DukeEngage students will have the opportunity to provide not only a summer of service to the city in which they study, but a reconfigured DukeEngage in Durham program will enable the same students to serve Durham's sister city of Durham, England.
Initially, the 15 student participants will serve for six weeks with Durham, N.C., non-profit organizations that focus on local economic development. Participants will spend the following four weeks in Durham, England, where they will compare and contrast approaches to community economic development through service partnerships with various non-profits and schools.
Other new programs for 2013 include faculty-led initiatives in Boston, Mass., and Farende and Kuwde, Togo.
In Togo, participants will work with a local community organization to help stem the flight of youth from remote villages in northern Togo to the plantations of Nigeria and Benin. The initiative is led by Charlie Piot, Creed C. Black professor of cultural anthropology and African and African American studies.
In Boston, DukeEngage students will design and implement strategies for a variety of social ventures, ranging from those engaging disconnected youth with civic life to those providing financial solutions for non-profits, in collaboration with social entrepreneurs and changemakers. The program is led by Tony Brown, professor of the practice of public policy and sociology at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy.
DukeEngage also will return this summer to Hyderabad, India, with a program led by Leela Prasad, associate professor of ethics and South Asian studies and faculty director of the Duke Center for Civic Engagement. Prasad's program focuses on education and equity issues affecting economically underprivileged communities in and around Hyderabad city.
"Of this year's 41 group programs, 39 will resume work begun in a previous summer," said Eric Mlyn, executive director of DukeEngage. "The year-to-year continuity of DukeEngage's involvement with specific non-profits, schools and populations reflects the value we place on sustainability and ongoing partnerships with the communities we serve. The decision to develop new programs in Togo and Boston, and to resume a very strong one in Hyderabad, India, also underscores our strategic goal of involving Duke faculty in the leadership of DukeEngage programs."
During the summer of 2013 DukeEngage will fund the placement of as many as 435 Duke students in 41 domestic and international group programs and dozens of independent student projects.
Students can explore all DukeEngage opportunities available for summer 2013 at dukeengage.duke.edu/immersion-programs as well as by attending presentations offered by faculty and former participants during "DukeEngage Week -- International/Independent," Oct. 22-26, 2012, and "DukeEngage Week -- Domestic," Jan. 14-17, 2013.
Interested students may apply online at the DukeEngage web site beginning Oct. 1. The application deadline for international group programs is Nov. 6, 2012, while the application deadline for domestic group programs and independent projects is Jan. 22, 2013.
Since 2007, when DukeEngage began, more than 2,000 Duke students have volunteered through DukeEngage with 500 community partners in over 70 nations on six continents.