In March, Professor Alexandra Zagbayou and former Service Opportunities in Leadership (SOL) Fellows Mike Ramos (T’26) and Annabel Tang (T’27) attended the Campus Compact conference in Chicago, IL.
Campus Compact, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement, empowers colleges and universities to advance their civic mission and address complex social issues by building partnerships with communities. Compact26 convened over 900 attendees—including faculty, students, and community partners from across the nation—around the conference theme of “Hope Found Here.”
In addition to attending sessions centered around civic learning, publicly engaged scholarship, and democratic engagement, Professor Zagbayou, Mike, and Annabel developed and facilitated a workshop titled “Pedagogies of Hope and Transformation: Embodying SOL.” The workshop introduced participants to the program’s methodology and theory of change, which includes practicing peer-to-peer mentorship, building a community of practice, and writing “letters home”—all through a framework of preparation, action, and reflection. They shared takeaways as teachers and students in the program, underscoring the transformative potential for student co-creation in the classroom and the necessity of community building to imagine alternative futures and enact systemic change.
“I’m incredibly grateful to Mike and Professor Zagbayou for the opportunity to build this together,” Annabel shared. “Many of the questions that come up in the SOL program are lifelong questions —those that strike at the heart of what it is to build a community of accountability and care. Attending Compact26 gave me the chance to be with others grappling with these ideas. It is important, knowing we are not alone.”
Attending Compact26 also allowed all three to connect with students and civic practitioners building similar university-community programs at institutions across the country. Mike, for instance, attended a session engaging the role of imagination in higher education at a moment characterized by funding cuts and increased political polarization. “This session, along with others, fell in line with the powerful questions model we follow within the SOL program,” he said. “In a time where I’ve been struggling with hope, being alongside other community-focused practitioners lifted my spirits and called for further reflection on how we engage with these purpose-driven questions at Duke.”
The conference was similarly illuminating and affirming for Professor Zagbayou, challenging her to see her work as a professor in the Hart Leadership Program as civic engagement work and a conduit for students to practice what Professor Deva Woodley termed the “muscle of community.” “One of the most important components of that exercise is journeying alongside students so that they do not surrender their hope for a more connected, just, and humane world,” Zagbayou said. “It also challenged me to think about the practices I hold that enable me to not only preserve my own hope but cultivate it.”
Compact26 also brought forth new questions about scale, including the potential for expanding opportunities for civic engagement and service learning at Duke beyond Hart Leadership’s current offerings. Zagbayou reflected, “There is a real thirst and need for supportive spaces where students, faculty, staff, and community members can keep practicing the muscle of community and hope together. How do we responsibly engage with that need as a program?”
We are excited to see how Professor Zagbayou, Mike, and Annabel’s learnings from Compact26 will continue to shape SOL and the Hart Leadership Program going forward.