Lead the Way Durham:
An experiential learning class focused on civic engagement in Durham
“One thing that resonated deeply with me was the service-learning theme of making places matter. It is important for us to make places matter and we are obligated to do that as citizens in democracies in a variety of ways. As a new citizen of Durham, making my place in Durham matter was important to me. I wanted to make that part of my pedagogy for this class and enable students who come from various parts of the country and the world to make Durham their home for the four years that they’re here. One way of doing that is by actively participating in the community--interacting with residents and seeing what their lived experience is like. I think that opens up their minds and hearts in profound ways and is an important part of their experience at Duke.”
— Lalita Kaligotla, Hart Leadership Program Associate Director
Lead the Way Durham (PUBPOL 270S) is an experiential learning class focused on civic engagement and democratic participation within Durham.
“One of the goals is to broaden the definition of civic engagement and to get students thinking about their responsibilities as citizens beyond just voting,” says Lalita Kaligotla who teaches the service-learning course.
Context matters, says Kaligotla, and given that students spend a substantial portion of their time in Durham, it’s imperative that they get to know the city that their university is a part of. Students spend a significant portion of the semester examining Durham’s history through assigned readings, visiting the Pauli Murray House, participating in walking tours of Durham’s neighborhoods, studying the community of Hayti and the impact of gentrification, and interrogating Duke’s relationship with Durham. “They got to see a very different side of Durham. And I think that for many of the students that was an eye-opening experience.”
“I felt like I would not be doing right by the students by letting them out into the community without providing them with the appropriate context of the city--where the roots are, what its’ history is, and the opportunities and challenges that Duke has had in engaging with the city that it’s a part of,” she says.
To get students thinking in terms of engaging with and shaping civil society, Kaligotla structured project-based curriculum with the goal of building capital within the Durham community—both economic, social, and human. Students formed teams and collaborated with a local partner to develop a solution for a specific need that the community partner identified.
“The idea was to facilitate opportunities to engage with civil society organizations and develop their own agency by being more active citizens within their communities,” says Kaligotla.
One team worked with non-profits Step Up Durham and Partners for Youth Opportunity to develop a fundraising video that would help tell their stories and raise money for the organization. Another team worked the City of Durham’s Office of Public Art and Culture to understand both the economic and community impact of the Bull Moon Rising project, a pop-up art exhibit installed in CCB plaza downtown in Oct/Nov 2019.
“Our community partners really had a lot of trust in us. They let us do a lot and take initiative in our projects. I got to talk with people in the Department of Transportation and other nonprofit organizations. Having the opportunity to do that gave me a lot of experience for future engagement, but it also gave me a lot of pride in what I was doing,” says Kaylee Rodriguez, a freshman who took the course in Fall 2019.
Building & Understanding Human Capital: Bull Moon Rising
Students worked with the City of Durham’s Office of Public Art and Culture to conduct pre-exhibit outreach and post-exhibit analysis that would help the city understand both the economic and community impact of the Bull Moon Rising project, a pop-up art exhibit installed in CCB plaza downtown.
Archival Research Project: The Silent Vigil
Students conducted archival research and created an interactive timeline focused on The Silent Vigil, a student-led movement immediately following Martin Luther King Junior’s assassination. This movement informed many subsequent student-led movements--the Allen building sit-in, the renaming of the Carr Building to the Classroom Building and many others.
“Students learned that civic engagement and social change is a cumulative effort in many ways,” says Kaligotla. “We stand on the shoulders of giants and follow the examples of the agents for change that preceded us and that was a powerful lesson for the students to take away,”
“Interacting with and seeing the lived experience of Durham’s residents opens up students’ minds and hearts in profound ways and is such an important part of their learning and experience at Duke,” says Kaligotla.
“This course taught me a lot about what students can do as facilitators of social change. I think there are a lot of social issues that we can be a part of and this class gave me more courage to engage with those types of things. It also taught me that we can be leaders now, it doesn't have to be in the future."
-Kaylee Rodriguez (Duke ‘23)
VIDEO: Kaylee Rodriguez talks about how Lead the Way Durham gave her an opportunity to explore and study the city that would be her home for the next four years.