Future doctors do non-medical deed for community
Med students from Duke paint charter school

By Paul Bonner

Before they delve into anatomy, Duke first-year medical students spent Tuesday slathering fresh paint on the walls of a Durham charter school.

Carter Community Charter School on Club Boulevard, in the former Walltown Elementary School building, hosted Duke Medical School's 100 new students on the students' second day of orientation.

The charter school and St. James Family Life Center, which also occupies the building, already have figured in the university's outreach, under the rubric of its Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership.

Not just observing

For the past four years, new Duke medical students have gone out into the community during orientation -- but previously only as observers, said Caroline Haynes, associate dean for medical education and director of the school's office of student affairs.

Small groups of students then would report to their classmates what they had learned.

Involving them all together in a work project seemed both more memorable and more useful, she said.

7,500 hours

In honor of Duke Medical Center's 75th anniversary this year, the students have set a goal of 7,500 hours of community service, toward which they logged 500 Tuesday.

In treating the whole person, future doctors do well to get acquainted with their community and help improve it, Haynes said.

"It shows them that health concerns aren't just the things happen in the Medical Center, but in people's environment, their surroundings influence their health," she said.

The students, joined by staff members of both the medical school and the charter school, plus several volunteers, painted hallways, bathrooms, classrooms and a stairwell. At the request of Duke's Facilities Management personnel who also assisted, a local Sherwin-Williams store donated the paint.

"I think it's a great idea to help the community right off the bat," said Matt McCarthy, a medical student from Seattle.

"It's nice to get out into Durham and do stuff, so you're not just isolated in the school," said another medical student, Leahthan Domeshek.

She received her bachelor's degree from Duke, where she also did community service, but in the Medical Center.

More than just paint

The new coat of paint helps Carter Community Charter School offer its students a safe, clean environment, said Principal Gail Taylor. The school's students, two of whom also helped paint, will return Aug. 22.

Some of the medical students already have said they'll volunteer to tutor or lead sports activities, Taylor said. That's also important, as the charter school strives to raise its end-of-grade test results from the current 68 percent at grade-level proficiency to 100 percent in five years, she said.

The school, in turn, is an empowering force in the surrounding Walltown neighborhood, she said, a lesson for its own students, who are in kindergarten through eighth grade.

She noted, however, that as a charter school, Carter Community has open enrollment, without any attendance district like traditional public schools.

"We want them not just to be on the receiving end," Taylor said.

© Copyright by The Durham Herald Company. Original copyright 2004. Copyright renewed 2005. All rights reserved. All material on heraldsun.com is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws and may not be reproduced or redistributed in any medium except as provided in the site's Terms of Use.