Partnership with NC Foundation Enhances, Expands Community Engagement at Durham Academy
Partnership with NC Foundation Enhances, Expands Community Engagement at Durham Academy
By Dylan Howlett
6-minute read
Durham Academy students have long seen community engagement as inseparable from the foundations of moral, happy, productive lives: Think civics-minded eighth graders tackling community engagement projects as part of the annual Durham Challenge, or solutions-oriented Upper School Pathway Scholars designing and implementing original community-based research projects. Now DA students have some more muscle — and funding — behind their enduring commitment to community.
Thanks to the generosity of a local foundation, DA secured a Community Engagement Grant in November to enhance and expand schoolwide community engagement initiatives. The returns of such an investment, DA wrote in its official grant application, are exponential: The project aims to foster civic responsibility, critical thinking and real-world problem-solving skills among students through hands-on participation and leadership in community-based initiatives.
What will that look like, exactly? Here’s everything you need to know about the Community Engagement Grant.
What are the precise goals of the Community Engagement Grant?
The grant has three primary objectives:
Integrate community-focused projects into classroom curricula across all grade levels.
This is particularly significant for pre-k, which has never had community engagement formally embedded in its curriculum — though the division and its students have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the Solista Durham retirement community (formerly Emerald Pond). As projects pop up and expand, DA hopes to establish lasting partnerships with local organizations — and deepen student understanding of civic responsibility. Curriculum integration within specific units will start in the 2025–2026 school year.
Launch an Upper School philanthropy course to teach students about the philanthropic landscape.
The course, which will debut in the 2025–2026 school year, will offer students practical experience in managing community initiatives.
Create a student-led microgrant fund.
Upper School students will review and manage funding for peer-driven community projects. The 2024–2025 school year serves as a pilot for the microgrant fund, which will support student projects in eighth grade and in the Upper School.
Who helped DA secure the grant?
The school’s trio of community engagement coordinators — Dr. Theresa Shebalin at the Preschool, Ben Michelman at the Middle School and Kelly Teagarden ’04 at the Upper School — wrote the grant proposal in October. Each will oversee the integration of community engagement into their respective division’s curriculum, and the grant will provide funding for the creation of a Lower School community engagement coordinator. Teagarden will also teach the Upper School philanthropy class and will mentor students who are overseeing the internal microgrant fund.
“I think having a program like this that students of all ages can take advantage of is really sending the message that Durham Academy cares about this aspect of their education. For the 15 years I’ve been at DA, I think there's been some component of this — but I just feel like this is taking it to another level. From pre-k onward, we value an opportunity for our students to give back, and we try to find creative ways for them to do so.”
Dr. Theresa Shebalin
Preschool science teacher, Preschool community engagement coordinator, Preschool sustainability coordinator
How long will the Community Engagement Grant last?
The four-year grant extends through 2028.
What specific financial support will the Community Engagement Grant provide?
The grant — totaling nearly $200,000 in funding over four years — will make possible allocations from the DA microgrant and the purchase of materials for community-based projects.
“This is the first school I’ve been at that’s actually been able to embed community engagement into the curriculum in a programmatic way and actually been able to get a grant like this to fund real partnerships. The support that DA has given us to create these classes and to have this infrastructure for community engagement made it possible for a grant to come along and for us to say, ‘Yes! We actually can implement this.’ It’s such an incredible gift and opportunity for our students to be able to grow and learn.”
Kelly Teagarden ’04
Program Director for Applied Civic Engagement and Public Purpose, Upper School community engagement coordinator, Upper School diversity coordinator
What are some examples of projects the Community Engagement Grant will support?
From supporting existing science class projects and expanding existing partnerships, to supporting a diverse and passionate collection of student-driven ideas, the grant has already bolstered engagement efforts at DA.
On behalf of a local food pantry, kindergarten students used their time in Shebalin’s science class during the 2023–2024 school year to assemble personal “birthday cake boxes” — disposable aluminum pans that contain a box of cake mix, a can of Sprite, a can of frosting, a birthday card and candles. It was an exercise in empathy (kindergartners agree that everyone deserves cake on their birthday) and in the foundations of chemistry (the cake mix contains all of the necessary ingredients to make the cake rise, and the Sprite serves as the necessary liquid). This school year, Shebalin will use available microgrant funds to buy all of the supplies for the cake boxes — and students in each science class will write a grant for their preferred flavor of cake — before delivering the completed boxes to the food pantry at Iglesia Presbiteriana Emanuel, which has previously partnered with DA eighth graders and Upper Schoolers.
The collaboration kicks off this spring, when middle schoolers from Maureen Joy Charter School (MJCS) will visit the DA robotics lab to learn from DA Upper Schoolers about engineering and programming. Upper Schoolers will eventually provide mentorship and support within a dedicated STEAM class at MJCS, where Upper Schoolers have served as Spanish-language interpreters for parent-teacher conferences and provided online mentoring support for middle schoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Li’s project focuses on the language barrier between American healthcare providers and patients with limited English proficiency, or LEPs. His initiative has two goals: ensuring Triangle-area providers are aware of their legal obligations to provide translation services for all non-English speaking patients, and raising awareness among LEPs of their own rights. Li is partnering with the Seymour Center — a Chapel Hill center for senior citizens — in hopes of distributing information about patient rights to non-English-speaking Asian Americans.
“There’s a whole world outside of the school. This class (ADV Pathway Scholars) forces you to reckon with those communities that are completely different from you. It forces you to take the things you’ve learned in class and apply them in a meaningful way. You’re not just applying it on a test: You’re applying it to real people.”
The Hayti Heritage Center in downtown Durham offers a Saturday Youth Arts Enrichment Program, which provides children ages 5–17 with an immersion in the performing and visual arts that empowers them to explore their creativity and to participate in their community. Gibson, who will perform in the Durham Ballet Theatre’s production of Cinderella this spring, wants to bring a workshop to Hayti’s youth arts enrichment program that provides training in basic techniques — and offers a safe, accessible and more inclusive space for dancers of all abilities.
“It gives us a chance to gain those skills of problem-solving, of working with organizations, networking, communicating. And there’s a lot more intention in addressing the actual needs of the community. What already exists that we may overlook? What grassroots organizations are already doing this work that we can help build up and augment their efforts? There’s more that communities can do with this money in the sense that there’s true collaboration. I just think it’s a really great way to facilitate getting money into a community.”
Moylan is organizing an after-school program in which DA Middle Schoolers would offer math tutoring for students at Lakewood Elementary School. Moylan anticipates using available microgrant funds to purchase worksheets, charts, manipulatives and snacks for participating students.
“Teaching kids to engage with the community not only makes them more worldly, but it also allows them to make connections outside of Durham Academy while teaching them some great life skills, like intercultural communication and leadership.”
Chen is pushing the City of Durham to register as part of the global Biophilic Cities Network, which comprises cities that have made a formal commitment to biophilia — or the idea that all humans have an innate connection to nature and other living things. The cities — including Raleigh, the only North Carolina city currently in the network — collectively pursue a vision of conserving, celebrating and broadening natural spaces and local biodiversity. Chen is drafting a resolution for the City of Durham Environmental Affairs Board, with the goal of eventually getting the Durham City Council to pass the resolution and join the network.
“It makes me feel more attached to the people here, and it makes me feel like I have a stronger sense of purpose overall. I think contributing and being able to see an impact, especially locally, has been super important.”
Williams has taken up an idea first floated by Mallory Vaccaro, a Middle School learning support coach, Middle School advisor and yearbook coordinator: opening a Durham chapter of the Journey League, an organization that uses basketball to build community among teens and adults with disabilities and special needs. Williams worked directly with the cofounders of Journey League to establish the Durham chapter. DA will host each session and clinic at Kirby Gym, where the chapter’s first event — which is free to all participants — will be held on Feb. 28.
“It brings everyone together, even people who aren’t within the DA community — it brings them into a very close-knit community. Once you’re in, you’re in. To bring other people within that close-knit family is essential.”
Shy Williams ’25
Pathway Scholar
This sounds amazing. If I’m a DA educator or student, can I apply for microgrant funds … now?
Yes! Speak to a community engagement coordinator — Teagarden, Michelman or Shebalin — for more information about the application process.
“It gives a lot of opportunity to student-led projects. It gives a lot of opportunity to ideas of younger students and older students, and it also gives decision-making and leadership possibilities for older students to really learn what philanthropy and authentic community engagement can look like.”
Ben Michelman
Middle School language arts teacher, Middle School community engagement coordinator