Duke Kunshan student Remington Gillis has no fear of being thrown in at the deep end. In fact, it’s a situation she thrives in.
In the past few years, the inaugural undergraduate class student has moved to a new city, switched majors, studied in Germany, worked as a part-time paralegal, opened a soup kitchen and relocated to China to study at DKU. Now, with graduation around the corner, she has a new adventure on the horizon – teaching in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“I’ll be living in the community while I’m teaching,” she said of the Teach For America job, which will place her in a community with limited access to educational resources and opportunities. “The idea is that you practice what you preach and go above and beyond, not just teaching the kids but also trying to better the community.”
Remington Gillis, from Duke Kunshan’s Class of 2022
Gillis, who grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, got her first taste for life overseas during high school, studying at a college near Dusseldorf, Germany, despite not knowing the language.
Although feeling like she had been thrown in at the deep end, she enjoyed the experience and a few years later took the plunge again, accepting an offer from DKU on the strength of a postcard from the university.
She said she had no idea what to expect of China, but added it was a decision she never regretted, as it helped shape her life choices and prepare her for the future.
Originally a public policy and economics student, Gillis changed her major to media and arts, with a focus on documentary making, following a class on film editing with professor Kaley Clements.
“No matter what class I was taking, I just kept thinking, ‚’Wow, I wish I was just back in that class,’ and so I just ended up spur of the moment switching majors,” she said.
From then on, she and a group of friends became fixtures in the media lab, where they would spend hours working on university projects, watching movies and talking.
“We were there so often that eventually professors started just coming to the lab to find us. Instead of emailing us, they would just peek in and we’d always be there,” she said.
Aside from the media lab, some of her fondest memories of DKU revolve around a local seafood restaurant where she often hung out with friends.
“A few of us made a documentary together about Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs. It was the first documentary we’d made together and we ended up becoming really good friends with the restaurant owner,” she said.
When Covid-19 hit and students were sent to their home countries, Gillis moved again, this time to Omaha, Nebraska, where her parents had relocated while she was in China.
With pandemic-control measures in place, living in a new town, and studying online, it could easily have been a difficult and isolated time, but once again Gillis dived in, getting involved in local community groups and opening a soup kitchen with friends.
Encouraged by DKU’s focus on experiential learning, she also took on part-time work as a communications coordinator and office manager at the non-profit Education Rights Counsel, a law firm that focuses exclusively on children’s rights, as well as tutoring children at a local sports academy.
“The work we do at the law firm has made me super passionate about education,” said Gillis. Inspired by both the work and several of the lawyers there who had previously worked for Teach for America, she successfully applied for a job with the non-profit organization, which aims to improve educational equity by recruiting graduates to work in disenfranchised communities.
Training for the organization began in April, and will go full time in the summer, with the job due to begin in August.
Looking back at the impact DKU has had on her own life, Gillis said the university provided her with “incredible research opportunities and experiences” and taught her to be a self-starter.
“I think that DKU is an environment where students thrive if they are self-motivated and self-led,” she said. “If I see an issue in the community now, or something that needs to be done, I’ll just go out there and start doing it.”
Written by: John Butcher
