Community Engagement Tips From Faculty, Students and Local Partners

Master’s student Dhaval Potdar needed something to work on over the summer. He came across Data+, an interdisciplinary program for small teams of students to tackle challenges for clients who are often external to Duke. A project to improve operations at Durham Public Schools appealed to him because of the potential societal impact: “I got to do a project which would, if implemented correctly, have an impact on the lives of 30,000 children,” he said. “That’s pretty significant to me.”

Potdar shared his experience at a session during the launch of the Duke Center for Community Engagement. The Data+ project “was not only technically challenging, it was something that I was very proud of at the end of the day,” he told the audience. 

“We were able to parse information in a way that would eventually allow DPS to redraw its district boundaries and help children on the ground. It changed my trajectory looking forward. Now I no longer want to work for the biggest tech corporations, but I want to work at places that actually allow me to do something for the good of society.”

Facilitated by Ed Balleisen, Duke’s vice provost for interdisciplinary studies, the session focused on examples of community-based projects from the perspective of faculty members, community partners and students. Participants explored how they developed their projects, the impact of their efforts and challenges they encountered. And they offered some advice for those interested in getting involved in community-engaged work.

A Few Words of Advice

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“Challenge yourself and your organization to think outside the box, beyond what your mission is and your day-to-day, and think of a new project that students might be able to help you with.” –Patrick Mucklow, Executive Director, Museum of Durham History

“Recognize that there’s so much benefit to bringing on young people with new ideas and brilliance and skills, not only to add to your capacity but to expand and grow your work in ways that you never anticipated.” –Mary Mathew, Senior Director of Advocacy, Book Harvest

“Get your data vetted on the ground. Oftentimes you get a high-level picture of what’s happening through a data visualization but whether that’s the actual reality on the ground is a very different thing, and you need to validate that kind of analysis with that data.” –Dhaval Potdar, Master in Interdisciplinary Data Science ’25; Data+: Data Science for Operations and Planning at Durham Public Schools

“If you’re interested in any type of community work, chances are there’s already someone in Durham doing it. All you have to ask is, ‘Is there anything I can help with?’ You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone that would say no to that.” –Alissa Rivero, Trinity ’25; New Neighbors Project; Duke Homebuyers Club

“If you’re not in the community really understanding the problem, really understanding who your users are, really understanding where that design is going to be used, you’ve probably missed the boat.” –Ann Saterbak, Director, Duke First-Year Design Program; Professor of the Practice, Biomedical Engineering

“Think about all the different perspectives in building a relationship. We encourage our students to consider how they can sustain the relationship with someone beyond the one-semester experience. We talk to faculty about how they can sustain the effort.” –Joan Clifford, Director, Duke Service-Learning; Associate Professor of the Practice, Romance Studies

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Learn More

• A Front Door to Community-Engaged Research That Benefits Durham and Duke
• How Duke is Removing Barriers to Community-Engaged Research
• Debbie Goldstein Selected for New Role to Foster Community-Engaged Scholarship

Main image: Facilitator Ed Balleisen with panelists Patrick Mucklow, Mary Mathew, Dhaval Potdar, Alissa Rivero, Ann Saterbak and Joan Clifford