A foreign language requirement has long been part of the undergraduate experience at Duke, and the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences is home to seven departments that provide students with a wealth of options. But in this age of technology, where translation software is at everyone’s fingertips, many wonder what students gain from language courses that they can’t get from an app on their smartphones.
From creating an adaptive desk for a young boy with a disability to inventing a coin calculator for a man with Down syndrome, two teams of students at John F. Kennedy High School have earned national recognition for their inventions.