(You can insert photos above by uploading an image and then linking it here).
Title of your College or University: Guilford College
Names of Students Attending: Juliet Carrington, Yazmin Garcia Rico, Isael Sotelo Morales, Megan Snider, Yezmin Villareal, Gilian M'Maitsi
Name of Your Big Idea:
Turn Off Real World MTV: Turn On Real World Greensboro
Background
Greensboro, NC is a very diverse community with a large percentage of the population being both refugees and immigrants from various countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Greensboro also has the largest Montagnyard-Dega population in the nation; the Montagnyard-Dega are the indigenous, farmers of Vietnam who fought on our side in the Vietnam War. Ever since the American loss in the Vietnam war, the Montagyards have been persecuted and have been experiencing an ethnic cleansing since. Greensboro also boasts a rich history of various civil rights movements and struggles, being the first city to have the historic sit ins, as well as having the Greensboro Massacre take place and create various movements such as the Truth and Reconciliation project and help initiate organizations such as the Beloved Community Center.
Big Idea
Our goal as Guilford College Bonners is multifaceted; it is our wish to work towards educating the greater campus community about these multicultural issues and how they are connected, as well as work towards educating the campus as a whole as to what Bonners on campus do, and to help inspire them to get involved. Although it appears that the campus is beginning to learn more and more about the presence of Bonners, it is our wish and hope to inspire more people to join our work in community organizing, building community, and working towards positive, social change.
Action Plan
-Workshops/presentations by Bonner scholars at least once a month on campus about the various refugee/immigrant populations and the issues that they are up against in regards to racial profiling, marginalization and poverty -Working to have speakers come on campus who are involved within these communities, or who are refugees/immigrants themselves to talk about their experiences -Put on a presentation at a school board meeting to educate teachers within the Greensboro community about the issues that their immigrant and refugee students are up against and work towards creating an environment that not only celebrates multiculturalism but practices it. -Presentations to the First Year Experience classes about the various service opportunities available on campus, why its important to be involved, and to highlight what we have gained as Bonners in serving the various communities within Greensboro-We would also like to work towards having more all Bonner meetings so that we can continue to brainstorm, build community, and inspire one another.
Anything Else
n/a
Which Groups Will You Be In?
From the list below, please list which groups best connect to your idea. We will have people work in groups during the meeting. (If you don't know, we'll try to place you based on your proposal).
-Integrating Issue Based Teams or an Issue Focus
-Training and Enrichment Opportunities
-Building a Bonner Leadership Team and Campus-Wide Engagement
Review the guidelines on the project before getting started: Bonner Congress Project Proposal Guidelines.pdf
For a written proposal example click here: Mock Congress Proposal .pdf
For a video example click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz7Nbw7XFTI
Update - Report to Share in the 20th Anniversary Congress Booklet
We intend to create a beautifully designed book to be distributed at the 20th Anniversary Summer Leadership Institute that shares with the entire Bonner Network the work of Congress Representatives in 2009-2010 on their big ideas. Please write your report in the format below. For an example, click on this page: http://bonnernetwork.pbworks.com/Big-Idea-Summaries
1) Title (of your project/big idea - feel free to update from the fall). Turn Off Real World MTV: Turn On Real World Greensboro
2) The Case: Tell us briefly the history of the challenge you tackled with your Big Idea. This should be no more than 100 words.
The amount of student participation within service is limited and apathy is alive on campus. It is our desire to not only increase student participation of service, but increased understanding of the various issues that affect our community and the desire to take action. We would also like to continue to strengthen our Bonner Program by strengthening the relationships we have with one another.
3) The Solution: What is your Big Idea? What was the idea to tackle this challenge? This should be no more than 300 words.
Our goal is multifaceted; Greensboro has one of the biggest resettlement populations in the national and is a national relocation city for refugees and immigrants. This is a community that is often marginalized, stigmatized and unknown to many. It is our goal to continue to educate the campus and greater community about not only the struggles these communities are up against, but their important contributions and strengths. Community is extremely important and as we work towards building community amongst students on campus, we also recognize the need to continue to build community within our own Bonner Program. As student representatives and leaders of service on campus, we need to make sure that we are actively supporting one another before we can undertake such projects of attempting to tackle the current climate of apathy on Guilford's campus.
4) The Process: Tell us in more detail what your Big Idea is. Please illustrate how your “Big Idea” addresses the root issues of the problems you are working with. What are the specific issues, needs, or gaps your idea sought to improve and how did it improve them? This should be no more than 500 words (two paragraphs).
We have already begun to initiate campus events this semester such as Farm Worker's Awareness Week and presentations in regards to immigrant issues. We were planning on having an Immigrant and Refugee Awareness Conference, but it was unable to take place this semester. However, several students will be continuing to plan more explicit details of the conference so that it can take place in the fall of 2010.
Our biggest event this semester is the upcoming Red Carpet Movie Premiere of our documentary, "I'm Not Average, I'm AMAZING!" This semester we initiated various projects such as slam poetry, photo camp, creative writing and hip hop dance with children from two of our after school tutorial centers for refugee children, so that we could continue to build esteem and confidence within them by providing fun and healthy outlets of expression. We recorded everything and compiled it into a documentary which will be premiered to the whole community April 23. Important community partners and locals news media will be present at the premiere, as well as local performers to open for the children. There will be a red carpet, paparazzi and performances from the children as well. Through this documentary and premiere, we not only wish to educate and inspire students and the community to get involved with these children and the immigrant and refugee community, but to establish a scholarship fund for the children so we can continue to encourage them to go onto higher institutions of education.
As strengthening our Bonner Program, we will be creating Bonner Families so that a sense of family and accountability is further developed so that this scholarship is not seen as just a scholarship, but a privilege and a program that provides us with so much opportunity and personal growth and development. The Bonner Families will be led by Seniors who will be "Parents" to act as mentors, figures of support, and to share our experiences to continue to inspire younger Bonners.
As we continue to work towards creating community and developing a climate of activism, we need to figure out more creative means of getting student participation because putting on a presentation and hoping that people will show up is not enough. We hope to be able to present to classes and be able to find more faculty support in the projects, presentations and conferences we implement.
Please upload 2-3 relevant photos (of your Reps, project, etc.). Try to select photos that have high resolution quality. This will appear in the booklet.
The deadline for this update if you want your school to be considered and included in the book is FRIDAY, APRIL 30th!
Reminders
March 2010
June 2010
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