Bonner Network Campus Teams and Community Partners Work for Racial Justice

The Bonner Foundation is pleased to release new stories and student profiles that showcase project work connected to the Racial Justice Initiative and Community Fund in 2020-2021. Over this summer, National Bonner Interns Sierra Medina and Joshua Perez conducted interviews with student leaders and administrators from most of the teams involved in the Bonner Foundation’s Racial Justice Initiative. Medina, a Bonner Scholar at Waynesburg College, especially leveraged her skills and experience as a Communications and Journalism major, while Perez, a Bonner Leader at Rollins College, demonstrated his talent in graphic design (such as for the logo above). Together, Medina and Perez, and Foundation staff members Ariane Hoy, Rachayita Shah, and Arthur Tartee Jr. developed stories that documented the inspiring work at campuses and communities across the country.

For instance, Mars Hill College (NC) worked with the Madison County Racial Justice Coalition (MCRJC) to increase community awareness of racial justice issues on campus and in neighboring Mars Hill, a predominantly rural community. Over the year, the team successfully partnered with local Alderman to introduce new policies and practices, including a local resolution in support of racial equality.  “Racial Justice is important because we need to confront the problems in America that have created inequality and racism,” shared Sam Thomas, one of the lead student organizers. “If we don't confront these problems then nothing really changes,” he says.

Rutgers University - Camden’s (NJ) team worked with the city of Camden to conduct oral histories and document the perspectives of community residents, especially about the past decade on issues like education, policing, and governance. They hope to use this history to promote both on-campus education and community development projects with a focus on healing. As Josefina Ewins, one of the lead student organizers, explained, “We had to lean on each other to reach our deadlines of putting together questions for the focus group, figuring out how the focus groups will be held, and pulling together more resources to figure out how focus groups are supposed to be conducted.”

Place-based work, which often involves a process of truth and reconciliation, was a theme across the projects. At Sewanee: the University of the South (TN), the team partnered with the Roberson Project on Slavery, Race and Reconciliation, which was created to uncover, explore, and reconcile Sewanee’s “historical entanglements with slavery and slavery’s legacies.” Bonner Leaders who also serve with Roberson Project took on additional research and oral history work, focusing especially on building relationships with Sewanee’s Black residents and documenting their history. They hope to build this history into Sewanee’s built environment, orientation, and courses. “We just want to make sure that Black history is just as well known as the White history and contributions to this campus,” sophomore Noah Shively suggested.

Projects were designed to address systemic racism, as well as build the capacity of partners to address ongoing community needs, many of which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. At Ursinus College (PA), the team focused especially on the local Norristown Latinx community, working in partnership with El Centro de Cultura, Arte Trabajo y Educación (CCATE). Projects often leveraged sustained partnerships, in which student leaders had many years of prior service experience as Bonner Scholars and Leaders. Team members conducted community-engaged research in Spanish and English to address families’ food insecurity as well as launch sustained programs at CCATE. Jenni Berrios, student leader and rising senior who intends to connect this work to her Bonner Capstones, emphasized how much community input shaped their project. “We changed and adapted our plans as we saw what did not work and what did, Jenni reported, “We are happy to have been able to have provided 2,850 baskets within the community.”

The team at Washington & Lee University (VA) also focused on hunger issues with its Food Justice Equals Racial Justice project. Team members dove deeper into understanding the needs of African American residents in Rockbridge County, and how they can best access resources from Rockbridge Area Relief Association (RARA), a long-term partner for many community-based research projects. Their work included securing IRB approval, developing and carrying out interviews, and documenting lessons learned in reports and recommendations. The work has led to recommendations and planning for a secondary project in the coming year.

The team at Widener University (PA) also tackled the pandemic, focusing directly on health disparities connected with COVID-19 in nearby Chester. They partnered with Everest Urgent Care to plan and conduct a two-day COVID-19 Testing Clinic for Chester residents, whose staff supported the work, noting “People need unbiased, real information to help them to make the best decisions for themselves and their families and they're just not getting it right now.” Widener undergraduates and graduate students also educated the campus community, running an online Health Equity Panel.

Teams often tapped into the expertise of faculty and staff advisors, like Dr. Marina Barnett, who teaches Social Welfare Policy, Organizational Practice, and Grant Writing and Community Organization at the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels. Bonner Leaders, like Ijjae Hill and Kaitlyn Lathrop, shared insight from their learning about how their education in the social determinants of health and coursework shaped the project. The team successfully garnered resources from Widener, including access to free testing for Chester residents. Hill, now appointed as a student trustee for Widener, hopes to expand the work in the coming year and focus more on understanding and addressing the needs of youth who have not been vaccinated.

Medina and Perez also developed individual profiles of four student leaders: Antonia Izuogu (Bonner Scholar at Spelman College); Jennifer Berrios (Bonner Leader at Ursinus College); Jon-Laurence Fleming (Bonner Scholar at Mars Hill College); and Josefina Ewins (Bonner Leader at Rutgers University - Camden). These profiles reveal inspiring, deeper stories about students’ personal motivations and the experiences that led them to provide leadership for these projects.

Bonner Foundation staff members Ariane Hoy, Rachayita Shah, and Arthur Tartee provided direction and support to teams through the grants process, resources, and monthly webinars. Webinars addressed topics related to community partnerships, project design and management, fundraising and resource development, and characteristics for effective anti-racist and equity focused interventions. These webinars also featured special guests, such as Bonner alumni, partners, and trustees.

The Bonner Foundation will continue the initiative in 2021-2022, providing grants and linking the initiative with practical ways for campus programs to leverage their own enrichment and community funds for racial and social justice focused projects. While sharing the model and projects with the broader higher education community at the Association of American Colleges and Universities Diversity, Equity, and Student Success conference in March 2021, staff members found that many colleges and universities were interested in the model and how to intentionally connect community engagement with racial justice work.

“With student leadership at the center, we know that campus teams are passionate and energetic to continue engagement to promote racial justice,” remarked Arthur Tartee Jr., Alumni Network Manager. Tartee is a Bonner Alumnus from the University of Richmond who worked with the city of Richmond on several local policies. “When students are passionate,” Tartee concluded, “they pursue their work fully with their hearts – with open minds and no deterrence.”