Annual Report – Programmatic Section

Implementation of Student Development: 

At TCNJ, all incoming first year students participate in their own section of a First Year Seminar course, Leadership and Social Justice.  They also live together on the same floor. This model applies to all incoming first year students.  All students choose a Seminar Course from a list of 80--and by choosing their class they are also selecting their floor-mates.  We are currently working with some faculty to identify other courses that Bonners might take together during their remaining three years.

The first year Bonners join the rest of the students in the program (a total of 65) and staff for weekly  "all corps" meetings.  These take place on Wednesdays and last for 1 to 2 hours.  During a typical month, two meetings are designed for Site Team meetings and two are allocated for class-based training/development sessions.  Those training/development sessions follow a 4 year road map that we established for the first time this year.  4 different members are the staff are assigned to each class and is responsible for their sessions.

First and Second year students usually travel together and participate in service trips.  Last year, 40 Bonners travelled to New Orleans and spent a week renovating 4 homes.  Since that trip. individual Bonners have organized three return trips, bringing students from other campus organizations.  This year, we are waiting to learn about a grant application, which would give us the resources to organize a trip for each class.  The last trip would be for rising seniors; and we hope that this will be an international service trip.

Implementation of Community Partnerships: 

TCNJ Bonners are organized into 13 different issue-based teams.  These include urban education (multiple sites), hunger,homelessness, housing, the environment, developmental disabilities, community development, youth develoment, children services/foster care, and immigrant services.  Each team usually works at one primary non-profit site.

During the August Orientation, community partner staff spend a day on campus and collaborate with the students on their team. Together, they complete the first draft of their Site Plan.  Among other things, these plans capture the main activities, goals, objectives and strategies of each team.  In addition, the partners deliver 2 training workshops to the members of  their team at this time.

In order to manage the partnerships and teams during the year, each team has a student Site Coordinator and one main community partner employee.  The student teams meet from 2 to 4 times per month.  We encourage our community partners to participate in at least 1 to 2 meetings per month.  In addition, each Bonner Center employee is the Site Manager for 2 teams.  They provide support, when needed, to keep the team on track.

Campus-wide Culture and Infrastructure: 

At TCNJ, we have integrated the Bonner student development goals with the objectives of the revised First Year Community Engaged Learning program.  The FY CEL program includes a graduation requirement that applies to all first year students.  Each one must complete a minimum of 8 hours of community engaged learning (curriculur or co-curricular service learning). 

TCNJ Bonners mobilize all 1300 first year students to satisfy their FY CEL graduation requirement.  They organize 25 floor meetings during Welcome Week and organize each floor into 3 small issue groups.  These groups review a calendar that is compiled over the summer and select their dates.  On a weekly basis, the relevant Bonner Team (e.g. Housing) works with the Center staff to mobilize these small groups for their day of service.  In addition, upper level Bonners also work with the staff to integrate CEL projects into First Seminar courses.  This year, 30 FSP courses have integrated a project into their class.

To help organize and mobilize the first year class, a TCNJ Bonner lives on every other freshman floor in the dorms.  They act as CEL Advisors.  In addition to helping shape and supervise students during their CEL Day, they are charged with developing "enrichment" activities.  These may include movies and discussions a few weeks before--or a few weeks after--a group's day of service.

Bonners are also involved in a few campus-wide projects and initatives.  Each year, a few upper level Bonners will work with another campus organization and develop forums on critical issues.  During the last two years, the forums have focused on Darfur and Immigration.  In addition, they are currently involved in a voter registration project with Student Government.