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Duke Program in Education

  • Student U

About Student U

Student U. is an academic enrichment program in Durham that works with community partners, including Duke University's Program in Education, to ensure that middle school students in Durham realize their fullest academic and personal potentials. This is achieved by bringing together DPS students who are at risk of becoming disconnected with the school system, employing passionate, dedicated, talented college students to teach, providing those college students with support from experienced DPS, Durham Academy, and Teach for America teachers, and by challenging everyone to dream and achieve more than he or she could have imagined.

Program in Education Involvement

The Program in Education supports Student U in a variety of ways including service on Student U's executive advisory board and curriculum committee (David Malone and Jan Riggsbee). In addition, in 2008-09 Jan Riggsbee developed a new, innovative and experientially-based course, EDUC 159: Educating Diverse Learners through Community Collaboratives that was offered for the first time in Summer 2009 to 32 undergraduates from NCCU, UNC-CH, Duke, and NCSU. This course prepares undergraduates to teach and mentor adolescent learners participating in Student U.

"My experience with Student U. has been instrumental in changing my academic focus at Duke! Without Student U. I would never have realized and felt how our education system stands as a backbone to our nation's democracy and its potential to address at the core our nation's entrenched inequalities rooted in racism, poverty, and gender. Through interacting with my wonderful 6th graders, their incredible parents, and my fellow faculty members at Student U., I have learned an incredible amount about how the DPS system, local organizations, and universities can act to support the dynamic spirit of activism that exists in Durham. There is an incredible movement for positive change in the community, and Student U. has allowed for youth to empower themselves and take a stake in their own community. I will take what I have learned from Student U. and hope to continue working as an educational advocate—whether in the classroom, through a non-profit, or on Capitol Hill." 

                        ~Angela Vo, Trinity '10

To learn more about Student U. contact:

, Executive Director