SOL students have been doing summer internships with community partners since 1995 as a way to move from theoretical ideas to practice.

Our partners provide our students with first-hand exposure to the day-to-day joys and challenges of addressing some the social issues that plague our nation and the global community. For the majority of our students, community partners effectively provide them with cross-cultural experiences, even within their own country.

The diversity of our students is reflected in the diversity of our partner organizations, whose service areas range from education, youth, homelessness and domestic violence to worker’s rights, micro lending and legal advocacy for immigrants. We have placed students in organizations with staffs of more than four hundred and in organizations with a staff of three. See a list of our current host organizations (link) to get an idea of who can be a community partner.

Community partners are approached based on the geographic placement sites selected for the year. In past years SOL students have been placed in cities within the United States including New York City, Albuquerque, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Atlanta, and Durham. SOL has also placed students in international organizations in Croatia, Nicaragua, South Africa, Namibia, Honduras, Malawi and Costa Rica.

The experiential learning that happens during the 9-week placement forms the foundation upon which our students develop social issue research portfolios when they return to Duke. Moreover, many SOL students claim that their internships are transformational. None of this would be possible without the willingness of community organizations to mentor and guide our students in the work that they do.