This inaugural award recognizes the organization for its exceptional work in supporting students as they prepare to enter college or a trade
By Anna-Rhesa Versola | Photography courtesy of Emily Krzyzewski Center
New to our Best of Durham issue this year is the honor of presenting Durham Magazine’s first Social Impact Award to the Emily Krzyzewski Center. This distinction recognizes people and organizations doing good in our communities, and the Emily K Center’s work to effectively support kids who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education, in our view, goes above and beyond in that worthy endeavor. “It was hard choosing just one organization in Durham,” says Ellen Shannon, president of Durham Magazine parent company Triangle Media Partners. “The Emily K Center was selected because of the large social impact they have on so many young people and their families.”
The Emily K Center was formed as an independent nonprofit in 2000 by Mike Krzyzewski, who retired this past year after 42 seasons as the Duke University men’s basketball head coach. He named the organization for his mother, Emily Krzyzewski. The center opened in 2006 and served 38 students through a single program. This year, more than 2,000 students from Durham-based schools, including first through 12th graders as well as college students, received free enrichment programs for academic support, college readiness and college completion.
About 82% of kids at the center are students of color who face systemic barriers to higher education, career prospects and leadership opportunities. “Our commitment to seeing traditionally underrepresented students reach equitable outcomes and achieve economic and social mobility won’t change, but the execution of the work and the strategies will continue to evolve,” says Emily K Center CEO Adam Eigenrauch. “If there is a way to get bigger, or more impactful, that we can sustain, then we’d like to find it. One answer to that may be in exploring new or different partnerships. Center alumni and other young people in the community are also ready to step forward into leadership roles to help to see change forward.”
Ghasan Ahmed has been involved with the Center since his freshman year at Durham School of the Arts in 2015. “I [was a] first-generation student, first-generation immigrant,” he says. “My parents knew nothing about the college process here; we didn’t even know what an ACT or SAT was.” Ghasan volunteered with the Center throughout high school and went on to work part time at the front desk while earning his bachelor’s in statistics and analytics at UNC. A 2023 graduate, he continues to volunteer at the Center, and begins his career in the tech industry in Charlotte. “Seeing the impact that [the Center] had on my life, I want to be able to give back,” Ghasan says.
Board of Directors Executive Vice Chair Jamie Krzyzewski Spatola is proud that the center bears her grandmother’s name. “Hardworking and a sense of humor,” Jamie says. “That is how I would describe her.”
Emily Krzyzewski, who was a child of Polish immigrants, left school with an eighth grade education. “She was not somebody who had much education, nor was she somebody who had much access,” Jamie says. “She didn’t have the things that we hope for … but she believed in education. They found a way, with her salary as a cleaning woman at the Chicago Athletic Club, and my father’s father as an elevator operator, to pay for their two sons to have a private education in the hopes that it would lead to futures better than their own.” Jamie recalls that her dad often mentioned he and his brother had everything they could need, while their mother had only two dresses. “I get chills when I think about that,” she says.
The Emily K Center is wholly donor-funded by individuals, corporations and foundations to help it offer year-round and summer programs. The Center closely collaborates with Durham Public Schools and partners with as many as 50 local community organizations to create opportunities for its students. The Center’s high school graduation rate is 100%, and over 85% of students complete undergraduate degrees, which exceeds the national level of 60% overall, and 40% for Black and 54% for Latinx degree-seeking students, says Valerie Anderson, the Center’s chief impact officer. The Center also helps students who are more interested in trade school or a certification program.
