Challenges for Today & Tomorrow

Since 1991 the Bonner Foundation has worked hard to establish and implement Bonner Scholars Programs on 27 campuses in the Southeast and Midwest. With these programs up and running and with our "model" tested over several academic years, we offer a two-fold challenge--to the higher education community and to ourselves. We are proud of the work of our Scholars and programs, but there is much more to be done.

A Challenge to Higher Education

Thousands of committed, idealistic young people across the nation deserve the opportunity Bonner Scholars receive, and we would like to challenge the nation's higher education institutions and the foundations, corporations, and individual donors who support them to develop service scholarships similar to the Bonner scholarship. Development of similar programs requires two commitments: a desire to see service as an integral part not just of privileged students' lives but of all students' lives, and the creation of partnerships through colleges and funders that can translate this desire into viable scholarship programs. As our experience can attest, service initiatives like the Bonner Scholars Program have important benefits for higher education, helping to develop women and men prepared to serve their local communities and confront the challenges we face as a nation.

A Challenge to Ourselves

For those within the Bonner network, the challenge is to build on our hopeful start. With 27 programs established, we are now developing a four-year development-based model for the Bonner experience. Currently, our programs provide ample opportunity for Scholars to grow, mature, and deepen their commitment to service. We believe, however, that we can provide greater structure for Scholars. We plan to outline a set of experiences that enables the program to serve as a rite of passage for students, a transformative education of its own. We commit the Bonner Scholars Program to do more to create a cadre of young leaders--young leaders who individually are catalysts for new ideas and initiatives and who together are a dynamic force for positive change in our society.

In addition to creating a model that has a more dramatic and consistent effect on its participants, we also remain committed to finding more and better ways for the program to make an impact on campus culture and life and on the communities in which Bonners serve.

Some of the questions we hope to answer include:

For Improving Impact on Students

• What are the stages of development a student typically goes through during their college years? during their service experience?
• What service opportunities, training, reflection, and academic work are appropriate at each stage of student development?
• What are the student development outcomes (skills, knowledge, experience) that we desire for Bonner Scholars?

For Improving the Impact on Campus Culture and Life

• What resources (trainers, organizations, handbooks, models, funding, workshops, meetings) can the program generate or identify to assist Bonner schools in improving the quality of their program, particularly in the area of integrating service into the curriculum?
• How can the Bonner Scholars Program better serve as a facilitator of campus service activities more generally?
• How can the Bonner Scholars Program better communicate with key constituencies on campus to build an ethos of service and a greater willingness to serve?

For Improving the Impact on Communities

• What are appropriate outcomes for measuring Bonner Scholars Programs' impact on the communities around them?
• How can community "voice" better drive the service that Scholars do?
• Should community organizations have representation on Bonner Scholar committees and other governing bodies?
• How can we promote meaningful community change without shading "apolitical" service work into advocacy?

In finding the answers to these questions, we hope to deepen the impact that the Bonner Scholars Program has on its participants and in doing so, develop the potential of our Scholars to build and lead service projects that have a transformative effect on their campuses and their respective communities. And while this is a challenge to the Bonner network of schools, we also welcome your support, your ideas, your energy in this effort. Only with a common and broad-based commitment to students and to service can we create programs for undergraduates that unleash their potential, idealism, and spirit. We hope you will join us.