Endowment Gifts Benefit New Education Model

Grants from The Duke Endowment totaling $14,990,000 will enhance the undergraduate experience and support a number of priority programs and new facilities.

The grants from the Charlotte-based charitable trust include $4.25 million to help create a new undergraduate model for both of Duke's undergraduate colleges--Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and the Pratt School of Engineering. The new model is based on smaller classes and one-on-one mentoring.

Undergraduate programs and other initiatives supported by The Duke Endowment include: the expansion of FOCUS, a program that exposes first-year students to cutting-edge ideas from across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences; an increase in the number of undergraduate students, particularly those in the humanities and social sciences, who engage in summer research; more opportunities for seniors to write honor theses, an experience that teaches students to manage large-scale intellectual projects, become experts about their subject matter, and obtain intensive experience in research, analysis, and writing; the expansion of an existing program in the Pratt School that will allow all undergraduate engineering students to participate in a team-oriented design project; additional support for certificate programs--integrated, interdisciplinary courses of study around a common theme that consist of at least six classes, including entry courses and capstone courses in the senior year, with most programs requiring a research experience or apprenticeship.

Other awards from The Endowment include $4 million to support Perkins Library, $2 million for the Duke Law School library, $1.7 million in support of Goodson Chapel at the Divinity School, and $1.5 million to support initiatives identified by President Richard H. Brodhead.

The Duke Endowment gift also provides $515,000 for the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, Duke's principal program for community collaborations with twelve Durham neighborhoods and seven public schools near its campus; $500,000 for the Baldwin Scholars Program, a new undergraduate women's leadership program; $325,000 for the Center for Genome Ethics, Law, and Policy; and $200,000 for a documentary, Durham: A Self Portrait, about the city's history and culture.

The Endowment is providing support for initiatives of the Duke University Health System, including: $563,900 to develop and implement measures that will improve patient safety; $266,344 to develop Community Pathways: Early Intervention for Hospitalized Children and Improved Post-Discharge for High-Risk Infants and Children; $107,981 for a domestic violence/sexual assault hospital response program; $150,000 to Duke University Health System to help establish an Institute for Prospective Health Care; $59,982 to support expansion of a health clinic at the Community Family Life and Recreation Center at Lyon Park, serving seven Southwest Central Durham communities in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership; and $181,000 to support the establishment of a new medical clinic serving Walltown, a historically African-American community near East Campus, another Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership community.