What are Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leaders?

Bonner Scholars Program| Bonner Leaders Program | Similarities| Bonner Student Blog

The Bonner Foundation helps campuses build two programs, the Bonner Scholars Program and the Bonner Leaders Program, which are pretty similar at the core:  they both engage students in doing intensive service and leadership development throughout several years in college.  This page is designed to help you understand the differences and similarities between the Bonner Scholars Program, which is structured around scholarships, and the Bonner Leaders Program, which is structured around grants, Americorps and other sources.  As a Bonner Leader or Bonner Scholar, you are a Bonner who is part of a national movement to make change.  Although funding is different, the two programs share common missions, goals and the Bonner Model. 

Common Elements

Although the Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leaders programs are funded differently, they both share the common mission and vision of the Bonner Program, including:

• Core Student Service Experience:  all Bonners participate in what we sometimes call "The Service Road," which means that students are engaged in 8-10 hours of service each week during college.
  • For Bonner Scholars, program involvement last all four years, with students often growing in their site placement and levels of responsibility.  For Bonner Leaders, program involvement lasts 2-4 years.  Both may also do full-time summer placements, working in non-profit organizations.  Scholars do at least two of these, and Leaders also may do some, if the structure of your campus permits it.
• Student Development Model:  both of the programs share a model of students' development of knowledge, skills, and values through intensive, challenging experiences of community service, following the Five Es:
  • Expectation
  • Exploration
  • Experience
  • Example
  • Expertise

Bonner Scholars Program

• The Bonner Scholar Program seeks to transform the lives of students at twenty-seven colleges and universities as well as their campuses, local communities, and nation by providing access to education and opportunities to serve. To achieve this mission, the Bonner Foundation provides four-year community service scholarships to approximately 1,500 students (who are referred to as Bonner Scholars) annually. The scholarship is aimed at helping students with high financial need and a deep commitment to service be engaged in meaningful community work throughout all four years of college. This experience enriches a college education by engaging students in applying their talents and learning to benefit communities.  Since its first class of Bonner Scholars in 1990, the Foundation and the 27 colleges and universities have continued to elaborate on the service scholarship model. 
• Click HERE for information about Bonner Scholar Funding

• Video of Julian Cuthbertson, Bonner Scholar at Mars Hill College   

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Bonner Leaders Program

• The Foundation was willing to share the Bonner Program model with campuses nationally but faced some financial restrictions for funding these programs in the same way.  So, the Bonner Leader Program was developed as an alternative, allowing campuses to join the Bonner Network and replicate key aspects of the program model, but with two-year (or longer) programs and different funding sources.  Campuses in the Bonner Leader Program have each designed innovative models that use federal work-study funds, AmeriCorps Education Awards (provided by the Bonner Foundation), and institutional support to create scholarship stipends for students involved in community service as part of the Bonner Program. Each of these campuses has a core group of 5-30 students who work on issues such as improving educational opportunities and fighting hunger through community programs that focus on literacy issues, mentoring, and nutrition/anti-hunger initiatives.
• Click HERE for information on Bonner Leader funding.

• Video of Bonner Leader school, Middlesex County College's "Democracy House":