16 Bonners Named Newman Civic Fellows

16 Bonners Named Newman Civic Fellows

Bonners from 16 campuses in our national network were among those who received the 2018 Newman Civic Fellows Award from the Campus Compact.

Zero Hunger Initiative Launched with CHC

Zero Hunger Initiative Launched with CHC

The Bonner Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of a new partnership with the the Congressional Hunger Center. Through the Zero Hunger Initiative, Bonners will be able to deepen their learning around issues of food security, hunger and poverty and be exposed to ways they can become more effective advocates for promoting policies that address food security and reduce hunger in their campus communities.

Bonners Write Novels, Too!

Bonners Write Novels, Too!

Becca Spence Dobias, Guilford Bonner Scholar '08, just wrote a novel titled "Rock of Ages." It tells the story of "an LA transplant struggles over whether to return to rural Appalachia after her father’s death and an abusive relationship. A feisty rule breaker and her abuelita, and maybe a little bit of magic, help her understand the meaning of home."

First-year Bonner Tells His Story to the Greensboro City Council

First-year Bonner Tells His Story to the Greensboro City Council

First-year Bonner Scholar Saul Rodriguez from Guilford College spoke to the Greensboro City Council which is considering a resolution to support the DREAM Act.  Saul "shared how this decision could affect his life and why the city's support is so important to him.

Averett Bonner Leader Wins Dan River Nonprofit Network’s 2017 Volunteer of the Year Award

Averett Bonner Leader Wins Dan River Nonprofit Network’s 2017 Volunteer of the Year Award

Each year the Dan River Nonprofit Network holds a Volunteer of the Year Contest to celebrate those throughout the community that go above and beyond with their engagement in the Dan River Region. For the second year in a row, an Averett University student took home the win.

Taylor Doss, Averett sophomore business major, won the 2017 Volunteer of the Year award, voted on by the public. Doss is an Averett Bonner Leader and a cheerleader for the University.

Our Harvey Hero - Maria De La Cruz

Our Harvey Hero - Maria De La Cruz

This profile of Maria De La Cruz, a Bonner alum from Middlesex County College '04 and The  College of New Jersey '06, appeared in the Fall 2017 MCC Alumni magazine (page 21).

To most New Jerseyans, the wreckage of Hurricane Harvey is mostly sorrowful images on TV and sad stories in the newspaper. 

For Maria De La Cruz ’04, it is her reality. 

Bonner Campus, Edgewood College, Receives Best in Class Award for "All In Challenge"

Bonner Campus, Edgewood College, Receives Best in Class Award for "All In Challenge"

At the first-ever ALL IN Challenge Awards ceremony to recognize colleges and universities committed to increasing college student voting rates, Edgewood College received two Best in Class Awards.

The College is recognized for having the highest student voting rate among four-year, private institutions category, as well as within the four-year, small, private institution category. Edgewood College also earned a Silver Seal for achieving a student voting rate between 60 and 69 percent.

More than 30 awards were announced at the event that took place at the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. 

New Bonner Program at University of Nevada - Reno

 New Bonner Program at University of Nevada - Reno

The University of Nevada, Reno Honors Program has implemented a Bonner Leader Program, developed by the Bonner Foundation, to provide students with financial support and opportunities to engage with their community. The program aims to allow first-generation, underrepresented, and/or low-income students the option of going to college and giving back to their community through service initiatives. 

Bonner Scholar Helps Support Grassroots Efforts in Kentucky

Bonner Scholar Helps Support Grassroots Efforts in Kentucky

Part of the prestigious Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP) internship program, Shelby Boyd ’18, a Bonner Scholar, worked with a statewide organization called Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) this summer.

The grassroots organization, with 10,000 members across Kentucky, aims to empower individuals to affect change, focusing on tax justice, environmental issues, healthcare and affordable housing, among other challenges.

As a community organizing intern, Boyd spent her time coordinating member meetings, training in tax justice and communication and planning events, specifically the fourth annual Smoketown Getdown for Democracy to celebrate Louisville’s Smoketown neighborhood.

Lynchburg College Bonner Named Sommerville Scholar

Lynchburg College Bonner Named Sommerville Scholar

Emily Horton ’18 said she “cried a little” when she found out that she’d been selected the 2017 Sommerville Scholar. The annual award, given since 1965 in memory of former professor Richard Clarke Sommerville, is the most prestigious academic accolade presented at Lynchburg.

A Bonner Leader,  Horton has volunteered with area nonprofits, among them Lynchburg Grows, Lynchburg Daily Bread, and the local humane society. This year, as a senior intern, she’s helping facilitate the program and run meetings.

Brown University Bonner Community Fellow Bilal Lafta '20 Excited to Work with Beat the Streets

Brown University Bonner Community Fellow Bilal Lafta '20 Excited to Work with Beat the Streets

This year, Swearer Center students are working in partnership with more than 90 community organizations. Some of these organizations have been community partners of the Swearer Center for years, others for just weeks. Bonner Community Fellow Bilal Lafta '20 is working on building a relationship between Swearer and Beat the Streets, an organization that works to bring after-school wrestling programs into middle schools across the state. He talks here about why Beat the Streets' work is so important and some of the exciting possibilities of the new partnership.

Three DePauw Bonners Win Prestigious Gilman International Scholarships

Three DePauw Bonners Win Prestigious Gilman International Scholarships

Five DePauw University students will spend the Fall 2017 semester studying abroad after winning Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships. Three of the five are Bonner Scholars at DePauw.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad. Such international exchange is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world.

Lynchburg Bonner Summer Internships through Shepherd Higher Education Consortium

Lynchburg Bonner Summer Internships through Shepherd Higher Education Consortium

For eight weeks, Marissa Bucklew ’18 worked with the Atlanta Community Food Bank and its many community gardens, while Elise Togbe ’18 spent her summer in Louisville, teaching refugees and immigrants at Americana Community Center. Both internships were sponsored by the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty.

The internships connected well with the mission of Lynchburg College’s Bonner Leader Program, in which students spend two or three years working in the community on issues like education, hunger, homelessness, or sustainability. “This is an extension of what Bonner is about, understanding and becoming more involved in poverty,” Anne Gibbons, director of LC’s Bonner Leader Program. “SHECP has sent interns all over the country to organizations and nonprofits, working to address poverty.”

Carson Newman Bonner's Puppet Show Communicates Important Message to Children

Carson Newman Bonner's Puppet Show Communicates Important Message to Children

Kieran Braun has a lifelong love of puppets and puppeteering. He chose to entertain children with his Puppet Project as part of his Senior Capstone Service Project related to being a Carson-Newman Bonner Scholar. He has made his puppet shows part of a larger message to help children to be kind to one another, and to care for the environment and the animals who inhabit that environment. The puppet characters are Kieran’s own creations, and the positive messages come from his heart.

 

Showing Up: Jonathan Sheperd-Smith ’18, Davidson Bonner, Leads In Service

Showing Up: Jonathan Sheperd-Smith ’18, Davidson Bonner, Leads In Service

Jonathan Sheperd-Smith, an economics and anthropology double major, doesn't believe in service for the sake of service. The Bonner Scholar, Brown Scholar, Terry Fellow and football captain from Atlanta, Georgia, uses his service requirements at Davidson to engage more deeply with the community.

As part of his work with the Bonner Scholars Program, Sheperd-Smith created the DuBoisian World Scholars Society. The group, with a name inspired by W.E.B. DuBois, focuses on closing the information gap for low income minority kids in the hope of inspiring them to become stakeholders in their educational experiences.

Christopher Newport Bonner Wins Social Work Student of the Year Award

Christopher Newport Bonner Wins Social Work Student of the Year Award

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Virginia Chapter has awarded Christopher Newport University senior Abbey Yoder the 2017 Bachelor’s in Social Work Student of the Year Award. Yoder was recognized for her outstanding academic work, leadership qualities and accomplishments in field work.

Yoder, a Bonner Service Scholar, works with a local refugee resettlement agency to improve the lives of Bhutanese refugees in Newport News.

Meet Jasmine - Bonner Summer Intern

Meet Jasmine - Bonner Summer Intern

Hello! My name is Jasmine Rangel and a month ago, my elevator speech would have started a bit like: “I am a current student and Bonner Scholar at Berry College in Rome Georgia, working towards my degree in Political Science.” Recently the term, “alumna” that was given to me at the beginning of May 2017, has come to launch me into an unknown world of new adjustments, adventures, learning and growing experiences. Aside from the professional aspect of my identity, I am originally from the Atlanta, Georgia area and have hobbies that vary from writing to record-store pursuing. I also consider myself a very amateur coffee connoisseur, a committed advocate to empowering causes, and a champion for the craft of formulating perfect playlists. 

ne of the things that I am looking forward to the most is completely immersing myself in the world of Bonner, learning the initiatives occurring at each and every campus all over the world, and providing the brain power to the foundation of initiatives necessary to mobilize everything that stands to be Bonner. Through the power of social media, I hope that we will be able to integrate the National Bonner Network in a way that makes even the furthest of campuses seem like the most familiar friends.

Meet Hunter - Bonner Summer Intern

Meet Hunter - Bonner Summer Intern

Hey y’all! My name is Hunter Malone. I am a Junior at Berea College, located in beautiful Berea, Kentucky.  I am studying Sociology and History, with hopes of later working in student leadership development and Non-profit management. I am originally from Bristol, Tennessee. I love the outdoors and am an avid hiker. I enjoy kayaking, hammocking, and going on spontaneous road-trip adventures! I have been in the Bonner Scholar program for 2 years now. Thanks to the Bonner program, I was introduced to social activism and have had the opportunity to learn and serve in ways I would have never imagined!

Through my time at the Bonner Foundation, I am hoping to learn best practices to better serve my community back home as well as help create and implement these best practices across the national network. I am looking forward to playing a small role in strengthening our network and, in the process, strengthening the impact the Bonner program can have in communities across America and throughout the world.

Meet Baneen - Bonner Summer Intern

Meet Baneen - Bonner Summer Intern

My name is Baneen Al-Akashi and I was born and raised in Erie, PA. I am the oldest of four children and the only daughter. Erie is a wonderful city that is very diverse and is well known for its connection to the lake. My college path was decided based on the Bonner program that is at Allegheny College. There I have been serving as a Bonner since I started at Allegheny and continue to grow because of the experiences that are presented to me.

This summer working at the foundation I am hoping to gain the skills and experiences that I am able to take back to our campus and apply that knowledge at our Bonner program. I am also hoping to build relationships with my fellow interns as well as the staff here at the foundation that is both memorable and lasting.