Durham Academy Magazine 

A Gathering of Gratitude

Celebrating the Legacy of Faculty Sabbaticals

By Sarah Graham Motsinger ’00, Director of Philanthropy Operations and Stewardship

With love for Durham Academy and appreciation for its faculty, Brenda and Keith Brodie made an initial gift in December 1986 to establish an endowment fund to support faculty sabbaticals. Keith (former president of Duke University) and Brenda were both former members of Durham Academy’s Board of Trustees, and they possessed a unique understanding of the value that a sabbatical program would bring to DA. Even today, such programs are relatively rare at independent schools. Thanks to the Brodies’ ongoing support, the fund continued to grow, and in 1995 it was officially named the Brenda B. Brodie Faculty Sabbatical Endowment Fund. Since its inception, 44 faculty members have been awarded this extraordinary opportunity, supported by the income that the fund generates each year.

In April, 19 faculty sabbatical recipients gathered for a special luncheon honoring the Brodie family. While Keith passed away in 2016, the gathering was attended by Brenda and their children Melissa Brodie Hanenberger ’88, Cameron Brodie ’90, Tyler Brodie ’92 and Bryson Brodie ’96. It was a meaningful moment of connection and gratitude, as teachers shared personal stories about how their sabbatical experiences had enriched their teaching, deepened their passions and contributed to their growth, both professionally and personally. Their stories were powerful reminders of the lasting impact of the Brodies’ generosity and deep belief in the importance of sabbatical opportunities for faculty. Whether pursuing an advanced degree, engaging in a professional development experience or embarking on a journey of personal growth, they believe that nurturing the development of educators is essential to building and sustaining an excellent school. 

Durham Academy remains deeply grateful to the Brodie family and their commitment to education, professional growth and our school.  
 

Stepping Away from the Routine and Finding Perspective

By Ben Michelman, Middle School Community Engagement Coordinator and Language Arts Teacher

I’ve been at a school every semester since I was 5. This really started to sink in on the first day of my Durham Academy faculty sabbatical in January. It was 8:30 a.m., the house was silent (I have two young kids, so I couldn’t remember the last time I had been home alone in a quiet house), and a realization started to sink in: I need to fill the next six months in meaningful ways.

My sabbatical proposal indicated that I would be volunteering every day to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones with community organizations. These connections would ideally result in new student projects that would enhance class curricula. But still, I felt the weight of silence and open time as I sat in this kitchen on this Monday morning. Space and time were the things that I had been yearning for, and here they were … I didn’t know what to do with myself! So I dug through my closet for a journal — the last entry was from 2019. I wrote my feelings, my hopes and dreams for the next months of my life. I could feel the anxiety leaving my chest… and then the phone rang. It was Mrs. Collie, one of my son Sammy’s pre-kindergarten teachers at DA. Sammy had fallen and split his head open on a desk. He needed to be picked up immediately and brought to urgent care. 

Sammy was fine! And that was the last time I’ve felt the nerves. But I haven’t fallen into a routine, either. The nerves have turned into consistent excitement at the beginning of almost every day. Each day feels open to possibility like never before. I’d like to describe some of my activities so far…

• I’ve folded clothing donations at A Note in the Pocket and learned about this fantastic organization, just around the corner from DA, which I didn’t know of three months ago. 
• I’ve folded our own family’s laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer. 
• I’ve planted trees on Elizabeth Avenue with Keep Durham Beautiful and 100 11- and 12-year-olds. 
• I’ve set up an old-school darkroom in my basement and have been shooting, developing and scanning film. It reeks down there of developer and fixer. 
• I’ve driven a group of DA eighth graders to a community refrigerator as they ideate and revise their Durham Challenge project. 
• I’ve looked up at the stars at the Morehead Planetarium as 40 pre-k students ooh and ah, as I chaperoned my kid’s field trip.
• I’ve read novels at a rate that I haven’t read novels in a long time.
• I’ve exchanged smiles of recognition from a young family that just emigrated from Japan. I met them on Tuesday at Urban Ministries, and the next afternoon I loaded a box of food into their car at the Iglesia Emanuel food pantry a few miles down the road.
• I drove to a poetry conference outside of Philadelphia with a friend I haven’t seen since college. We wrote about our kids. I listened to the roar of Eagles fans as they cheered a playoff victory in an old Irish bar. 
• I’ve taken care of my niece when she’s home sick.
• I’ve jumped out of my skin at the cawing of a raven at Piedmont Wildlife Center, as I worked to coordinate a service learning project for next year’s sixth graders as they read Carl Hiaasen’s book “Squirm.” If it works out, the kids will be scrubbing the splattered excrement of large birds of prey from their enclosures. 
• I’ve brought my own kids on my regular Meals on Wheels route, and now my clients are disappointed when it’s just me.
• I’ve seen food banks lose fresh food donations. I’ve seen organizations like Farmer Foodshare and Church World Service struggling to provide services due to lost funding.
• I’ve seen the little flags of El Salvador and Panama and Colombia and Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic that hang from the rearview mirrors of cars disappear over the weeks as they drive through the Iglesia Emanuel parking lot to get fresh food. 
• I’ve spent more time with my parents. 
• I’ve stayed in shape. 
• I’ve admired a retired lawyer who volunteers daily at Urban Ministries and sits with clients for long stretches trying to work through their challenges and connect them with available resources. The man has repeated this Maya Angelou quotation to me almost every time I see him. He says, “Have I told you the Maya Angelou quote?” And before I can tell him yes, every time we’ve seen each other, he says, “It’s something like this: ‘People will forget what you said or did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’” And every time I hear it, it resonates. 

Almost all of these things wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t granted this incredible opportunity. I cannot imagine these experiences won’t make me a better teacher and community engagement coordinator. Thank you so much to DA, Michael Ulku-Steiner, Kristen Klein and the Brodie family for making this possible.