Help Durham Eighth Graders Learn about College
Volunteers are needed when Durham Public Schools students visit Duke on Oct. 28 for School Days
At the end of October, 300 Durham eighth graders who would be the first generation in their family to attend college will visit Duke University.
The students will tour campus, visit student centers and residence halls, and talk with Duke students. As part of the festivities, event organizers are looking for about 80 Duke employees to volunteer as School Days staff escorts.
“Employees will have fun learning about Duke and campus, but most importantly, they’re really motivating the kids, and it’s really great to have that interaction,” said David Stein, School Days organizer for the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. “Without any family members who have attended college, the eighth graders don’t know what to expect. They are stunned by the student schedules, the co-ed dorms, and the resources and activities available to them on a college campus.”
Volunteers will serve from 8:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Oct. 28 and will help lead, with the assistance of Duke students and Durham Public Schools counselors, groups of 10 eighth graders around campus and to activities. Volunteers receive breakfast, lunch and a special edition T-shirt.
Employees must sign up to volunteer and are invited to attend an optional School Days training at 11:15 a.m. Oct 21. After the training, volunteers are invited to an optional pizza lunch and walking tour at noon led by Duke University Archivist Valerie Gillispie to learn more about Duke history, landmarks and other interesting campus topics.
During School Days, eighth graders will go on a “multimedia scavenger hunt” across campus, in which they will interview Duke students about their college experiences, create a hypothetical schedule of a college student, visit campus landmarks, create a wearable button of a historical Duke figure, and more.
Among campus locations for visits are the Duke immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) lab, Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, and the 3D printing facility in the newly renovated Technology Engagement Center.
Eulena Jonsson, assistant director of assessment and research for Duke Student Affairs, served as a School Days volunteer for the first time last year. She enjoyed meeting Duke students and employees she wouldn’t normally meet and visited residence halls, the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity.
“Our job was to really just have fun and talk and answer any questions they had and help them feel at ease,” Jonsson said. “You really felt like you were having an impact, that you were part of something. You could really see their eyes were getting opened.”