2025–26 Annual Highlights

To Be Rather
Than To Seem

Duke Service-Learning · Annual Theme

In a moment when so much pulls us toward performance, toward metrics, toward the appearance of impact, service-learning asks something harder and more honest: Are we actually showing up? This year's theme, "To Be Rather Than To Seem" — North Carolina's state motto — explores that question. Every highlight in this report is about a relationship built over time, a student who went beyond the walls of Duke and entered a community as a learner, a faculty member who redesigned their course around reciprocity. That is what it means to truly be here — present, committed, and in it together.

— Duke Service-Learning
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By the numbers
Every number below represents a choice — a faculty member who connected learning with action, a student who expanded their world, and a community that welcomed them in.
32
Duke academic units offered community-engaged courses
Across schools and disciplines
81
Faculty wove service-learning into their teaching
Designing community engagement into every syllabus
141
Course sections brought it to life
Across Fall 2025 and Spring 2026
2,075
Students engaged with Durham and beyond
Each one carrying Duke's learning into Durham and beyond
7
languages
represented
45
course enhancement
grants awarded
10
service-learning
assistants
$18,000
in transportation
funds
#3
Ranked nationally
in service-learning
U.S. News & World Report
PACE 2026 team
Research · February 13, 2026
Civic Identity Takes Shape in Relationship
PACE 2026 · Suepriya Adhikari, Amy Anderson, Joan Clifford & Kathy Sikes

Through rubric-based analysis of student reflections, the Duke Service-Learning team examined how Duke students recognize ethical complexity, interrogate privilege, challenge the "Duke bubble," and come to see community engagement as part of their identity — not just a requirement.

"Because of this SLCE course, I now see community engagement not just as an extracurricular activity but as part of my civic identity. Service should not be temporary or transactional. Instead, it should be ongoing and rooted in meaningful relationships."

— Duke student reflection · 165 reflections analyzed across 15 courses
One theme came through clearly: civic identity isn't formed in abstraction. It develops in relationship.
Community Partner · Course Story · Jordan High School
The Critical Pedagogy of Hip-Hop (EDUC 285S)
Prof. Kisha Daniels · Jordan High School · Rapsody, Community Partner

"Bridging the gap between Duke students and Jordan High School students — it's all about community connection, working together. That's the beauty of what this art form is."

— Rapsody, Grammy Award–winning artist & community partner

Created by education professor Kisha Daniels in 2019, this course pairs Duke students with Durham high schoolers to explore hip-hop as a lens for social justice, language, and community. This spring, 11th graders at Jordan High spent the semester studying the work of Grammy-winning artist Rapsody — then wrote and recorded original music together. The collaboration produced two tracks, "Living Loyal" and "The Cookout," performed for Rapsody during her end-of-semester visit to Jordan's band room.

Read the full story
Photo: Jared Lazarus / Duke University Communications and Marketing
Small Town USA · DOCST 230S · Instructor: Susie Post-Rust

Each semester, students spend the term in Hillsborough, NC — building relationships and completing individual documentary photography projects that together form a portrait of the town. The course culminates in a public print exhibit presented to the community and the people photographed, on the streets of Hillsborough itself.

"It was a beautiful evening… impacting the community in so many layers."

— Deborah Pearson-Moyers, Community Partner · Blue Skies of Mapleview LLC
Featured event
Faculty-Led Events
This year, Duke Service-Learning hosted two events that brought faculty, students, and community partners together to deepen the practice of community-engaged learning.
November 2025 · Workshop
Mapping What Endures
Lessons in resilience from Hurricane Helene — PUBPOL 213
Andrew Nurkin
Andrew
Nurkin
Jeffrey Broms
Jeffrey
Broms
Duke '27
Erin Gotlieb
Erin
Gotlieb
Duke '26
"We don't start with deficits. We start with thinking about what's already working, what already exists."
— Andrew Nurkin, Hart Leadership Program

Students Jeffrey Broms and Erin Gotlieb partnered with the NC Music Office to map cultural assets across 12 counties affected by Hurricane Helene — shifting the frame from damage to resilience, and from extraction to empowerment.

Read the full story
February 2026 · Mini-Symposium
Creating Space for Reflection
How faculty help students slow down and make meaning from community-engaged learning
Katie Hyde
Katie
Hyde
Yan Liu
Yan
Liu
Adam Rosenblatt
Adam
Rosenblatt
"We're never just here. We're always somewhere else — a ping, a scroll, a dopamine drip away."
— Duke student reflection, 2025–26

Three faculty shared approaches — poetry, structured civic analysis, and letters to chosen ancestors — all aimed at the same goal: helping students learn how to be present with themselves, with others, and with the communities they encounter.

Read the full story
Also this year

In March, fifty Duke students gathered in the Pink Parlor for a conversation organized by Duke Service-Learning and facilitated by Malone — bringing together Dean Kerry Haynie (Social Sciences), Minna Ng (Psychology & Neuroscience), Kristen Stephens (Program in Education), and Mina Silberberg (Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship) to explore a deceptively simple question: Are you building stats, or are you building a story?

"What matters to me isn't how you get in. What matters is how you get out — how your ideas, your curiosity, and your sense of purpose have grown while you were here."
— Dean Kerry Haynie, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Read the full story
Celebrating excellence
2026 Betsy Alden Award Recipients
Each year, Duke Service-Learning honors individuals who embody the spirit of community-engaged learning — recognizing a faculty member, a student, and a community partner.
Jacqueline Villanueva
Student
Jacqueline Villanueva
A graduating senior in Medical Sociology who has taken a service-learning course nearly every semester — working with the Avila Center, El Centro Hispano, and Insight Colearning Center, and drawing classmates into the work along the way. "Meaningful learning does not happen in isolation," she reflected. "It happens through relationships, reflection, and engagement with the communities around us."
Dr. Whitney McCoy
Faculty
Dr. Whitney McCoy
Founder of the InventHers Institute and instructor of Engineering Equity (EGR190/EDUC290S), where Duke students design and facilitate hands-on STEM activities with Durham mothers and daughters. Her approach begins with listening — stakeholder interviews, community asset mapping — and the results show: participating mothers report greater confidence in their STEM identities, and daughters show measurable gains in interest and self-efficacy.
Coach Curtis Walker
Community Partner
Coach Curtis Walker
Health & Physical Education Specialist at E.K. Powe Elementary, whose partnership with Duke's Partners for Success program has made reciprocity more than a concept. He matches volunteers to age groups based on what they want to practice — and the kids notice. Many Duke students continue volunteering in his gym long after a course ends.
The Town of Hillsborough
Community Partner
The Town of Hillsborough
For nearly two decades, Hillsborough has been an extraordinary partner to Susie Post-Rust's documentary photography course — not because of any single organization, but because of a community-wide culture of welcome. Three mayors, the Arts Council, local churches, and the Tourism Development Authority have all shown up to keep the course running and accessible to every student.
Meet this year's recipients
Three voices
To be here, fully
This year's stories center on what it means to show up — as a teacher of thirty years, as the inaugural director who gave a movement its institutional home, and as a student navigating her place in the world.
Prof. Carolyn Kun-Shan Lee
Faculty · Retiring · 30 Years of Service
Carolyn Kun-Shan Lee
Asian & Middle Eastern Studies · Chinese Language Program
"My hope is that this work continues to grow, opening more pathways for students to connect classroom learning with the communities around them. In those encounters, language becomes not just something we learn, but something we live."
For nearly thirty years, Professor Lee built a Chinese language curriculum that reaches beyond the classroom — into Durham schools, temples, and sister institutions — where Mandarin becomes, as she puts it, "relevant to life here and now." Her students don't just study the language; they live it. In Chinese 333, they tutor fifth graders at Glenwood Elementary. In Chinese 370, they visit the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple in Cary. In Chinese 411, they present Confucian thought to peers at the NC School of Science and Mathematics. As she steps away from teaching, her model of relational, community-rooted language education endures.
Read her story
David Malone
Faculty · Inaugural Director · 2026 Brodhead Award Recipient
David Malone '84
Program in Education · Faculty Director, Duke Service-Learning 2006–2022
When the Office of Service-Learning was formally established in 2006, David Malone became its inaugural faculty director — bringing coherence, credibility, and vision to a movement that had grown from kitchen-table gatherings into a campus-wide commitment. Over sixteen years, he mentored faculty, championed service-learning on university committees, and helped build the structures that allow community-engaged learning to thrive at Duke. This year, Trinity College honored that legacy with the 2026 Brodhead Service Award, recognizing a career defined not by titles but by the sustained, generous work of bringing people together around a shared educational purpose. Colleagues describe him as someone whose influence extends well beyond formal roles — a trusted advisor who helped generations of students connect their education to the wider world.
Read about the Brodhead Award
Sally Maroa
Student · Service-Learning Assistant · Voyager Scholar
Sally Maroa '27
International Comparative Studies & Global Health
"Take that step. If you're frustrated by the world and don't know where to put that energy, service-learning gives you a place to start."
Born in Kenya and raised across three countries, Sally Maroa arrived at Duke with a global understanding of how inequality works — and a commitment to acting on it. As a Service-Learning Assistant supporting courses on workers' rights and community advocacy, she helps students connect with Durham partners and reflect on what it means to engage responsibly. This year, she received the Voyager Scholarship for Public Service — a national award supporting students committed to careers in service. Her plans include thesis research in Ghana on reproductive justice, and possibly staying in Durham after graduation. "Durham's movement work," she says, "has made me want to be here."
Read her story
Every semester
Into Durham and Beyond, Every Semester
Dream Keepers
Community engagement
Music Community Connect
SPAN 306 students
Students in Durham
SmallTown USA
Food Bank
Betsy Alden
Duke Gardens CHN 451
Emanuel Food Pantry
Buddhist Temple visit
Jan Riggsbee and David Malone
Jan Riggsbee and David Malone celebrate — arms wide open — with the Durham skyline behind them. A retirement celebration hosted by the Program in Education. · Photo: Susie Post-Rust
In Gratitude · Retiring After Distinguished Careers at Duke
Celebrating David Malone and Jan Riggsbee
Teachers, Mentors, and Builders of Community-Engaged Learning

For decades, David Malone and Jan Riggsbee shaped what community-engaged learning looks like at Duke. David served as inaugural faculty director of Duke Service-Learning for sixteen years, mentoring generations of students and faculty. Jan helped establish the International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education and founded Duke TeachHouse, a living-learning community that has supported hundreds of early-career teachers in Durham. As they step into new chapters, their influence will continue to shape the Duke community for years to come.

Looking ahead
The work continues

What began around a kitchen table in the 1990s grew into a nationally recognized program. As we continue forward, we honor that legacy — and the ongoing work of every person who chooses to show up.

We remain committed to community-engaged teaching and learning that is relational, reciprocal, and rooted in Durham. We are grateful to you — our partners, our faculty, and our students — for making this work possible.

We are grateful to Trinity College of Arts & Sciences for their ongoing support, which makes our community-engaged teaching and learning possible.

Website
servicelearning.duke.edu
Email
servicelearning@duke.edu
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Duke Service-Learning