Over those years, Duke has hosted about 7,000 middle schoolers on campus, said David Stein, senior education partnership coordinator with Duke Community Affairs.

Stein said many students don’t have opportunities to learn about college life outside of School Days. For almost all, it’s their first time visiting a college campus. The aim of the program is to plant the idea of college in students who currently aren’t thinking about it.

“The Durham schools value School Days for what it provides their students, and the students value it as well,” Stein said. “Their energy level from the start was amazing.”

The support came from many people. Chelsy Amaya Garcia, a School Days alumna, talked about what the program meant to her. Duke alumnus Victor Clifton from Durham’s Emily K Center shared what students should be doing to prepare for college.  And Pratt professor Sophia Santillan, co-director of the Girls Exploring Math program, encouraged students to develop confidence in their math skills.

The bulk of the day involved visits to residence halls where the middle schoolers met with Duke students, and labs and classrooms where faculty and graduate students shared what they found exciting about their research. They took part in a virtual scavenger hunt through the Goosechase app and captured selfies around Duke’s campus, which was vibrant with fall colors.

Here’s a little of what the students got to do: View rare and exotic plants in Duke’s Botany Greenhouses; watch lemurs jump and play; learn statistics with M&Ms; perform CPR on a human patient simulator; and touch open hernia models in Duke’s Surgical Education and Activities Lab.

School Days requires the assistance of nearly a hundred Duke volunteers, but Stein said faculty and Duke students are always willing to help out either through instruction or leading the middle schoolers on tour.

“The Duke volunteers are energized as well,” Stein said. “They see students get excited about their research. The volunteer will talk about their data and suddenly middle school students are experiencing something about whale migration patterns or bird migration. Or in some of the high-tech labs, students get to use virtual reality equipment they’ve never been able to use before.”

“I previously worked in the school system so I love working with kids,” said Amber Partin of the Office for Institutional Equity. “I enjoy seeing how inspired they get when their brains get going so I am excited about today.”

For some, the connection to Duke will continue. School Days attendees, regardless of their ability to pay, are invited to apply to Duke’s pre-college programs this summer where generous financial support is available. School Days and the summer pre-college program are part of the larger scope of early childhood and college readiness programs supported by Duke Community Affairs as one of its five priorities.