Calendar    

• Week of July 30th: Training and Enrichment
• NYC: Reflection on the Blog 
• DC: National Coalition for the Homeless, 3:00-4:00 PM 
• August 2-5: Hyde Park Leadership Summit 2012

Program Updates

• End-of-Term Presentations and Alumni Reunions
• Week of July 23rd Trainings: Synopses and Reflections  

News from Fellows and Partners

• Closing Reflections on the Blog 

Morgan Schrankel

I have been a Bonner since my Freshman year at Allegheny College. During that time, I worked with pregnant and parenting teens at a non-profit known as Thurston House. I also had the opportunity to be a Congress Representative and to attend various national Bonner conferences. 

At Allegheny College, I am a Values Ethics and Social Action Major with a minor in Flute Performance. Besides Bonner, I am in Tri-Delta, and participate in a variety of music performance groups. 

Since Freshman year, I had the goal set to intern at the Bonner Foundation. My first summer was spent in Meadville, and my second summer took me to Camp Med-o-lark in Washington, ME. As I was looking for opportunities for my third summer, there were a variety of options. I could go back to camp, stay in Meadville to help with the Bonner program, or apply for the Summer Fellowship.

It took me awhile to decide which to do. In fact, I applied to my school as well as the Fellowship program so that I could delay my decision. When I was offered the position at the Bonner Foundation, I immediately accepted. 

This summer has been an amazing experience. Working with Gian, I have been able to see how our talents complement each other. I also have had the opportunity to better understand my unique skills via training and enrichment events. Helping the Foundation with the first year of this program has been awesome. I feel so accomplished and proud of the work we have completed this summer. 

Calendar

Week of July 30th: Training and Enrichment

NYC: Reflection on the Blog

For this week's training, we ask that you reply to the following blog post by 5pm on Wednesday, August 1st. Click here for the post.

"As we enter the closing week of the Bonner Fellowship Program, we would like to ask Fellows about advice they would like to give to future Fellows. 

1. What is one thing you would like to share about working at your site?
2. What is one thing you would like to share about being a Bonner Fellow in general?
3. What is one word that describes your holistic summer experience?"

DC: National Coalition for the Homeless

From Katherine Nguyen: "The Bonner training session at the National Coalition for the Homeless will be this Wednesday, from 3-4pm at our office. The address is 2201 P St NW, Washington DC 20037. Our office is located on the left side in the back of the Church of the Pilgrims Presbyterian Church, across the street from the Taras Shevchenko Statue Park at the intersection of 22nd and 23rd and P St NW. Dupont Circle Metro and Foggy Bottom Metro are the closest train stations to the office. During training, I plan to have one of the speakers from the NCH Faces of Homelessness Speakers Bureau share their story with the Bonners, and then Neil Donovan, our Executive Director, will speak briefly about the NCH and the advocacy they do, and then I will close by giving a presentation on HPAN and the other projects I've been working on."

August 2-5: Hyde Park Leadership Summit 2012 

To institute the year, student leaders from across the country will meet at the Hyde Park Leadership Summit to exchange innovative ideas and drive real, sustainable impact. Hyde Park is a means for Roosevelters and fellow millennials to have the opportunity to empower student ideas by developing critical policymaking and leadership skills, and expand our generation's knowledge on today's most critical policy debates.

Join us as we set priorities, design initiatives, and provide you with tools to develop your ideas for change. The Conference and accommodations are free. Travel subsidies are provided on a first come, first serve basis and prioritize three members from each Roosevelt chapter. The registration deadline is July 17th. (See link below) Although the priority deadline has passed, you may still be able to receive a travel subsidy by registering before July 17th.

Students who registered by the priority deadline (July 9th) will be informed of travel stipend amounts by July 14th, 2011. If you have specific questions related to this process, please do not hesitate to contact Joe Swanson at jswanson@rooseveltinstitute.org. 

Register Here: http://www.rooseveltcampusnetwork.org/HydePark2012

See the Facebook event page here!

Program Updates

End-of-Term Presentations and Alumni Reunions

Last week, Foundation staff visited New York City and Washington, D.C. to host meetings in which Fellows had the opportunity to present to other Fellows, site supervisors, and alumni mentors about their projects and holistic summer experience. In New York, this meeting was held at the Teach for America national office; in Washington, D.C., the meeting was at Gonzaga College High School. This was an excellent chance for the program participants to learn about the ongoing projects happening at each site. These meetings were briefly followed by alumni gatherings in which Bonner Fellowship Program participants networked with Bonner alumni—Cafe Nunez in New York and the Greater Washington Urban League/Reingold LINK in Washington, D.C. Fellows were also able to share their work to other alumni at these reunions.

Week of July 23rd Trainings: Synopses and Reflections

NYC Training with Echoing Green

Synopsis from LaKeisha Jefferson: "The topic of our discussion will be about 'Being a Solutionist.' As Bonner Scholars we are faced with issues in our communities every semester. This is the perfect training to get you prepared for having a 'solutionist' mindset, for initiatives planned for issues that might seem daunting. Come ready to discuss, reflect, and build."

Reflection from Rachel Brown (Teach for America): "I truly enjoyed today's session on 'work on purpose'! It honestly enabled me to take the passions and skills of mine that I've always had and thought I knew inside and out, and look at them from a mass of other perspectives which will help me to mature and nurture them. I was moved by the concept of looking at our ideas from a solution-based point of view as opposed to dwelling and focusing on the problem, and that is something that I will absolutely take with me as I move forward with my 'hustles.' I was especially impacted by the final activity of taking one of our hustles and coming up with action steps for it. It's one thing to talk about pressing issues and desires of young social entrepreneurs, but it's another to actually take the next steps necessary to begin seeing them come to fruition regardless of how distant achieving the ultimate goal may be. Big thank-you's to Echoing Green for sharing their time and talent, as well as extending themselves as available resources to us; it really made all the difference for me!"

DC Training with the Fair Elections Legal Network

Synopsis from Dan Vicuna: "Can students register to vote where they go to school? Does my state require voters to take ID to the polls and, if so, is a student ID acceptable? How do I run a voter registration drive?

If you're looking for a way to serve your school and your community, Campus Vote Project (CVP)  can help you answer these questions so you can organize a successful campaign to get more students registered and voting. CVP is a project of the Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN) that is designed to break down barriers to voting that disproportionately affect college students. 

By using the CVP toolkit to determine which voter-friendly reforms to implement on your campus and the state-specific guides we've produced on election rules, you can make sure that more of your classmates can participate in the political process. This training will give Bonner fellows the most important information they need to know to implement successful election awareness, voter registration, and GOTV campaigns." 

Reflection from Katja Kleine (RESULTS): "We had an awesome training at the Fair Elections Legal Network yesterday! Since we are all new voters, it is particularly interesting to hear about the Campus Vote Project, which helps to get students out to the polls. The most interesting this I learned was that is some states a concealed weapon permit counts as appropriate voter identification, but a student ID doesn't! I think this training was particularly interesting for me because the work that I do at RESULTS involves working with elected officials-- and choosing who you elected officials are is the first step to developing a relationship with them. I will definitely be passing info about the Campus Vote Project along to people at my school. Thanks Greyson for hosting us!"

News from Fellows and Partners

Closing Reflections on the Blog

The blog has recently been buzzing with Fellows' reflections about the program's last couple of weeks. Recent posts include LaKeisha's (in true Echoing Green fashion) "Typical Tuesday" and Katherine's reminiscence of her first assignment. This is a great way to learn about the experiences in the different cities! Read all about them and contribute your own (!) at thebonnerblog.wordpress.com by Friday, August 3rd.