Service Opportunities in Leadership

SOL is a nationally recognized, intensive 12-month leadership program for students who are interested in complex social and political issues and the art of implementing systemic political change. SOL’s three-stage structure includes a preparation (gateway) course in the spring, a collaboratively designed research (CBR) project with a political organization in the summer, and a follow-up (capstone) seminar in the fall. Throughout, students participate in a structured process of critical reflection on the ethical, intellectual and personal aspects of their political engagement project.

One of the best embodiments of the lifelong leadership learning within SOL is manifest in the life of Hart alumna Kathy Tran, who became the first Asian American elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017. Born in Viet Nam, Kathy came to the United States as a child refugee at the age of two, before growing up in Virginia and eventually graduating from Duke University in 2000.  She is married to Matthew Reisman, also a Hart Fellow and SOL alumnus who pioneered some of the very first research service learning classes at Duke or anywhere in the United States.