Student Development:  Training & Enrichment

Student Development:  Training and Enrichment 

The Bonner Civic and Community Engagement Trainings were developed to provide campus programs with a comprehensive resource to support student development, helping students to attain the relevant skills and knowledge areas for their work in communities.  Additionally, through reflection and dialogue, students clarify the meaning of their engagement and their own values, bridging into the Bonner Common Commitments.

Developed first in partnership with COOL (Campus Outreach Opportunity League) and augmented over time to address the 27 skills and 6 Common Commitments, these trainer guides (fully developed lesson plans) provide staff and student leaders with fully-developed training plans.  They are designed for use in meetings, retreats, and even classroom settings (i.e., some faculty have incorporated them into syllabi).   This fall (in 2013), we plan to update the trainings, incorporating new content (including social media, videos, and more).   

Training activities are built around principles of active learning, often engaging participants through dialogue, problem-solving, case studies, scenarios, project work, and other activities.  Handouts are built into each lesson plan.

A Sample Sequenced Training Calendar

We recommend that each Bonner Program design a multi-year training and enrichment calendar.  As a start, below is the sample Bonner Training Calendar, which scaffolds in a sequence of training topics.  This is based on a strategy for implementing a student developmental model with a sequenced, progressive exploration of the skills, knowledge areas, values exploration, and competencies.   

Involving Other Trainers and Facilitators

Your program can engage student leaders, staff (including from your center or others, such as Career Services or Multicultural Education), faculty, and community partners in providing the trainings and reflection.  Feel free to share these trainer guides with these individuals and their organizations and departments.  Many may be useful for other purposes (such as visioning, planning, diversity training, etc.).  They are easy to read and fairly easy to utilize, although some comfort with presentation and facilitation is needed.  

Want a graphic version of this content that you can print and handout?  

Click here!