Staff and Faculty Leaders Advance Community-Engaged Learning

2020-21 CommunitIES of Practice
DRIVE campus-wide change

The Bonner Foundation and twenty-seven of its network campuses have engaged successfully in the Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) Initiative over the past two years, leveraging Foundation grants and endowment funds to promote deeper, more pervasive community engagement in their curriculum and co-curricular experiences. Originally launched in September 2019, the CEL Initiative involved administrators and faculty from twenty-three schools in efforts to integrate community engagement and social action into courses, degree programs, and pathways. Additionally, these campuses worked to shift culture and build infrastructure that supports the campus-wide institutionalization of community-engaged learning. In 2020-2021, most of these schools continued their work on projects and were joined by a few new institutions.

Each campus team is led by a key administrator, often the director of their center, and a faculty fellow. On a national level, these teams’ representatives participated in webinars and meetings designed to support them to effectively build a Community of Practice, as well as participate in one nationally. These teams recruited, trained, and engaged other faculty to adopt community-engaged learning pedagogies into their coursework, often working to shape a certificate, minor, or major.

These teams also took on a variety of institutional change efforts, including creating course designators and tracking systems, repositories of faculty and student work, and promoting supportive tenure and other policies. Many of the teams have framed their efforts to link with key institutional priorities, including attracting, retaining, and supporting the full participation and success of diverse students, staff, and faculty. They have also worked to study and assess the impacts of community engagement, including on student learning, community outcomes, and institutional success (such as enrollment and completion).

The Bonner Foundation offered several year-long seminar series to support this work. These online sessions showcased current scholarship, models, and practices. As described in the profiles below, many of the staff and faculty leaders participated in a monthly webinar series for Advancing Community-Engaged Learning. During sessions, participants engaged with lessons from the field and discussed their own campus practice. The CEL Initiative and series are a central part of the Bonner Foundation and network strategy to advance the integration of community-engaged teaching and learning on campuses and to support successful institutional and culture change.

Participating Campus Profiles

You can learn more about their initiatives and the inspiring progress they are making by clicking the campus links below:

The Bonner ADVANCING COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING Webinar Series

Designed as a learning community for community engaged scholars (including faculty and administrators), the CEL series was developed with a view to advancing the knowledge of participating practitioners in their course design, facilitation of community partnerships, teaching and mentoring of students, and work on institutional change. Through this year’s line up of web-based seminars, representatives of campuses engaged with cutting-edge theory and discussed its application and practice at the network’s colleges and universities.

By participating in a monthly series, participants wrestled with, applied, and refined ideas as they implemented them within their own teaching, learning, scholarship, and programs. At the same time, participants produced new knowledge to shape the field. The last session of the series will be held in May 2021. By the end, each participant would apply their learning through the series to produce an artifact, which may include a new course, article, strategic plan, institutional policy, etc. The Bonner Foundation will publish this work in a volume and compendium.

The Foundation’s series for this Community of Practice supported its national leaders to:

• Learn, apply, and refine key ideas and theories from the field of community and civic engagement in higher education.

• Engage in rich dialogue and problem-solving with a group of peers and field leaders from across a national network.

• Apply this learning to advance their own careers and to address and move forward key institutional priorities.

WEBINAR TOPICS

Our annual line up of webinars included:

• Communities of Practice: In Theory and Application (October - featuring discussion of programs at Montclair State University and California State University Chico)

• What Community Partners Want: Cultivating Reciprocal & Developmental Partnerships & Projects (November - featuring dialogue with partners from Allegheny College, Maryville College, and Washington & Lee University)

• Teaching: Assignments, Feedback, Grading, and Assessment (December - featuring discussion of faculty members’ syllabi)

• Community-Engaged Academic Pathways (January - featuring discussion of certificates, minors, and majors at a range of institutions in and beyond the Bonner Network)

• Knowing and Leveraging the Field of Community Engagement (February - featuring a preview of organizations in the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement consortia)

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Issues in Community-Engaged Learning (March - featuring discussing of the realignment of programs and centers)

• Navigating Institutional and Departmental Politics: Changing Tenure, Promotion, and Other Policies (April - featuring examples of effective policy change, such as by UNC Greensboro, and sharing by Bates College and others)

• Interactions with Field Leaders (including the opportunity for one-on-one coaching with Tim Eatman, Caryn McTighe Musil, Nick Longo, John Saltmarsh, Paul Schadewald, David Scobey, and Dawn Whitehead)

national Cohort PARTiCIPANTS AND CAMPUS LEADERS

The cohort and webinar sessions have been led by Ariane Hoy (Vice President), Rachayita Shah (Community-Engaged Scholarship Director), Liz Brandt (Community Engagement Director) of the Bonner Foundation with Dave Roncolato, Director of Community Engagement and Professor of Community and Justice Studies at Allegheny College and a Senior Faculty Fellow for the Bonner Foundation. The Foundation is pleased to work with the following members of the learning community who have been instrumental in initiating campus-wide change and advancing the field of civic and community engagement in higher education.

AMY GILLILAND
MARYVILLE COLLEGE

Amy Gilliland serves as the Director of Community Engagement at Maryville College in Tennessee. Amy cultivates relationships with and serves as the point of contact between not-for-profit agencies and the College. On campus, Amy helps raise awareness about community needs and supports faculty interested in community-engaged learning, including its current work to develop pathways in areas like racial justice. She helps students across campus, including sixty Bonner Scholars, find meaningful involvement with our community’s marginalized populations through service and internships. Amy also serves as the campus director for the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance chapter at the College, which helps students develop the competencies necessary to become Certified Nonprofit Professionals (CNPs). She teaches Introduction to Nonprofit Management and other courses for this program, incorporating community-engaged projects. She directs the Federal Community Work Study program, supporting administration of the Bonner Scholarship program, serves on the Maryville College Strategic Partnership Group, and travels with students internationally.

ASHLEY COCHRANE
BEREA
COLLEGE

Ashley Cochrane is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning through Service (CELTS) at Berea College in Kentucky, the home of the first Bonner Scholars Program since 1990. She serves as the Director of the Bonner Scholars Program which involves 60 students. Additionally, because of Berea’s Cascading Leadership model, CELTS involves students from across Berea in ongoing, multiyear community engagement opportunities. Ashley also serves as the Director of Service-Learning, working closely with faculty and other departments, such as the Center for Teaching and Learning, to provide ongoing annual faculty development in community-engaged teaching and learning pedagogies. Previously, she led the convening the Berea’s team, including its Provost and Associate Provost, in the Bonner High-Impact Initiative. She is currently leading the Community-Engaged Learning Initiative team that is investigating and designing either a minor or certificate in community engagement at Berea. She earned a bachelors at the University of Virginia and a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky.

BRYAN MURDOCK
MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY

Bryan Murdock has more than thirty years of experience in program administration and management. He’s the founding director of the Center for Community Engagement at Montclair State University where he’s responsible for the administration of numerous community-engaged programs, projects and initiatives that engage approximately 1,000 students; collaborate with faculty from the University’s five colleges and school; and partner with 200 community- and faith-based organizations, school districts, governmental agencies, and civic organizations. Since 2010, Mr. Murdock has partnered with the Orange Public Schools to support its Community Schools Strategy. Bryan currently co-leads MSU’s Community Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) Fellows, a cohort involving more than 20 faculty annually in a Community of Practice in which they learn and apply community-engagement pedagogies to their own courses and departments. In the Bonner CEL Initiative, Montclair is working with Caryn McTighe Musil on a project to link CEL with majors across the institution, as well as innovative local projects focusing on racial justice and urban studies.

ERIN O’HANLON STOCKTON UNIVERSITY

Erin O’Hanlon is the Senior Program Coordinator and Adjunct Faculty at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey. Erin works within the Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning. She helps lead both the Community-Engaged Learning Initiative, which has been training faculty, and Racial Justice initiative, focused on voter engagement, at Stockton University. Previously, Erin worked as Coordinator of Community Initiatives at the Women's Center and in other nonprofit roles. She held a variety of positions, including Supervisor of the Violence Intervention Program, a crisis response hotline and shelter, and managing a larger team of 15 staff. Erin earned a Masters of Arts in Instructional Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Literature and Language with a concentration in Communications and Journalism at Stockton University. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for Family Promise of Atlantic County and the Covenant House South Jersey.

Kristine Hart Washburn University

Kristine is the Associate Director of Learning in the Community (LinC) at Washburn University where she serves as the coordinator of the LinC Bonner Scholars. Kristine also manages Washburn’s work to connect Community Based Federal Work Study with students’ community engagement. Additionally, Kristine holds a faculty position as a lecturer and teaches in the Poverty Studies Minor and the First Year Experience. Kristine helped develop the Poverty Studies Minor in connection with Washburn’s work in the Bonner High-Impact Initiative. During that time, she also authored the Bonner High-Impact Community Engagement Practices rubric that Washburn has used to institutionalize and enhance the quality and depth of community-engaged learning courses. Kristine has been influential in developing a strong commitment to community engagement at Washburn University. Since 2002 she has directed the Bonner Scholars to be a major influential community engagement group in the Topeka Community. She has published numerous articles and been honored by the local YWCA.

MARINA BARNETT WIDENER UNIVERSITY

Dr. Marina Barnett is an Associate Professor in Social Work at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. Marina is also Co-Director of Widener’s Academic Service-Learning Faculty Development Program. Marina teaches Social Welfare Policy, Organizational Practice and Grant Writing and Community Organization at the BSW, MSW and Ph.D. levels.  In addition to her teaching experience, Marina has more than thirty years of organizational and community development expertise that includes working with community-based organizations to develop organizational capacity, engage in strategic planning, map community resources and write grants. She has written grants that total more than $2.5 million dollars to support youth-focused programming in the Chester and Philadelphia communities.  Her research interests include conducting Community Based Participatory Research, using GIS software to map community assets, and developing a model to train community residents to understand and conduct research in their own communities.  Marina lives in Yeadon, PA with her husband and two children.

NATALIE VICKOUS LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE

Natalie Vickous is the Director of Civic Engagement & Student Leadership & Bonner Program Director at Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky. Natalie completed her Bachelor's and Master's level education in the field of counseling and now uses that knowledge to guide community engagement, service scholarship, and student leadership at Lindsey Wilson College. Since 2017, Natalie has acted as the Director of the Bonner Scholar Program, a program that aims to increase college access for students with strong commitment to service and social justice. As the Director of the Center for Civic Engagement & Student Leadership, Natalie has worked since the fall of 2019 to bring ethical and intentional community-engaged learning opportunities to the classroom in various fields of study, connecting students with real-world experience in collaboration with the surrounding community, and engaging faculty in high-impact practice and partnerships. She leads the cohort of faculty engaged in integrating projects with courses.

ARIANE HOY
BONNER (VICE PRESIDENT)

Dr. Ariane Hoy guides this cohort along with Dr. David Roncolato, Dr. Rachayita Shah, and Liz Brandt. Since 2004, Ariane has helped institutions build and strengthen student, faculty, and campus-wide community engaged learning and institutional change. At Bonner, she worked with fifteen campuses in their creation of civic engagement minors and certificates. She also spearheaded the Bonner High-Impact Initiative, which involved teams of senior academic leaders, faculty, staff, students and partners in creating pathways. Ariane has focused on community engaged learning since attending Stanford, where she was mentored by Tim Stanton and Janet Luce. She spent more than a decade in program development and leadership roles at City Year, Jumpstart, Echoing Green Foundation, and Campus Outreach Opportunity League. Ariane earned a master’s from Drexel and a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on higher education innovation and change. She is co-editor of Deepening Community Engagement in Higher Education: Forging New Pathways and co-author of Civic Engagement at the Center: Building Democracy through Integrated Co-curricular and Curricular Experiences. 

LIZ BRANDT
BONNER (COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT DIRECTOR)

Liz Brandt hails from rural central Kentucky, where she graduated as a Bonner Scholar from Centre College in Danville with a Bachelors in Anthropology and Sociology. As a Bonner Scholar, Liz served as the Senior Intern and a Bonner Congress Representative. Liz had transformative experiences studying abroad in Ghana, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Guatemala. After graduating, Liz worked as a Campus Organizer for the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, a non-profit that trains college students in grassroots organizing tactics to tackle issues such as hunger and homelessness, renewable energy, and student debt. Liz returned to her alma mater to serve for two years as the Coordinator of the Bonner Program and Community Service. Liz managed Centre’s sixty student Bonner Program, including designing trainings and education, developing and empowering student leaders, restructuring the Program into an Issue-Based Group model, and cultivating and maintaining community partnerships. She also focused on curriculum change, helping to develop a Social Justice Minor at Centre and serving on the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty Internship (SHECP) committee to develop social justice academic coursework and internships.

Ariane Schratter
MARYVILLE COLLEGE

Ariane Schratter is a Professor of Psychology at Maryville College, as well as a liaison for Maryville College’s campus wide academic partnerships (such as internship sites, research opportunities, and service projects). She teaches Child Development, Psychology of Culturally Diverse and Exceptional Children, International Child Welfare, Contemporary & Professional Issues in Psychology, and Introductory Psychology. Ariane believes strongly that people learn through direct experience, so many of her classes require engagement with children, families, and service providers. Her early research focused on human-animal interaction, especially related to the use of service dogs for children with autism. She focuses on serving children who have experienced trauma and is known for her curriculum. Working with the Tennessee Department of Education, she is a Building Strong Brains trainer regarding the neurological, social, emotional, and behavioral effects of child trauma. Ariane promotes system-wide efforts to create trauma-sensitive schools and communities. She also teaches on International Child Welfare, traveling with students to Africa and Switzerland.

Bethany Ozorak
ALLEGHENY COLLEGE

Bethany Ozorak works to foster community-based research at Washington & Lee University. Previously, she worked with the Allegheny Gateway Network to connect faculty with Meadville and other local partners on community-engaged research projects. Bethany helped develop the Civic Impact Scholars Program, a 40 student cohort program where students impact the regional community through ongoing civic engagement and accomplishing community-based projects addressing economic development and educational preparedness. She also supervise AmeriCorps VISTA on mentoring programing for 9-12 post-secondary education access program. She communicates with constituents including community partners, faculty, and funders through phone, one-on-one conversations, reports, and group meetings. She also helps manage the Davies Service Program, another multiyear program in the Allegheny Service Corps and Center for Civic Engagement. She earned a bachelor’s in English at Allegheny, a master’s in Education at University of Pittsburgh, and is pursuing a doctorate in Community Engagement.

ELLEN ALCORN
BATES COLLEGE

Ellen Alcorn is the Assistant Director of the Community-Engaged Learning Program and Director of the Bonner Leader Program at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. These programs are part of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, which promotes campus-wide community engagement, learning, and research. In a typical year at Bates, more than a quarter of the faculty include a community-engaged component in their academic courses, and about 50% of students undertake a community-engaged learning project within the context of an academic course. Ellen works closely with Darby Ray, Harward Center’s director, to design and lead a variety of initiatives with faculty and students, including its Civic Engagement: Knowledge, Action, and the Public Good General Education Concentration (GEC). Through their Community-Engaged Learning Initiative, Bates has worked on three innovative projects, including Bates Connect (a platform of student CEL work), assessment tools for CEL that examine dimensions of diversity in the student and partner experience, and guiding policy change to Bates’ tenure and rewards to support institutionalization.

FELICIA DEAS
SPELMAN COLLEGE

Felicia Deas is the Manager of Community Service and Bonner Campus Programs at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. An historically Black institution (HBCU) serving women, Spelman is well known for its outstanding engagement and development of outstanding leaders and agents of civic change. Spelman’s Bonner Center for Community Engagement and Leadership Development provides a variety of campus-wide opportunities for students and works with faculty across the institution who are involved with public scholarship, research, teaching, and service. Felicia joined the Bonner Center a few years ago to help build its infrastructure with partners and faculty. Felicia, a graduate of Spelman, provides advising to student and staff organizers of campus-wide large scale community service projects; manages community service transportation to the West End and greater Atlanta area, and serves as a liaison to community partners and faculty. She is also investigating new approaches to support engaged faculty, including avenues for interdisciplinary certificates or minors.

LAUREN PAULSON
ALLEGHENY COLLEGE

Dr. Lauren Paulson is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. She works closely with Dave Roncolato as the Bonner Community-Engaged Faculty Mentor for 2020-2021. Together, they train and support faculty members to explore and implement service learning and civic engagement pedagogy. They are working to integrate community-engaged teaching and learning across Allegheny’s general education curriculum. In spring 2020, Allegheny involved over 40 faculty and administrators in educational sessions and discussion intended to enhance their application of core pedagogies. Lauren developed a deep interest in community-engaged teaching and learning during graduate school and through her clinical work. She also serves on national committees, such as with the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) to advance community-engaged research. Lauren earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Edinboro University in Scotland. She earned a doctoral at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, specializing in counselor education.

MARISA CHARLEY
WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY

Marisa Charley is Associate Director of the Shepherd Poverty Program and Director of the Bonner Program at Washington & Lee University. She is also an Instructor of Poverty Studies. Marisa graduated from Allegheny College with a B.A. in Communication Arts and a focus in Values, Ethics, and Social Action. As an undergraduate Marisa was a member of the Bonner Program and served as a Bonner Foundation Summer Intern. She is also a proud Semester at Sea alumna. After two post-graduate years serving as the AmeriCorps*VISTA member co-coordinating the Bonner Program at Allegheny College, Marisa was excited by the opportunity to join the Rockbridge Community, and the Shepherd Program. Marisa has worked to expand and deepen community-engaged and participatory research at Washington & Lee, working to identify partners’ needs and match them with faculty to address issues of economic, food, racial, and social justice. Marisa is pursuing graduate studies through the University of Massachusetts Boston, studying with John Saltmarsh.

SARAH TOLEDANO
SIENA COLLEGE

Sarah Toledano is Assistant Director of Academic Community Engagement at Siena College in Albany and Loudonville, New York. In this capacity, she also directs the NEXT - Nonprofit Excellence and Transformation - Program. The NExT Internship engages interdisciplinary teams of students, faculty, and administrators in creating effective and sustainable solutions for complex challenges facing the Capital Region nonprofit organizations. In this program, students apply knowledge related to their major and future careers delving in-depth into topics of social justice, policy, organizational partnerships, community change, program, and organizational impact. ACE supports faculty in teaching community engaged classes ensuring they have the tools and resources they need to build meaningful partnerships with the community. This includes faculty development that is crucial to sustained community engaged work. ACE has developed a tiered faculty engagement model that supports faculty to become expert practitioners of community-engaged learning.

DAVID RONCOLATO
ALLEGHENY COLLEGE (SENIOR FELLOW)

Dave Roncolato is the director of Civic Engagement and professor of Community & Justice Studies at Allegheny College. He oversees the Bonner Program and numerous projects that engage students and engage faculty through the Allegheny Gateway Network. He oversees the development of deep sustained partnerships within the Meadville Community, including Partners in Education. Dave serves as a Senior Faculty Fellow for the Bonner Foundation. He has consulted with the Bonner High-Impact Initiative and projects involving academic deans and provosts. Previously Dave served in ministry including as the Catholic youth minister at St. Brigid Church in Meadville Pennsylvania and as the Catholic Campus Minister at Allegheny College. Dave completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality from Creighton University and a Ph.D. in Catholic Social Ethics, from Duquesne University. He continues to offer spiritual direction for adults. Dave is married to Reverend Sarah Roncolato, an ordained United Methodist minister who serves as the pastor of Stone United Methodist Church in Meadville. They have two daughters, two sons and an ever-expanding family.

RACHAYITA SHAH
BONNER (COMMUNITY ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP DIRECTOR)

Dr. Rachayita Shah brings a rich background and teaching experience in curriculum and instructional design. Her work at Bonner includes designing faculty development curriculum and conducting research about the program’s impact. She earned a doctorate from Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction. Rachayita earned her Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in English Literature from India. Before joining the Bonner Foundation, she worked with FAU as Visiting Instructor and taught multiple courses focusing on diversity, multicultural education, human rights, and social justice. She also worked as Program Manager at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education, where she facilitated teacher professional development, provided curriculum consultations to K-12 teachers, and managed Holocaust and human rights-oriented events. As a member of the Florida Department of Education Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education, she recently served on curriculum writing team for integrating the content of the Holocaust in middle school civics lessons. Her areas of research include teacher professional development, community-engaged curriculum, service learning, and multicultural education.