Summer Placements

Page history last edited by Kelly Behrend 1 yr ago

Add some Service to your Summer!

Basic Structure | Things to Consider | Summer Student Development | Examples | Resources

See how Bonners serve in their hometowns, college communities and abroad during the summer

Basic Structure

Bonners are encouraged to expand their service work and personal development by engaging in summer service. Here's what the Bonner Foundation asks of:

Bonner Scholars...

must complete two terms of full-time summer service, amounting to 7 weeks, or 280 hours per term in order to receive
- the Summer Earnings Stipend ($1,500 per summer) and
- request the Summer Living Allowance ($2,000 between the two summers).
are eligible for a small stipend to support a third summer of service

Bonner Leaders...

are encouraged to complete at least one term of full-time summer service, which if under the AmeriCorps grant, is a 300-hour term.
can find funding from alternative resources such as third-party grants, scholarships, AmeriCorps funding, or institutional assistance.

Things to Consider

Before getting too deep into the planning and application stages of selecting your summer service, it's important to ask yourself the following:

Where you feel you may be in the Student Development Model
What type of service you've been involved in:
- Do you want to explore something new or different from that type of service?
- Do you want to go deeper into that issue by serving in a full-time position at that same site or one similar to it?
Where will you do your service:
- Would you like to stay home or on campus?
- Are you ready to live on your own?
- Are you ready to go abroad? (note AmeriCorps-funded members are ineligible to serve any term abroad)
Career planning
- Where do you see yourself 5, 10, 20 years from now? Are there opportunities to make connections through your summer service toward achieving these goals?
- Is there a career path you've always wondered about but haven't had too much experience? Try it out through your summer service!

Summer Student Development

Summer is a great time to really get involved in an organization through the full-time requirement. Also, summer internships offer valuable career and networking opportunities.

The Bonner Student Development Model sees your summers as vital opportunities to grow personally and professionally. Also, service sites will benefit greatly from your help. Here's a model of how your three summers in college could help these things happen:

First Summer	Close to home or school, commuting to familiar site
Second Summer	More intensive, perhaps living in a new area
Third Summer	Making career connections, potentially going abroad

Examples

Here's where University of Richmond Bonners are spending their summer (2008). Notice how these Bonners have taken opportunities to go all over the world, yet many stay on campus (traced in blue in the 2nd picture) and continue work with their community partners, making stronger connections and deeper impact in community problem-solving and support.