May 14, 2017  DukeToday

David Rubenstein Commencement Speech: What ‘Go Duke!’ Means

It has been my good luck to decipher the real code of what it means to be a Duke graduate. In discovering this, I think that I may have broken the Duke equivalent of the Da Vinci Code. For many decades, Duke supporters have used the phrase Go Duke. While that might seem like a simple enough school rallying cry, I can reveal to the graduates today the real meaning behind this phrase. It is less an athletic event cheer than a code of expected conduct for Duke graduates. Let me explain and reveal the code: G = GRATITUDE; O = ORIGINALITY; D = DIFFERENCE; U = UNRELENTING; K = KNOWLEDGE; E = ENJOYMENT. MORE

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