Site Coordinator 2025
DukeEngage Duke Univeristy Marine Laboratory
May 13, 2025 - July 11, 2025
DukeEngage is Duke University’s flagship immersive civic engagement program, designed around the principles of partnership, immersion, and reflection. Through sustained collaborations with community organizations, students work alongside local partners to address real-world challenges while developing professional skills, civic awareness, and a deeper understanding of how communities create change. At the Duke University Marine Laboratory site in Beaufort, North Carolina, students spent eight weeks working with organizations focused on coastal conservation, environmental education, cultural heritage, and community resilience.
As Site Coordinator, I mentored and supported a cohort of undergraduate students as they partnered with organizations including the National Park Service, the Town of Beaufort, Coastal Carolina River Watch, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the North Carolina Coastal Reserve, the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center, local school districts, and the North Carolina Coastal Federation. Student projects ranged from developing educational resources and conservation materials to evaluating community programs, supporting environmental outreach initiatives, contributing to shoreline restoration efforts, and assisting with wildlife conservation and monitoring. In addition to coordinating logistics and program operations, I facilitated student reflection, professional development, and cohort-building activities designed to help students connect their work with broader questions about community engagement, leadership, and impact.
This experience was among the most meaningful parts of my graduate training. While my role was to support student learning and community partnerships, I found that I learned just as much from the students themselves. It was incredibly rewarding to watch students from different disciplines discover new interests, tackle unfamiliar challenges, and become genuinely invested in the communities they served. Through mentoring, facilitating difficult conversations, and helping students navigate both successes and setbacks, I developed a deeper appreciation for the role that reflection, collaboration, and community engagement play in both education and research. Many of the relationships and conversations that began during that summer continue today, and the experience fundamentally shaped how I think about mentorship, leadership, and the responsibility of scientists to engage with communities beyond academia.
