Bonner Foundation  •  10 Mercer Street, Princeton, NJ 08540  •  609-924-6663 office  •  609-683-4626 fax  • info@bonner.org

In the third decade of the Bonner Program, we must move forward from “random acts of kindness” to” strategic engagement for justice.”   Don't get me wrong, being kind is important.  It’s so important that when he was asked what the Lord required, the Prophet Micah’s response was to “do justice, love KINDNESS and to walk humbly.  So yes we must be kind.  But we must be kind in the way that is consistent, resilient, and ever present.  We must embrace and embody a kindness that enables up to advocate for peace ,work for justice, offers economic security for all, and provides radical caring for the environment.  We must have a humble awareness of what is going on in the world and our role in it.  

I feel that we are at a critical juncture in our work with college students and higher education.  There are many indicators that we are doing well.  The percentage of students who volunteer is high and we have millions of documented service hours to prove it.  We have profiles of students who offer inspiring stories of courageous leadership.  The service activities that we organize have record participation. 

Yet much of our service activities are focused on entry level of engagement, such as fundraisers and one time events.  Although these activities are important, the must be understood to be introductory. Our engagement must be transformative, not merely meaningful.  Transformative not just for the student but for the campus and the community as well.

Student transformation will be ignited when we provide clear direction and constant support from them to go explore deep into an issue or a cause. This will require that they develop a knowledge base both inside the classroom and out on the streets.  Students in the Bonner Program and elsewhere should be expected to declare a service major around an issue (hunger housing, prison reform) and a service minor around a skill set (marketing, event planning, evaluation).

Campus Transformation will occur when we develop programs that impact everybody everyday.  The goal of the Bonner Program has always been a campus wide reach with the understand that the Bonner Scholar and Leader provide a core group that can experiment and implement.

Community Transformation will be happen when our engagement in an intentional, consisted and collaborative.  Up to this point, much of the work around service has been determined and defined by student interest.  "Where do I want to volunteer and how deep do I want to go with this issue?"  Yet as we move forward, I believe we need to focus on central themes of poverty, politics and policy. 

Students must come to the understanding that the political process and the political system are fundamentally involved in the issues related to their service.  Government polices at all levels of community life impact the people and causes where students and schools are engaged.  We must develop ways for students to be exposed to, grapple with and understanding about what these policies are, how they affect us and how they ought to be strengthened or changed.   

This twentieth anniversary is not merely an affirmation of what we have done, but also an opportunity for us to consider were we must go.  Those who has came before us have built a movement worthy of recognition. Now it is up to each of us to define our course of action and to again depart from Berea to begin a familiar journey with a new energy creativity and resolve.