School Days Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary

The annual event draws students who would be the first in their families to attend college

It was a sunny, crisp Friday morning when a parade of yellow buses from Durham Public Schools pulled alongside the curb in front of Cameron Indoor Stadium, unloading hundreds of eighth graders for Duke’s School Days event.

School Days celebrated its 25th anniversary this year on Oct. 31.

Diamond Riley was an eighth grader at the Durham School of the Arts when she arrived on campus for the School Days event during one of its early years.

Riley, now an administrative assistant to the dean of the Duke Graduate School program, remembers the highlights of that campus tour: visits to the Brodhead Center, with college students “scattered about” at the Bryan Center Plaza, studying and socializing.

“I was really interested in [acting] at the time, and a theater room was part of the tour at the Bryan Center,” said Riley, a graduate of UNC-Greensboro. Riley began working at Duke during the pandemic and has volunteered with School Days since 2023.

Students jumping up and down
Students danced during the closing ceremonies in 2019.

“I like the light they get in their eyes when they tour the campus and enter the different buildings,” Riley said about the visiting eighth graders. “I can see the wheels turning with them imagining being on campus as a student or employee.”

Encouraging Eighth Graders to Attend College

School Days was created in 2000 by David Stein to encourage eighth-graders enrolled in public schools to attend college after high school. This event is open to all 8th graders with a special focus on those who would be the first in their families to attend college.

Duke officials announced in 2023 that the university would provide free tuition to undergraduate students from North Carolina and South Carolina whose family incomes are $150,000 or less.

“With the school’s new financial aid policy, the kids can now actually come to  Duke,” said Brandi Melvin-Scammell, an assistant to the director of undergraduate studies with the Duke University Music Department, who regularly volunteers with the School Days program.

The eighth graders were guided by Duke and North Carolina Central University student volunteers who took them to a smorgasbord of locations on West Campus.

Students mugging for the camera.
Mugging for the camera in 2010

A group of students from Carrington Middle School were accompanied by Melvin-Scammell; Elena Hammann, a program coordinator with DukeEngage; the students' school counselor, Tarica Rawlinson; and Duke student volunteers. Their campus tour began with a visit to the GG House residence hall.

They gathered in the second-floor room of Jane, a junior political science major from Pittsburgh.

Opportunities to Ask Questions

Zariyah Harris asked Jane if she liked sharing the bathroom down the hall.

“It’s not my favorite part of living in a dorm, but I will say that I’ve made some friends from sharing the bathroom,” Jane explained. 

Another student asked Jane if she rode a scooter to her classes. Jane said she was about a five-minute walk from her classes and if someone has classes on East Campus, they can reach their destination by taking a campus shuttle bus.

“Everything is super close,” Jane said.  

The day-long campus visit ended at Penn Pavilion, where participants munched on pizza and were entertained by a juggler from UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as dance groups from Duke and nearby N.C. Central University.

Student sits in race car
This photo taken in 2014, the race car at the Pratt School of Engineering is a perennial School Days favorite.

“As you go through high school, as you go through college, you’re going to be juggling a lot of stuff,” the juggler told them. “Things may get chaotic and you may drop some things … pick up the pin and keep juggling.”

Duke political science professor and faculty director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Candis Watts Smith shared some important advice.

“If you’re here today, you have a team of people who love you, who care about you deeply and want to see you excel,” she said. “These are the people who want you to dream your biggest dreams and want more for you than they have themselves. Keep those people really close.”

Then she offered up the flip side of a supportive team, pointing to those who don’t want the students to achieve their dreams. “Keep those people away from you,” Watts Smith said. “You don’t need their advice.”

School Days participant Stephanie Ezilee is considering becoming an architect. “It’s nice,” she said about the day. “I will have a good experience if I come here.” Meanwhile, Zariyah Harris wants to become an obstetrician-gynecologist.

Duke figures perfectly into her future. “I like the vibes and the surroundings, and [the] rules and how [the school] treats its students,” Zariyah said. “It’s just me. It fits my vibe.”