Annual Report – Programmatic Section

Please complete this template below to share programmatic highlights.  The entire report can be three pages or less.  Please share information and highlights, in a letter-like or reporting format, that addresses the following three categories and provides a synopsis of your Bonner Program this year.

Implementation of Student Development: 

How did you implement the developmental model this year within your co-curricular and service activities? (suggested one page text):

1. The role of trainings, courses, & meetings: In 2007 -2008, we continued what we call "B-cubed" meetings (or Building Better Bonner) meetings.  Freshmen met as a class once/week.  Sophomores and Juniors met with their classes once every two weeks.  And, Seniors met with their class, for longer periods, once/month.  Topics for B-cubed meetings ran the gamut from: Public Speaking to Study Abroad; from Strengthsquest to Managing Your Time Effectively.  In addition to meetings that were specifically for Bonner Scholars, the Bonner Office sent 10 students (the highest number in our history) to the IMPACT conference and smaller numbers to various conferences such as the National Coalition on Hunger & Homelessness.
2. First Year Trip: Because we wanted a topic around which to structure our FYT, we began in January with a Freshmen B-cubed meeting, asking the students to brainstorm the issues in the world about which they are most passionate.  From there, we discussed and narrowed and eventually settled on what might be described as institutional racism.  It was first brainstormed by one student as "why are my people still struggling?," which garnered some laughs from some of the members of the class.  Before we arrived in Washington, DC, though, all of the members of the class had bought into this topic, which had been expanded somewhat to include discrimination against all kinds of different racial, ethnic and socio-economic groups.  We spent a couple of days in DC, bonding as a class sightseeing together in places like the National Holocaust Museum and spent 2 days in seminar with the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society, specifically tailored to our issue, including presentations from groups representing Arab-Americans, Victims of Domestic Violence and several other misunderstood and often mistreated groups and visits with both a SC Senator and a SC Representative to ask questions of both of those men re: their stance on vavrious policies that affect minorities and those in poverty.  Our group was particularly outraged to learn about the 100-1 current sentencing disparity between those in possession of crack cocaine and those with powder cocaine, which disproportionately imprisons African-Americans.  To raise awareness of this problem, in the few short weeks between our return from the FYT and exams, this class pulled together to create, plan and implement a huge event on campus called "There's A Crack In the Sytem."  They publicized the event (complete with mugshots of two of them) so well that well over 200 students (with a student body of 1350) turned out on a Wednesday evening to see the skit they had all written and produced, which included case studies of a typical crack cocaine sentencing and a typical powder cocaine sentencing - or lack thereof, and to hear the speaker the group had flown in from DC from the National Sentencing Project.  They ended the evening by asking the students assembled there to call their representatives in Congress and ask them to overturn the sentencing disparity now. Pictures from the event are attached (Crack in the System pics).
3. Second Year Exchange:  At a sophomore B-cubed meeting, we asked students in small groups to develop plans for a service exchange with another Bonner school and then to vote on their favorite.  The group that won was the one that advanced a plan to go to Atlanta to volunteer with both Spelman and Morehouse Colleges, in working with Atlanta's homeless population.  We set about finding a date and settled on a date in March that seemed perfect because these schools were to be celebrating their Founders' Days, which included a tradition of the Bonners taking a hike and holding a ceremony at the top of a nearby mountain that had been the site for many KKK rallies.  We thought this would be a wonderful opportunity for Wofford students (who attend a predominantly white school) to spend time with students in a predominantly African-American school, serving and celebrating that heritage.  As the date was approaching, we had more and more trouble hearing back from the Morehouse contingent, eventually concluding that we might have to go to Atlanta and just serve with the Spelman women.  With about a week to go before the trip, Spelman ended up adding some kind of event (something with housing for the following year) to its calendar and the Spelman group was cut in half and they were no longer going to be able to offer our students housing for the weekend.  With no Morehouse group and only about half of the Spelman group, it seemed best to call off the trip, which we did.  Later on, we did hear back from Morehouse, who told us they thought their Senior Interns were handling the process.   We also learned that it rained all day in Atlanta on our prescribed day and that the hike did not take place and that our planned service would have been considerably harder to accomplish in the rain.  It was too late in the school year to try to reschedule, but we look forward to a great trip somewhere this year.
4. Third Year (and beyond) Leadership Roles: There are several ways for students to take on leadership roles.  Three members from each class are elected to serve on the Bonner Leadership Team (or BLT).  This group is responsible for reviewing Scholars' service records (anonymously); for planning the All-Bonner Retreat each year and other All-Bonner meetings; for making decisions (again, anonymously) on Community Fund Proposals and a variety of other tasks.  We also have 2 Bonner Congress representatives who attend Bonner Congress meetings and facilitate at least one All Bonner meeting each year to gather feedback from Bonner Scholars on how the program at Wofford is going.  The office also utilizes two Bonner Senior Interns for all kinds of tasks, including making us more web-savvy and being the engines behind planning the Senior Capstone events and products.
5. Senior Capstone & Presentation of Learning: In April of each year, the Senior Bonners hold a Capstone event, to which their families, their fellow Bonner Scholars and the administration of the college is invited.  The theme of this year's Capstone was "Be Change(d)."  In addition to producing a booklet of essays from each Bonner in that class (a copy of which is/will be on file with the Foundation), each Bonner stood in rapid succession and shared one sentence about Bonner.  Taken together, these sentences told a story about what Bonner is and can be and showed the cohesiveness of this group.  The event ended with 2 of the students in that class making remarks, both of which were amazing.  The speech of one of the students, Lindsey Lane, who is now in veterinarian school, is attached (Lindsey's Speech at Capstone).

Implementation of Community Partnerships: 

Please share a summary of your work with community partners, touching in particular on the following categories (suggested one page text):

1. Orienting and managing community partnerships (orientation, site visits, meetings, strategic planning): In January of 2008, we held a breakfast for existing and potential community partners.  More than 20 different organizations were represented at the breakfast, at which we discussed ways in which our partners can best utilize our students to everyone's mutual benefit. Throughout the year, we touch base with most of our community partners to be sure that things are progressing well with their Bonner placements.  We'd like to do more of this (and strategic planning with partners) in the coming year.  Over the summer of each year, we poll our incoming first year students re: the kinds of issues about which they most care and the kinds of environments in which they are most interested in volunteering.  We use those results to help us identify 3-4 sites with whom we already have good partnerships to which we introduce the incoming Freshmen during orientation and ask them to spend their first semester with one of those sites as their primary site. 
2. Partners as co-educators and other unique initiatives (including new academic linkages): To the extent we've been able to form new academic linkages between Wofford and community partners, they have been between individual professors and individual community partners (i.e., not Bonner-specific).  Therefore, please see the next section on "Campus-wide Culture and Infrastructure."
3. Integration of site-based or issue-oriented teams:  We have not, as yet, implemented site or issue-based teams.  Given the vast array of nonprofit organizations in our area, we feel that one of the strengths of our Bonner program is the extent to which we work to match students and sites together, based on what both most need from the partnership.  We are concerned that we will lose some of that flexiblity with site or issue-based teams. 

Campus-wide Culture and Infrastructure: 

Please describe key elements and progress in the development of campus-wide infrastructure and the role of the Bonner Program in enhancing (or being enhanced by) campus-wide culture and participation in service, touching on the following (suggested one page text):

1. Key relationships and activities involving faculty and academic connections.  In particular, what work was done with relevant coursework, a minor, or other curricular integration: An already strong partnership between service and our Foreign Language department (using Wofford students to interpret for Spanish-speaking people and children and helping them learn English - for class credit) expanded this year to include using Wofford's French and Chinese language students to expose young children at a local elementary school to those languages and cultures.  We also were able to work with one of the Computational Science professors to use his students to re-do area nonprofits' websites at no cost to them; and in the case of our Senior Computational Science majors, to have them build and implement, as their senior project, an automated pharmaceutical tracking system, which lets our local free medical clinic (who fills about 13,000 Rx per year) know, at a glance, which drugs are in their possession, how old they are, how low they are on particular types of drugs, etc.  While we do not yet offer a minor or concentration in Civic Engagement at Wofford, we hope to make some strides in that direction this school year. 
2. Key relationships and activities involving other departments or divisions on campus (for example for recruitment, student wellness or retention, financial aid, and so on).  The Bonner and Service Learning offices enjoy great relationships with many other departments on campus.  One of the Admimssions Representatives does a terrific job in helping us identify and recruit Bonners.  He also sits on our Selection and Appeals Committee, helping us select Bonners and when necessary, decide what types of probation they need.  The Director of Financial Aid also sits on this Committee, helping us select Bonners and discipline them (and remind them how much Bonner is contributing to their education), when necessary.  Probationary stipulations often include regular visits with one of the counselors on staff in Health Services, a role they seem glad to play.  We also meet quarterly with the counselors in Health Services to discuss larger health and mental wellness issues occuring on campus.  When we had what appeared to be a racially-charged argument between 2 Bonners in the 2007-2008 schoolyear, we were able to call upon the Director of Multi-Cultural Affairs (who himself had been a Bonner as a student at Wofford) to help us sort it out and do some work with the class to increase their sensitivity.  And, we often ask members of other departments to facilitate meetings for us on various topics like Diversity, Time Management, Stress busting, etc.
3. Unique initiatives (such as events or strategic planning) that have enhanced institutionalization of service and civic engagement on campus: Many different groups on campus are involved with service and civic engagement.  Our office does not coordinate all of their efforts, but we do try to help them identify opportunities to work together and try to help them not to step on each others' toes.  We hope to make strides this year toward a Civic Engagement Concentration at Wofford, but in the 2007-2008 year, we took one important step toward increasing co-curricular connections.   As part of opening sessions for Faculty, our office held 2 informational sessions, designed for faculty interested in adding or strengthening a service component to their classes.  The meetings were well-attended and the faculty was very receptive.  The new work with the French and Chinese language students, as well as with the Computational Science students, both grew from those initial meetings.