Launched in 2026, the Community Partner Spotlight is a feature created for and with our community partners and published twice each year. It highlights relationship-based learning and the shared work that happens when community partners, students, and faculty learn alongside one another. By telling these stories, we hope to make visible the expertise community partners bring to teaching and learning, and to reflect the long-term impact of sustained, reciprocal partnerships.
2026
For over two decades, Duke's Death & Dying service-learning course partnered with roughly 20 community sites across Durham. At Charles House, executive director Dean Fox watched students become team members. At Duke Hospice, volunteer manager Carolyn Colsher trained students to be present without trying to fix. Both saw what's possible when community partners shape learning—and when relationships become the work.
See the issue here.