The Bonner Program: Cornerstone Activities

1
The Bonner ProgramCornerstone Activities

• Access to Education,

Opportunity to Serve
A program of The Corella Bertram Bonner
Foundation 10 Mercer Street, Princeton, NJ
08540 [phone] [phone] fax For
more information, please visit our website at
www.bonner.org
2
Cornerstone ActivitiesOverview

• Recruitment Selection
• Orientation
• First-Year Trip
• Recommitment Exercise
• Second-Year Exchange
• Summer of Service
• Third-Year Leadership
• Senior Capstone
• Summer Service Placement

3
Cornerstone ActivitiesOverview

• Resources
• Best Practices
• Self-Assessment Evaluation

4
Cornerstone ActivitiesRecruitment Selection

• Fully engage the admissions and financial aid
  office
• Develop materials that include accurate and
  inspiring information about Bonner
• Create a selection process that involves students
  and community leaders
• Consider inviting and interviewing applicants on
  campus
• Design process so Bonner serves as a yield tool
• You can do your work now or do your work later.
  

5
Cornerstone ActivitiesOrientation

• Orientation occurs before the beginning of school
  and other first year activities
• Full agenda (a minimum of two full days) to
  offer opportunities for fellowship, team
  building, training and inspiration
• Consider having at least part of it off campus
• By end of orientation students should know what
  they are getting into and have their fall
  placement established.
• Engage upper class students and community leaders
  in orientation
• Just remember where you start has a lot to do
  with where you end up.

6
Cornerstone ActivitiesFirst Year Service Trip

• Plan for after school year finishes
• Book end the first year orientation
• Time to rebuild community
• Encounter a community of difference
• Chance away from campus to reflect on the past
  year.
• Time to plan for the upcoming year both
  individuals and as a class.
• Few want to do this event, but everyone is glad
  they did it

7
Cornerstone ActivitiesSecond-Year Exchange

• Awareness of the larger Bonner network
• Engaging in a different culture (dont just go
  next door or to a school just like your own)
• Exchange of program ideas and sharing of best
  practice
• Opportunity for personal and group growth
• Role as a member of a larger student movement
• What you put into this is what you will get out
  of it.

8
Cornerstone ActivitiesSummer of Service

• Connect passion and interests
• A summer placement should connect with what a
  student has been doing and what they hope to do
  when they return
• Full time service Emersion service experience for
  an extended time
• Develop skills and contacts that will be helpful
  when they return to school
• Explore career opportunities and future
  decision-making
• Build strong resume
• Do something and go somewhere they otherwise
  might not have done
• Dont over-rely on summer camp placements
• Summer Placements can be the most profound
  experience of a college career.

9
Cornerstone ActivitiesRecommitment Exercise

• Establish as an expectation of this event from
  the beginning
• Be clear that renewal is not automatic, it is
  earned
• Students reflect on the first half of their
  experience
• Plot a course for the sound half of their
  experience
• Create an honorable way out for students to leave
  whose interests have changed, who never quite
  knew what they were getting into, or who never
  quite stepped up to the challenge
• Being in the Bonner Program is a privilege, not
  a right.

10
Cornerstone ActivitiesThird Year Leadership

• Undertake an identifiable leadership role on
  campus connecting the community
• Take responsibility for involving other students
• Collaborate with other student leaders
• Work with other student leaders to plan campus
  wide service program. Participate in planning
  and leading Bonner Program activities
• Connect relationships outside of Bonner program
  (fraternity, team, etc) with service activities
• Serving in a leadership role is both an
  expectation and a requirement.

11
Cornerstone ActivitiesSenior Presentation of
Leadership

• Culmination of service worth thought-out college
• Articulate personal growth and community impact
• Connect a significant level of engagement to the
  issue / agency works with (writing a grant, oral
  history, annual report, community based research
  project)
• Present findings to the Bonner community
• Documentation should be such that it can be left
  behind for others to use and learn from
• The SPS is not just an after dinner speech or a
  scrap book. It is a tool for reflection,
  development and capturing a journey of served e
  that is ongoing.

12
Cornerstone ActivitiesResources Best Practices

• Bonner Partners
• Implementation Guides
• Co-Curricular Orientation, Trip, Exchange
• Community Partnerships Third Year Leadership
• Vocation Recommitment, Senior Presentation
• In Good Form sample forms
• Recipes for Change Building a Strong Bonner
  Program
• Funding
• Bonner Summer Service funding (where available)
• Bonner Junior/Senior Leadership Fund (where
  available)
• Summer Leadership Institute All Bonner Service
  Option

13
Cornerstone ActivitiesRelevant Self-Assessment
Items
First-Year Service Trip Successfully takes
first-year (and/or new) Bonners through an
immersion experience in a different context,
including preparatory educational, service,
reflection, and group building activities
Second-Year Exchange Effectively provides an
opportunity for students to come together with
students from another campus for an experience
involving reflection, action, and/or education
that also provide a larger context for students
understanding Third-Year/Upper-Level Leadership
Opportunities and structures for third-year or
upper-level leadership in the Bonner Program
students effectively demonstrate civic
leadership (committees, Congress, class projects,
project coordinator roles, mentorship, and
reflection) Senior Capstone Experience
Students have a capstone-level experience in the
fourth year students create a final presentation
of learning.
14
Cornerstone ActivitiesBest Practices Examples

• Jim Ellison, Laughlin Chapel
• Kevin Buechler, Davidson College
• Laura Megivern, Johnson State University
• Rina Tovar, Stetson University

15
Student Development First Year Trip

• Tips
• Involve students in pre-trip learning and
  planning
• Teamwork, community building, and resolving
  conflicts are a part of an effective trip
• Connect service with policy or broader analysis

• Use resources
• Bonner Partners (found online) can be actively
  involved
• Co-Curricular Implementation guidesection on
  Trip
• In Good Form samples
• Recipe for Change

• The Basics
• Full immersionservice, culture, learningfor the
  class of students in a new place and context
• Build around deeper themes (e.g., poverty,
  global) that also connect to home context
• Have the key elements planned in advancehousing,
  service project, transportation, reflection,
  intentional learning

16
Student Development Second Year Exchange

• Tips
• Involve Congress or student leaders in planning
• Can be a sophomore class project
• Design activities that emphasize cross-campus and
  big vision learning

• Use resources
• Second Year Exchange Guide, under Useful
  Documents (online)
• In Good Form samples
• All Bonner Service Event option (at SLI)

• The Basics
• Team up with one or more campuses and design full
  immersionservice, learning, analysisbuilding on
  First Year Trip
• Spark students knowledge and interest in the
  student service movement
• Learn unique and best elements about each others
  campus and Bonner Program

17
Student Development Third-Year Leadership

• Use resources
• Utilize available funding, like Jr/Sr Leadership
  Fund or innovation grants
• Project Coordinator guide
• Congress webpages, Facebook, Student Best
  Practices

• The Basics
• Third-year students need structured options for
  leadershipproject coordinator roles, Congress,
  Student Leadership Team
• Juniors can design and implement a campus-wide
  project (through class meetings)
• Third-year should communicate higher expectations
  for students skills and leadership

• Tips
• Third-years can play many roles in mentoring and
  leading peers
• Take advantage of national networking
  opportunities (conferences, Congress)

18
Student Development Senior Presentation of
Learning

• Tips
• Build planning into Senior Class Meetings or even
  a Retreat
• Build delivery into Awards Ceremony and
  campus-wide programming
• Integrate family and partners

• Use resources
• Guidelines and modules in Vocation Implementation
  Guide
• In Good Form examples
• Student Essays and other reflections

• The Basics
• Seniors create innovative presentations that
  represent their internalization of the Bonner
  experience
• Structured guidelines encourage students to
  articulate their service and developmental
  journey
• Presentations generate inspiration and energy for
  other Bonners, community, and campus

19
Student Development Summer Service

• Tips
• Utilize the Bonner Partners to identify good
  options
• Integrate into advising and other meetings
• Move beyond low-level placements

• Use resources
• In Good Formexamples of Summer Service placement
  documents
• Recipes for Change examples
• Bonner Partner database
• Bonner funds where available

• The Basics
• Students identify a full-time internship that
  builds into their overall Bonner experience
• Placement process meets the same standards as
  rest of partnershipsstrategic, developmental,
  strong CLAs, use BWBRS
• Staff and student work together to solidify
  summer placement