By Monica Chen

mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636

RALEIGH -- It's not your typical way of meeting new students, but there was Lee Baker, getting left in the fumes by 17- and 18-year-olds on a go-cart track on Saturday.

As part of the Duke University's orientation for first-year students, Baker, dean of academic affairs, took a group of fresh-faced teenagers to Frankie's Fun Park near Brier Creek.

"It's not for me," he said. "It's for them."

The students gleefully took on the hairpin curves of the road course track and then battled each other in laser tag. The event offered them a way of forgetting about anxieties about the start of school and bonding with fellow classmates in play.

Baker said several students passed him on the road course track, and one, Aum Disani, refused to let him pass.

Disani, when interviewed, laughed and said it was actually not him in that go-cart.

The orientation process has been overwhelming, said Disani, an 18-year-old from Malawi. Disani plans to study economics and chemistry, and hopes someday to start his own company.

"Duke is a very good university," he said. "It's known throughout the world."

The students had signed up within a matter of hours for Baker's outing, which was perhaps the most popular option among all the outings planned for Saturday.

As part of the "Faculty Outings: Duke, Durham and Beyond," professors were also planning to take students on hikes, canoeing on Eno River, trips to the Durham Farmers' Market and a run through the American Tobacco Trail, among others.

Baker said Frankie's was an inspiration from his 10-year-old daughter, who loves the park. Frankie's proved to be much more popular than Baker's outing in 2008, when he wanted to take students bass fishing -- and no one signed up.

"I had to rethink my approach," Baker laughed and said.

"It's nice to see first-year students," he added. "Their opportunities, they understand, are limitless."

The transition from high school to college can be intimidating, Baker said, and professors often come off more distant than high school teachers.

"There's an impression that professors are unapproachable," he said. "But at the end of the day, we got into this to teach, just like anyone else."

Rory Makhema, 18, had never been in a go-cart before, but he took off like a pro, zipping and winding around other carts.

"It is a great way of meeting people," he said.

Caroline Keen, a 16-year-old freshman from Mount Olive, said she just looked into the other outings opportunities, but Frankie's seemed by far the most fun.

"I didn't want to go cycling for three hours. My butt would be so sore," she said.

Keen is planning to study sociology and be in the pre-law track.

After the road course, she laughed with the other students. "I was so afraid of hitting someone!" she exclaimed.