Hello! My name is Kendall Carpenter, and I am from Laurel, Maryland. I’m absolutely thrilled to be a member of the 2029 cohort of Alice M. Baldwin Scholars, and I’m deeply honored to have the chance to study, live, and work with such inspiring and driven peers!
As a Baldwin Scholar, I’m eager to continue championing work through an intersectional lens–a guiding principle that not only informs how I interpret women’s rights, advocacy, leadership, and empowerment, but also how I understand my own life experiences and the service I do for others. To that end, I was a competitive swimmer for 10 years prior to coming to Duke, and it was the combination of my personal experiences in the world of aquatics, along with my investments in social justice and service, that led me to be the founder and executive director of a youth-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides free swimming lessons to underrepresented and/or underserved children in DC and Maryland.
In high school, I not only kept myself busy with all things related to water (swimming competitively, teaching swim lessons, earning my open water diving certification, and caring for marine life), I also served as the president of my school’s environmental club and worked as a teen volunteer for the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
At Duke, I plan on studying Political Science and Environmental Policy so that I can blend my love for animals and conservation with my interest in law. Outside of classes, I try to feed into my passions for community service and engagement by serving as the Co-Event Planner for Student Collective at Duke (SCD). I’m also a member of Inside Joke, the Duke True North Leadership Program, Duke PAWS, and Black Student Alliance.
When I am not bouncing around between classes and club meetings, I enjoy watching movies, spending time with friends, exploring nature, thrifting, and working out.