This is a summary of a story by Christina Holder, published in .

Each week at the Duke Lemur Center, volunteers gather in a garden of fruits, vegetables and a leafy green plant called sumac 鈥 a popular lemur snack. Together with staff, the volunteers harvest organic produce to supplement the diets of the center鈥檚 more than 200 resident primates.

During that time, the workers get to know each other. 鈥淲e start talking about our lives and find that common ground with people who we otherwise wouldn鈥檛 necessarily have met,鈥 says Sheri Taylor, the Lemur Center horticulturalist who leads volunteers each week. 鈥淚 leave feeling like, 鈥極.K., I鈥檓 ready. I鈥檓 energized.鈥欌

That sense of energy underlies many Duke community-driven projects, says Liz DeMattia, a research scientist at the Nicholas School of the Environment and director of the . Through the initiative, Duke faculty, staff and students collaborate with communities through conservation, education and outreach.

Liz DeMattia smiles at the camera holding up the back end of a giant whale puppet that appears to be in mid-construction.
Liz DeMattia holds the tail-end of a whale puppet, designed by Torry Bend, a professor of the practice in theater studies at Duke, and built by Duke Arts+ students. The puppet was eventually carried in a Fourth of July parade through Beaufort, North Carolina. Photo by Cristina Quattrone

鈥淲e talk about environmental resilience all the time, like ecosystems bouncing back from fire,鈥 DeMattia says. 鈥淸We can use] nature as a way to understand personal and community resilience. By restoring nature, you鈥檙e restoring yourself.鈥

A hallmark program of the Community Science Initiative is , a middle school curriculum designed to help kids navigate communal and personal hardships, be they natural disasters or relationship struggles.

Hannah Baetge, a former marine science and conservation student who graduated from Duke with distinction last spring, was eager to work with local communities through the Ready, Set, Resilience program.

The experience made an impression 鈥 on her, and on the students she helped teach.

鈥淚 remember a couple kids who came up to me, and I asked them, 鈥榃hat is the biggest thing you learned from doing this curriculum with me?鈥欌 she says. 鈥淎nd [they said], 鈥業t鈥檚 just be kind to other people.鈥 鈥 If we do it right, and if we do it thoughtfully, we can see how we can foster this kind of care for the environment and also for each other.鈥

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