Friends,

We have now been at The W.G. Pearson Center for a little over a month, and it is truly starting to feel like home. With every meeting and event, our team gets to welcome more and more members of the Student U family into the building and be energized by their reactions. All of our dreams about the community we hope to create here are slowly starting to take shape. While we couldn’t be happier about that, we know that the work of building a community here has yet to begin.

The community we seek to build is one rooted in support, trust, love, accountability, collaboration, openness, joy, transparency, safety, communication, inspiration, and vulnerability. We want all partners and patrons of our building to feel seen and valued for their presence. We want our building to be a judgement-free zone where people, students, parents, and staff are able to be their authentic selves. We want this community to feel like home for everyone. I am constantly inspired and humbled by the opportunity we have as stewards of this building to make this vision come together.

And we know that we cannot do it alone. The W.G. Pearson Center will only be able to reach its bold vision when other people join alongside us, add to this vision, co-own it with us and partner with us to article the shared values, behaviors and activities that will enable that vision to come to fruition. We know that this work will not happen overnight. It will require sustained and intentional work from all of us. We are ready for it.

Next week, we will share with you the incredible organizations in our community who will become our partners on this journey to building a community at The Center. In the meantime, don’t forget to join us for the Re-Opening Celebration on October 20th. This event is open to everyone!!! Please share it widely and come fellowship with us.

All the best,
Alexandra Zagbayou

Join us as we celebrate the re-opening of The W.G. Pearson Center Saturday, October 20th at 1pm.  
600 East Umstead Street, Durham, NC 27701