Message from the Director

In 2005, the Durham community came together with a dream to create an academic environment that empowered students to believe in themselves and their abilities to succeed in school and beyond. Four years later, this community can be proud of its accomplishment, proud of the program it has created, proud of the lives it has so profoundly affected.

Student U is the story of a young woman who came from fifth grade unwilling to share her brilliance with her classmates and left for sixth grade with confidence, maturity, and a belief that her voice needed to be heard. Student U is the story of a young man who on his second day of 6th grade raised his hand, answered a question correctly in math, and that night called his Student U teacher to brag about it. Student U is the story of students walking in a parade through the streets of Durham, honoring Martin Luther King Jr., chanting “Student U” with all their might and then the next year standing together on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. King himself stood, declaring “we are role models, students, teachers, and friends. We learn to live, we love to give. We are destined to succeed. We are Student U”

But more than anything, Student U is the story of factions of a community putting aside their differences to rally around a mission. It is unlikely partners sharing their best with one another to create something most could never imagine. Student U is the story of private schools and public schools, universities and foundations, experienced teachers and idealistic youth, and hundreds of individuals putting their energy, their faiths, and their hearts into first a dream, and then an idea, and now a program which is making a difference in Durham.

Thank you to our partners, Durham Academy, the Durham Public Schools, North Carolina Central University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Duke University for believing in the potential of true collaboration. Thank you to the foundations and corporations who see something special in our vision. Thank you to the more than 300 individuals who have given their own resources to support the Student U mission. Thank you to our students and teachers who demonstrate every day the value of education. And thank you to all the others who in one way or another have touched and have been touched by this program.

Yes dreams do come true. But when they do, we cannot stop reaching up a little higher. There are still so many stars left to be discovered and so many dreams left to realize. As our students and teachers engage in our year-round activities, as we prepare to pilot our high school program, and as we begin to recruit our next classes of students and teachers to join the Student U family, we will be in the active process of enhancing our program. Each individual who joins this community demands that we stretch, grow, and learn from the talents that he or she has to offer. As we reflect on the past and celebrate the present, let us be reminded that together must continue to dream about the future.

With great appreciation,

Daniel Kimberg