Blue Devil of the Week: Helping Students Find a Way to Duke

Cassidy Mills of Undergraduate Admissions connects high school students from underrepresented groups with opportunities

Cassidy Mills
Cassidy Mills, assistant director of Duke Undergraduate Admissions, stands next to boxes of acceptance packets waiting to be mailed out. Photo by Stephen Schramm.

Name: Cassidy Mills

Position: Assistant Director, Undergraduate Admissions

Years at Duke: 2

What she does at Duke: As coordinator for the 鈥 outreach programs for high school students from underrepresented groups, including Black students, Cassidy Mills is a go-to person for information about how to get to Duke and what to expect once on campus.

Mills organizes virtual meet-ups with interested high school juniors and seniors and visits high schools for in-person chats with potential Duke students. Mills also organizes events on Duke鈥檚 campus for different groups, such as March鈥檚 popular , which gives prospective students a taste of life at Duke through dance performances, local food and time spent with students.

Cassidy Mills, front left, cherishes opportunities to spend time with students, such as the Black Student Alliance invitational in March. Photo courtesy of Cassidy Mills.

Mills, who earned a master鈥檚 degree in higher education from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington has long been passionate about helping students navigate the path to college. She previously worked in the financial aid office at North Carolina State University and with the , where she mentored high school students in rural Nash County, North Carolina.

鈥淚 love getting to draw a picture of what life on campus is like,鈥 Mills said. 鈥淭his is a role I very much wanted, it鈥檚 what I hoped to do. My Blackness is an identity that鈥檚 important to me. I think it was essential to my time navigating the college admissions process and the college-bound process. So this was a population of students I wanted to work with.鈥

What she values about working here: From Duke鈥檚 robust COVID-19 safety policies to the effort Duke puts into helping students from all backgrounds feel comfortable on campus, Mills appreciates the thoughtful way Duke, as an institution, evolves and improves.

Mills joined Duke during the pandemic and said its testing and vaccination programs allowed her to feel safe on campus and showed how much it valued the health of community members. Mills appreciates the spaces and resources Duke devotes to student organizations such as the and the , something she is proud to relay to prospective students.

鈥淒uke is willing to change and willing to reflect,鈥 Mills said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a stagnant university and I love that. I consider it an honor to be part of an institution that is able to take breaths, take steps back, look around and assess where it fits into the local community and the wider world.鈥

Cassidy Mills has built a following on Instagram with her fun book recommendations. Image courtesy of Cassidy Mills.

Something people may not know about her: Mills loves to read and discuss favorite books both new and old.

Her passion for the printed word has helped her create a fun and popular .

Her account, which has nearly 3,000 followers, is where she shares thoughts and photos about what she鈥檚 reading 鈥 she鈥檚 a huge fan of the young adult fiction genre 鈥 and what locally-owned bookshops and libraries she鈥檚 enjoying.

Among the books she鈥檚 enjoyed so far in 2023 are Lisa Jewell鈥檚 suspenseful thriller 鈥淭he Family Upstairs,鈥 and Akwaeke Emezi鈥檚 romance novel, 鈥淵ou Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty.鈥

鈥淚 like to share what I鈥檓 reading, what books are coming out and even books I didn鈥檛 really like,鈥 said Mills, who read around 150 books in 2022. 鈥淚鈥檝e got a bookshelf at home devoted to books that I read and loved. And I鈥檝e got another that鈥檚 filled with books I haven鈥檛 read yet. That one is filled to the brim.鈥

Is there a colleague at Duke who has an intriguing job or goes above and beyond to make a difference? Nominate that person for Blue Devil of the Week.