Patience Wall
As a society, I think we usually go into service activities only thinking of how we can help a disadvantaged community. There is widely-held view that service is only a one way street in which the more fortunate help the less fortunate and that in order for “real” service to be done we have to look beyond our own borders. Honestly, I have always found this deficit model of service to be flawed, and my time here in Duke Engage NOLA has only solidified this stance.
I think I began to come to this reconfirmation after noticing the parallels between my NOLA experience and my Duke experience. The Duke Engage NOLA students are staying at Loyola, a private Jesuit university located beside Tulane University in New Orleans’s Uptown. Like at Duke, one can easily walk around the surrounding campuses and feel like he is in a Gothic paradise, but if you were to drive a couple blocks down Freret, you wouldn’t guess that a university was located a mile down the road. This is a familiar observation for me in Durham as well. As a Duke student living on campus, I have sometimes felt as if I am living in a “Duke Bubble”, enclosed from the greater Durham area. I can recall numerous times when I have driven just a few blocks from Duke’s campus and felt like I was in another city, definitely someplace far from the affluence of my campus, and it was because of the “Duke Bubble” experience that I decided to apply to Duke Engage.
I had recently taken a few service-learning courses and was preparing to do my summer internship requirement when I considered Duke Engage NOLA. After volunteering in the community through my coursework, I was interested in bursting the “Duke Bubble” even further by participating in Duke Engage and getting to know and help a place beyond Duke, and I think that this experience has only confirmed the notion that service, “real service”, can happen within your own borders. The education and poverty issues that New Orleans faces are just part of a larger national epidemic that also has it traces in Durham. As I ride the RTA bus down street and listen to our community partners speak about the ongoing events and public issues in New Orleans, I think back to the Durham that lies outside of the “bubble” and how it is faring with its symptoms of the national health, education, political and policy issues. I think back to my volunteer experience in my service-learning courses and how after my volunteer sessions were over I got to return to my “bubble.” And then, I wonder if there will still be a “bubble” once I return to Durham after Duke Engage in NOLA ends.
Here, on the campuses of Loyola and Tulane, I feel as if I have avoided another “bubble” effect: going to volunteer each day at my Duke Engage placement site and visiting community partners each week has given me a chance to get beyond the campus and Uptown. I wonder if I would be just as enclosed here in a “Loyola bubble” if it were not for my Duke Engage activities. I ask myself if I will be enclosed once again as I return to Duke in August, and I think it is this questioning and reflection that demonstrates how service is a two-way street. Many times, successful service does not only result in a transformation of the community but in a transformation of the volunteer, as well. The questions and observations about New Orleans and Durham represent a transformation of how I view civic engagement within my community, and I hope to return to Duke with a renewed interest that can benefit my studies, my peers, and my community.
I think I began to come to this reconfirmation after noticing the parallels between my NOLA experience and my Duke experience. The Duke Engage NOLA students are staying at Loyola, a private Jesuit university located beside Tulane University in New Orleans’s Uptown. Like at Duke, one can easily walk around the surrounding campuses and feel like he is in a Gothic paradise, but if you were to drive a couple blocks down Freret, you wouldn’t guess that a university was located a mile down the road. This is a familiar observation for me in Durham as well. As a Duke student living on campus, I have sometimes felt as if I am living in a “Duke Bubble”, enclosed from the greater Durham area. I can recall numerous times when I have driven just a few blocks from Duke’s campus and felt like I was in another city, definitely someplace far from the affluence of my campus, and it was because of the “Duke Bubble” experience that I decided to apply to Duke Engage.
I had recently taken a few service-learning courses and was preparing to do my summer internship requirement when I considered Duke Engage NOLA. After volunteering in the community through my coursework, I was interested in bursting the “Duke Bubble” even further by participating in Duke Engage and getting to know and help a place beyond Duke, and I think that this experience has only confirmed the notion that service, “real service”, can happen within your own borders. The education and poverty issues that New Orleans faces are just part of a larger national epidemic that also has it traces in Durham. As I ride the RTA bus down street and listen to our community partners speak about the ongoing events and public issues in New Orleans, I think back to the Durham that lies outside of the “bubble” and how it is faring with its symptoms of the national health, education, political and policy issues. I think back to my volunteer experience in my service-learning courses and how after my volunteer sessions were over I got to return to my “bubble.” And then, I wonder if there will still be a “bubble” once I return to Durham after Duke Engage in NOLA ends.
Here, on the campuses of Loyola and Tulane, I feel as if I have avoided another “bubble” effect: going to volunteer each day at my Duke Engage placement site and visiting community partners each week has given me a chance to get beyond the campus and Uptown. I wonder if I would be just as enclosed here in a “Loyola bubble” if it were not for my Duke Engage activities. I ask myself if I will be enclosed once again as I return to Duke in August, and I think it is this questioning and reflection that demonstrates how service is a two-way street. Many times, successful service does not only result in a transformation of the community but in a transformation of the volunteer, as well. The questions and observations about New Orleans and Durham represent a transformation of how I view civic engagement within my community, and I hope to return to Duke with a renewed interest that can benefit my studies, my peers, and my community.