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Warren Wilson Annual Report 2007-2008

Page history last edited by Warren Wilson College 15 years, 8 months ago

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.

 

 

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 
  2. First Year Trip
  3. Second Year Exchange
  4. Third Year (and beyond) Leadership Roles
  5. Senior Capstone & Presentation of Learning

 

Implementation of Student Development: 

 

The Service-Learning staff and student crew meet weekly.  These meetings include an ice-breaker or group activity, followed by a variety of agenda items, including upcoming service trip inofrmation, event planning and general nuts-n-bolts logistics.  This meeting time is also a space for guest speakers, training activities (i.e: Reflection Techniques 101, Bridging the Gap between Service and Activism). 

 

Due to program transitions, we did not have a First Year Trip this year.  Our Sophomore exchage will happen in the Fall 2008.

 

Our juniors served primarily in the capacity of site leaders and volunteer coordinators.  For example, one junior was the site leader for the Black Mountain Center, an agency that serves adults with mental delays.  She was responsible for getting the volunteers involved, driving the van, keeping regular communication with the agency representative, and serving as liason between our office and the site.  Another junior served as a team leader for our on campus Big Brother Big Sister Program and was responsible for interviewing Littles (children), assisting in the training of Bigs (mentors), maintaining communication with the school counselors, designing and implementing creative activities for the children and the WWC students, and serving as the laison between our Service-Learning Office and the Big Brother Big Sister program downtown. 

 

One of our seniors did her Capstone with a local organization, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project.  She worked with the Growing Minds Program, which supports school garden programa and provided hands-on, in school education about healthy food.  As part of her Capstone, she designed seasonal lesson plans for K-5 gradesr.  The lesson plans cconnected learning objectives in the North Carolina standard course of study, with a fun application that explains what foods to grow, how to prepare them and curriculum suggestions, for each of the 4 seasons.

 

Implementation of Community Partnerships: 


1.  Orienting and Managing Community Partners

 

At the beginning of the semester we host a campus event called "Sign Up To Serve!".  The event is a volunteer oportunity fair where students can get connected to upcoming service trips, meet student site-leaders and have some direct contact with community partner representatives.  Many of our partners have come to this event before and have a good idea of how the service program works.  For new partner agencies, we usually have a phone conversation or an in person meeting to go over the get clear about what oportunities the site is offering and the kinds of student support taht would be most effective.  We also share in more detail about the structure and logistics of the Program at WWC, review what counts for service, and go over the general expectations we have for the studemts who volunteer at their site. When possible we encourage community partners to come to campus to meet with us so they can become familar with the student's environment and the Service-Laerning Office.  Likewise, the Service-Learning staff (and often times students) will go to the agency office and conduct a site visit.

 

2.  Partners as Co-Educators

Staff members from MANNA Food Bank acted as co-educator in a variety of courses, including Writing for the Media and The History of Social Work.  Both Food Bank staffers played an active part in class discussions and hosted the students during site visits and presentations at MANNA.  A similar relationship was developed in the Ecology of Food course in which several community agencies came to class, mentored students, and oversaw service-learning projects.  In addition, many of the First-Year Seminars hosted agency representatives, and students in those courses were educated in the agency's mission while also doing service for the non-profit.

 

3.  Integration of Site-Based or Issue-Oriented Teams

This fall students worked on groups of 2 and/or 3 to research one of six issues.   They decided what aspect of the issue they wanted to research and looked at it from a local and national level.  They had a set of guiding questions to help them in their research and were asked to interview community partners as well.  The small teams then presented thier findings to the larger group.

During the fall semester, students also conducted two site visits each week to a variety of agencies, both ones we had worked with in the past and ones we had jad no previous realationship with.  The met with the agency reprentative to find out more about the organization, what issues it is adressing, what challenges they are facing and what are areas that WWC students could support them with volunteers.

The information from these interviews and site visits helped to shape our programming that we offered the campus in the spring.  These sites were integrated  into 1) "one-time weeklies", service trips that happen once during the semester during the weekday for 1-3 hours, and 2) into our "Saturday trips", that happen once during the semester on a Saturday for 6-8 hours.

 

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.
  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).
  3. Unique initiatives (such as events or strategic planning) that have enhanced institutionalization of service and civic engagement on campus.

 

 

 

Campus-wide Culture and Infrastructure: 


1.  Several Bonner Scholars have played active roles in service-learning courses across the campus.  Many times, a Bonner will act as a teaching assistant to a faculty member and act as a logistical liaison between the course and our office.  We will continue to encourage this sort of relationship and layer into it a three-person reflection crew that will be comprised of Bonners.  These students will be assigned to all service-learning courses that occur during any given semester, and they will conduct reflection exercises with the students in the course.  This student-led reflection is modeled after a successful program at Duke University.  In addition to acting as assistants to all service-learning courses, Bonner Scholars are also the trip leaders for the required service that is a part of all first-year seminars.  Students in the Bonner Program help plan, coordinate, and lead many one-day service trips during the fall semester, and they also attend a reflection session in the course.  Bonners engage first-year students in discussions about the College's service requirements, the function and role of local non-profits, and ways that first-year students can identify their passions and find service opportunities in those areas. 

 

2. The partnership with Bonner AmeriCorps has been a tremendous benefit to our Bonner Scholars.  Since the work they are doing on the crew fits very naturally into the AmeriCorps frmaework, the students can continue to engage in their sites and with the campus with few additional steps.  We have found that most of the students who complete the 2-year, 900 hour term tend to apply the Education Award to their tuition the following semster, and are grateful that that resource is available to them.

 

3. Nothing comes to mind at this point.

 

 

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