From the slums of India to the streets of Durham, more than 80 undergraduates will take advantage of one of Duke's newest large-scale programs this summer to make a difference in their own lives as well as those of strangers.
These students are trading in their tailored suits and internships to become guinea pigs of DukeEngage-the University's $30-million initiative to make civic engagement a defining aspect of the undergraduate experience.
The program-which will fund individual and group projects designed by students or faculty-won't officially kick off until next year, but immediate interest followed the February 13 announcement of the program and spurred this summer's "pilot" programs, many of which were existing but underfunded projects that received $4-5,000 grants from DukeEngage.
"As soon as everyone read about it, we had people from all over the world contact us to ask if Duke students can go there," says Sherryl Broverman, vice chair of the program's national advisory committee, who is helping lead a DukeEngage-supported project for students to build a boarding school for girls in Kenya.
The hope is that once fully launched, DukeEngage will provide funding for every undergrad who wants to participate in a project, at home or abroad.
"We know that these are transformative experiences and we hope to see these students transformed both intellectually and socially," DukeEngage Director Eric Mlyn says.
Another project, led by David Schaad, assistant chair of civil and environmental engineering, has placed about 20 students with community partners in New Orleans to assist in the city's rebuilding process.
"The fact that Duke is sponsoring service and engagement on the level that they are is great," says Theresa Cho, a rising junior, whose urban planning internship with Concordia is funded by DukeEngage. "It gives students the opportunity to partake in a program that they otherwise wouldn't."
-Mingyang Liu
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.