Engage, reflect, assess.

Learn the principles of service learning through Duke Alums Engage, a nationwide program that takes community service to a new level.

Over 600 alumni and friends participated in:

Duke Alums Engage Week
October 30 – November 8, 2009

To learn more about the ways Duke Alumni in 20 cities reached out to their communities, view a short video, read an article from Duke Magazine, and find out about the project that took place right here in Durham.

The premise of Duke Alums Engage is to engage, reflect, and assess. You will learn the principles of civic engagement and service-learning and then put them into practice with a group project tailored to the needs of your community. Immediately after the project, you'll have an opportunity to contemplate and evaluate the experience, as a group and individually. The theme for the inaugural year of the program was "Impacting the Next Generation." The next Duke Alums Engage Week will take place in Spring 2011. Check back often for more details and ways to get involved.

These projects will reward not only your community but you as well. Our goal is to provide you with a meaningful and collaborative opportunity to gain knowledge in service to society, one of Duke's main focuses. Also participating are students from the LEAPS (Learning through Experience, Action, Partnership, and Service) program. Called "LEAPers," they are trained in the theory and practice of service-learning and will facilitate the "reflection" aspect of the projects.

How can you get involved?

Click on the Locations tab above to see the cities that participated in Fall 2009. Visit the Reflections page to find pictures and stories of the successful inaugural program.

If your city is not listed this year, but you would like to be involved, contact Rachael Wheatley, Special Programs Coordinator at Alumni Affairs: rachael.wheatley@daa.duke.edu

History

Duke Alums Engage was inspired by DukeEngage, a program that offers undergraduates intensive civic engagement experiences in the U.S. and abroad, where they address societal issues within communities that have identified needs. The Civic Engagement Committee of the Duke Alumni Association's board of directors worked for more than a year to create and refine Duke Alums Engage as a program that would offer similar benefits to alumni and their communities.

A series of pilot projects that began in 2008 in Atlanta, Kansas City, Detroit/Ann Arbor, San Francisco, and Winston-Salem inaugurated Duke Alums Engage. These successful and ongoing projects paved the way for the week of projects that took place during Duke Alums Engage Week, October 30-November 8, 2009. For information on these projects, see Pilot Programs via the Locations tab.