Training, Education & Reflection
Goal • Strategy • Background • Available Resources
Goal
The central goal of the Bonner Program is to help students develop knowledge, skills, and values to engage in community well-being and social change efforts.
Strategy
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A well-developed meeting calendar provides effective scaffolding for each cohort and helps Bonners move through the four-year Bonner Student Development Model which culminates in a capstone-level community-engagement project that integrates their academic, career, and personal interests and commitments. These meetings provide a sequenced, progressive exploration of the skills, knowledge, values, and competencies needed for Bonner service work in local communities and beyond.
We are working with schools to strengthen their education, training, and reflection calendar by reviewing past meeting calendars, gathering student feedback, and incorporating modules from 8-themes and the capstone series, common commitments, and other issue-based themes in their weekly Bonner meeting structure. We are also helping them identify campus staff, faculty, and community partners who could lead sessions to facilitate student learning in community engagement.
BACKGROUND
The Foundation has defined ten student learning outcomes for the Bonner Program, which speak to the knowledge, skills, and attributes needed to engage in social change.
Bonners develop these through an on-going series of structured and unstructured experiences:
Curricular Experiences: Bonner meetings, retreats, community-based learning courses, and/or certificate programs/minors in civic engagement-related topics;
Co-Curricular Experiences: Cornerstone activities such as the First Year Service Trip, Sophomore Exchange, and Junior/Senior Capstone/Capacity-building Projects;
Integrative Experiences: Weekly school year service and full-time summer service internships.
The Bonner Developmental Progression (the chart below) reflects the ambitious pathway, Bonners are pursuing in their four years in the program.
Next Steps
We have introduced a set of curriculum resources articulating 8 themes, one for each of the eight semesters. By strategically building in meetings that support a set of competencies tied to the Bonner Student Development framework, these training modules enhance students' learning and project work off campus, encourage a sense of belonging, promote accountability, foster campus-wide and community connections, and lead to high levels of retention and graduation. Below is more information about the structure of the 8-themes and its importance.
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First Year
Bonner Scholars and Leaders are expected to be willing to learn about and learn from the community (local, national, and global). The two themes for the first year provide education and exposure to key concepts for effective community engagement.
Through workshops in Semester 1, students learn how to Explore Identity and Place, engaging in getting to know themselves, the local community, and their peers.
In Semester 2, Moving from Service to Solutions workshops guide students to think more critically about their service work, its root causes, and potential solutions. Through meetings around themes, students gain aptitudes to work productively with people who are different from them and to identify and implement effective strategies to improve the wellbeing of individuals and families, the environment, and communities.
Second Year
By the beginning of their second year, Bonners have developed a better understanding of their respective service sites, community assets, and issues.
The Leading Teams modules prepare students to work on leadership skills, including but not limited to communication, organization, planning etc. During this time, they build strong relationships, begin to mobilize peers on campus, and work with partner sites to go deeper in understanding root causes of an issue and potential solutions.
Knowing Your Issue modules guide students in narrowing down an issue, researching existing programs and policies around the issue, and preparing Policy Brief.
Third Year
By the third year, students take on expanded leadership roles and responsibilities both on campus and in the community.
The modules on Planning and Managing Projects build students’ skills in conducting stockholder analysis, risk analysis, plan development and implementation, and evaluation, which are crucial elements of managing projects effectively.
The modules on Building Organizational Capacity expose students to a framework on how to build organizational capacity and prepare students to take on more sophisticated challenges in their service, including projects like volunteer management and organizational development, curriculum and training development, program development, fundraising, research, communications, and more.
Fourth Year
As students move toward their senior year, they are guided to reflect back and integrate their learning across their Bonner Program and college experiences.
The modules on Transitioning from College to Career guide students in identifying potential post-graduate pathways, improving their resume, practicing interviewing, and completing their capstone project.
Based on Living Civically-Engaged Lives modules, students learn how to formally transition the leadership of their project and site work to another student leader and prepare a cumulative Presentation of Learning to share with younger peers, campus-wide and community audiences. They also focus on their own successful post-graduate transitions, such as through financial literacy, budgeting, and wellness. As each Bonner Program celebrates its graduates each spring, they also mark how its students have made a lasting difference on campus and in the community.
With feedback from our participating schools, we anticipate revising the scope and sequence of 8-themes curriculum for stronger alignment between the Bonner Student Development model and the curriculum.
Available Resources
The Foundation recently launched the online Bonner Learning Community, which would facilitate on-going dialogue and resource sharing among the Bonner Program staff and student leaders. The platform will also allow us to offer online workshops on a wide range of topics, further extending the support the Foundation can provide our campuses.
You can access our collection of training modules on 8-themes, Capstone series, Common Commitments, Community Engagement Skills, and a large number of other structured curriculum guides on the Bonner wiki.