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Amherst College - 2009 Annual Report
2009 ANNUAL REPORT OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
Please add narrative text that responds to the questions in the four categories below.
Implementation of Student Development
What was the structure and content for the implementation of the developmental model this year? In particular, please share (no more than one page text needed):
i. Structure of Training This year we made significant improvements to the Bonner Leader training program. Two student leaders were selected as Training and Enrichment Coordinators. Working between five and seven hours per week, the Training and Enrichment Coordinators developed internal training opportunities and promoted outside training opportunities. Together with the Program Director, they created a training and enrichment program that responded to the particular developmental needs of the Bonner Leaders in the program. They conducted a needs assessment of current leaders and then regularly solicited input and feedback on training and enrichment activities through meetings held with individual leaders.
Training focused on helping new leaders gain the skills necessary to provide effective leadership in order to strengthen community partnerships. First year leaders learned about partnership organizations, began assisting in the coordination of student volunteers at those organizations, engaged in self-assessment and personal development planning activities, participated in trainings/reflections, and served as committee members. Orientations for new Bonner Leaders were held at the beginning of each semester. The day and a half long orientation gave new leaders an opportunity to learn about program structure and expectations while building trust and communication within the group.
The Training and Enrichment Coordinators worked with the Program Director to develop a new intensive Core Training Program that all Bonner Leaders must complete during their first semester in the program. This series of training and enrichment experiences facilitated the development of leadership and management skills while also allowing new Bonner Leaders to gain a sense of community and purpose. The Core Training Program consisted of five interactive workshops on Time Management, Leading Effective Meetings, Event Planning, Budgeting, and Conflict Mediation. We successfully integrated the use of technology and media into these trainings and found the media aspect of the trainings appealed to the Bonner Leaders. We plan to increase the use of technology and media for trainings in the future. Another addition to the program this year was an overnight off-campus retreat at the YMCA Camp Jewell in Connecticut. The retreat focused on processing challenges, evaluating results, and experiencing the dynamics of cooperation, leadership, and diversity within a team. All leaders and two CCE staff participated in a high ropes course. By beginning the year with an intensive retreat we were able to spend more time at All Bonner Meetings actually planning events and programs rather than icebreakers and team-building activities. All Bonner Leaders attended ongoing leadership development trainings throughout the fall and spring semesters. Trainings included topics such as Community Organizing, Website Development, Utilizing Social Media, Networking, Leading Reflection, and Event Planning. The trainings/workshops addressed a variety of leadership skills and allowed the students to reflect on their current and future role as leaders and engaged citizens. A powerful part of the Bonner Leader program was the opportunity students had to learn about needs of the local area. Bonner Leaders volunteered at a designated community based organization each week. There they had the opportunity to interact with knowledgeable staff and community members. Through their direct work with our community partners, the leaders were introduced to community problems. Through discussion and an opportunity to reflect on their experiences, they began to gain an understanding of their role as an agent of social change. Several Bonner Leaders learned leadership skills by serving on the Board of Directors of select community partners.
A key aspect of the 2008-2009 training program was the Individual Development Meetings. Each Bonner Leader attended a one on one meeting with the Program Staff at the beginning and end of each semester. The meetings provided a structured time for reflection about the program and students’ individual goals. The meeting at the beginning of the semester focused on the Bonner Leader’s individual objectives for personal and skill development. The meeting at the end of the semester focused on discussing the Leader’s skill development and performance during the semester. This year, we added an online assessment tool that Leaders fill out at the beginning and end of each semester to enable the CCE to better track their progress and to allow them to reflect on their skill building plan prior to their Individual Development Meetings. The online tool allows us to track student development throughout the course of the four semesters in the program.
Another new addition to the training program was the Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Student Leadership Conference. This conference, held in January of 2009, provided students with practical tools necessary to achieve their leadership potential. Students learned ways to be more effective and engaging leaders who positively impact their campus and community. Conference highlights included an inspirational and dynamic keynote speaker (Ed Gerety) and engaging and practical workshops for students with varying levels of leadership experience. Bonner Leaders attended the conference and were able to select workshops that best matched their interests and role (see LEAD Conference program attached).
ii. Cornerstone Activities (including First Year Trip, Second Year Exchange and beyond), Leadership Roles, and Senior Capstone & Presentations of Learning
First Year Trip Bonner Leaders helped to run a three day trip to Holyoke during the first-year student orientation. Forty-eight first year students and twelve upper-class students participated in the 2008 trip. The trip allowed first-year students to explore a variety of ways that students can make an impact on the immediate and broader communities, to gain a realistic perspective of their roles as community workers and to bond with fellow classmates. During their three-day stay in Holyoke, speakers from the community ran workshops for the students on issues related to community engagement and social justice with a particular focus on how those issues relate to Holyoke. Students experienced many of these issues firsthand by volunteering for four hours each afternoon at nine different sites around Holyoke. At these sites, students did direct service work and learned about the mission of the organizations as well as the social issues and needs they addressed in the community.
Second Year Exchange CCE staff attended the Fall Bonner Director Meeting in Montreat, and Amherst College students attended a number of Bonner events including the Bonner Congress, the Impact Conference and the Summer Leadership Institute at Stetson University. Two Amherst students spent fall break in Princeton learning more about the foundation and Bonner Leader programs at other campuses. We went to extraordinary lengths to participate in a Service Exchange because we recognize the value of campuses working and sharing together. We contacted a number of Bonner Campuses (Johnson State, VT; Sienna College, NY; Hamilton College, NY; Hobart and William Smith Colleges, NY; Mercer County Community College, NJ; Bates College and The College of New Jersey, NJ), most of which said that they would not be able to host an exchange or travel to our campus. To our initial delight, The College of New Jersey and Mercer County Community College did commit to an exchange hosted at Amherst. Unfortunately, on the week of the exchange, both schools cancelled. We continued to look for other opportunities and have been in communication with Hobart and William Smith Colleges to conduct an exchange in the 2009-10 academic year. Based on our experience this year it seems that campuses have some difficulty participating in this cornerstone activity due to logistical and budgetary constraints.
Leadership Roles, Senior Capstone & Presentations of Learning Our two-year Bonner Leaders program is filled mostly with students in their sophomore and junior years. Second-year Bonner Leaders have more of an outward focus on increasing service involvement and issue awareness among the wider student body to strengthen the culture of community engagement at Amherst. They coordinate student volunteers at partnership organization, mentor and support first year Leaders, engage in self-assessments and personal development planning activities, serve as committee chairs, and participate in reflections/trainings focused on evaluating work and capacity building. In recognition of what seniors can contribute and learn we created a few senior mentor positions, each with a different role. Mentors encouraged new leaders to implement strategies to strengthen the relationship between students and community partners. Mentors worked with CCE Program Staff on projects such as program and event planning, website development, and program evaluation. They served as a resource for student involvement, educated the campus community about civic engagement, and helped recruit students to become involved in the Bonner Leader program. Elise Tropiano continued to work with the Pipeline partnership, mentoring the two Bonner Community Engagement Leaders assigned to that partnership. Michelle Sanders conducted research on the value of service exchanges for Art Professor Wendy Ewald who teaches a CBL course, Collaborative Art.
iii. Roles of Student Leaders in integration of the Serve 2.0 Initiative (e.g. developing and using web-based tools for service) One of the primary objectives for participating in the Bonner Serve 2.0 Initiative is to create Social Media Tools Training Program for Bonner Leaders. The training program, currently being developed by Oscar Lanza-Galindo (CCE Program Associate for Student Leadership) and Ben Lin (Serve 2.0 Intern) will provide an opportunity for hands-on practice and create a support network for the participants. Participants will develop a richer understanding of how to use social media tools to conduct outreach, recruitment and retain Amherst College student volunteers, as well as develop different avenues for information distribution and program analysis. The Social Media Tools Training Program will provide participants a venue to determine which social media tools are pertinent to the their work, technical assistance on implementing those tools, and a venue where they may further develop their professional and personal relationships as collaborators with common needs, goals, and objectives. The Social Media Tools Training Program will explore why and how Millennials use social media, present information about different social media tools, and demonstrate how social media tools can be utilized for social movements.
Implementation of Community Partnerships
Please share a summary of your work with community partners, highlighting your work regarding (no more than one page text needed):
i. Arrangement and management of community partnerships and places Amherst College started the year with seven primary community partnerships, each of which is managed by two Bonner Community Engagement Leaders whose role is to recruit and train volunteers and know their partner organizations well enough that they can develop volunteer approaches that build the capacity of their partner organizations. El Arco Iris and Girls Inc. are both youth development agencies in Holyoke where approximately 60 Amherst College students volunteer 5 days a week, helping with homework and also mentoring the young people who participate in these programs. Our most significant partnership is with the Amherst Public Schools. We have jointly created the Pipeline Scholars program that develops the academic skills of Amherst public school students from sixth grade through high school graduation. The goal is to build a pipeline to college rather than a pipeline to prison. We have a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County (BBBS) in which 20 Amherst College students are “bigs” to 20 “littles.” This year two of our students joined the board of BBBS, and one primary focus of our student leaders was to raise badly needed funds for BBBS. Our longest standing partnership is with the ABC house, a national program that has a chapter in Amherst. 35 of our students provide tutoring and mentoring to the ABC scholars six days a week. The last two partnerships are those that we will not continue, at least not in the same way, one with a school in Springfield and one with Habitat for Humanity. Unfortunately the Springfield public school where our students provide tutoring so that students can pass the state-mandated graduation exam, is so poorly organized that they could not maintain even minimal communication with our students. Amherst students will continue to volunteer at this school, but we will no longer call it a partnership. In our meetings with Habitat for Humanity we concluded that what they most need is a steady supply of student volunteers for weekend builds. Ironically our partnership meant that Habitat had less access to students from the much larger UMass student body. We have agreed to continue to send students to Habitat Builds but not think of this as a partnership. This paring of primary partners this year will allow us to add one or two new partners for the coming year. In addition to these partners, who are paired with Bonner Leaders, we also have long standing relationships with other partners that will be described below.
ii. How partners were engaged as co-educators, including academic linkages, courses, and student advising We have involved community leaders and residents as co-educators in several ways. In the Inside Out course, taught in a local prison, Amherst students take a course alongside inmates in the jail. These inmates are powerful co-educators as they demonstrate in every class that academic ability does not come in predictable forms. The inmates typically work harder in the course, take the reading more seriously, ask more questions and make connections between readings and life experience than the Amherst College students, who regularly rate this course the most transformative course they take at the college. In an English course called Reading, Writing, Teaching our students are placed in an adult education program where the staff teach our students how to be effective tutors. Increasingly partners are co-educators for our students who write senior honors theses that grow out of their community engagement work.
Finally, we now require that students who seek funding for a public service internship show the academic links between their internship and their course of study. In the Pioneer Valley, community partners interview and select summer interns who will work at their site four days a week and participate in enrichment activities on Fridays. Partners suggest content for Friday programs and lead workshops, host field trips, and engage the students in discussion about the challenges local organizations are addressing.
iii. Partnerships managed through site-based or issue-oriented teams, as well as other issue-based organizing undertaken The primary issue we work on is public education. Much of our student volunteer work is one-on-one tutoring and mentoring. Bonner Leaders recruited students to tutor and mentor in partnership programs (5 programs had 125 student tutors or mentors). This year we joined a community coalition in Holyoke (Holyoke Unites/Holyoke se Une) aimed at systems reform in the Holyoke public schools. Our students have been doing research on the drop-out rate in the schools and have determined that the abnormally high suspension rate may be one cause of subsequent school drop-outs. Bonner Leaders also co-designed large group and individual program training sessions for tutors and mentors.
iv. Capacity building initiatives for community partners In addition to the examples cited above (serving on the board and raising funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters; participating in Holyoke Unites) we have provided computers to the prison so that inmates can do on-line research for their coursework; we have provided computers and printers to El Arco Iris so that the participants in their program can similarly do on-line research for school assignments; and we have placed students at the Springfield Institute to conduct public policy research on education, immigration and economic development for the City of Springfield.
We have begun to use social media tools to increase and facilitate communication with our community partners. Soon we will teach partners how to use those tools themselves. We have created Wiggio groups with Big Brother/Big Sisters of Hampshire County, Habitat for Humanity, Girls Inc., and ABC. These tools have enabled us to share documents, calendars, send text messages, and plan events in a central, and easily- accessible location.
Campus-Wide Culture and Infrastructure
Please describe key activities and structures related to the development of campus-wide infrastructure and the role of the Bonner Program in enhancing (or being enhanced by) campus-wide culture and participation in service. In particular, share (no more than one page text needed):
i. Key activities for faculty engagement and academic connections. In particular, note any connections to curricular offerings that are linked to the Bonner Program This year we engaged 40 Amherst College faculty through workshops and technical assistance (almost 25% of the faculty FTE’s). The results are beginning to show. A music professor will launch a new course in which students document soundscapes in the Pioneer Valley. A Classics professor had students teaching public school students about ancient coins whose provenance they researched for the college museum. Drama, Arts and Music faculty joined with the CCE to write a grant to further community engagement with underserved communities in the Amherst area – this collaboration was a first for the campus.
ii. Key relationships and activities involving other departments or divisions on campus (for example for recruitment, student wellness or retention, financial aid, and so on)
iii. Unique initiatives (such as events, assessment, or strategic planning) that have enhanced institutionalization of service and civic engagement on campus
There were a number of new initiatives and events this year.
Serve 2.0
Please highlight your key activities related to the integration of web-based tools as they are connected to the design, management, and outreach for service. In particular, share (no more than one page text needed):
i. Link to your campus-wide service center or Bonner Program wiki ,web-site, or Ning site. Please explain how it’s most used and by whom.
Throughout the past year, the CCE has continued to use internal and external social media technologies to highlight volunteer opportunities, as well as to conduct outreach, recruitment and retention for a number of different programs and initiatives. Some of the internal technologies we have used include the College’s CMS (Content Management System CCE website which includes calendar functions, photo galleries, video uploads and listserv options. We supplemented the CCE’s CMS tools with external tools to create a more user-friendly environment and conduct outreach to those who may use, or visit, the CCE’s website on the College’s server.
Some of the external tools we have used to supplement the CCE website include photo slideshows through Picasa, as well as video slide shows through Youtube and Vimeo In addition, we have created a presence on Facebook and regularly use it both for the CCE and for Bonner Leaders. For special events and presentations, in addition to using FB, we utilize Pingg in order to manage better the distribution lists and RSVPs for persons who are not associated with Amherst College (such as guest speakers, community partners and stakeholders, site supervisors, and supporters) as well as Amherst College students. These technologies are also used by CCE staff to communicate with Bonner Leaders, other student leaders, faculty, community stakeholders, and site supervisors.
Throughout the past year, we have also started cross-posting site links between the CCE website and the Bonner social media sites. Most recently, we are working on creating a tutorial site through Google Sites, which will instruct students, community stakeholders, and site supervisors how to capitalize on free Social Media technologies http://sites.google.com/site/ccedemo/Home as part of the Serve 2.0 Initiative. This tutorial will be available through multiple portal sites upon completion, but will be housed on Google Sites.
ii. Your integration with other social media tools (such as the Bonner Network Forum/Ning, Twitter, YouTube, the Bonner Video Project, PolicyOptions Wiki, or others) As discussed earlier, the CCE has integrated different social media tools in our programs. The use of Facebook, for example, allows for instant information distribution and outreach from those who are our strongest supporters and allies. In addition, the CCE is using YouTube, Vimeo, and GoogleSites to develop a more active presence on the Internet in order to better serve and fulfill the needs and requirements of our community partners, students, and faculty. In addition, Oscar Lanza-Galindo has continuously tagged (bookmarked) sites of potential interest and shared them with the BonnerNetwork account on Delicious, which has been a great resource for new resources and for information sharing on a regular basis.
Oscar Lanza–Galindo and Karen Lee (CCE staff) and Carlos Sabatino-Gonzalez (Bonner Leader) presented a workshop at the 2009 New England Campus Compact Conference. The workshop, titled “Staying Ahead of the (Digital) Curve: Understanding How to Reach, Inform, and Mobilize Millennial Generation Students,” demonstrated how new technologies and social movement media present new opportunities to engage and mobilize students and to enhance programs and partnerships.
Campus Issue Profiles
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