Carolina Alumni Review - September/October 2007

Take
a Chance
Among the thickest roots
of the current emphasis
on service-learning is a small group
of students from the me-first era
who were bent on starting
something big, sustainable
and run by 20-year-olds.
by David E. Brown ’ 75

One week ago, they graduated from the fifth grade. One week of vacation doesn’t seem like much reward, but here they are, dropped at the curb at 7: 30 on a muggy summer morning where, one by one, they are serenaded into middle school by frighteningly enthusiastic college students.

Joy to the world,

All the boys and girls

Love to keep on learning and having fun,

Here at Student U.

Off they go to breakfast, then a sort of academic pep rally, then to science, reading, math and something called Global Connect.

By the third day, they are fully vested in a seven-stu-dent “family” that will stay intact for all these six weeks and follow them to their regular school in the fall. They’re well aware this ain’t Camp Runamok, and they are expected to be doing this for two more summers until finally they push out of these most hazardous years and on to high school — and hopefully college.

Throughout the Durham educational community, these 50 kids are thought to be extraordinarily lucky. If they’re giving up some time by the pool, consider that their teachers are very much swimming in the deep end. For the most part, they’re brand new at this. They’re pulling all-nighters working on their lesson plans. They are described as being “on the edge of panic.”