Life At Duke : The First-Year Experience : Pre-Orientation

Pre-Orientation Programs

Summer Reading
The Duke Summer Reading program provides a shared intellectual experience with other new students. During the summer before you arrive on campus, you will read a book Duke provides to all first-year students.  Once you get to campus in August, you will take part in small-group discussions with your peers and with upper-level students and share in intellectual discourse with faculty scholars.

Project BUILD
Project BUILD (Building Undergraduate Involvement in the Life of Durham) is a community-service-based pre-orientation program for first-year students.  Students live on Duke’s campus for the week before orientation and take part in community-service activities.

Project WILD
Project WILD (Wilderness Initiatives for Learning at Duke) is an experiential learning wilderness pre-orientation program for first-year students.  Students spend two weeks backpacking in Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina immediately prior to the start of orientation.

Project Waves
Project Waves is a pre-orientation program held at Duke’s marine laboratory in Beaufort on the North Carolina coast. Students participate in a variety of ocean-based activities, such as sailing and kayaking, the week before orientation begins in August.