RHODES COLLEGE
Congress Reps for 2012-2013
- Ashley Drinkard
- Xany Moore
What's Your Big Idea Category? (please bold which one)
- Student Leadership & Development
- Community Partnerships & Impact
- Campus Culture & Coordination
- Policy & Elections
VISION
In 400 words or less, please describe your Big Idea. This year, we at Rhodes College are implementing our version of the High Impact initiative to better connect students experiencing service-learning and the sites at which they work. By combining best practices in academic learning with best practices for community engagement, we have developed a framework for improving student learning and achieving tangible results for community partners. This happens through four main principles: utilizing community partners as co-educators, developing enhanced capacity for community partners, increasing and deepening student learning opportunities, and improving collaboration among our High Impact agencies. These principles guide the Bonner Center at Rhodes in seeking to create stronger student learning outcomes while making a greater impact in the Memphis community. Through more purposeful and defined partnership between the Bonner Center for Faith and Service and community partners, Bonner Center students and staff can aim to prepare community partners to fully utilize student capacity, provide students with the potential to envision the possibilities for themselves at community agencies during their first year at Rhodes, and enable measureable personal and professional growth for students during their four years at Rhodes.To implement this change, we started with ensuring that all of our High Impact partners where fully aware of all the opportunities they had to reach student volunteers by hosting a series of three luncheons over the summer. These luncheons also ensured that the agencies knew specifically we were asking of them by joining our initiative.
STRATEGY
In 400 words or less, please describe your strategy. The following questions should draw out the tools, resources, and support you are using to promote and achieve your Big Idea. You'll have a chance to flesh out your plan, but here is a chance to get the basics down:
- Which Bonner staff on your campus has committed to helping you achieve this Big Idea? All staff members are committed to this next step in improving our program.
- Who's on your team? Please share how you may be involving:
- fellow Bonners: While the changes are only applicable starting with the class of 2016, a variety of Bonners were consulted in decided how to implement this new policy and to what extent.
- other students on campus: Through the strengthened relationships with our High Impact partners, non-Bonner students now have greater and easier access to all of our High Impact sites through either our Kinney Community Service Program or through Federal Community Work Study
- community partners: Community partners have now been educated how to get the most value and growth out of student volunteers. As the program evolves, so will the community partners' role in how we execute this Big Idea.
- What three things will you accomplish by the end of this academic year (think SLI 2013)? We have already hosted our Community Partner luncheons and implemented the changes to CLA policy with our freshmen class. By the end of the year, we also hope to establish a more connected and developed relationship with The Memphis Center, a new program on campus that better connects all students with the surrounding city, especially in terms of service and culture.
RESULTS
A good Big Idea proposal is one that connects with broader goals you may have for your program, campus, or community. Please answer the question below, which should help you think through those larger themes.
- What will be different in 2015 as a result of your Big Idea (thinking in a 3-year strategic plan)? The long-term goals of the High Impact Initiative are to improve student learning around challenging social issues by increasing the role of community partners as co-educators. We also hope to improve capacity for community partners by demystifying the types of volunteers available at Rhodes, and by concentrating our volunteers at community 25 sites. This concentration of students will improve knowledge among students about the issues faced by our partners, and it will equip our partner sites to use volunteers to more effectively accomplish the stated goals of the organization. This plan is not only to better our development for this year, but for many more. We hope to continue this progress throughout the coming years.
TIMELINE
Please draft some of your benchmark goals into the framework below:
- Bonner Congress October 19-21, 2012: Educate Community Partners and begin increasing student volunteerism at High Impact sites.
- MLK Day January 21, 2013: Have committed relationships with all High Impact partners, utilizing at least 1 Bonner scholar, 1 Kinney volunteer, and 1 Community Service Work Study student.
- IMPACT Conference February 21-24, 2013: Establish an ever-growing relationship between students, service sites, and academic resources found on campus, such as The Memphis Center.
- SLI June 5-8, 2013: Have completed implementation of High Impact at all levels of programming and service-learning concepts
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