In celebration of Elaine Wheeler's retirement, we honor her invaluable contribution to the Bonner Foundation. Her commitment and mentorship have been instrumental in our growth as a Foundation and the Network we have today. As she embarks on her retirement, we celebrate her legacy of dedication and look forward to the path she has paved for us.
With over three decades sharing campus examples, guides, and documents to download, the Bonner Foundation is excited to announce a recently updated Bonner Resources Wiki.
This summer, the five National Bonner Summer Interns at the Foundation — Anu Baskar (George Mason ‘24), Camila Guayasamin (The College of New Jersey ‘24), Dominique Dore (University of Houston ‘22), Mikaela Chin (High Point University ‘24) and Selah Ndouta (Capital University ‘22) — worked with the Foundation staff to refresh the look of the wiki’s homepage and, more importantly, update campus examples and other documents.
They devoted particularly attention to the Bonner Program Management and Community-Engaged Learning sections. In addition, Mikaela and Dominique also created a short video on how to navigate this wealth of knowledge.
Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton is moving on to become the director of the Teaching Social Action Initiative in collaboration with the Bonner Foundation to encourage students “to apply what they learn about policy to their own organizing. The incorporation of applied activism has been part of his work at SJSU since he started in 1999. The only difference now is he will teach social action to educators, he said.”
Earlier this month, Humanity in Action and The Corella & Bertram Bonner Foundation formalized a new partnership. This new three-year partnership commits Humanity in Action to hold at least one Fellowship spot per year for a Bonner Student, while the Bonner Foundation will promote Humanity in Action programs amongst its network and encourage Bonner Scholars and Leaders to apply. The agreement also carries an option to extend the partnership should both organizations wish to do so.
The Bonner Program is a four-year commitment in which Bonner Students commit to a weekly commitment to intensive and meaningful service with a local community organization over the four years as an undergraduate student at one of the Foundation’s campus partners. Bonner Scholars and Leaders also commit to continuing this service over the summer, and the Humanity in Action Fellowship will count towards fulfilling this obligation.
The Carnegie Foundation has announced that 14 schools in the Bonner Network are among the 119 U.S. colleges and universities to receive the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification in the 2020 cycle, an elective designation that indicates institutional commitment to community engagement.
Currently, 33 colleges and universities in the Bonner Network are currently active holders of this important classification. See full article here.
One of the smallest of the nation's top-tier law schools, Washington and Lee School of Law is located in a college town in the majestic Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, a three-hour drive from Washington, DC and within an hour of several other metropolitan areas. The Washington and Lee University School of Law seeks to cultivate broad-minded, highly skilled, and honorable practitioners of law. We do so within a diverse and collaborative intellectual community exemplifying rigor, trust, and civility. In partnership with the Bonner Foundation, W&L School of Law will offer:
An application fee waiver to all eligible applicants, regardless of admission decision. No additional steps are required for Bonner Scholars or Leaders to request an application fee waiver.
Bonner applicants selected for admission will receive a scholarship from W&L of at least $10,000 for each of their three years of law school, provided the student is enrolled and maintains a standard of behavior representative of prospective member of the legal profession. Students may also earn additional assistantships, fellowships, or other awards based on their academic credentials and/or performance in law school; however, the total funding that a student receives cannot exceed the cost of tuition and fees.
In 2004, President Clinton launched the Clinton School of Public Service, a (non-partisan) graduate program in the Univ of Arkansas system designed for people around the globe who are passionate about developing public service solutions in a world of need.
The Clinton School offers both a 100% Online Masters of Public Service, and an In-Person Masters of Public Service (with distinct scholarships available to admitted Bonner students & alumni!):
the in-person Masters of Public Service (MPS) degree
the 100% online Clinton School Online (CSO) Masters of Public Service degree for mid-career professionals (those who have had at least 3 years of professional experience – this can be perfect for Bonner Alumni who desire to work full-time and live anywhere in the world while pursuing their Masters degree).
Bonner Scholars/Leaders, alumni or staff interested in pursuing a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree are invited to apply to the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government. The Fels MPA is the most practical, personal public administration program in the Ivy League, featuring a small cohort of students taught by high-level practitioners and distinguished Penn scholars. Learn more about the 12-month Full-time MPA or the 21-month Executive MPA.
Bonner Scholars/Leaders, alumni or staff applying for Fall 2020 will have application fees waived, and those accepted are guaranteed a scholarship of at least $10,000.
For more information, please join Fels for an upcoming information session or contact program director Mindy Zacharjasz (mindyzac@sas.upenn.edu).
The Kline School is partnering with the Bonner Foundation to offer application fee waivers for all eligible applicants, regardless of admission decision. Bonner applicants selected for JD admission and maintain full-time student status will receive a merit-based scholarship at a minimum of $10,000 annually. Bonner applicants selected for MLS admission in the full-time program and maintain full-time status will receive a merit-based scholarship at a minimum of $250 per credit.
The McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University is a top-ranked public policy school located in the center of the policy world in Washington, D.C.
Their mission is to teach students to help design, analyze, and implement smart policies and put them into practice in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, in the U.S. and around the world. The McCourt School flagship degree is the Master in Public Policy. McCourt also offers a Master in International Development Policy, a Master of Science in Data Science for Public Policy, a Master in Policy Management, an Executive Master in Policy Leadership, as well as other dual degree and executive programs.
The McCourt School will waive the application fee for all Bonner Scholar and Leader applicants as well as provide up to two admitted Bonner Scholars or Leaders a $25,000 minimum scholarship award.
For more information about the McCourt School/Bonner Scholarship, please visit here.
The Crummer Graduate School of Business is looking to recruit exceptional Bonner Program graduates with service-learning and leadership experience to pursue an MBA and who can positively impact organizations and understand philanthropy from all perspectives.
Bonner Program participants and alumni who have successfully met the requirements of their scholarship/service who apply to the Early Advantage MBA program at The Crummer Graduate School of Business receive the following partnership benefits:
Guaranteed $10,000 scholarship for admitted Bonner Graduates
Application fee waiver
Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leaders may also be eligible for additional admissions and
leadership-based scholarships from the Crummer Graduate School of Business
The School of International Service (SIS) is a top ten school of international affairs, founded with a mission of waging peace and improving the human condition over 60 years ago. Current students report that the number one reason they chose SIS for their graduate study is our ethos of service. Students come to SIS to prepare themselves for careers that matter—whether by influencing environmental policy; developing creative approaches to alleviate poverty; analyzing foreign policy; interrupting cycles of conflict; or advocating for human rights protections, among other ways of making a positive impact on today’s pressing global issues. Students from the Bonner Program will find a strong community of colleagues who share their service mindset at SIS.
SIS is committed to leveraging its position as one of the largest schools of international affairs in the country to ensure that all voices are at the table when it comes to preparing a next generation of leaders in the field of international affairs that better represents the diversity of our country. SIS welcomes students from all backgrounds and with a variety of experiences because we know that a diverse school and a diverse professional field will be better able to identify creative solutions to the most challenging issues of our time.
The Bonner/SIS Partnership encourages current or former Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leaders interested in pursuing graduate education in international affairs to apply to any one of our 15 Master’s Degree programs. SIS offers an application fee waiver for all Bonner Program students. SIS will also award a $10,000 scholarship to up to five Bonner Scholars/Bonner Leaders who are accepted into eligible SIS residential Master’s programs.
Learn more about SIS here. Questions about the Bonner/SIS partnership can be directed to liz@bonner.org.
The Bonner Foundation is pleased to announce a new graduate school partnership with the Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development.
Vanderbilt Peabody College seeks to enhance the human condition, with a particular focus on children’s learning and development. They accomplish this mission, through the preparation of teachers and leaders; through cycles of research, implementation, and refinement; through service to families, schools, and communities; and through external engagement with professionals, leaders, and policy-makers. Peabody’s focus on learning differences has helped to define the college, as has a reputation for empirical rigor in educational neuroscience; child, family, and community development; special education; the learning sciences; and educational leadership and policy. Peabody is devoted to creating opportunity in an increasingly diverse society and to solving large societal problems.
The 25th Class of Emerson National Hunger Fellows gathered at Rayburn House Office Building on Thursday, February 28, to present their findings from their six months spent working to end hunger with local organizations in communities across the U.S.
Chesterfield Polkey, a 2018 Bonner alum from Macalester College, is a member of this year’s Emerson National Hunger Fellows. He served the first half of his fellowship at Just Harvest, a local community organization in Pittsburgh, PA.
The Bonner Foundation is pleased to announced a new graduate school partnership with University of Virginia's Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
UVA's Batten School at a glance:
As part of the University of Virginia, Batten students enjoy the resources and network of a university that is consistently ranked as one of the top three public schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
Of the 250-plus schools of public policy and administration in the U.S., the Batten School has the distinction of being the only one explicitly committed to teaching leadership—how it works, why context matters in decision-making and which actions lead to tangible results.
Graduates of the Batten School are in high demand. They’re recruited aggressively by government agencies, from the intelligence community to Congress, local interest groups and NGOs, and by private-sector employers from consulting firms to investment-risk analysts.
“The Batten School was created to educate and train the next generation of inspired policy leaders. To advance that mission, we felt that we needed to be more proactive in building relationships with institutions with high-caliber potential applicants, those we believe will thrive not only at Batten, but will be leaders of consequence in the policy world in the long run,” said Jeff Chidester, Batten Executive Director of External Affairs. “And in the aggregate, this effort will help us build the kind of diverse applicant pool we value as a school.”
The Bonner/Batten Partnership encourages current or former Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leaders interested in pursuing graduate education in leadership and public policy to apply to the Batten MPP. The Batten School will provide an application fee waiver for all Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leaders, and for those accepted into the program, a minimum guaranteed fellowship of $10,000/year for Virginia residents and $17,500/year for non-Virginia residents in each of the MPP program’s two years.
Learn more about Batten's MPP program here.
October 29, 2018 - from Congressional Hunger Center Blog
This summer, four Bonner students traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in the pilot cohort of the Zero Hunger Internship Program, a new initiative developed by the Congressional Hunger Center and the Bonner Foundation.
Leveraging the Congressional Hunger Center’s policy education and leadership development expertise and the Bonner Foundation’s extensive network of service-focused leaders, the program gives students in the Bonner network an opportunity to learn about federal anti-hunger policy and gain firsthand experience working with nationally-focused organizations. After the internship, these student leaders bring back their new anti-hunger advocacy skills to their campus communities.
Almost six years ago, I sat down to write two short essays for my City Year application, and today I decided to revisit those essays before writing this one. While the lower quality of my writing from six years ago was not unexpected, I was pleasantly surprised that I still fundamentally agree with several key ideas in those essays.
