Discount Helps Employees Save on Storytelling

With the help of the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke community members can hone their storytelling skills with a special discount.

Whether writing, audio, video or photographic, employees and students can save 10 percent on each class they sign up for, with a full array of options scheduled now through August. Courses include beginner, intermediate and advanced level classes like Elements of Effective Photos, Intro to Video Editing or even “Anytown, USA,” where each student produces and edits and eight to 12 minute video about a small town, village or community.

“The shortest distance between people is a story, and everybody’s story is valuable and deserves to be told,” said April Walton, continuing education director at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS). “Some people want professional development and some are interested in learning a new skill, but we want to offer a flexible way to learn any type of documentary arts.”

Almost 30 classes are offered through August, including some online courses taken in real time via teleconferencing. A full listing is available on the CDS website. Prices for classes start at $230. To receive a discount code, faculty, staff and students must first email cdscourses@duke.edu before registering. Summer institutes and intensives are excluded from the discount.

“The only writing I’ve ever done is more scientific, I’ve never looked at something from an artistic side,” said Dr. Sanjay Patel, a consulting associate at Duke Primary Care Wake Forest. He’s taking an Introduction to Documentary Studies class to learn skills to produce a video documentary about primary care physician burnout. “It’s important to tell the stories of physicians instead of lecturing to us about burnout.”

During the current spring semester, SangHee Jeong, program coordinator at Duke’s International House, started taking classes at CDS to learn how to create animated videos with the hope to use them in a way to explain complex topics. Utilizing her employee discount, she’s produced videos for international students and scholars to demystify the U.S. tax process and how to get a driver’s license.

“Our office tries to promote cross-cultural awareness and diversity, so I thought I could learn more about making documentaries and use it for our outreach and dissemination,” Jeong said. 

She plans to use skills learned this semester to create more videos to integrate into intercultural programs and record presentations and speakers to share with members of Duke’s international community.

“I consider myself creative,” Jeong said. “If I learn real documentary skills, they can be good personal enrichment as well as useful professional development.”

To see a full list of classes, visit CDS’ schedule. Click each class name to find registration information.