A recent survey conducted by the Duke University Office of Global Education reports that 96 percent of DukeEngage participants would rank their trip as their “most important college voluntarism experience.” Started in 2007 as a way to get undergraduate students out into the world, DukeEngage has since sent thousands of participants worldwide to complete over 1 million hours of community service. The program, virtually unmatched by any other school in the country, has received much public commendation and is frequently cited as a top reason why high school students apply to the university.
“It’s really important for our students to get hands-on experience,” said Professor Emily Lee, a longtime mentor of the program. “We all hear about privilege and these third-world countries in class and in the news, but the eight weeks that students spend in these communities allow them to connect these ideas to the real world. They’re not just going abroad; with nothing but their tents, passports, and credit cards, they learn just what it’s like to spend your whole life in poverty.”
Lee added that in addition to a comprehensive training program prior to departure, showing off language skills to the natives, flashing American currency and taking plenty of photos for Instagram are all integral components of the DukeEngage experience. But her sentiments aren’t just wise words from a longtime mentor; many veterans of DukeEngage service trips echo the same thoughts.
“DukeEngage was meant for me,” a recent returnee from Ecuador said. “I was the President of my Key Club and I was in a national service society all four years of high school, so when I got to Duke, I was really thinking about what service program should go next on the list. Once I read the DukeEngage pamphlet, I was hooked!” The student went on to say that his eight weeks were spent learning about how public health and human services impact the country. “Plus, as an engineer, it really opened my eyes to the outside world. Did you know some of them don’t have Internet?”
Another reflected on her trip from a year ago. “Look at this,” she said, pulling up a VSCO photo of a village as tears formed in her eyes. “Look how dirty it is. How poorly kept. We were there like, what, eight weeks? But these people live there. They can’t leave; they don’t have a choice. It’s just…it’s sad.” The student looked down for a minute, a tear running down her cheek as she gazed pensively at the meticulously edited and carefully filtered photo.
But, as the program directors emphasize, it isn’t just seeing poverty that helps Duke students grow—it’s about experiencing poverty.
“I was walking around at night,” remembers one junior, “just minding my own business, taking pictures of the African night life, when this guy runs by and shouts at me!”
The Economics major recounts that, yelling in a ‘scary’ voice, the ‘big man’ then proceeded to “grab [the] camera out of my hand and run away! It was so f*****g scary—just like that, my life flashed before my eyes. Can you imagine living in fear of that every single day?” The student shook his head in bewilderment and stood in shock for a minute before adding that the story did, however, fit really well with the internship essay question, “Describe a moment where you faced injustice.”
Multiple interviewed students also recounted tales of health episodes abroad. “I got a rash on a weekend hiking trip, but they didn’t have any treatment cream at the village bazaar,” tells one sophomore volunteer.
“It was freaky—I mean, it went away after a few days, thank God, but the fact that that happened really says something about the medical care they have. It’s literally nothing like anything I’ve ever seen here in the States. I literally sat on my cot with my arm wrapped in my recruitment shirt that I soaked in water—like, really primitive medicine. It’s just like, objectively, the worst.”
All in all, the DukeEngage program is a vital part of the college volunteer experience: giving students the experiences of truly living in poverty, before they make the journey back to their modest, middle class apartments on the Upper East Side. And without this program, Duke wouldn’t be producing so many students who care about sharing their priviledg blessings with others.
Remarked one recent Duke graduate, “DukeEngage has stayed with me even now—I still tell stories about it to my colleagues at McKinsey. It was just the perfect way for me to get out there and take part in the voluntarism I’d talked about for all those years.”
When asked about her favorite service experience in Durham, she declined to comment.
Monday Monday brought home three baby anacondas from their DukeEngage trip, hoping to become the 'Mother of Anacondas.'
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