2009 ANNUAL REPORT OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
Please add narrative text that responds to the questions in the four categories below.
Overview of the Program:
In November of 2008-2009, Augsburg College launched its first year of the Bonner Leaders Program. With just a few months to plan and implement the program, the Center for Service, Work, and Learning (CSWL) sought out its first class of Bonner Leader students who were interested in doing service, learning from community members and addressing issues of social justice. Our primary focus was to utilize Augsburg’s long history and strong culture of service and civic engagement, combined with an already well established and successful off-campus serviced-based work study program, to create a sustainable and exemplary Bonner Leaders program that gave Augsburg students the opportunity to develop leadership through service immediately upon arriving on campus and build on that experience throughout their four years. To jump start our Bonner Leaders program, we took full advantage of the rich experience, guidelines and training materials provided by the Bonner Scholars and Bonners Leaders programs. The Augsburg Bonner Community Leaders Program is viewed on campus as a successful model to build on the college’s culture of community and civic engagement and bring together existing community service programs to take us to the next level of deepening knowledge, reflection, and authenticity of civic engagement in the community.
We are very proud of the inaugural group of students who were recruited for the Bonner Leaders Program. They applied and interviewed by sharing their interests and passions for engaging directly with non-profit organizations in the surrounding diverse Minneapolis neighborhoods that Augsburg is a part of. The seventeen students selected for the program were largely first-years, with diverse ethnic and geographical backgrounds, and unique experience with community-leadership roles and have established a solid foundation as student leaders on and off campus.
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):
- The Structure for training, courses, & meetings
- Cornerstone Activities including First Year Trip, Second Year Exchange, Third Year (and beyond) Leadership Roles, and Senior Capstone & Presentation of Learning
- Roles of Student Leaders in integration of the Serve 2.0 initiative (e.g., developing and using web-based tools for service)
The Augsburg Bonner Leader program began with a fall orientation retreat for our first class of seventeen students. CSWL Staff focused on providing students with an understanding of the Bonner model and preparing students to set goals for their community placements. Students identified their individual strengths and how they might use those to develop stronger leadership roles with their community partners.
During the academic year the first class of Bonners met monthly for development training where they participated in activities such as Identity Circles, Community Asset mapping, participating in Fishbowl discussions around communities, and reflecting on their experiences in their community service placements. These meetings served as ways for the Bonner students to get to know each other better, develop a culture around the Bonner program, and learn how to collaborate around challenges they faced in their placements. Bonner students also participated in once a month one-to-one meetings with either the Senior Bonner Intern or the Coordinator in order to reflect on their service, develop goals around civic engagement or leadership, and discuss their future plans. These meetings were integral in helping the first-year students continue to understand the Bonner program and the core commitments.
Throughout the year the Bonner students chose to focus on the issue of homelessness and hunger in Minneapolis. The focus on this issue area brought greater meaning to the types of cornerstone activities that categorized Augsburg’s Bonner Leader program. Student meetings included education on homelessness as a regional issue and they linked that to the incredible energy on campus around food justice, the community garden, and the Campus Kitchens Program. Bonner students visited and completed service with a homeless shelter, participated in a city-wide awareness campaign, and helped with an awareness week on campus.
The First Year Trip consisted of 10 Augsburg Bonner students participating in the campus-wide alternative spring break trip to New Orleans (this took place in partnership with Augsburg Campus Ministries). Students spent a week in New Orleans working on home rebuilding projects and getting to know other students on campus. Prior to the trip they met four times to get to know other participants, learn about the political issues behind the destruction and rebuilding of New Orleans, and to prepare for the work they would be doing. Upon their return, the Bonner students reflected together and shared journals they had kept while doing service. They linked their experiences through written reflection to the theme of homelessness and class difference in New Orleans.
Because the Bonner Leader program was in its first year at Augsburg students did not participate in the Second Year Exchange, develop Third Year Leadership Roles, or complete Senior Capstones.
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):
- Arrangement and management of community partnerships and placements (orientation, site visits, meetings, strategic planning)
- How partners were engaged as co-educators, including academic linkages, courses, and student advising
- Partnerships managed through site-based or issue-oriented teams, as well as other issue-based organizing undertaken
- Capacity building initiatives for community partners (such as workshops, policy research, or resource development)
Augsburg College is located near the heart of downtown Minneapolis and is surrounded by neighborhoods that are rich in cultural diversity and opportunities for students to connect to the various groups of people and community organizations that are strongly rooted in their locations. Augsburg has long participated with community partners in fostering both student and organizational growth, and had a solid group of partners to draw from for the first year of the Bonner Leaders program.
To begin the Bonner relationship CSWL staff conducted site visits and 1-to-1 orientations with all previous partners, helping them to understand the Bonner program and focus. Site visits with the twelve Bonner partners continued throughout the year to discuss student service, leadership growth, and further opportunities at the sites. Staff and student discussions took place on campus to determine how to deepen partnerships as well as to find new strategic partnerships in order to expand the types of relationships and student placements. The outcome of these discussions launched a number new partnerships being formed and with organizations that might support site-based teams in the future. Bonner students began the work of forming site-based teams at existing placements. They also began to take more transformative leadership positions in their placements during the spring semester.
In order to continue to deepen partnerships Staff from the CSWL participated in the Twin Cities Campus Community Engagement Coalition (TCCCEC) to examine the ways that community partners and higher education can collaborate and grow more purposely in the future. The TCCCEC is a collaboration of higher education institutions and community partners. It functions as a way for Augsburg to continue to examine and improve its civic engagement practices within the surrounding communities.
Work remains to be done at Augsburg around using community partners as co-educators and as experts in examining societal issues. Through a historical commitment to service learning and experiential education Augsburg has always encouraged students to view the staff from community organizations as vital sources of information and ideas. So although Augsburg does not formally ask community partners to teach classes, informally, many professors and students groups invite our partners into their classrooms in order to fully educate students around complex issues that are occurring locally. Currently a campus-audit is proceeding to document all the ways that these informal linkages to the community are being integrated into campus learning and the civic engagement culture. The Bonner student leaders this year took collaboration with community partners to a new level, often engaging CSWL staff and community partners in discussions about future opportunities and ways to increase collaboration.
In the first year of the Bonner program at Augsburg, there was continued effort in working towards more Community-Based Research projects embedded in curriculum across campus. However, currently individual students can work with faculty members in form of independent study and classroom projects in order to more deeply work with the partners in our community. The Bonner program has highly encouraged this type of collaboration this year and will continue to promote authentic engagement through site-based teams.
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):
- Key activities for faculty engagement and academic connections. In particular, note any connections to curricular offerings that are linked to the Bonner Program.
- Key relationships and activities involving other departments or divisions on campus (for example for recruitment, student wellness or retention, financial aid, and so on).
- Unique initiatives (such as events, assessment, or strategic planning) that have enhanced institutionalization of service and civic engagement on campus.
The Bonner Leader program at Augsburg College is organized through the Center for Service, Work and Learning office, which has historically been the hub for many of the pieces of civic engagement on campus. The CSWL works with students in all aspect of their growth on and off-campus, engaging them directly in the campus community as well as other diverse communities through volunteering or internships. The CSWL also focuses on students’ vocation and career paths. Much of the work of the center comes from a dedication to deep and long-lasting partnerships with the communities that surround Augsburg. Augsburg’s long history in collaborating with individuals, other institutions, and community organizations directly lead to a campus-wide culture that embraces engagement, capacity building, and leadership.
The Bonner Leaders Program is a natural fit within the college culture of Augsburg because of the focus around awareness of the world through spirituality. Augsburg’s mission statement stresses the development of leadership through students’ direct involvement with their surrounding communities:
To nurture future leaders in service to the world by providing high quality educational opportunities, which are
based in the liberal arts and shaped by the faith and values of the Christian Church, by the context of a vital
metropolitan setting, and by an intentionally diverse campus community.
The Augsburg Bonner program began quickly in order to get started for the 2008-2009 school year, and because of this, some connections were not entirely formed for the first year. The connection between the academic faculty and the Bonner program remained in its infancy. Although Augsburg has a strong history with service learning and community work through academic classes, the awareness of faculty around the function and form of the Bonner program has just begun.
Initial work and education began with the sociology department, especially in the research methods class. Student voice was encouraged in determining topics for a research project around social issues that exist in surrounding communities. The connection was natural as students engaged directly with community partners to work out research questions and in finding information. Discussions and planning have continued in order to further link the sociology topics that students take on to existing work in the Bonner program, especially related to Policy Issue Briefs and Community-Based Research. A portion of Bonner students will be enrolled in this class going forward.
A new course was planned this year to increase connections to the Bonner program. The i-Term is a first semester group of classes that will ‘integrate’ several different academic disciplines to solve or examine large social problems. Along with six professors from four different academic fields (English, History, Religion, Sociology) and students will learn and act together in a learning community to bring about positive change in surrounding communities. Engaging students in a community-learning environment that links their coursework and their community placements will strengthen their overall understanding of the Bonner program.
In its first year of operation the Augsburg Bonner staff has worked to communicate and plan with both the Vice President of Admissions as well as the staff in the financial aid office to integrate Bonner recruitment into the process of bringing first year students on campus in the future. The college also is currently undergoing a revision in the way that off campus work study takes place as well as how the financial aid department works with both Human Resources and the Bonner staff to insure a smooth addition of Bonner to campus options for students working in the community. The 2008-2009 school year included Bonner into the already existing Augsburg Reads program, an off-campus literacy program funded through the federal government. The Bonner program was also immediately linked with the pre-existing Campus Kitchen program and now works with the campus-based program as a community partner.
In its first year on the Augsburg campus, the Bonner program made significant in-roads and has become connected to unique initiatives at the college. Through the collaboration with the Campus Kitchen Project as well as the Campus Ministry, Bonner has linked to the organizations on campus that students dedicate much of their time and energy to. Through the Campus Kitchen Project, Bonner students intern directly in the leadership and management of the program which has allowed Augsburg students to create a sustainable, community garden on campus that connects to some academic course work. The collaboration with Campus Ministry, and especially with the first year service trip has brought about a greater connection between first-year students to older students on campus, thereby enhancing a sense of community and belonging on campus. Bonner students have also gotten directly involved in the leadership and growth of an ailing student organization, the LINK. The LINK, focusing on connecting campus to the surrounding community, has been reinvigorated through the participation of Bonner students and their dedication to authentic work with diverse groups off-campus.
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):
-
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.
-
Your integration with other social media tools (such as the Bonner Network Forum/Ning, Twitter, YouTube, the Bonner Video Project, PolicyOptions Wiki, or others)
In its first year the Bonner Leaders program attempted to grow into the campus culture as well as connect Bonner students through the integration of web-based tools. A main focus of this school year was the education around the web-based tools and how they could be helpful in working with various student groups across campus. The students this year used the wiki primarily to connect to Bonners on other campuses and to explore what other schools were doing. Students then took this information in helping to inform their hopes and initiatives for next years’ growing Bonner program. Near the end of the year, students began to use the maps feature in directing others to community partner sites, as well as posting their work such as the Bonner Videos they created. The wiki site is also used by CSWL staff for linking to information related to the Bonner program.
The Augsburg Bonner program’s integration with other social media tools was strong considering the program’s quick start. Although the first year students were still in the midst of developing greater connection and use of all the options, the Bonner Video Project got Bonner students directly involved in using YouTube to show their videos, students began exploring existing groups on Ning in order to connect to various stakeholders and link to other students on campus. By far the greatest connection came through facebook. Students used facebook to communicate amongst themselves, with the Bonner coordinator, and recruit other students on campus to work with them on student organizations or activities. Both the CSWL and Augsburg Bonners have a facebook page.
Campus Issue Profiles
Add links to your completed or draft campus issue profiles here:
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.