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Charitable Tulane Student Learns How to Receive

It has been a "surreal" two weeks for senior Dwight Blass, one of the New Orleans-area students to enroll at Duke

During his time as a student at Tulane University, Dwight Blass has volunteered with cancer patients, tutored elementary school students and helped an impoverished community center apply for grants.

Blass, a senior, who is one of more than 50 New Orleans-area students now enrolled at Duke, finds it ironic to be on the receiving end of others' generosity.

"It took me three years to learn how to get things done, learning who to talk to, who to know, becoming a student leader," he said. "Now I feel like a freshman again. It's humbling."

Blass couldn't help but be impressed as he listened to Duke students and administrators describe at a meeting Tuesday the hurricane relief efforts going on at his new school.

"Duke is being very generous and very gracious," said Blass, a 21-year-old economics major from Daytona Beach.

It has been a "surreal" two weeks for Blass. On Aug. 26, he returned early to Tulane to help freshmen move in to their dorm rooms and to recruit for CACTUS, the student-led community service group of which he is president.

One day later, he and the freshmen were told to leave behind most of their possessions in their rooms and to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Blass and friends drove to a friend's house in Houston. It took 13 hours to make the normally six-hour trip. While there, they watched TV in disbelief at the flooding and devastation. The coverage focused on the Superdome and the Convention Center, neither of which are near Tulane, so he repeatedly drove to an Apple computer store to check e-mail and websites for more information.

"Tulane had an emergency website and I was checking that obsessively," he said.

On Sept. 1, Blass began the drive home to Florida. He managed to find one gas station open on the way - “ in Meridian, Miss. - “ where he waited an hour in line.

When he arrived home the next day, he soon learned that Tulane President Scott Cowen had announced classes had been canceled for the semester. A short time later, a friend called to say Duke was accepting GulfCoast students who are the children of alumni. After discussing the issue with his father, Jeff, a 1975 Duke graduate, Blass sent Duke a message Saturday morning saying he would be interested in enrolling. By Saturday afternoon, Duke responded that he would be welcomed. On Sunday morning, Blass left for Durham.

While at Duke, Blass will take a full course load. He also will continue to raise money for CACTUS so Tulane students can immediately embark on meaningful rebuilding projects when they return to campus.

"It's too easy to sequester yourself on a private university campus. I think you have to force yourself to grow through helping others," he said. "I worry that when I go back to New Orleans, that's when it will really hit me. I'm still in a little bit of disbelief."