Peter Ballentine likes a challenge, no matter how daunting. It’s an attitude to life that has seen him involved in cutting-edge scientific research since his teenage years and brought him to China to be a part of DKU’s inaugural class of undergraduates.
During his four years at DKU, the North Carolina native has helped shape the culture of the developing international university, sharpened his research skills and enjoyed being part of a supportive intellectual community that’s broadened his outlook on life.
Peter Ballentine, from DKU’s Class of 2022, in the research laboratory
“Nothing could really compare to DKU – a Duke education, a small class size, getting to establish the culture of the school and being with students who were really adventurous. It checked all of these boxes, even those I didn’t know I was interested in,” he said.
Ballentine was still in high school when he took a tour of research labs at Duke University, in North Carolina, one of the founding institutions (along with Wuhan University in China) of DKU. During the tour he decided he would like to get involved, and despite his young age, returned to offer his services.
“What really drove me was a sense of curiosity around the research, what went on there, and wanting to be involved in it,” he said. He soon began working alongside university student researchers several years his senior.
It was that same spirit of curiosity and eagerness to take on a challenge that prompted Ballentine to apply to DKU and attend a recruitment weekend. There he “found a kinship” with other prospective students, who he says were curious and adventurous like himself.
“It takes a certain type of person to even consider going to China for undergrad if you’re not already from there,” he said.
Once at the university, a tight-knit community formed quickly among students and faculty, who left their office doors open and chatted with students in the canteen at lunch.
“I hadn’t really been in a community that was as international before,” he said. “I became really close friends with people from other countries and cultures that I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get to know unless I had deliberately sought them out at other institutions.”
Peter Ballentine during the Mid-Autumn Festival in China
He also enjoyed the collaborative spirit of the university, which allowed students to provide a great deal of input in the school’s character and development.
“It felt like we were the lifeblood of the university,” he said. “We were intimately involved in the development of the curriculum, the policies, the culture and the clubs. It’s a kind of relationship that doesn’t seem to be possible at other universities.”
Ballentine also thrived as a student, receiving a U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program award for research into the use of aerosol jet printing to manufacture structures made of graphene, conducted at lab facilities at Duke University.
With funding from that award to back him up, Ballentine now plans to study for a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering, the field he began his research career in as a teenager. He also has ambitions to become a university professor.
Looking back on his time at DKU, Ballentine says he had built many lasting friendships, learned to be more thoughtful and globally minded, and developed a taste for noodle soup.
“It feels like a cliche to say, but it has broadened my horizons in a lot of ways,” he said.
Written by John Butcher
