If you take a walk around East Campus, beyond your usual route from the bus stop to Trinity Cafe, you'll find a close-knit community of students and staff, buzzing with intense energy and compassion, tucked neatly away in the back of the Crowell Building.
Many people may not know this is the home of the Community Service Center. Despite being an establishment at Duke since the early 1990s, next year's student co-directors juniors Tori Hogan and Heidi Schumacher want to give the CSC even more importance.
"One of our primary goals for next year is to increase the visibility [of the CSC]," Hogan said. "Many undergraduates don't even know it exists let alone know where to find it. We have some fantastic services we can offer Duke students and we would like to see more undergraduates accessing them."
While staff members said they see the Health Fair they sponsored in the Bryan Center earlier this month as one of the most visible and successfully-run CSC events to date, they stressed their desire to continue to build upon the Center's reputation on campus. Plans are already in the works for next year's Health Awareness Week, which may include Dr. Patch Adams as keynote speaker.
Hogan and Schumacher said they want to continue what this year's student co-directors, seniors Beth Brantley and Loree Lipstein, have started in terms of increasing the CSC's campus-wide presence by developing a dedicated and more cohesive staff.
Because the CSC is located on East Campus, it has traditionally been easier for freshman to become involved, while "upperclassmen get ignored," Schumacher said. An unsuccessful attempt to bring CSC resources to West in the form of "office hours" at the Perk this past year has only encouraged this year's co-directors to target upperclassmen even more intensely.
"Our biggest frustration is that there are many students here who were very involved with service in high school, but for some reason they stop when they get to college. We want to attract them back to service by giving them more opportunities, even if it's just a one-time project," Schumacher said.
While the staff will lose nine seniors this year, Hogan and Schumacher recently interviewed potential new additions from a large pool of qualified applicants, in hopes to increase the diversity of the staff in terms of race, gender and background.
Returning staff member sophomore Mary Ellison Baars said she was thrilled to learn that she would be working closely with Hogan and Schumacher next year.
"What I really have found so remarkable about CSC is the support that staff provides for one another. We had that in Beth and Loree, and I feel confident that Heidi and Tori will be wonderful, caring, dedicated leaders," she said.
With three years of on-staff experience under their belts, Hogan and Schumacher are just as eager to take the reins.
"Heidi and I are an incredible pair," Hogan said. "I have really high hopes for our plans to revolutionize service at Duke and I anticipate great changes next year."
CSC's current co-directors agree.
"Heidi and Tori have continued to be two of the most outstanding staff members over the past three years," Lipstein said. "There's no doubt they'll carry that on next year."
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