(upbeat music)
-: ACE is a program for our Duke student athletes
to give them the opportunity
to have an international community engagement experience.
Those program started in 2015
recognizing the need that our student athletes
weren't able to participate in a lot of the other
on-campus opportunities that Duke offers
like study abroad and DukeEngage,
because of their training schedules,
because of their athletic commitments,
because of needing to take summer school.
And so this program
from the very beginning identified that need
and has shaped sort of every part of the way
the program has developed in really making it possible
for our student athletes
to have these incredible experiences.
-: Back in 2014, David Rubenstein had a big idea,
to bring Duke and Stanford together
to tackle some of the challenges
based on both campuses and beyond.
Thanks to David's vision,
his leadership and incredible generosity,
ACE was born.
Because of him,
student athletes from both schools have had
the chance to travel abroad,
step out of their comfort zones,
and have truly life-changing leadership experiences
through service.
We worked with our coaches
to really determine what the sweet spot was
and how long our student athletes could participate
in something like that.
And three weeks was kind of the magic number.
-: We have had over 300 student athletes participate
over the past 10 years.
They have come from a variety
of different athletic teams here at Duke.
We're really proud of the fact
that 26 of our 27 teams have had
the opportunity to participate at some point.
And I think what is a bigger testament to the last 10 years
is that over 23,000 hours of service
have been contributed by our Duke student athletes.
-: My name's Sean Tate.
I'm the program coordinator for the ACE program.
I graduated from Duke in 2019
where I was a member of the men's swimming and diving team,
and I'm also an ACE participant having participated
in the ACE in South Africa program in 2017.
We were working in a township
outside of Cape Town called Nomzamo.
We were working with children
in age ranges around 8 to 12.
We were running a sports camp.
We did a number of different sports
including rugby, volleyball, soccer, netball,
helping the community bring the sports camp together.
ACE was my first international service experience.
And beyond the impact that we had on the ground there
and the cultural learning
and exchange that we had with the communities
that we were working with,
one of the biggest things that I got
from my ACE experience was a better idea
of what I wanted to do in terms of my career.
I didn't really have a good idea
of what I wanted to do after college
and ACE really helped me figure that out
because I learned where my passions lie,
and they were in international work,
primarily around education.
-: I did the ACE in Vietnam program.
It was an incredible experience.
We were in the south of Vietnam.
We were working with around elementary age students,
and we were teaching them sports
and also different subjects as well,
working alongside other Vietnamese coaches
and students as well.
So I was primarily working on English,
and then coaching soccer,
and then a couple other sports kind of mixed in.
But it was really special to be able
to teach and coach alongside other Vietnamese students
who were the same age as us.
I think it was around the last couple days
that we were there,
there was a torrential downpour, like so much rain,
the most rain I've ever seen in my life.
And during this time,
all of us were in classrooms kind of working,
and it just got to the point where no one could concentrate.
And so everyone ran outside,
started dancing, playing in the rain,
and it was just this moment
that really like culminated the three weeks
that we were there and the impact that we had
and all of us being able to just connect and dance
and have a great time,
and just the fun and the joy
that we all were able to share together is
something that I really keep with me.
I think on top of that, it taught me to be present.
I think at Duke and in our sports career,
we can be so stressed
and put so much pressure on where we're at.
Duke is a high-intensity place.
Sports are high-intensity.
School is hard.
And so when you go to like a place like Vietnam
where the different opportunities that we had at ACE,
it really allowed us to be present in who we were with
and really focus on that connection.
So I think that piece I'll always take with me.
-: And then COVID hit,
and so that completely changed ACE.
Here we were, you know, on the brink of having,
you know, the biggest pool of applicants we'd ever had.
We had a group ready to go and then everything stopped,
and we weren't able to do the one thing
that really was the heart of the program,
and that was being in country and being there in person.
And so I credit our alums with playing a huge part
in helping with that transition to help us quickly pivot.
And we launched an ACE in-place, virtual experience
that I think by virtual programs went really, really well.
We had student athletes engaged,
they were still building relationships with each other,
they were still connecting with communities around the world
and learning and providing meaningful impact.
And so that was a really pivotal time in the program.
I think it could have got a very different direction
where we wouldn't be sitting here today.
-: I remember being so excited hearing about the program
coming in as an incoming freshman even,
and being so excited.
And then when we went remote,
my first thought was kind of nerves.
You know, you don't know how a program
that focuses on service abroad is gonna translate online.
And, you know, we had been through
this whole year of online classes,
and you could just tell
there really wasn't any engagement that whole year.
We felt so far apart.
And I remember from the very first day being in ACE,
like I think there was
maybe 10 student athletes in our group,
and then our matching coaches in Vietnam.
You could feel the energy.
And it was the first time
I'd ever been on an actual like online Zoom call,
anything like that where people were excited to be there.
I was like, "This is something special."
Like, this transcends all of the circumstances that we have.
We're doing something amazing
with a really awesome group of people.
What ACE ended up doing was
I had all these brand new friends,
not just across our athletics department
but across the country in Stanford
and then across the world.
Like, I know that like most of the people in our class
still talk to our Vietnamese coaches
on the other side of the country.
Like, it's awesome to be able to check,
and, you know, you have these friends
that maybe we only met for two weeks,
but I to this day still get to talk to them
and see these lives
that I never would've encountered anywhere else.
-: In 2023, we're finally able to get back
to fully international in-person programming.
There was a shift with Stanford
pausing their involvement in the program.
And so for the past two years
we've been a Duke-only program,
and so that's brought a lot of opportunities
to build a program
that better suited our Duke student athletes.
And so we've launched a May program
to really have an opportunity
for our student athletes when they come back,
they're all in the same place,
and so they can really continue
to build on those friendships that they've made,
and the ideas that they have
for what they wanna do when they get back.
-: I participated in Panama 2024,
and my intended major is psychology.
Panama program was a 10-day program.
We worked with 6 to 12 year olds
in two different communities.
We worked with playing volleyball,
just getting to know each other,
collaborating and learning new things.
I think the overall layout of the program was really good.
We got to work out on days.
We got to spend a significant amount of the time
just getting to know each other,
spending time with the communities
and just trying new foods and doing different things.
And we also got to see the different areas we were in,
walk around, experience it,
just experience the culture, which is really cool.
-: ACE truly embodies the core values
of leadership, service, and teamwork,
and we really can see it in our student athletes
that return from the experience
and the way that they talk about
how really those characteristics
have been deepened, in some cases, developed.
And so we're just really thrilled that ACE
provides our student athletes this opportunity.
-: ACE kind of reminded me that by fostering a community,
you can only support yourself but also support others.
Once my action plan came up for ACE
and we were discussing what I wanted to do,
I had heard that there was a kid
within the local Durham community
that wanted to join the football team,
and we brought Creed on our team, Creed Kolasa.
But it became not just this incredible friendship
and really inspirational story for me.
It was something that we've now expanded throughout campus.
It it's been a wonderful experience.
It's still to this day, you know,
I've stayed involved with Team IMPACT,
and it's been awesome to continue
to see Team IMPACT grow at Duke.
-: It was something that was really game changing
for my experience at Duke.
Like, I would say if I look at my four-year career
as a Duke student athlete, like ACE is the highlight.
No matter what, I will tell people about it.
And it's cool to see that student athletes
now still get to have that experience,
get to apply for it, be a part of it.
-: Coming back as the program coordinator,
I came back at a difficult time
in the very beginning of COVID in March/April 2020.
And just being a part of that
and having a hand in seeing the program
through the ups and the downs has been great.
Just knowing how impactful the program is
and making sure that program like this,
an experience like this still exists for student athletes
is really big driving factor
for why I'm currently in this role.
-: ACE has been an incredibly successful 10 years,
and we are excited about the future
and what the future could potentially hold
to give our student athletes an opportunity
to travel globally and really go out
and be global change makers.
-: My hopes for ACE in the next decade are
that the program continues to exist,
that it continues to offer transformational experiences
for our student athletes that just change their lives
and are something that, you know, they're able to take
with them far along after they've stopped competing,
after they've left Duke,
and something that as Duke alumni,
they continue to carry forwards.
There's so much change happening
in the athletics world today,
and I hope that this program and the value of it are seen,
and that it is a program that is deeply unique to Duke.
I always say it's part of the Duke difference,
and is something that I'm so proud
that Duke Athletics has supported to really ensure
that our student athletes not only are winning
on the field and in the pools,
but then they're also gaining
these really important experiences
that will set them up for life
and make them more conscientious,
just kind people in the world.
(soft gentle music)