West Chester University

Honors College 

703 S. High Street 

West Chester, PA 19383 www.wcupa.edu

 

 

CAMPUS AT A GLANCE

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Although its founding year is 1871, the University in fact has deeper roots tracing from West Chester Academy, a private, state-aided school that existed from 1812 to 1869. The academy enjoyed strong support from the highly intellectual Chester County Cabinet of the Natural Sciences of the Pre-Civil War decades. It was recognized as one of Pennsylvania's leading preparatory schools, and its experience in teacher training laid the groundwork for the normal school years that were to follow.

 

West Chester University, a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, is a public, regional, comprehensive institution committed to providing access and offering high-quality undergraduate education, select post-baccalaureate and gradute programs, and a variety of educational and cultural resources for its students, alumni, and citizens of southeastern Pennsylvania.

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KEY FACTS

 

Location: About 45 minutes west of Philadelphia, PA

Enrollment: About 11,000 undergraduates and 1,000 graduates

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BONNER PROGRAM AT A GLANCE 

 

Name of Campus-Wide Center:  Honors College house

Relevant Website:  www.wcupa.edu/honors

 

Type of Program:  AmeriCorps Leaders

Year Began:  Fall 2002

Bonner Program Website:  www.wcupa.edu/honors/bonner.asp

 

Number of Bonner AmeriCorpsLeaders:  5

 

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KEY CONTACTS 

 

President:  Dr. Linda L. Lamwers, Interim President

Bonner Director:  Dr. Kevin Dean

Bonner Coordinator:  Donna Carney

Bonner Congress Representatives:  Alyssa Conaway and Maria Lepore-Stevens

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MORE ABOUT US  

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Our Bonner Leaders served at various communnity locations this past year, including Barclay Friends Nursing Home, the Care Center Foundation, and Fame Fire Company. What is unique about the program at West Chester is that our students generally join the Bonner/AmeriCorps Leader Program because they are already serving in their community. They are truly serving with their whole heart and are compassionate about the work they accomplish.

 

Students at the Barclay Friends Nursing Home are paired with elderly buddies who they visit at least once a week--often much more than that. They also have various socials each month--such as poker, sewing/knitting, and sing alongs--where all the students serving there get together with their buddies for an afternoon or evening of fun. At the Care Center Foundation, students volunteer in the after-school tutoring program, helping underprivileged children from a local Hispanic community complete their homework and build their literacy skills. They can also help in the preschool, teaching the younger children the necessary ABC's and 123's they need to enter kindergarten.

 

This year, we have another wide variety of students who are again serving at numerous community locations. These locations still include the Barclay Friends Nursing Home and the Care Center Foundation, as well as the Salvation Army and the West Chester Area Day Care Center. We are excited about continuing our Civic Engagement exercises, where students meet on a monthly basis for leadership training and to discuss challenges they face at their service sites; this discussion with fellow Bonner Leaders allows for group collaboration and for assistive feedback to help alleviate any challenges. A goal for this academic year is to do at least one Bonner Leader group service event each semester, in order to help our Bonner Leaders become an even more cohesive group.

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ANNUAL REPORT OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES:

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2009 ANNUAL REPORT OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES 

• 2009 Annual Report

Click here to complete next wiki-based portion of Annual Report.  

 

Student Leadership Planning:

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 Click here for Congress Leadership Plans:

WestChester Congress Action Planning

 

SPRING 2009 INITIATIVES

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Serve 2.0

• Staff Point Person for project:  name - email
• Student Point Person for project:  name - email
• Planning to submit mini-grant proposal:  yes - no
• Bonner Program or Campus-Wide Wiki status:  created - not created; if yes, provide URL
• Participating in Bonner Video Project:  yes - no
  • Student BVL (Bonner Video Liaison) contact info posted on link: Bonner Video Liaisons
  • Need a Flip Cam? (we can provide one per campus): yes - no
• See useful links:  Serve 2.0 Resource Wiki   |   Mini-Grant RFP

 

BWBRS

• Using BWBRS 3.0: yes - no - comment
• Need for additional training:  yes - no - for whom
• See useful links:  BWBRS 3.0 Help Guide

 

Bonner AmeriCorps

• Please list the contact information of the staff and student interns who manage your AmeriCorps Paperwork:
  • Note:  due to the audit and the transition to BWBRS 3, all current AmeriCorps Managers will be scheduled for an AmeriCorps Management Training for 2009 within the first few weeks of the semester. Please schedule this phone call with your Foundation Program Associate as soon as possible.
• Spring Enrollments 2009:  Please complete this survey right away: AmeriCorps Survey
• Please note: This survey is for the Spring semester slots only. It does not matter if your campus had previously requested slots and have "left overs." Please fill out this survey to specify how many members your campus will enroll this semester. If you do not want slots, they should fill it in with zeroes. We will be sending out a Summer and Fall request as well, so this is only for this semester. 

 

Issue-Based Research

• What issue(s) working group will your campus focus on (in preparation for SLI 2009)? 
  • general issue area
• Specific topic for issue brief (see Research Guide for help to work with partner in defining):  
  • specific issue brief topic (define by February)
• Lead contact people for project (staff and/or students, community partner agency):
  • names, titles, phone numbers, emails
• See useful links:  PolicyOptions Wiki   |  Campus Implementation Guide

 

PHOTOS 

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