DukeImmerse's next project is reaching out to another university to partner in studying urban and environmental issues.
The new Urban Environmental Justice and Social Entrepreneurship DukeImmerse program is set to launch in Spring 2015. Eight students from Duke and eight students from the historically black Paul Quinn College in Dallas, TX will spend a semester taking a special topics course on tools for community involvement and three other courses on environmental justice, social entrepreneurship and urban restoration. Duke students will spend three weeks in residence at Paul Quinn, and Paul Quinn students will spend two weeks at Duke.
“Students will study the relationship between environmental outcomes and social inequalities.” said Deborah Gallagher, associate professor of the practice of environmental policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment, an instructor in the DukeImmerse program and director of the Duke Environmental Leadership program.
Rebecca Vidra, another instructor within the DukeImmerse program and director of the environmental sciences and policy major, said the DukeImmerse course she will instruct will differ from other courses she has taught because the class scheduling is unlike that of traditional Duke courses. The spring semester ends a week and a half earlier and students only attend class 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. On Fridays, students will attend community involvement events.
Gallagher advises prospective applicants to ask themselves if they are ready to take on such an immersive experience. Prospective applicants should "want to take risks," she said. The program is accepting applications until Oct. 17.
Sophomore Sam June, an environmental sciences and policy major, expressed interest in the program's immersive approach to problem-solving. June grew up on a Navajo reservation, a place she said faces its own environmental justice issues.
“I want to study these social justice issues so I can go back to help,” she said.
Last summer, Gallagher and Vidra took three Duke undergraduates to Paul Quinn for a collaborative Bass Connections project on community-based participatory research. The Bass Connections group was well-received, Gallagher noted.
Many of the other DukeImmerse programs have an international focus, but international travel is not necessary to engage with environmental justice issues, Gallagher said. The issues addressed in the program are not unique to Dallas—students will focus on problems that exist in communities all across the U.S., she added.
Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College, is optimistic about the partnership. Sorrell graduated from Duke with a Master's degree in public policy studies in 1990 and a law degree in 1994.
“It’s a special feeling to be able to partner with your alma mater and really make a difference on an issue that impacts so many people.” Sorrell said, adding that the program has generated high interest among Paul Quinn students.
Sorrell said he has recruited students who are not necessarily the "expected" applicants—some of whom may not be at the top of their class.
“I wanted to pay attention to group dynamics because this is a team-building project.” Sorrell said.
Two years ago, when the city of Dallas announced a plan to expand a landfill 1.5 miles from Paul Quinn’s campus, Sorrell responded by reaching out to the Nicholas School to find a way to collaborate on the issue. A few phone calls later, Sorrell and faculty from the Nicholas School began forming what would become a new DukeImmerse program.
Sorrell said he hopes to see more collaboration between Paul Quinn and Duke in the future.
“I’m not sure what it’ll look like, but we need to figure out how we keep this engagement,” he said.
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