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Degree of Distinction: The Duke Children's Tuition Grant

Tuition benefit for children of Duke University employees sends thousands to college

Christian Jones, a staff assistant in Duke’s Academic Resource Center, graduated from Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh in 2012 with help from Duke’s Children’s Tuition Grant. Photo courtesy of Michele Jones
Christian Jones, a staff assistant in Duke’s Academic Resource Center, graduated from Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh in 2012 with help from Duke’s Children’s Tuition Grant. Photo courtesy of Michele Jones

Christian Jones relates to the students filing into Duke’s Academic Resource Center every day for study tips and time management advice.Jones, a staff assistant at Duke, is three years out of Saint Augustine’s University but remembers juggling political science classes, student government and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority responsibilities. “College is a place where a person learns how to balance,” said Jones, 25. “It exposes you to the person you have the potential of becoming.”Duke helped Jones pursue that balance and her undergraduate degree from Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh. The Jones family received $23,723 in tuition grants over the course of her undergraduate education through Duke’s Children’s Tuition Grant, which provides funding to children of eligible Duke University employees. The family is also receiving the grant to help send the youngest daughter, Camille, to Howard University in Washington, D.C. After a deductible, eligible Duke employees receive up to 75 percent of Duke’s tuition per semester at any accredited college or university. Tuition for public colleges and universities in North Carolina is less than the deductible; therefore, the grant is not applicable.In the past academic year, 1,116 children of Duke faculty and staff took advantage of the benefit, which helped send these children to many schools in North Carolina, including Duke, Elon University and Meredith College. “This Duke benefit has had such a sweeping, positive impact on our families,” said Kyle Cavanaugh, Duke’s vice president for administration. “Not only does it provide financial relief to our parents and their children, but it also turns their higher education dreams into reality.”Other large employers in Durham County don’t offer this type of tuition grant benefit, and many peer institutions around the country don’t provide a similar level of funding, which helps Duke recruit and retain top faculty and staff from across the country.A helping hand among rising tuition costs

Josh Taekman
Josh Taekman Read More

Josh Taekman, the 18-year-old son of a Duke physician, decided on Carnegie Mellon University as his first choice because he was drawn to the computer science program.He is learning about coding data types in programming language C and attends campus sporting events with his Swimming & Diving teammates. “I was really interested in coming to one of the best computer science programs in the country and learning as much as I could about a subject I knew I was interested in,” Taekman said. “You can walk up to any person here and talk about code, and they’ll understand what you’re talking about.”But before he set foot on the campus in Pittsburgh in 2014, he and his parents discussed how to pay for it. Duke’s tuition grant helped make it possible by covering about three-fourths of Carnegie Mellon’s annual tuition.Dr. Jeffrey Taekman said the family has been saving, but with twin teenage daughters who will start college in 2016, increasing college costs outweigh the ability to save enough.“Even as a physician, three simultaneous tuition payments would be overwhelming,” Dr. Taekman said. “We are unbelievably appreciative of the tuition benefit … the benefit makes more things possible.”Nationally, between academic years 2009-10 and 2014-15, average in-state tuition and fees have increased by 17 percent at public, four-year institutions and by 10 percent at private, nonprofit four-year institutions, according to a 2014 study by College Board, a not-for-profit organization that provides college readiness programs and tests such as the SAT.“College prices are continuing to increase, faster than the pace of inflation,” said Jennifer Ma, a policy research scientist with College Board.Advancing Careers

Javier Octavio Diaz Orihuela
Javier Octavio Diaz Orihuela

Beatriz Orihuela de Diaz and her family moved from Caracas, Venezuela, about 14 years ago, when the political climate heated up and the crime rate skyrocketed. Her son, Javier Octavio Diaz Orihuela, is a junior studying economics at Wake Forest University. He picked the campus for its business school reputation; his dream is to work in the automotive sector.“I’ve always viewed college as a way to definitely advance your career,” said Diaz Orihuela, who turns 21 in July. “It’s pretty much a requisite that you go to college to have a successful life after high school.”With help from Duke’s benefit, the family paid 27 percent of the total cost of tuition and fees to attend Wake Forest University in 2014-15.“I am very proud of my son because he’s working hard,” said Orihuela de Diaz, a Duke Marine Lab research specialist in Beaufort. “I’m really thankful of getting this help from Duke because otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to be at Wake Forest.”An enduring impact Christian Jones, the staff assistant in Duke’s Academic Resource Center, graduated from Saint Augustine’s University in 2012 with $26,500 in student loan debt for all of her college expenses, including text books, room and board, and tuition – less than half of what her friends were paying back after graduation. Graduating seniors at public and private nonprofit colleges across the country in 2013 owed an average of $28,400 in federal and private loans combined, according to the Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit research and policy organization working to increase college access and affordability. 

Christian and Camille Jones
Sisters Christian Jones (left) and Camille Jones (right)

The funding Jones received through Duke’s benefit has made her feel more financially secure, allowing her to maintain a healthy budget and consider going to law school.“When we moved here and my mother told me that when I go to college, I would receive some assistance from the university, that really made me feel valued by Duke,” she said. “That really influenced my decision in applying to work at the university.”Her mother, Michele Jones, an administrative assistant in the Duke Office of Undergraduate Education, said if the Duke benefit didn’t exist, the thousands of dollars that Duke has provided for her daughters’ education would have instead been paid by dipping into family savings or taking out loans. “Duke’s not only interested in the education of its students, but the education of its employees’ children,” Michele Jones said. “To me, that speaks volumes.”