A Decade of Engagement
A decade of deepening connections across the Duke network, both in our own region and across the world
A DECADE OF DEMAN: HOW A NETWORKING WEEKEND HAS BLOSSOMED
Since it began, interest in DEMAN — short for Duke Entertainment, Media and Arts Network — has risen steadily. From humble beginnings in 2009, when about two dozen alumni and 120 students participated, the event connecting students to alumni who work in entertainment has flourished. In 2018, 110 alumni signed on as speakers and nearly 700 students registered for the weekend.
Duke Collaborates with Stanford to Launch ACE Program
In February 2014, Duke's Board of Trustee's met with officials from Stanford to determine opportunities for collaboration between the two institutions. Finding ways for student-athletes to overcome scheduling challenges, which make participating in off-campus activities such as study abroad programs difficult, was identified as an issue on which the two universities could work together, leading to the formation of the Rubenstein-Bing Student-Athlete Civic Engagement (ACE) Program. The program officially launched in 2015 and provides one-time funding for student-athletes to engage in a three-week international service project.
DUKE ALUMNI TAKE COLLEGE ADVISING TO THE HEART OF NORTH CAROLINA
The Duke College Advising Corps (CAC) is a program of Duke’s Office of Durham and Community Affairs’ education and workforce development unit which works to increase the number of low-income, first generation high school students from under-resourced high schools across the state who enter and complete higher education. Recent Duke graduates serve as “near-peer” advisers, helping high school students navigate the college admissions process, from helping them fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, to setting up campus visits.
Duke Kunshan Celebrates Campus Opening
Established in September 2013 as a U.S.-China partnership between Duke and Wuhan Univesity, Duke Kunshan is a world-class liberal arts university based in Kunshan, China. Duke Kunshan celebrated its formal campus opening in 2014 with an event to dedicate the 750,000 square foot campus and welcomed its first students in August of the same year. The university began by offering Duke graduate degrees as well as a Global Learning Semester program for undergraduate students from Duke and top-tier Chinese and international universities. In August 2018, Duke Kunshan welcomed its first undergraduate degree students. The four-year bachelor’s degree program follows the liberal arts and sciences tradition with emphasis on critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and self-exploration.
Duke-NUS Graduates First batch of Students
In April 2005, Duke and the National University of Singapore signed a formal agreement under which the two institutions would partner to establish a new graduate medical school in Singapore. Duke-NUS Medical School's curriculum is patterned after that of Duke University School of Medicine. In 2011, Duke-NUS graduated its first batch of MD students, while the first class of MD/PhD and PhD students graduated in 2016.
DUKE’S ‘EMBASSY’ IN WASHINGTON
Started in 2012, the Duke in DC office hosts academic programs, alumni receptions and meetings, houses Washington-based university faculty and staff, and serves as a base for Duke business in Washington. The Duke in DC office moved to its current location at 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue two years ago because of a need for more space. The new facility — which is easy to reach from Capitol Hill, Reagan National Airport and close to multiple train lines — features several conference rooms and event spaces, a multimedia studio and 42 work stations. In 2018, the office hosted around 3,500 visitors, 300 events, 83 classes and had people from 70 Duke units or departments come through.
Successful Durham Infant Home-Visiting Program Goes National
More than 10 years ago, Duke professor Kenneth A. Dodge collaborated with members of the Durham and Duke communities to create Durham Connects as a means for addressing high rates of child maltreatment in Durham County. Since its expansion in October 2017, the nurse home visiting program for newborns has gone nationwide with Family Connects working in 26 communities across the country including Baltimore, Long Island, N.Y., Southern Santa Barbara County, Calif., and Travis County, Texas.
DUKE’S EMPLOYEE GIVING CAMPAIGN FOR THE COMMUNITY
Through annual giving campaign Doing Good in the Neighborhood, Duke employees' contributions and volunteer efforts support affordable housing for local residents, disaster relief work, community health clinics and early childhood learning. During the 2018-19 campaign, employees raised a total of $656,000 for local nonprofits, schools and neighborhoods.
FORMER SATELLITE DISHES TURNED INTO COLORFUL ENHANCEMENTS FOR GATTIS STREET COMMUNITY
Duke’s defunct Satellite Park — nestled deep within the historic Burch Avenue Neighborhood in Durham — was once used by the university’s Tel Com department in the 1990s. In 2018, instead of expensively tearing out the giant satellite dishes and banishing them to a landfill, a community mural project turned the old technology into an outdoor masterpiece and public park.
CHESTERFIELD BUILDING WELCOMES FIRST WAVE OF DUKE RESEARCHERS
Located at 701 West Main Street in downtown Durham, The Chesterfield was built in 1948 to produce cigarettes for the Liggett & Myers tobacco company and sat unused for years. Following an extensive renovation, it is now a sparkling workplace for scientists, clinicians and entrepreneurs to meet and collaborate — and to find solutions to cancer and other challenges facing humanity. Collaborative ties between Duke’s schools of engineering and medicine, and between Duke and its hometown, are stronger than ever with the opening of this new home for biomedical discovery.
Building Bridges at Duke Campus Farm
Founded in 2010, the Duke Campus Farm uses sustainable methods to grow produce while providing a living, learning laboratory to students, faculty and staff. The farm aims to encourage positive change in the ways the Duke community and the community outside of Duke interact with the larger food system and to provide opportunities to gain valuable agricultural skills. Since its start, Duke Campus Farm has blossomed from a small student project to a working farm, which produces thousands of pounds of produce annually.
DUKE ALUMNI, VETERANS OF WORKING IN DC, SHARE TIPS AND TRICKS WITH DUKE SUMMER INTERNS
As Duke sent an annual cohort of students to the nation’s capital to pursue summer work experience, Duke in DC offered them the chance to hear from successful alumni and ask questions about professional life.
Guest speakers Discuss Range of Topics
The Duke community welcomed interesting and provocative speakers to campus on a nearly daily basis over the past 10 years. Among the many speakers who shared their experiences and insights on a range of topics from art to politics to technology were Tim Cook, Bob Woodward, Karl Rove and Howard Dean, Regina Bradly, David Patreaus, Nikki Haley, Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, Nadia Murad, Marian Wright Edelman, Murs, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the Exonerated Five, Tarana Burke and Colson Whitehead.