Spring Break
Tutoring program unites Duke, UNC, Durham kids
By: Cameron VanSant
Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: News
Last update: 2/23/07 at 11:52 AM EST
Last update: 2/23/07 at 11:52 AM EST
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Though many students often celebrate the rivalry between Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, three students are uniting to improve the local community.
Duke senior Dan Kimberg and junior Amanda Dorsey, along with UNC senior Mary Williams, founded Student U., a program that will be implemented this summer that casts students from local high schools and colleges in the roles of teachers and tutors.
Kimberg and Dorsey developed the idea of a tutoring program taught by local college students in the entrepreneurship class taught by Tony Brown, professor of the practice of public policy.
About 15 students from colleges in the area will instruct approximately 45 local rising sixth graders during the summer program held at Durham Academy Upper School, where Kimberg will work as director of the program after he graduates in May.
Other high school and college students will serve as one-on-one tutors to the students on a weekly basis throughout the following school year, and students and tutors will also meet for larger group sessions once a month.
Michael Ülkü-Steiner, director of the DA Upper School, said students at the school helped to raise $50,000 during the past year to start up the program-a sum that was subsequently matched by the Robertson Foundation.
Kimberg, a Robertson Scholar and executive director of Student U., said he worked as a tutor for a similar program in New Orleans after his freshman year.
"I fell in love with the students-teaching-students model," Kimberg said.
Williams, a UNC Robertson Scholar, also tutored students as part of the Breakthrough Atlanta program.
Kimberg said the students have spent time tutoring in local schools "to get a feel for the needs of the Durham community" and decided that local students would be most effective in teaching Durham middle schoolers.
Student U.-whose partners include DA, Durham Public Schools and the Durham Chamber of Commerce-has an advisory board comprised of the three students, two Durham School Board members, several Duke professors, including Brown, and a representative from UNC and North Carolina Central University.
Duke senior Dan Kimberg and junior Amanda Dorsey, along with UNC senior Mary Williams, founded Student U., a program that will be implemented this summer that casts students from local high schools and colleges in the roles of teachers and tutors.
Kimberg and Dorsey developed the idea of a tutoring program taught by local college students in the entrepreneurship class taught by Tony Brown, professor of the practice of public policy.
About 15 students from colleges in the area will instruct approximately 45 local rising sixth graders during the summer program held at Durham Academy Upper School, where Kimberg will work as director of the program after he graduates in May.
Other high school and college students will serve as one-on-one tutors to the students on a weekly basis throughout the following school year, and students and tutors will also meet for larger group sessions once a month.
Michael Ülkü-Steiner, director of the DA Upper School, said students at the school helped to raise $50,000 during the past year to start up the program-a sum that was subsequently matched by the Robertson Foundation.
Kimberg, a Robertson Scholar and executive director of Student U., said he worked as a tutor for a similar program in New Orleans after his freshman year.
"I fell in love with the students-teaching-students model," Kimberg said.
Williams, a UNC Robertson Scholar, also tutored students as part of the Breakthrough Atlanta program.
Kimberg said the students have spent time tutoring in local schools "to get a feel for the needs of the Durham community" and decided that local students would be most effective in teaching Durham middle schoolers.
Student U.-whose partners include DA, Durham Public Schools and the Durham Chamber of Commerce-has an advisory board comprised of the three students, two Durham School Board members, several Duke professors, including Brown, and a representative from UNC and North Carolina Central University.
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