Duke Receives Grant To Develop National Model For Service-Learning

DURHAM, N.C. -- The U.S. Department of Education has selected Duke University as a recipient of a $454,403 grant to develop a three-stage model for service-learning.

The Duke initiative is designed to develop, implement, evaluate and nationally disseminate a model that will allow undergraduate students to pursue academic research projects that are integrated with community needs and interests.

The three-stage Duke model, called "Scholarship With a Civic Mission: Promoting Intellectual, Ethical and Civic Engagement through Research Service-Learning," includes:

• Gateway courses that introduce first- and second-year undergraduates to service-learning, ethical inquiry and field-based research.
• Community-based research opportunities, such as research-intensive seminars, faculty-supervised summer internships and group or individual independent study projects.
• Capstone experiences, full-credit honors and research seminars that enable students to integrate what they have previously learned, and to create a substantial research product of relevance both to their community partner and to an academic audience. Capstone courses will be supplemented by opportunities for students to share their work with academic and community audiences through publications, conference presentations and exhibitions.

"To enable undergraduates to pursue research projects that benefit the larger community, and to create a continuous network of service learning opportunities from gateway courses through capstone experiences, would not only be consonant with our mission but, indeed, reflects our highest aspirations for helping undergraduates prepare for full participation as local, regional and national citizens and leaders," said Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane.

Added co-principal investigator Alma Blount, director of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy's Hart Leadership Program, "Undergraduates will learn the rigors and discipline of research in communities, and at the same time critically reflect on the ethical, civic and intellectual dimensions of their experiences. We believe this approach will help students develop leadership skills and a mature sense of themselves as engaged citizens."

The overall budget for the project is $1,546,169: $454,403 from the Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (29 percent of the total amount), and $1,091,766 from Duke for direct and indirect costs (71 percent).

Key project personnel for the Duke initiative include Blount; co-principal investigator Elizabeth Kiss, director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics; Betsy Alden, coordinator for service learning in the Kenan Institute; Mary Nijhout, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research Support and associate dean of arts and sciences; Matt Serra, director of assessment for Trinity College of Arts and Sciences; and Robert J. Thompson Jr., dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.

"This project supports Duke's new undergraduate curricular emphases on independent research and on ethical inquiry," Kiss said. "We are excited about working with colleagues in a wide range of disciplines in bringing it to fruition."