Student-athletes have limited time to take part in international learning experiences, but a joint Duke-Stanford University program provides a model for how it can take place.
The Rubenstein-Bing Student-Athlete Civic Engagement Program, or ACE, provides one-time funding for Duke-Stanford student-athletes to participate in three-week, immersive summer service experiences with an international community partner.
ACE Program Director, Emily Durham, worked alongside local South African videographers and the ACE in South Africa 2017 student-athletes to create a short film that offers a glimpse into the ACE immersive summer service experience.
The film-makers captured footage from two of the main service projects for the group including the two-week sports camp held at AJC Primary School for local youth and a greenhouse construction project at a local eco-pre-school. The student-athletes from Duke and Stanford also discussed some of their most valuable and lasting takeaways from the ACE experience in interviews, sharing lessons in immersive service, collaboration, and humility – all parts of the experience the student-athletes will take back to their respective teams and campus communities.