Young Scholars Summer Research Institute Highlights Local Student Research On Inequality

Student participants in the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity Young Scholars Summer Research Institute presented research projects before more than 200 parents, Duke faculty and staff and teachers and administrators from Durham Public Schools, at the program’s capstone conference July 31 at the Nasher Museum of Art.

The presentations culminated the Young Scholars Summer Research Institute, a three-week instructional program sponsored by the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke in partnership with the Durham Public School System (DPS) for students in grades 8-11.

In keeping with the Cook Center’s central mission as a community of scholars engaged in the study of the causes and consequences of inequality, the institute develops students’ writing and research skills and identifies and recruits the next generation of scholars concerned with the causes and consequences of inequality and the assessment and redesign of remedies for inequality and its adverse effects. Students explore the economic, political, social and cultural dimensions of inequality during the institute under the direction of middle and high school Durham Public School System teachers, university professors and Cook Center researchers.

William A. Darity Jr., founding director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity and Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics at Duke, paid tribute to the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity’s three-year collaboration with Durham Public Schools in his welcoming address.

“The summer institute is designed to provide young scholars with the opportunity to investigate a wide range of issues involving inequality and social inequity with an eye towards trying to think about ways in which we can change those conditions,” Darity said.

A advocate of higher education, Billye S. Aaron of the Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation delivered the program’s keynote address.

“From the time we are born, to the time that we die, we are learning,” Aaron said. “We are learning lessons that will carry us throughout our lifetime. Learning is a constant… and that is why the Young Scholars are here today.”

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