All aspiring SOLsters are required to submit an application essay in the fall preceding the SOL Gateway course.  In the essay we ask you to outline the skills, motivations and ambitions you would bring to SOL.  In his fall 2006 essay Christian Sotomayor wrote:

"Since freshman year, listening attentively during the IDC (interdisciplinary course) dinners of the Global Americas FOCUS program, I have been engrossed by the possibilities for hands-on research and experiential learning available at Duke. Testimonies of students going to far off places and working at the ground level with community organizations called forth my lifelong dreams of helping the less fortunate rise from the despair of poverty. I knew early on that I did not want to "coast" through Duke and leave untouched the many opportunities afforded by this university."

"One of the best courses I have taken at Duke"--that is how Christian described the SOL Gateway course, PUBPOL 135--Border Crossing: Leadership, Value Conflicts and Public Life. Along with his classmates, Christian spent the Spring 2007 semester preparing for a community-based research project that would take place in the summer. But more than simply figuring out the logistics and securing summer funding, he and his classmates also prepared for the challenges they would encounter in the field.  Class readings and discussions addressed topics of cross-cultural understanding, value conflicts, and the inevitable complexities of volunteerism and service.

"It's a struggle between asserting your own self and your stances on issues versus how much you listen to other people and accept what they are saying. It's about opening your mind and learning about tough issues, confronting them, and in the process finding out about your own values," Christian says. "It's the only class at Duke that has done that [for me]."

The SOL summer grant proposal requires that you carefully think through the key dimensions of your summer project--from choosing a community partner organization, to developing an initial research question, to enlisting the aid of a faculty mentor, to preparing a budget. In addition, we ask you to include a Statement of Motivation for making a yearlong commitment to SOL. After rereading his SOL Gateway course admission essay, Christian wrote:

"As a Public Policy major, I knew that learning about decision trees in PPS 55 or writing memos in PPS 114 would not provide me with the tools to handle real world situations and negotiate tough obstacles. These classes gave the framework for analysis, but I needed the meat. Questioning at times what I really knew or how I could possibly help alleviate poverty at home and abroad, it dawned on me that a major in Public Policy is not about the writing, it's about the experience."

Christian chose to do his community-based research with Amani Children's Home, in Moshi, Tanzania. The organization helps street children by providing them with a safe home, offering a variety of educational opportunities, and helping them reunite with their families.

In his first SOL assignment in the summer, the "Brief Description," Christian explains his purpose at Amani Children's Home:

"This summer, Carolyn Kent [another Duke student] and I will be helping the Social Worker Coordinator and the Director of Amani decide on a good course of action for helping the families of the street children at Amani Center attain financial sustainability... In working closely together with the social workers, we hope to address some of the issues faced by the families of street children that keep them locked in a cycle of poverty. We hope to empower them with knowledge of resources and business opportunities available locally, as well as cut down on some of the prohibitive costs that don't allow them to take up opportunities for self advancement."

You can read more about Christian's summer work here: Critical Reflection Report 1   and  Summer Community-Based Research Project

The SOL Capstone course gives students the opportunity to reflect critically on their summer work with community organizations, and integrate what they have learned with concepts of leadership, ethics, politics, and policy design. At the end of the semester, students submit a final research portfolio on an issue related to their summer experience. Christian chose to complete his social issue research portfolio on microlending in the United States.

"I became interested in microenterprise development in the United States after having researched microfinance during an independent study and having surveyed microfinance providers in Tanzania for my summer community based research project. Microfinance has helped millions of the world's poor to raise their incomes by providing them with credit to improve or expand their businesses. Upon returning to the United States, I wondered if microfinance could have a similar impact in this country."

Read Christian's SOL Capstone research portfolio, Microenterprise Development Programs in the United States: Can They Become Sustainable?