Profiles
Faculty : Paula D. McClain | Staff : David Stein | Undergraduate : Osueke/Adams | Graduate/Professional : Jessi Bardill | Alumni/ae : Phil Rubio | Trustee : Janet Hill
David Stein
Once a year, eighth-graders from across Durham come to Duke to visit a dorm room, see Duke Chapel and meet members of the men's and women's basketball teams. They also might perform CPR on medical mannequins, make a virtual image of themselves or climb inside a LifeFlight helicopter.
"School Days" is a day dedicated to showing kids who might not be planning to attend college that college really is worth considering. And, more importantly, that college is attainable, no matter your racial, educational or economic background. Even if those kids don’t want to go to Duke - more than a few are Tar Heel fans - David Stein wants to encourage them to go to college somewhere.
Stein
directs School Days and other related programs as the senior educational
partnership coordinator for the Duke-Durham
Neighborhood Partnership, which began in 1996 as a way to bring
together Duke and its neighbors as one community. His involvement
in community building brought him from the N.C. School of Science and
Mathematics to Duke, where he has worked to find the resources to match
what the schools need.
"This is a job that really makes you feel good," Stein told Duke Magazine in a 2001 article. "School by school, I went in and met with the principals and other people, and I said, 'What are your biggest challenges?' "
Another of Stein's projects is BOOST (Building Opportunities and Overtures in Science and Technology), which encourages children of culturally and racially diverse backgrounds to consider careers in medicine and related fields. Duke graduate and medical students, fellows and faculty serve as teachers and mentors to sixth-graders, who are in the critical years of student development.
One of the ways the program builds community is by bringing all the participants together for a weekend at the Duke Marine Lab. It's often the first time the youngsters have been away from home - and usually the first time they've seen the ocean.
"On past trips, we have been touched as they ran from - and eventually played in - the waves, discovered the diversity of shore life, and learned how science extends to the far reaches of the world," Stein says. "This helps start them on their journey into science, and reinforces ... the idea that these kinds of opportunities should be available to everyone."