CAMPUS AT A GLANCE
The University of Richmond blends the intimacy of a small college with exceptional academic, research, and cultural opportunities usually found only at large institutions. A nationally ranked liberal arts university, Richmond offers a unique combination of undergraduate and graduate programs through its schools of arts and sciences, business, leadership studies, law and continuing studies.
Richmond has been nationally recognized as an Honor Roll Winner by The Templeton Guide's Colleges that Encourage Character Development. Nearly two-thirds of our undergraduate students are involved in community service projects each year. The Bonner Center for Civic Engagement coordinates the University's community-based learning, community-based research, and volunteer efforts.
KEY FACTS
Location: about 10 minutes northwest of downtown Richmond
Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,048
Address: University of Richmond, 28 Westhampton Way Richmond, VA 23173
Web Site: http://www.richmond.edu/
Interesting Tidbits: Richmond's Bonner Scholars program hosts almost 100 Bonner Scholars--making it the largest program in the country!
BONNER PROGRAM AT A GLANCE
Name of Campus-Wide Center: The Bonner Center for Civic Engagement
Web site: http://engage.richmond.edu/
Type of Program: Bonner Scholars; Began in 1992 (first full class of Bonners arrived in 1993)
Public/University Web site: http://engage.richmond.edu/programs/bonner/index.html
Student Web Site: https://sites.google.com/site/urbonners/
Number of Bonner Scholars: 98
KEY CONTACTS
President: Dr. Edward Ayers
Center Directors: Dr. Amy Howard and Dr. Sylvia Gale
Bonner Director: Bryan Figura
Bonner Coordinater: Blake Stack
Bonner Administrative Assistant: Heather Ashton
Student Leadership Team:
2012-2013 ANNUAL REPORT OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
2009-10 Year in Review
Successes
Bonner Congress—We could not have been prouder of the culmination of six months of hard work that resulted in the success of Bonner Congress. UR hosted over 160 Bonners from across the country for the annual conference. A thirteen person conference committee (including ten Bonners) plannedmany of the conference logistics, helped design the conference workshop agenda, and developed and executed five workshops on community-based learning, civic engagement in the residence halls, making the most of Bonner meetings, Bonner alumni profiles, and global community engagement. Hosting Bonner Congress was a wonderful opportunity for BSP staff and students to work closely with the Bonner Foundation staff (particularly Ari) and to showcase our program to the network while supporting one of our most important annual gatherings.
Justice & Civil Society Course—For the second year, first year Bonner Scholars participated in this required course during the spring semester. Students drew meaningful connections between theories of social justice and their Bonner experiences, evidenced by linkages they made in one-on-one advising meetings, class meetings, and during the First Year Trip.
Cornerstone Activities—First Year Trip, Sophomore Exchange, Junior Journey, and Senior Presentations of Learning continued to evolve. Class representatives were involved in planning each cornerstone activity. One of the greatest achievements was the enhancement of educational tie-ins, from pre-reading before Cornerstones to inviting educational speakers to including more time for group reflection. Another significant development was the redesign of the Senior Presentations of Learning (POLs), which included our first “Nonner” (i.e., non-Bonner) participant and a poster session teaser earlier in the day followed by conference-style POL sessions later in the day attended by staff, faculty, administrators, and community partners.
Regular Group Meetings—Student leaders played a larger role in All Bonner Monthly Meetings and Social Justice Roundtables (monthly conversations open to the entire campus community that focus on the Bonner Common Commitment of the month). Senior Interns recruited guest speakers and facilitated programming and dialogue during these key, regular gatherings for Bonners. This added layers of educational interest for the students increased the interactive nature of the meetings, and made student leaders more visible (encouraging younger Bonners to apply for leadership positions).
Challenges
Student Leadership Team—While Senior Intern visibility increased over the past three years, the other student leadership positions have been less recognizable to Bonners at large. We look forward to class representatives leading class meetings, taking a more obvious role in the Cornerstones, and more effectively integrating the work of Bonner Congress Representatives. These efforts will likely increase the recognition of and interest in the opportunities connected to these leadership positions.
Community Learning Agreement (CLA) Rigor—As a program, our focus has been squarely on CLA goal development to the unfortunate neglect of the position title and description portions. Conversations with Ari have led to clarity around the Foundation’s expectations for these areas and strategies for achieving compliance within UR’s somewhat unique Bonner placement and service model. We look forward to sharing a model CLA with Bonners at the first All Bonner Monthly Meeting of 2010-11, reviewing that model in one-on-ones, and setting clear deadlines for CLA revisions.
Meeting Attendance—Like others in the Bonner network, meeting attendance was not where we wanted it in 2009-10. Missing as much as 20% of Bonners at one meeting was unacceptable to the staff and to the Bonners who were present. The staff began an accountability brainstorming process with the 2009-10 Senior Interns, a process that will culminate this summer in new meeting attendance expectations in 2010-11.
Overall Community Building Efforts—Community building efforts continued to be tricky in 2009-10. Because community building was often a nebulous term and the efforts were ultimately the responsibility of the entire community (not just the Bonner staff or student leaders), it largely felt like an unmet need. Using ideas generated at a monthly meeting that focused on community building and feedback from student leaders, we look forward to planning over the summer ways we can encourage and incent smaller, more manageable community building activities amongst Bonners that will ultimately add up to larger, more tangible connections.
Looking Ahead
In addition to the goals that sprung forth from 2009-2010 successes and challenges, we were excited to jumpstart two initiatives this past year that will come to fruition in 2010-2011:
AmeriCorps Pilot—We piloted AmeriCorps with 10 rising sophomores (after offering the opportunity to the entire sophomore class), each of whom began their 450-hour terms with summer service and will reach completion in the spring. While we experienced a few hiccups (and there will undoubtedly be a few more), the pilot started positively and will hopefully lay the groundwork for recruiting members from the class of 2014 this spring.
CCE-Wide Adoption of Bonner Initiatives—Two CCE working groups centered on student development and site-based teams/issue-based coalitions launched the CCE’s integration of these models across initiatives. This was no easy feat, as individual CCE programs have unique characteristics. However, focusing on the positive outcomes these models might afford students involved in any CCE initiative provided a great foundation on which to build.
BONNER VIDEOS
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.