Mars Hill College 2009 Annual Report

Page history last edited by Amy Carraux 4 mos ago

2009 ANNUAL REPORT OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES

Please add narrative text that responds to the questions in the four categories below.

Implementation of Student Development
Implementation of Community Partnerships
Campus-Wide Culture and Infrastructure
Serve 2.0
Campus Issue Profiles

Implementation of Student Development

First year programming centered on providing a solid introduction to the students’ new community, exploring the context of their service, and developing skills essential to being successful college students and Bonner Scholars. The first year retreat was a huge success, with a great deal of mentorship from upperclassmen Bonners and successful community-building with new Bonners. A solid foundation was laid for meaningful sharing and growth throughout the year because of the retreat. Other elements of first year programming included a community partners fair in August, in which new Bonners were able to meet and have lunch with about fifteen local agencies that provide services in a wide array of issue areas; weekly service explorations, where students went to aforementioned agencies for an on-site orientation and service project; and weekly leadership development/reflection meetings which focused on convictions of service and the skills necessary to balance commitments to the classroom, campus life, and community. Finally, the first year trip to Atlanta was a tremendous success. Working with D.O.O.R. (www.doornetwork.org) provided students the valuable opportunity to explore issues of hunger and homeless in an urban setting, which stands in contrast to the largely rural context of Mars Hill. However, students came to better understand the universality in the root causes of injustice.

Sophomore programming focused on a deepening of students’ understanding for the values which undergird their work in the community. Going further in the ‘why’ of service provided opportunities for students to explore the role their faith communities, families, and cultural contexts have had on their development as persons of service. But, hoping for increased leadership in the community, these reflections were coupled with developing more practical skill sets for effective work in the community. Group facilitation and advocacy skills were major foci for the sophomore group. Also, the Sophomore Exchange was a tremendous hit! MHC and Lee- McCrea College students had a wonderful weekend of service and fellowship. A team of sophomore Bonners did a terrific job of planning the weekend as we hosted the LMC students for the weekend. The exchange happened at the end of Hunger Week, with students participating in the annual CROP Walk.

Juniors and Seniors expanded in capacity-building in their service and connecting their experiences in the community with their professional aspirations. Juniors focused heavily on understanding financial needs of organizations through grant development and other fund raising means. The junior class carried out a successful fundraising effort for a local domestic abuse organization as a collaborative project. Seniors, in close conjunction with our Career Services Director, put their four years of accomplishments to paper, working heavily on resume and interview skills to prepare them for upcoming job searches. As a class project, seniors also developed, wrote, and produced a Bonner Handbook, capturing their experiences and reflections of their time in Bonner, along with some sage advice for younger students in the program. These books were presented to classmates, family, and community partners at their annual Capstone Presentations, which was an excellent night of meaningful reflections and gratitude for those who had made their college and Bonner experience possible.

Areas of increased student leadership in the Bonner Program included students taking on significant leadership roles in facilitating our weekly meetings by planning activities, guiding discussion, and integrating their own creativity into reflections. They truly became co-educators for one another. This proved to be a very powerful and effective tool for empowerment and confidence building for students and we plan on further integrating and expanding this model into next year’s reflections. We created a “Tech Team” for the Program, giving students the opportunity to be involved with the Serve 2.0 initiative. While the learning curve was steep, students made a solid effort at creating the Bonner videos and keeping the MHC wiki up to date and usable for other students in the Program. We hope to potentially expand on this further in the coming year. Also, Bonners took on significant leadership positions in two major spring semester projects, our alternative spring break trip to Puriscal, Costa Rica and our annual Hunger Awareness Week, both of which created significant amounts of publicity for the college and the Bonner program.

Implementation of Community Partnerships

Relationships with community partners remained strong this year, despite significant transitions in the LifeWorks Office. A large portion of the fall semester was spent by new staff members (Travis, Lisa, and Amy) getting to know many of our closest friends and partners in the community. Even with the challenges this year brought, there was still very much a sense of willingness, cooperation, and creativity between our office/college and community partners. We tried new things. We got students plugged into long-standing and newly-formed opportunities.

This year we’ve maintained the same structure of placement and evaluation with our community partners, especially with first year Bonners. Two local elementary schools (Barnardsville and Mars Hill Elementary) and Mountin’ Hopes, a therapeutic riding center, were the three fall sites for first year Bonners. The placement process went well and students were able to meaningfully engage in these sites. Of course, after one semester, some students realized they were a better fit for another opportunity and acted on that. Additionally, and mentioned above, first year students traveled to a different community partner each week, were oriented to the history and nature of the work, and participated in a service project. These weekly explorations were an important part of these students’ introduction to the area and were very well received, overall.

Outside of first year placement, students are able to choose freely their service placement. Students are encouraged to come in and talk with the LifeWorks staff and that happens to varying degrees. Also, this year, more intentional steps were taken by staff members to encourage and speak with students about increasing leadership at their service sites, furthering the idea that Bonners have the opportunity to learn in new ways at their sites and to increase capacity for and with their community partners.

We’re currently exploring ways to further those conversations and to increase intentionality and leadership within our sites. We’re in the process of beginning a dialoguing process with community partners, held over lunches in the community, to vision and develop what future relationships between the college and community ought to look like. Part of this dialogue will be introducing the idea of site-based teams within the Bonner program and discussing with partners the feasibility of such a model taking place in our community. Additionally, it is our hope to gauge what additional ideas/projects/initiatives our friends in the community have and how we can partner with them in a way that is helpful, meaningful, and sustainable. We’re looking for the community to set the agenda, not Mars Hill College.

Campus-Wide Culture and Infrastructure

Mars Hill College is fortunate to have been awarded a second round of funding to participate in the Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues Initiative. This grant is being managed through LifeWorks with a steering committee made up of key personnel including the chair of faculty, campus chaplain, Director of Student Activities, and two other faculty members. This has allowed for involvement of a wide range of faculty and staff in activities that promote increased understanding of diversity issues on campus. In particular, we are pleased to have a chance to discuss with a wide range of faculty how diversity issues affect teaching and learning.

The PolicyOptions.org initiative through the Bonner Foundation is another endeavor with academic ties. Our issues are youth development and education; our focus is on family and youth services in Madison County as well as research on high school drop-out rates. This spring, more than 30 students taking “Sociology of the Family” had the opportunity to work with this policy initiative. Ms. Laurie Pedersen, the instructor for this course, also supervised the intern who worked with the students in assessing the county’s needs and resources regarding youth and family services. One other key partner is our Dean of Students, Mr. Craig Goforth, who is an active member of the public school board—his involvement in the research regarding drop-outs gives us support with the Madison County School Board. Follow-up may include working with local commissioners on family and youth policy at the county level.

With new personnel in the several key positions across campus, we have had the opportunity to cultivate new relationships that will enhance the strong and positive relationships already in place that continue to benefit the Bonner Program at Mars Hill College. This year we have worked closely with Financial Aid and the work-study program to enhance policies and procedures regarding community work-study, especially those policies that relate to monthly time logs and evaluation processes. In addition, we have worked in collaboration with the office of Media Relations and the Admissions Office to create a brochure about service-learning opportunities at Mars Hill College to be used as a recruiting tool. We continue to work with and develop a relationship with the Chartwells, the college’s dining service, to provide programming to the campus community. Other opportunities included working with the Ramsey Center for Regional Studies to create a service day in conjunction with their year-long focus on the Cherokee and working with a broad-based group that included Campus Activities to create “Spring Fling Goes Green” as part of “Earth Week” at MHC.

Several events have enhanced the institutionalization of civic engagement on campus:

In collaboration with Chartwells, the AmeriCorps*VISTA, and several other offices across campus, we have created a monthly “Local Foods Night” that has included educational presentations about the impact of local foods on the economy and the environment, information about the farms that participate, and even some local music. It has provided support for local farmers through awareness and the college’s partnership in buying local foods.
We also continue to have a very strong “Hunger Week” where activities and presentations focus on hunger issues both locally and globally. A group of Bonner Scholars coordinate all activities with the campus and a variety of community partners.
Local Foods Night also became the springboard for another exciting event which we hope to continue. As a result of discussions about local hunger issues, one Bonner Scholar took the initiative to arrange for students to give up the use of one meal on their meal plan and donate that meal to local families. During the April Local Foods night, several area families came to the campus cafeteria to enjoy a hot meal.
We were also pleased to have several of our Bonner Scholars use the knowledge gained from their opportunities for summer service and travel as their foundation for their presentations at the third annual Student Liberal Arts Mosaic (SLAM), a day-long campus event for students, faculty and staff that showcases student research, performance and creativity.

Serve 2.0

The majority of our “2.0 successes” this year have been capturing new material (photos, videos, etc.) to update pre-existing web- based and non-web-based content and documents. We are hopeful that newer, exciting marketing will draw Bonners and non-Bonners to LifeWorks events. This revamp of sorts can be seen at our:

LifeWorks Learning Partnership Website:

http://lifeworks.mhc.edu/

LifeWorks Learning Partnership Bonner Wiki – Campus Profile:

http://bonnernetwork.pbworks.com/Mars-Hill-College

LIfeWorks Learning Partnership Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mars-Hill-NC/LifeWorks-at-Mars-Hill-College/26072158594?sid=ac344f476672d240aa5eb629a3f996fd

The majority of students are interacting with the Facebook page which, not ironically, is updated most often by LifeWorks professional and student staff. Updates typically include pictures, events, and notes. We feel students, especially new students, are visiting the main LifeWorks page, but don’t believe students are interacting with the Bonner Wiki – Campus Profile.

Our other major successes were creating three new 2.0 pages or projects:

LifeWorks Learning Partnership Wiki:

http://mhclifeworks.pbwiki.com

While this is a public wiki we haven’t completed a major marketing campaign introducing the Wiki to Bonners and other Mars Hill College students. The students who developed the wiki felt they needed a semester to develop a strong framework and conception of the wiki; they felt that if students went to the wiki for the first time and it was a mess the student would never return. We have completed a community partner directory, have pages for each class of Bonners and are hopeful to start a carpool in the Fall.

Bonner Video Project:

http://bonnernetwork.pbworks.com/Bonner+Video+Project+2008

Wiki-team students are in the process of developing a page for our LIfeWorks wiki to house all our videos. Completed videos have been shared with appropriate community partners and community partners know they are to use the videos at their digression.

LifeWorks Learning Partnership Policy Option Wiki:

http://policyoptions.pbworks.com/Pilot+Project+Profile+-+Mars+Hill+College

MHC was granted was awarded a grant from the Appalachian Colleges and Community Economic Development Project to fund community-based research into economic development issues in Madison County and development of programs in response. The Wiki is being used for reporting.

Next Steps:

In the perfect world students would visit and interact with all these tools all the time, but students are hesitant to combine their social space with professional space. (And if given a choice between the two, we all know social space would win each time.) As suggested by our student-run Serve 2.0 Committee, we plan to have a major marketing push at the beginning of the fall 2009 semester. We also want to add more students to the already existing wiki and video committees to ensure continued growth and sustainability.

Link to Campus Issue Profile:

http://bonnernetwork.pbworks.com/Youth+Development+-+Mars+Hill+College

Please visit our Policy Option wiki page:

http://policyoptions.pbworks.com/Pilot+Project+Profile+-+Mars+Hill+College