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Faculty-built Programs
APPLICATION FOR DUKEENGAGE PROGRAMS
Faculty and Staff Programs
DukeEngage provides funding, training and support for Duke undergraduates who want to pursue a summer or semester long intensive civic engagement experience anywhere in the world. Through DukeEngage Duke students can apply what they have learned in the classroom to address societal issues in the U.S. or abroad. Participants must have completed two semesters at Duke, be in good standing with the university and are not permitted to take classes during their service experience.
Civic engagement is a broad term that can include everything from volunteerism to democratic participation. We seek to support student projects ranging from working in local schools or assisting with disaster recovery to working with an international human rights organization or conducting HIV/AIDS education, outreach and prevention in communities around the world. What connects each of these experiences and others like them are that they involve individuals and groups tackling issues of public, even global, concern.
There will be a variety of ways that Duke students can get engaged. Some will come to us with individual proposals that we will review. Other students will join established DukeEngage programs that are led and facilitated by third party providers. But the most important avenue for Duke student engagement will be to participate in programs built by Duke faculty and staff. Experiencing civic engagement with faculty and staff is central to our mission of helping students connect their DukeEngage experiences back to their lives at Duke when they return.
Proposal Guidelines
DukeEngage projects should take groups of Duke students to places in the United States and around the world where they will participate in civic engagement experiences that will contribute tangible benefits to local partners. This year we are particularly interested in building programs in the United States, though we continue to welcome proposals for international programs. All projects are a minimum of eight weeks in duration and structured so that students will come to know the place they are living in, by learning local languages, customs and norms. With these objectives in mind, DukeEngage experiences should include a full time placement with a governmental, non-governmental or other organization involved with civic engagement for each student, language training (when applicable), and periodic field trips, guest speakers, and/or other cultural events. Another model could have DukeEngage students engaging in a community by fulfilling a need identified by that community, working together on a single project.
While the mission of DukeEngage is to support civic engagement experiences, projects with a strong research component will be considered for support under the following conditions: (1) the research goals and plans are developed in collaboration with a community partner, and (2) the results of the research are provided to the community partner and disseminated to the larger community in order to contribute to the public good. Final approval of projects with a research component is contingent upon Duke IRB approval.
Faculty should consult with DukeEngage staff for preliminary review and guidance prior to submitting the final proposal. Ordinarily, faculty may submit proposals for no more than one program per year. Faculty are compensated for the development of new programs as well as their time in the field. Please contact Dr. Eric Mlyn, director of DukeEngage and the Center for Civic Engagement, for further details.
Proposals must include the following details:
Title of Program
Names of sponsoring faculty, staff, Duke department, Center or Institute
Host Institution / organization (if applicable)
Program Location
Projected Dates (minimum of 8 weeks)
Proposed number of students (please provide a number or range) NOTE: Each site must enroll a minimum of six students.
In addition, please include:
Project Description: In less than 1,000 words, describe your civic engagement project. Please include an overview of the project plan, a description of the community with which you will be working, its needs and the anticipated benefits of the project to the community, and your proposed learning objectives for Duke students.
Internship sites: Please provide a list of the organizations or offices that are likely to host student interns and the nature of the work in which they will engage.
Enrichment activities: Please describe your plans for language training (if applicable), speakers, field trips, etc.
Follow up activities envisioned for student participants upon their return to Duke: Please describe any curricular or co-curricular opportunities that you plan.
Supervision and coordination: All DukeEngage programs will be required to have an on site project supervisor with students for the duration of the program. This person may be you for all or part of the time, and you may request one additional support person to serve at the site for its duration. (Please include in your application the number of weeks you plan to be on site.) It is our strong preference that this additional person be affiliated with Duke in some way (faculty, staff, graduate student), or is a qualified person eligible for hire by the university as a term-appointment employee. Undergraduate students, including graduating seniors, are ineligible to serve in this capacity. Please discuss your plans for on-site supervision, whether the supervisor will be a faculty member, staff member, hired graduate student, etc.
Logistics: Please describe the logistics of your program, including travel to the site, proposed itinerary, food and housing arrangements, communication, field trips, local transportation plan, etc. Included in this part of the application should be rough estimates of costs. If your proposal is accepted, DukeEngage will work with you to develop a more detailed budget.
Risk Management: It is critical that all participants in DukeEngage projects are made aware of the risks associated with both the location of the project and the nature of the internship work. Please identify any health and safety issues and concerns related to your project’s location or work, and how these concerns have been dealt with or mitigated within your proposed plan. Specific areas to address include:
• availability of quality health care,
• crime and violence,
• terrorism,
• political climate/stability,
• quality and safety of location/accommodations
• local transportation issues (road safety, driving regulations, quality of public /private transportation options)
• availability of tourist visas for the entire length of the program (if overseas)
• compliance with local laws
Note that selected projects will be required to develop a written emergency preparedness/crisis management plan to be approved by the Duke Office of Risk Management and to be held by the DukeEngage office and distributed to each participant. Projects may not take place in countries or regions that have been deemed unsafe by the International Travel Oversight Committee (ITOC). See: https://eruditio.aas.duke.edu/international/restrictedregions.php.
PROJECT SELECTION
Projects will be evaluated on a number of criteria, including the following:
• Does the project engage Duke students in immersive service opportunities that allow them to learn and grow and also make tangible contributions to the communities they work with?
• Does the project serve populations with clearly identifiable needs?
• Does the project hold the promise of sustainable (multi-year) partnerships with community-based organizations?
• Do faculty and staff sponsors already possess experience and extensive networks at the proposed location?
• Does the application identify learning outcomes for DukeEngage students?
• Does the proposal expand DukeEngage to new locations in the United States and abroad?
• Does the proposal address all of the issues we have asked you to address?
If your proposal is accepted, DukeEngage will work with you to develop a detailed budget.
All applications are due no later than September 15, 2008, and should be submitted by e-mail to eric.mlyn@duke.edu. Funding decisions and notification of project acceptance will be made be made on or near October 3rd . All proposals will be reviewed by a committee made up of members of the Faculty Advisory Board and DukeEngage staff.
Please contact Eric Mlyn, 668-1724, eric.mlyn@duke.edu with any questions.