Terry Sanford is one of North Carolina and Duke’s most influential, servant-minded figures, known for his outrageous ambition and belief in service learning. He dedicated his life to ethical leadership and public life, qualities that form the core of the Duke Sanford school’s mission. In honor of Duke’s Centennial and the Sanford School’s namesake, we are inviting Duke alumni from all over the world to join us in committing to 100 hours of public service.
We invite our alumni to come together around a public service mission and service-learning opportunity of your choosing to commit your time and resources to addressing this opportunity and to reflect on how you, as an engaged citizen, can show leadership in moving your community forward.
Who: Duke Alumni and Friends
How: Collectively, we will serve 100 hours, whether you set aside 30 minutes or 3 hours, your time will help us reach our goal!
Why: We believe in planting seeds of change within our communities. Our almost 10,000 alumni are scattered around the world, and through this initiative, can come together to fuel meaningful change and inspire civic engagement in our communities.
Service Suggestions: Volunteer with a local food bank, community garden, community school, and non-profits who could benefit from your time and talents. What would leave a lasting impact on your community? How can Terry Sanford’s ideas of outrageous ambition and service-learning leave a lasting impression on your community?
Steps to Join: Fill out our interest form and begin tracking your service. For Duke Alumni, we will mail you a t-shirt to wear while you are serving so you can send us a photo. For our community friends, wear your favorite Duke gear and send us a photo. As we gather interest, we will share regional connections with our alumni to create potential group opportunities.
Have questions? Reach out to Sanford’s Associate Director of Alumni Relations at maggie.stroud@duke.edu.
#SanfordServes #PlantingSeedsOfChange #DukeSanfordAlumni
Make Your Impact
Colleen Crowley F'86 serving by supporting a Turning the Page book drive in the D.C. area. "I dropped off several boxes of books to be donated to Turning the Page. Then I volunteered for 2 hours at their book sale in Georgetown, restocking shelves and organizing books! Really enjoyed meeting other Duke alumni during the event!"
Kristen Macleod PPS'03 “I got involved with the Family Centers counseling service through a good friend in town after moving to the area. It’s important for me to model service and giving back to the community with my children so this was a great opportunity to do so with my son Hayes.”
Jodi Ganz PPS'94 serving at the Central Synagogue’s Breakfast Program in New York City
"Since 1983, Central Synagogue’s Breakfast Program has been serving a hot breakfast and takeaway meal to many of NYC’s working poor. Unfortunately, the number of guests served weekly has increased noticeably in the last year. Our family has been volunteering for nearly a decade, and during the Covid lockdowns were some of the intrepid few who continued to volunteer."
Laura McHenry PPS'04 "Since October 2023, I have gone every Thursday to read with 2nd graders who are below grade level in reading to try to help them get caught up to speed. In grades K-2, kids learn to read. In grades 3-5, kids read to learn. Because the instructional model shifts at this point, it means that kids who are not reading at grade level by the beginning of third grade face significant obstacles to academic performance and achievement and are at the highest risk for dropping out. I completed the Elementary Teacher Preparation Program at Duke and taught first grade for two years before I went to law school, so this is a way to bring my unique skill set to meet a need in my community, and also be involved at my kids' school. This semester, I am also helping students practice their lines for the school musical during their elective period, and I volunteer with the chess club, which meets after school. I am lucky that my employer (the North Carolina Department of Justice) gives us 24 hours of community service leave each year. It means I have a fulfilling legal career and also get to spend time volunteering with people and causes that are important to me."
Mimi Bliss PPS’88 and Daniel Karslake PPS'87 served at the Durham Children’s Initiative (DCI) as part of the Duke Alumni Board spring meeting. They were joined by fellow Duke Alumni (not pictured):
Lisa Lawson PPS'89 P'21 P24, Satana Deberry L'94 B'06, Andy Dillon T'96 P'27, Vikas Patel T'96 M'00, Steve Columbaro PPS'97, Scott Ryan G'97 L'97, Grace Chang T'97, Anya Green-Odlum T'03 S'08, Jimmy Childre B'01, Max Perkins T'04, Zach Prager T'12, Virginia Hewitt T'12, Katherine Doehring D'13
Marc Howard Supcoff PPS '88 volunteered with non-profit 'Long Beach Cleanup' to pick up beach litter and debris in his community in Long Beach, NY. The group, comprised of residents including children, meets weekly at a different section of the beach and in one hour the entire section of beach is clean. The turnout of volunteers on a June evening was extraordinary. According to Marc: "Life really is a beach when you live at -- and clean up -- the beach!"
Lora Mason PPS'85 G'87 P'22 joined Sanford Serves by spending time at Family Works in Seattle.
Ashok Parameswaran PPS'92 "This year, I have been volunteering full-time for the Emerging Markets Investors Alliance (EMIA), a non-profit I founded to help large institutional investors to support the adoption of sustainability and governance best practices in the companies and governments in which they invest. We work on a broad range of critical issues. It's been rewarding for me to work to strengthen the impact of the investment industry in which I spent most of my career."
Jaquell G. Sneed-Adams MPP'23 served by supporting a book drive through Turning the Page in D.C. “Although it rained almost the entire time that I was there, the event was great and quite a lot of people still came out in the rain to browse and buy books.”
Duke Nashville partnered with Sanford Serves to support young people in foster care by donating items such shampoo, toothbrushes, bottled water, notebooks, and blankets, for youth exiting foster care as well as children entering foster care.
Donations collected were given to Youth Villages of Middle Tennessee.
Jeffrey Carson T'02, Anika Gardenhire S'15, Brooks Daverman MPP'08, Caroline Taylor E'14 X'15, Deepak Gupta B'07 P'24, Devi Ponnazhagan B'18, Eva Johnson PPS'03, Luke Wilkinson PPS'06, Michel McDonald T'89, Rachel Leindecker T'96, Rao Kasibholta B'09, Samuel Williams B'23, Sarah Martin T'97, Mimi Bliss PPS'88, Neeraja Peterson E'93 P'23, Lauren Rowe PPS'97
Quauhtli Olivieri Herrera MPP'17 joined Sanford Serves by volunteering at the Restoration Immigration Legal Aid (RILA).
Angela Tsai PPS'98 serving at the Mountain Lakes High School Theatre, helping produce the shows, heading up fundraising, and exposing and promoting the arts widely to their local community.
"At the Mountain Lakes High School Theatre, I produce the shows, head up fundraising, and expose and promote the arts widely to my local community. Since my work began 5 years ago I have grown engagement by 300% and have 10x’d the funds raised. And in this photo that I’m including, I also roll up my sleeves and help in every function they need, including cleaning up our costume, and prop inventory!"
Berkeley Smith Yorkery PPS’01 and Romina Damini MIDP’21.
Berkeley: “My family and I have spent many happy hours learning and exploring at Durham’s Museum of Life and Science, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to join other Duke alumni volunteering at the Museum. We had fun meeting one another while organizing the outdoor play spaces for visiting children and families to enjoy.”
Romina: "I focused on social and migration policy during my MIDP program at Duke. As a Duke alumna, choosing to serve at the Durham Museum of Life and Science was a rewarding experience with the chance to make a meaningful impact on both individuals and the community as a whole."
Sabrina Ricci PPS'93 “I have been volunteering with a local non-profit Reading is Fun in Schenectady, NY for the last three years, and currently, I work with five pre-K children in a city elementary school. In weekly, one-on-one meetings during the school day, the students and I enjoy reading, literacy games, and conversation. At the end of each meeting, the student takes a book home. By the end of the school year, each student in the program has their own 20+ book home library! I am gratified to see these children evolve, mature, and learn to love reading.”
Sarah Selenich MPP'12 joined Sanford Serves by spending time with the Turtle Rescue Team in Raleigh.
Beth Kojima PPS'99 joined Sanford Serves by volunteering at the New York Public Library.
Kimberly Holmes-Iverson PPS'02 “Garden Day at the Montessori School of Raleigh is pure magic! It's a joyous mess of planting, learning, and growing together. The whole school community - students, parents, faculty and staff - unites to transform the gardens into a blooming paradise, all while building friendships and school pride.”
Lilly Ji MPP'01 served at the Special Olympics. "I was assigned to help the special needs athletes get ready before the 100-meter dash."
Christine Graham MPP'08 serving by hosting family board game night at her Elementary school in VA.
"I focused on social and education policy during my MPP program at Duke, and now my volunteering also focuses on public education. I am the PTA president at my children’s Title I elementary school in Herndon, Virginia. My focus this year was bringing together different students, families, and communities. last week we held a family game night where we invited families to play board games with each other. I was so delighted to see different groups of people come together in ways they hadn’t before. We also asked families to consider donating board games for our library so students could check them out alongside books. The photo I submitted shows my son Avery, who is in 10 and in fourth grade, with all the donated games."
Christy Gudaitis PPS'81 joined Sanford Serves by spending time with the Eno River Association.
Kat Olin T'93 P’27 “I feel so fortunate to have discovered PAWS NY because it allows me to combine my passion for animals with my passion for helping others. The mission of Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS) NY is to help New York City’s most vulnerable residents remain with their pets by delivering critical programs and services through a community of partners and volunteers. Specifically PAWS NY helps keep pets in their homes while protecting and promoting the human-animal bond that is so physically and psychologically valuable to its clients. PAWS NY’s motto is “helping people by helping pets.” I have volunteered for multiple PAWS NY clients, walking their dogs, taking their pets to veterinary appointments and simply being there to listen. I have no doubt I have gained more from my PAWS NY experience than I have given, and I have shared my joy with other Duke alumni who now volunteer for PAWS NY as well.”
Pam Bostic MPP'83 and Richard Bostic MPP'83 Serving The Bulb -- a non-profit that focuses on providing quality local produce, as well as health and wellness education, to food insecure neighborhoods.
“Since moving to Charlotte a year ago to be close to our son and his young family, we both have been focused on addressing food insecurity in our new city. The Bulb was the perfect place for us to get involved right away. A donation-based nonprofit providing multiple mobile farmers markets, The Bulb provides fresh produce grown by local farmers, as well as rescued produce from area grocery stores to food insecure communities. From rescuing food from Trader Joe’s, to sorting produce, to working on the farm, we’ve been so pleased to contribute to quality food accessibility for all — an important cause to us. We've been honored to be a part of Sanford Serves!”
Kara Moskowitz PPS'99 joined Sanford Serves by serving at the National Council of Jewish Women in New York, NY.
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