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Program Requirements
In addition, to be eligible for participation in this initiative, institutions must have the following in place:
- A multi-year (3+ year) intensive, developmental community engagement program (i.e., a Bonner Scholar Program, Leader Program, service-based scholarship or fellowship, or an academic program with a significant co-curricular developmental component)
- At least one high-impact practice already in place or in development at this time, with support from the institution’s academic leadership
- Desire to integrate high-impact practices with community engagement in ways that will raise student and faculty engagement in community and public policy issues to a level that can support public policy and program model research on behalf of the non-profit community.
Benefits
Campuses that participate in th Bonner High-Impact Initiative will benefit in tangible ways, including by:
- Learning and applying the best models of high impact educational practices and deep community engagement;
- Learning and applying assessment and strategic planning tools developed by the Bonner Foundation and other national leaders over the past twenty years;
- The empowerment and development of a campus-wide strategic leadership team who is capable of taking civic engagement at your institution to a national level;
- Exposure to a national network of civic and educational leaders including AAC&U, the Council for Undergraduate Research, New England Resource Center for Higher Education, the Community Indicators Consortium, and others;
- A clear articulation of the significance of your institution’s community impact (beyond the counting of students involved and service hours); and
- A leadership role in a national initiative that will help move campus-community partnerships to the next level
Support
The Bonner Foundation is coordinating this initiative. The Bonner Foundation staff and consultants, including Ariane Hoy and Dr. Mathew Johnson, will provide ongoing consultation to campuses involved, which may include phone conversation, campus visits, resource development, assessment, and strategic planning.
The Foundation has been in conversations with senior staff at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the Council for Undergraduate Research (CUR), and other groups interested in collaborating on this initiative. We hope to formalize partnerships and expert involvement.
Participating schools will have access to a variety of community engagement assessment tools, including:
- The Assessment of Service and Civic Engagement (ASCE)
- The Bonner Student Impact Survey
- The Faculty Engagement Survey
- The Community Capacity and Impact Survey
Completion of some of these assessments will be built into the initiative. See the program commitment requirements (next page). This data will inform key strategic visioning and decision-making for the campus’s long-range plans for high-impact practices and high-impact engagement.
Participation Requirements
We are requesting the following commitments from participating schools to help ensure a high level of participation and support needed to make the initiative a success:
- The President supports the institution’s participation and recognize the work of the team.
- The institution thoughtfully assembles a leadership team, with consideration for 2-3 issue areas in which it has the most potential for deepening community engagement and impact.
- The institution learns about and creates a plan to integrate high-impact practices with their Bonner Program and other campus initiatives.
- The institution participates in data collection (student involvement, faculty engagement, and community capacity building) that are developed for this initiative.
- The institution makes a multi-year (ideally three-year) commitment to supporting the team’s attendance and participation (note: we realize that some individuals may change but aim to ensure some consistency by teams). As part of this, the institution commits to funding for three years, creatively using available Bonner and other funds.
Like all Bonner initiatives, this one will be managed in a collaborative process, in which we learn from the experience and example of campuses within and beyond our network. We are asking for the participation of one person from each selected team in a planning retreat to be held in February, 2012.