PHOTOS BY DAN SEARS ’ 74
‘There were
a lot of people
who came in
and tried to
prove to us
they were
great teachers.
We didn’t care.
We wanted
people who were
willing to learn
how to teach.’
Mary Williams ’07
Student U
Michael Ulku-Steiner
’ 91, director of
Durham Academy’s
upper school, uses
APPLES principles
to nurture
service-learning
initiatives of DA’s
students, and he
took on students
from three universities who wanted to
boost middle school
education. He
marshaled DA’s
resources for the rigorous five-week
Student U.
At right, Student U
kids start their day
with stretching and
cheers.
the table is definitely not poisonous, she
said, but just the same we aren’t going to
eat it.
Another teacher tried to get the kids to
feel, not just hear, Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s
poem “Sympathy.” They all seemed to feel
it out loud — all at once.
The teachers at Student U, all undergraduates at UNC, Duke and N.C. Central, aren’t necessarily headed this way for
careers. Some are biology, public policy,
psych majors. Several had tutored before
they entered the competition for 16 spots
in a rigorous 9-hour-a-day, six-week program for 50 fifth-graders chosen in an
application process through the Durham
public schools.
“There were a lot of people who came
in and tried to prove to us they were great
teachers,” said Mary Williams ’07, who
conceived Student U along with Kimberg
and another Duke student, Amanda Dorsey.
“We didn’t care. We wanted people who
were willing to learn how to teach.”
Student U is a pilot enrichment program to give kids a head start on middle
