to define myself both as a woman and as a person.”

She advises first-year Duke women, "Be fiercely loyal to yourself and what you stand for.  You owe it to yourself and everyone in your life that has helped you get where you are today.”