Students in the “Muslim Cultures: The Middle East and Beyond” focus cluster will take a trip to Turkey this coming March.
For the second year in a row, the University will subsidize approximately two-thirds of the 10-day trip. Although Duke is currently facing a $125 million budget deficit, Richard Palmer, faculty director of the program, said Focus was well funded this year thanks to endowments that are specifically allotted to funding it.
“We got everything we asked for,” he said.
The Focus program, which is open to freshmen and sophomores, is a unique program that offers interdisciplinary seminar-type clusters on topics that range from global health to digital media, said Pam Riley, the senior program coordinator. This year, applications for spots in the Focus clusters were up 30 percent from the previous year, and the number of students increased from 250 to 350, Palmer said.
One of the highlights of the Focus program, which aims to link the social and academic spheres, has always been trips and other group experiences outside of the classroom.
“Focus is, from my point of view, the best thing at Duke,” said Michael Gillespie, Jerry G. and Patricia Crawford Hubbard professor of political science. Gillespie teaches a course in the “Visions of Freedom” Focus cluster, which took a trip to Charlottesville, Va. over Fall Break.
Although some programs are choosing to stay closer to home this year, their directors maintain that lack of funding is not the cause.
“Between Europe & Asia,” a Focus cluster that centers around Eurasia, used to travel to Russia over Fall Break.
Riley said it is harder to obtain visas to visit Russia, citing 9/11 as one of the reasons why it has now become too difficult to secure visas to go to the country over break.
“A lot of those students still go to Russia,” Riley added, “The same person who directs the program also does DukeEngage, and some students choose to study abroad.”
The “Global Health: Local & International Disparities” cluster chose to place a greater emphasis on domestic health issues this year.
Riley said the cluster will attend the State Fair to examine its food offerings, such as chocolate-covered bacon. She added that Gary Bennett, professor of psychology and neuroscience, taught a class called “The Social Epidemiology of Obesity” and found that the tasty treat was about 900 calories.
“It really depends on what’s educationally best for the cluster,” Riley said. “We’re still traveling, but we have to be careful, because a lot of the time this requires money from students to help pay for the trip.”
Riley said one cluster that traveled to the Duke Marine Lab over Fall Break and collected specimens with scientists on the barrier islands did not pay anything.
Programs that travel abroad are also still available. Sophomore Ibrahim Maali participated in two Focus clusters his freshman year, one in the Fall that traveled to Rome, and “Muslim Cultures” in the Spring, which went to Turkey.
“Looking back, I could say that traveling with Focus definitely offers students a way to go abroad and a way to experience these things different countries offer, without committing to DukeEngage or study abroad, and that’s a real advantage,” he said.
Other students are more than happy to participate in Focus clusters that travel only a short distance from Duke.
“It was the most interesting thing that I’ve done since I’ve come to America,” said freshman Joshua Foromera, who is from Zimbabwe.
His Focus cluster, “Faces of Science,” took a trip to Washington, D.C. over Fall Break.
“I would encourage anyone who wants to do the Focus program to do it,” Foromera added.
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