Making Place Matter: 2019-20 Highlights
At the beginning of the Spring 2020 semester, the Duke Service-Learning team was in a heady, academic space—exploring ideas, theories, and concepts around our 2019-2020 annual theme, #MakingPlaceMatter, a theme centered on problematizing our assumptions and views of the places and spaces that we exist in and exist within us. None of us could have predicted that just a few months later, a global pandemic followed by a wave of social protests would clearly and forcefully bring us to the boiling point of intolerance for the systemic racism underlying the physical, mental, social, and spiritual spaces of our country.
Now more than ever, we’re called to deepen our commitment to a just world where people are free to thrive in every space and place. We believe that academic curriculum paired with ethical community collaborations provides a pathway to such a world by developing the values and critical thinking skills necessary to interrogate power, privilege, racism, and social injustice. Ultimately, we hope that service-learning and community-engaged experiences help our students develop into effective allies that work not only to dismantle systemic inequalities, but also work towards justice and dignity for all.
Despite the significant challenges of the past few months, our faculty, students, and community partners found creative ways to stay meaningfully engaged. In the 2019-20 academic year, Duke Service-Learning supported 106 sections of service-learning and community-engaged courses. Each of these courses incorporated significant hours of community engagement experiences, impacting 1,600 Duke students.
To learn more about these collaborations, please click on the images below.
Literacy Through Photography (DOCST 224S) worked alongside collaborating teachers in Durham Public Schools to guide about 100 middle-schoolers through the Unselfie Project, a curriculum that incorporates photography, writing, mapping, and aims to boost cultural literacy.
Students from Small-Town USA: Local Collaborations (DOCST 230s) documented their quarantine experiences.
Graduate students from Community Based Environmental Management Practicum (ENVIRON 795) partnered with local community organizations, such as Sankofa Farms, to assess, design and implement community-based environmental management initiatives in ways that are economically viable, socially just, and environmentally sustainable.
Students from Lead the Way Durham (PUBPOL 270) collaborated with the City of Durham Office of Public Arts and Culture on the Bull Moon Rising ‘pop-up’ art exhibit, with StepUp Durham to produce a video to help raise funds, and created an interactive timeline about The Silent Vigil at Duke.
Axel Herrera Ramos and Ana Ramirez, co-founders of Duke Define American, the first undocumented student advocacy group at Duke, were co-winners of this year’s William J. Griffith University Service Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Duke Community. Axel is also the recipient of the 2020 Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning award.
Students from Death, Burial, and Justice in the Americas (ICS 283) used library resources to research the lives and historical circumstances of people buried at Geer Cemetery, wrote narratives of their lives, and organized an online presentation of this research that drew a crowd of over 100 people.
In celebration of last year’s Duke Service-Learning annual theme, #MakingPlaceMatter, Duke service-learning students and faculty reflected over the past several months on what they’ve learned in the places and spaces of Durham through community-engaged experiences. See their words in motion in this artfully animated crowdsourced poem.
Visible Thinking Celebrates Community-Engaged Research.
Duke Service-Learning celebrates the 2020 Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Award winners.
Students from Performing Sexual Health (DANCE 215) created and toured live performances and workshops for high school students using humor, personal narratives, and non-judgmental/sex-positive approaches to open dialogues about sexual health by and for diverse communities.
Chi Vo, Program Coordinator with Duke's Office of Durham & Community Affairs, participated in a map-making exercise to examine new ways to think about her connection with Durham in the workshop, “Critical Cartography of Space and Place,” led by Tim Stallmann and Tia Hall. The event was part of Duke Service-Learning's Making Place Matter series.
Duke Service-Learning director David Malone reflects on student angst and productivity on the Kenan Ethics blog.
Students from Latino/a Voices in Duke, Durham and Beyond (SPANISH 308S) researched, selected, and interviewed women for Latina Voices/Voces de mujeres latinas, a bilingual book highlighting the life and work of significant Latina women in the United States.
Part of Duke Service-Learning's Making Place Matter event series, "Activating History for Social Justice at Duke: A Workshop with Robin Kirk," offered Duke faculty, staff, and students an opportunity to examine the spaces and places embedded in Duke's institutional memory and ways we can build the community we want for ourselves and our successors.
Students from Delivering Software From Concept to Client (COMPSCI 408) collaborated with QuestED and the Duke Cancer Institute to create an interactive computer game that helps children and their families understand cancer in a positive way.
Duke Service-Learning hosts Context and Connections, an engaged bus tour of Durham for new Duke faculty and those interested in deepening their own knowledge of and connections to the Durham community and in exploring connections with their teaching, research, and service.
Sean Bissell, Michelle Wong, Sahil Sandhu, and Zoe King continue to pursue their collaborative research with the Duke Cancer Institute two years after being inspired by the community-engaged course Evaluating Healthcare Innovation (EHD 290S).
Students from "Critical Pedagogy of Hip Hop" (EDUC 290S) went on a field study trip to the Smithsonian African-American Museum in Washington, DC. They went with their community partners, 30 students from Lakewood Montessori Middle School. EDUC 290S explores the historical and socio-cultural aspects of education initiatives, teaching and learning strategies, and educational policy issues that contribute to marginalization.
Rachel Radvany (above) and other students from Issues of Education and Immigration (SPANISH 307s) prepared teaching materials for GANO ESL tutors, short videos for El Centro Hispano about the importance of participating in the census, and a guide for how Duke students could fundraise for Durham Public Schools.
Cole Rizki wins the 2020 William Griffith University Service Award for his work in the LGBTQ community.
Students from Intermediate Spanish (SPANISH 205) spread the word about the issue of child separation at the border, and ask people to sign a petition to end this harmful practice.
Amy Anderson and Kathy Sikes receive a Faculty Advancement Seed Grant to bring together faculty who are mentoring undergraduates in community-based research.
Service-Learning Assistant Paulina Asturias was awarded the Sue and Lee Noel Prize in the Visual Arts for her beautiful and poignant senior thesis project Bridging the Gap Between Latin American Communities.
Joan Clifford, David Malone, Amy Anderson, Dane Emmerling, and Evan Widney published "Exploratory Study on Students' Perceptions About Service-Learning and Social Entrepreneurship." The article appears as chapter 4 in "Connecting Civic Engagement and Social Innovation: Toward Higher Education's Democratic Promise," a book edited by Amanda Moore McBride and Eric Mlyn.
Students from Theory and Practice of Sustainability (ENVIRON 245) conduct policy research and interview community stakeholders in order to determine the feasibility of integrating chickens onto Duke Farm.
Betsy Alden Award recipient Frances Beroset (Duke '19) continues to serve communities as a Duke College Advising Corps adviser at Southern Lee High School in Lee County.
Due to COVID-19, students from Psychosocial Aspects of Human Development (HUMANDEV 260) and Aging and Health (SOCIOL 263) wrote letters to residents in Durham nursing homes and retirement facilities to build connections and show support.
Students from Understanding China and the United States: Stereotypes, Conflicts, and Common Challenges (CHINESE 450s) collaborated with high school students at Durham Academy and shared their research projects with each other.
Students from Hindi 101 and Hindi 203 increase their understanding of art and culture and their language skills by creating mosaics with Durham artist Nileena Pani Dash.
Joan Clifford, Duke Service-Learning Faculty Consultant and Director of Community-Based Language Initiatives and Kimmie Garner, Assistant Director of Duke Service-Learning, present their research “Best Practices in Assessing Community Engagement: Assessing Student Learning Outcomes” at IARSLCE (International Association for Research in Service-Learning) in Albuquerque, NM.
Syretta Hill of StepUp Durham and HLP Associate Director Lalita Kaligotla discussed their partnership for the service-learning course Civic Engagement & Community Leadership: Lead the Way Durham (PUBPOL 270) at the University Council on Civic Engagement Meeting (UCCE).
Students from Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practicum in Global Health (I & E 590) collaborated with LifeSpring Hospitals, a chain of maternity hospitals that provides high quality health care to lower-income women and children in India, to analyze, improve, and implement a comprehensive social media marketing plan.
Duke Service-Learning partnered with Duke Student Affairs and the Duke Career Center on the Keep Being, Keep Connecting series, part of Keep Exploring, Duke’s Summer 2020 experiential learning initiative. We offered over 20 workshops that focus on skills related to community-building.