Last month, students in the Hart Leadership Program's "Enterprising Leadership" course stepped into the Durham community to talk to local leaders about problems facing the city. Now the students face the challenge of taking that information and devising an enterprising venture projects to effect change on Durham.
"[The class] was geared around being able to introduce students to key community leaders to, one, establish relationships with them, and two, get a sense from a very real perspective what they perceive as the needs of the community," said Professor Christopher Gergen. "I got a sense of genuine and excited enthusiasm from the students about what was going on in Durham -- . I wouldn't be surprised if some of the projects that begin to emerge are going to be informed by this conversation."
Hearing About Durham
Students met with the following community leaders: Mayme Webb, senior neighborhood coordinator for the Quality of Life Project; Eunice Sanders, executive director of student services for Durham Public Schools; Rosalie Bocelli-Hernandez, Latino outreach coordinator for Durham Parks and Recreation; Lloyd Schmeidler, executive director for Urban Ministries of Durham; Dr. Evelyn Schmidt, CEO of the Lincoln Community Health Center; and Evelyn Scott, director of Youth Services for the City of Durham, together with members of the Durham Youth Council.
The discussion between students and community leaders focused primarily on issues about the lack of mental health support services, homelessness, community transportation problems, the lack of engaging programs for high school students, and the prevalence of high school dropouts.
"Poverty is the greatest disease facing the community," said Dr. Evelyn Schmidt, CEO of the Lincoln Community Health Center, who has devoted her work to ensuring that income does not dictate the capacity for living a healthy life.
"We need community support we haven't figured out how to keep kids without hope in school," said Eunice Sanders, executive director of student services for Durham Public Schools, who oversees support systems to encourage children's success in school. She said that when Durham parents shift their focus to everyday survival, education is not a priority. "Mentally, kids start dropping out of school in kindergarten," she said.
The discussion was held at Lyon Park Community Center, an ideal location for consideration of Duke's engagement with Durham. The former elementary school where Sanders and many other Durham residents attended has been transformed with Duke's assistance into a community center and a cornerstone of neighborhood revival.
"What started to happen is we would bring up issues such as school dropouts, and all of them had things to share that they had seen or experienced," said David Gastwirth, HLP program analyst and coordinator for the class. He added that though each community leaders was scheduled to speak for only 15 minutes, most stayed the entire time and transformed the class into a round-table discussion.
"Not only did the speakers add depth and foundations to the problems that we already knew about, but they also expanded and diversified our vision of what needs help and how it could be creatively reconciled," said sophomore Scott Peppel. "Now it is our responsibility as students to back up our initial enthusiasm with action and make the contributions of the community leaders feel worthwhile."
Mamye Webb is photographed with the Enterprising Leadership class.
The next step for Gergen's class is to devise a "promising idea" to meet the community's concerns. Groups of students will then develop five or six of the projects that will culminate in a business plan presentation complete with financial and technical considerations.
"Even though we live in Durham, I still feel like there's a lot of disconnect between what actually happens in Durham and what actually happens at Duke," junior Paola Canahuati said. "There are so many things we can accomplish together."
She added that the class projects are likely to cluster around issues regarding Durham's Latin-American community, health issues, microfinance and education.
"I hope this will be a model going forward," Gergen said. "This offers a tremendous opportunity for not just these Duke students, but future Duke students that are able to build on the work that Duke is already doing. We just want to be part of the conversation and part of the solution."