Location: central Minnesota, about 80 miles northwest of the state capitol of St. Paul

Enrollment: 3928 (total): 2,049 (CSB) 1879 (SJU)

Other interesting tidbits: 

BONNER PROGRAM AT A GLANCE

Name of Campus-Wide Center: Experiental Learning and Community Engagement

Relevant website: http://www.csbsju.edu/servicelearning/default.htm

                          www.csbsju.edu/publicpolicy

Type of Program: Bonner Leaders

Year Began: 2007

Bonner Program website:

http://csbsjunetwork.pbworks.com/w/page/6629088/FrontPage

Number of Bonner Scholars/Leaders: 30

Active in Bonner AmeriCorps Ed Award: 2

Active in Other AmeriCorps Ed Award: No

Active in FIPSE Civic Ed Certficate/Minor: No

KEY CONTACTS

Center Director: Marah Jacobson-Schulte

Bonner Director: Marah Jacobson-Schulte, mjacobsonsc@csbsju.edu

Bonner Fellow: Adia Zeman, amzeman@csbsju.edu

MORE ABOUT US

Engagement and service are inseparable from the very best liberal arts education in the Catholic university tradition. The terms “service,” “community,” “hospitality,” “stability,” “justice,” and “stewardship” have a long tradition in Benedictine monasticism and Catholic social teachings and provide a rich context for engagement, service, and learning at these institutions.

CSB and SJU together will cultivate the habit of promoting the common good which is formed by knowledge, faith, and an open-hearted response to the needs of others. The colleges will excel in fostering understanding of Catholic social teachings and consequent action to improve the well-being of the underserved, enhance overall community life, and protect the environment.

CSB/SJU’s commitment to engage and serve is also easily identified through our Undergraduate and Student Development Learning Goals:

• Graduates will be able to provide leadership and service in community to improve the human condition;

• Graduates will develop the ability to engage, learn from and work with people whose cultural identity is different from one’s own, understanding and appreciating human differences, social responsibility, and identity development;

• Graduates will develop a sense of responsibility, commitment to community, engagement in principled dissent, and effective leadership.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP PLANNING

Click here for Congress Leadership Plans:

CSB Congress Action Planning

Serve 2.0

• Staff Point Person for project:  Marah Jacobson-Schulte
• Student Point Person for project: Jackie Carlson and Adia Zeman 
• Bonner Program or Campus-Wide Wiki status:  created; http://csbsjunetwork.pbwiki.com/
• Participating in Bonner Video Project:  yes
• Student BVL (Bonner Video Liaison) contact info posted on link: Bonner Video Liaisons 
• See useful links:  Serve 2.0 Resource Wiki   |   Mini-Grant RFP

BWBRS

• See useful links:  BWBRS 3.0 Help Guide

Issue-Based Research

• What issue(s) working group will your campus focus on (in preparation for SLI 2009)? 
• Mentoring (Youth Development) or Homelessness and Hunger
• Please complete this CAMPUS ISSUE PROFILE:  Youth Development - College of Saint Benedict
• CAMPUS ISSUE PROFILE: HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS http://bonnernetwork.pbworks.com/Hunger+and+Homelessness+-+College+of+Saint+Benedict
• Homelessness and Hunger - College of Saint Benedict
• Specific topic for issue brief (see Research Guide for help to work with partner in defining):  
• specific issue brief topic (define by February)
• Lead contact people for project (staff and/or students, community partner agency):
• names, titles, phone numbers, emails
• See useful links:  PolicyOptions Wiki   |  Campus Implementation Guide

2011-2012 ACHIEVEMENTS

Achievements

Additional Staffing and Office Restructuring

The College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University Bonner Leader Program is one of many programs that are undergoing a restructuring process on our campus. The Service-Learning Program, where the Bonner Program was previously housed has become the Office for Experiential Learning & Community Engagement. In addition to Service-Learning, Bonner, and the Jackson Fellowship (a competitive civic-engagement summer fellowship), the office will now house the internship program as well as undergraduate research. Our hope is that this new office structure will lead to a more collaborative and holistic approach to experiential learning and will streamline services available to students.

In addition to this restructuring, two new positions were added in the Office of Experiential Learning & Community Engagement. The first is the Bonner/Service-Learning Fellow. This is a year-long position for a recent graduate who will oversee both the Bonner Leader Program and Academic Service-Learning. The second was the creation and funding of a Campus Kitchen Americorps Vista who will work collaboratively with dining services on hunger relief initiatives.

 Intercampus Collaboration

The Bonner Program has made an increased effort this year to collaborate with various organizations on campus to provide a more diverse experience for students within the program. Representatives from Undergraduate Research, The Office for Sustainability, and Study Abroad all presented at various Bonner meetings. The Bonner Leader Program also partnered with student groups such as Students for the Advancement of People with DIFFERbilities, Witness Me (Sexual Assault Awareness), The Institute for Women’s Leadership, and the Buddhist Meditation Club to create campus and community events.

In addition to these programmatic collaborations, we have also worked with Admissions to create a Bonner Liaison who works specifically to assist with recruiting students for the program. This has been extremely beneficial as there have been high student retention rates as well as a high-level of engagement among students accepted in the Fall of 2011. 

Challenges

Student Portfolio and Career Linkages

While we have made steps to connect our Bonners with various other programs on campus, we have not yet made a connection with our Career Services department. Our Career Services department is not familiar with the Bonner Leader Program, and we have not yet created a cohesive plan for creating a portfolio or capstone presentation for our students.

In addition to forming a relationship with the Career Services program, we would be interested in learning about models for creating this type of student portfolio, particularly for our senior Bonner students, in a way that is meaningful but not overwhelming.

 BWBRS management

The utilization of BWBRS continues to be a struggle for our program. While several phone calls to the foundation have been extremely beneficial in continuing to navigate BWBRS, our staff still feels undertrained to successfully manage the system. In addition, our students are overwhelmed by BWBRS and rarely log their hours in the system.

This problem stems from a number of reasons.  One reason is that our campus requires its own form of hour reporting. Students must log hours to the campus student employment system in order to be paid for their work. This makes BWBRS seem repetitive, as the hours have already been logged and students tend to avoid the additional task.  Another reason that BWBRS struggles greatly is that the senior interns had a hard time navigating through the system and found it confusing.  There were a number of phone calls made with Kelly from the foundation about BWBRS which were very helpful.  With Bonner Fellow returning to the program with another year of BWBRS under her belt, she will continue to try and make BWBRS more of a priority and help guide the Bonners to use it effectively.

PHOTOS