The following is a brief guide intended to jump-start the planning process for campuses interested in participating in the Bonner Program. There are a variety factors and models to consider when designing and implementing a Bonner Leader Program. We recommend that interested campuses review this guide and then contact Robert Hackett at 609-924-6663 or rhackett@bonner.org at the Bonner Foundation.
Step 1: Evaluating the Fit
In determining if the Bonner Program is an appropriate fit for your particular campus, it will be helpful to understand the history and context of the Foundation’s work and the evolution of the Bonner Program.
The consortium of campuses participating in the Bonner Program, which has grown to more than 85 campuses nationwide, is driven by the Bonner Foundation’s mission to “transform the lives of students, communities, and campuses through service.” At the heart of that mission is a program design that mobilizes students to engage in intensive and meaningful community service while moving along an articulated developmental path. The unique nature of the program’s multi-year design results in exciting and transformative experiences for students, campuses and communities alike.
The Bonner Leader Program expectations are based on the vision, mission, and experience of the Bonner Scholar Program over the last 15 years.
Step 2: Designing A Bonner Program
Program components are designed to accomplish specific outcomes central to the Bonner Program’s mission while being flexible enough to be shaped in a way that best suits the unique character and structure of each campus.
Campus Infrastructure
Management of the Bonner Program should be integrated into your campus-wide service center or infrastructure; and yet, the Bonner Program should be positioned as a distinct program with its own set of expectations and character. This approach allows for more effective and efficient allocation of a campus’ community outreach resources.
The Bonner Program is not meant to identify and then isolate a small group of individuals; rather, it is designed to support a group of students who will then disperse throughout the campus to help create and maintain campus-based service activities. Ideally, the Bonner Program is intentionally designed to further strengthen the campus-wide culture of service.
If your campus does not already have a campus wide center the Bonner Foundation encourages participating schools to utilize the Bonner Leaders to provide the student enthusiasm and leadership to help create one. Through various committees and organizations the students can provide vital links to other campus service initiatives such as service-learning, community-based research, and student service groups. The Bonner Program can play an integral role in uniting these diverse service initiatives into a broad-based, comprehensive service program.
In addition, a coordinated campus-wide structure makes it easier for community groups to access campus resources. In fact, as other divisions, departments, and groups on campuses become involved in various forms of community outreach — including community service, service-learning, community-based research, technical assistance, and community economic development — one of the biggest challenges will be to present a coherent roadmap of opportunities for students, faculty, and community partners who want to become engaged in these efforts.
Questions to Consider:
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Who would coordinate the Bonner Leader Program on your campus?
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Where would the program be based?
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How could this program work with currently existing service initiatives on your campus?
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How can students assist you with the creation of the program?
Financial Support — “Access to Education Opportunity to Serve”
The goal of providing access to a college education for students with high financial is paramount to the Bonner Program model. Students are supported financially as they engage in intensive and sustained service. Typically, students in Bonner Leader Programs receive Federal Work Study funds. If Federal Work Study is not available, we recommend establishing other institutional resources to support these students. Many campuses access Bonner AmeriCorps Education Awards as a supplement to the students' stipend.
Questions to Consider:
- What additional sources of funding could your campus leverage to supplement the students’ scholarship package?
- Will the Bonner AmeriCorps Education Award be an appropriate resource?
- Who on campus is utilizing (spending) community based work study? (Review the Federal Work Study Packet for more information).
Community Partnerships
The Bonner Program brings campus and community leaders together on equal footing to forge a new vision of what campus and community partnerships can achieve. The community development goal of the Bonner Program is to have campuses, students, and community partners address needs and mobilize assets in building stronger, healthier communities. The spirit of collaboration ensures a channel of communication in order to more effectively respond to the evolving needs of the community and help close the historical divide between campus and community.
The work of community organizations is significantly enhanced because the Bonner Program structure provides students with the financial support and training to engage for multiple years with the same agency, issue area and.or organization, enabling the students' to take on increasing responsibility and leadership in their service.
The Bonner Program follows a comprehensive service placement process used by members for both their school year and the summer placements. The model also describes a collaborative, community problem-solving process that builds in the placement process. Taken together, these two components of community partnerships help the progam achieve your community partnership goals.
The Bonner Program emphasizes the quality and investment of relationship that exist when students and their campus make long term, meaningful commitments to the community. The highly collaborative nature of the Bonner Program has provided space for community organizations and campuses to take part in the national service movement as well as to be true partners and co-educators. We offer extensive resources for building and managing partnerships of this quality: see the Community Partnership Implementation Guides.
Questions to Consider:
- What community partners would be candidates for participation in this program?
- How can we involve community partners in the early stage of the development of the Bonner program’s creation and implementation?
Start Up Timeline & Logistics
Successful programs require planning. As this guide suggests, there are many factors to consider. It is best to give yourselves enough lead time to design a strategy for implementing your Bonner Leader Program. It is our recommendation that campuses begin with a smaller number of students (10-15) and community partners. This approach allows you to establish a solid foundation of strong program elements from which to build in future years. Building a Bonner Leader Program may be full experimentation and revised plans, but we expect that you will find the extensive resources and the collective experience of the Bonner network ease this process significantly.
Questions to Consider:
- When would you like to implement the program?
- How many Bonner Leaders would you want to recruit for the first year?
- How would you handle the summer component of the Bonner Leader Program?
Step 3: Creating a Plan for Your Student Development Model
All students in the Bonner Program are guided through intentional opportunities to develop as thoughtful, engaged citizens of our national and global community. We recognize the individualized nature of a student’s participation in and development of values, cognitive abilities, skills, and experience. We envision graduates who have a multitude of experience, commitment, and proficiency to continue as effective “servant leaders,” even while they contribute through different localities, occupations, political persuasions, networks, and viewpoints.
The program follows a student developmental progression which we call the Five E’s: expectation, explore, experience, example, and expertise. The Bonner Community has defined six Common Commitments as well as a set of twenty-four personal, professional and leadership skills. The Common Commitments: community building, civic engagement, diversity, international perspective, spiritual exploration, and social justice represent a core set of value exploration we expect students to have the opportunity to explore in the program. The skill sets were articulated as concrete examples of what can be mapped into the program experience.
Programs execute their student development plan in both co-curricular and curricular contexts. Regardless, there are key components to every Bonner Leader Program. These include: Orientation, Advising, All Bonner Meetings, Vocational Discernment and a Presentation of Learning. For the training and enrichment component, programs make extensive use of the more than 60+ training modules the Foundation commissioned from the Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL). COOL/Idealist-on-Campus hosts a national conference annually that has come to be a key experience for training and enrichment for many Bonner Programs.
See the Sample Bonner Program Calendar for an illustration or model to use.
Questions to Consider:
- What campus and community professionals could assist with training and enrichment activities for students?
Step 4: Campus Visit from Foundation Staff
The staff at the Bonner Foundation maintains regular communication with participating campuses through weekly email updates, conference calls and campus visits. We strongly encourage program administrators to keep the Foundation updated as to what is happening on your campus. The Foundation staff is available for campus visits. Often, programs invite the staff for planning meetings, orientations and retreats, special events and/or to meet with other campus administrators.
Step 5: Connecting to the Bonner Network
Currently, there are more than 65 campuses participating in the Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leader Programs. This diverse consortium and has come to be a hallmark of the Bonner Program and is an important resource for campus administrators, students, and community partners. It is a network that shares best practices, collaborates on new initiatives, and is committed to building community among Bonner Programs around the country.
Each summer the Bonner Foundation organizes an orientation workshop for new Bonner Scholar and Bonner Leader Program Directors. New program administrators can expect to learn about the history of the Foundation, how to implement the program on your campus, and how to report information to the Foundation.
The Foundation brings program staff together at the following annual meetings:
There are a number of other initiatives that allow Bonner Programs to collaborate:
Finally, there are several current and past funding initiatives available to participationg campuses:
Step 6: Tracking and Reporting
Campus directors & coordinators, students, and community partners are all involved in the tracking and reporting for the Bonner Program. From tracking a student’s status to assessing the programs impact we have developed a number of tools to capture the work of the Bonner Program.
The Bonner Web-Based Reporting System (BWBRS)
BWBRS provides a web-based means of managing the information flow and capturing important data for analysis. Campuses use BWBRS not only to track the hours served by students but the impact the program is having on the student (through the Community Learning Agreement) and the community (through the Service Accomplishments.)
Bonner Student Impact Survey
This is the Bonner Foundation's longitudinal Student Impact Survey (as reported by the students) and is administer to Bonner Leaders as an Incoming Survey when they initially enroll in the program. An Outgoing Survey is administered after the final year of the program has been completed.
Campus Impact Assessment
The Bonner Foundation is in the early stages of planning a campus impact assessment survey. This survey would seek to measure and document the impact the Bonner Program is having on helping create a campus-wide culture of service at participating institutions.
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