A Touch of Home
After reconnecting with Duke, an alum dedicates himself to improving the student and alumni experience.
When Manuel Nieto ’01, M.B.A.’09 was deciding where to go to college, he had three non-negotiables:
Warm weather. A great basketball team. And a place he could be proud of.
Duke checked all those boxes. But Nieto also found something that hadn’t originally been on his list.
“Duke has become my chosen family outside of my own,” he says.
Originally from El Salvador, Nieto grew up in a close-knit community in the San Francisco Bay area. Leaving that community was difficult, he said, and the transition to Duke took time. As an undergraduate, he joined La Unidad Latina Lambda Upsilon Lambda, a fraternity dedicated to community service as well as education about Latino culture.
It was there Nieto began to see how important Latino representation was at Duke and helped launch a plan to recruit prospective students by organizing the university’s first Latino student recruitment weekend.
“It wasn’t the typical lip service brochure presentation.” Nieto says. “I talked about family and our vibrant community, that Duke has this quality of real connection and relationships.”
Today, those continued efforts have helped expand Duke’s diversity with Hispanic/Latino students increasing from below 4% in 2000 to 16% in Duke’s newest incoming class of 2025.
The “home” Nieto experienced at Duke didn’t end after graduation, he said.
One of the first events he attended after Duke was a continuing education course at Fuqua where he met local alumni and heard about other ways to get involved with Duke’s volunteer affinity group Duke Hispanic/Latino Alumni (DUHLA), which has grown to a membership of 7,330 since launching in 2015.
“If you want to have a dynamic community, you can’t create it alone,” Nieto says. “Get a dialogue going, reach out to your friends, regional groups and Duke. There’s guidance.”
Today, Nieto remains involved not only DUHLA as the regional chair for Duke Triangle but participates in events like Cafecito during Homecoming Weekend, which serves as a connector event between alumni and current students.
His advice for alumni hoping to reconnect and build community at Duke? Although no two Duke experiences are the same, Nieto says, if there was something missing in your experience, be proactive and try to fill those gaps as an alum.
“You’re at Duke for just a few years, but you’re an alum for the rest of your life.”
