School Days is an annual program designed to motivate 8th graders in Durham Public Schools to aim for college. The program targets students who come from families with no prior college experience. Each year, about 300 students spend a full school day at Duke, visiting labs, meeting faculty, and touring the campus (including the residence halls) while accompanied by Duke staff and students, and Durham school counselors.
School Days 2024
2024 School Days a Major Success
School Days event brings 300 Durham students to campus to get a taste of the college experience. The enthusiasm was already high when Defining Movement (DefMo), Duke’s premiere multicultural dance group, invited nine Durham middle schoolers onto the Penn Pavilion stage to dance with them.
Program Details
This annual event invites Durham Public School 8th graders onto Duke's campus for a day of activities designed to introduce them to the college experience. Organized by Duke Community Affairs as part of its Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, the event is aimed at students who would be the first in their families to attend college.
The eighth graders are divided into groups of ten, each with an individual itinerary that was facilitated by two Duke faculty or staff members and at least two Duke students. The bulk of the day involved visits to residence halls where the middle schoolers met with Duke students, and labs and classrooms where faculty and graduate students shared what they found exciting about their research.
2025 School Days will bring some first-of-a-kind experiences, including: 25 drones for students to program, a programmable robot to pull raffle tickets, and collectible t-shirts with luminescent ink. By popular demand, we’re also bringing back some fan-favorite activities: obstacle course with “beer goggles”, a college-bound challenge: tossing graduation caps into hoops for their dream schools, and a decision-juggling game to reflect real sophomore-year choices.
Volunteers
School Days requires the assistance of nearly a hundred Duke volunteers. Duke volunteers are the people on the “inside,” and their energy and stories are what make School Days such a success. Students tour campus with Duke student and staff guides, who show them the sights and share their own perspectives on how and why to aim for college.
Thanks to our volunteers, participants get a chance to meet with professors and learn about their research, visit libraries and dorms, eat in the dining hall, and hear from Duke student-athletes and Admissions representatives.
Sign Up to Volunteer
Staff volunteers sign up here
Your role is to ask students lots of questions, enjoy watching them be amazed at how different college is from secondary school, and accompany them as they visit residence halls, labs, and new dining facilities. Duke staff are needed from 8:30am-12:45pm on Friday, October 31, 2025.
Resources
The Duke Chronicle, Duke University's student newspaper, covers 2019 School Days. Read more here!
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The usual midday quiet of Duke University Chapel was broken on Friday by the hushed chatter of young voices. Read more here!
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“This may have been our best School Days ever,” said David Stein, School Days director. Read more here!
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