Front Page | Service-Learning

Durham mural artist, Cornelio Campos, with Duke faculty: Charlie Thompson (Duke Cultural Anthropology and Documentary Studies), Bethzaida Fernandez (Duke Romance Studies), Miguel Rojas-Sotelo (Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies)

2021-2022 Highlights

Charlie Thompson, Bethzaida Fernandez, Cornelio Campos, and Miguel Rojas-Sotelo with a mural installation at the Durham Public Library. Read more in our annual highlights.

See the 2021-2022 Services-Learning Highlights

Root Causes - Student Team

2022 Alden Award Winners

Meet the Recipients of the Betsy Alden Outstanding Service-Learning Awards

Grey and tan background, photo of Kathy Sikes and Campus Compact Logo

2022 Civic Engagement Professional of the Year

Our Mission

Connecting Academic Learning to Community Engagement

Duke Service-Learning connects academic curriculum to communities to foster enriched learning and engagement in ethical collaborations. We provide consultation, training, research, and advocacy for the work of faculty, staff, students, and communities to support academic programming that joins communities in promoting social equity and social change.

Service-learning courses build a strong academic foundation by incorporating collaborations with local community partners and translating theory into real-world experience. By exploring the rich diversity of our local and global communities, service-learning courses provide students with opportunities to engage effectively with communities on issues such as the environment, socioeconomic inequities, public policy, health, immigration, education, and more.

For Faculty

A primary goal of Duke Service-Learning is to provide support and assistance to departments, programs, and individual faculty members seeking to integrate service-learning and community engagement into their academic objectives. We offer customized resources, classroom presentations, course funding, service-learning assistants, suggest potential community partners, help you develop assignments and assessment protocols, and provide feedback on your syllabus as requested.

Quick Links

For Students

Courses can feel far removed from the world outside Duke and life after college, but service-learning courses allow you to apply and gain academic knowledge in an authentic setting. With courses in dozens of departments, from Education and Public Policy to Engineering and Computer Science, you’ll find a course that fits your interests, while also providing you with an opportunity to:

Get to know Durham (Beyond Downtown)
Make a positive difference in the community
Apply what you're learning in the classroom to contemporary issues
Develop a wide range of skills, from cross-cultural awareness to critical thinking, problem solving, and leadership skills.