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.
This profile on Sharolyn Wynter '07 by Frank McCoy appeared in Spelman College's Fall 2017 alumni magazine (page 15).
In 2003, as an incoming Spelman first- year student, Sharolyn Wynter was selected to be one of the school’s 80 Bonner Scholars. Wynter’s community service placement site was Raising Expectations Inc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My name is Asia Robinson and I am a rising Junior at Allegheny College located in Meadville, Pennsylvania. I’m currently studying Community and Justice with a minor in Chinese Language and Culture. I have a passion for traveling, concerts and animals outside of my daily life of school and studying.
During this summer internship, I want to gain stronger planning and communication skills back to my campus and a greater sense of professionalism. I hope to use the resources I learn from this summer to bring together the campus community with the civic engagement office, so we can build a campus dedicated to giving and learning from the community around us.
The Journey program, a life skills class for students and parents referred by Jefferson County Juvenile Court, is a proven confidence builder for at-risk teens. The program, designed by Youth Services Officer Michelle Nix, graduated 37 teens this school year, most of them referred for truancy — and boasts an 85 percent recidivism record.
This year, four graduates voluntarily returned to complete the program again. There were three sessions (fall, winter, and spring), and each included an excursion trip lead by Tommy Clapp of B.O.L.D. Counseling in Jefferson City. Four Bonner Scholar mentors from Carson Newman University assisted: senior Hannah Pierce, junior Nick Cockrell, and new mentors Tanner Shivley and Diana Garber.
A political science and Africana studies double major from Terre Haute, Sarah Fears established the Intercultural Conversation Facilitator program in DePauw's Office of Multicultural Student Services. As a Bonner Scholar, she served the Greencastle community by teaching English as a Second Language at Tzouanakis Elementary School and serving as community service soordinator for the school's Student Friend program, which provides mentors to third-through-fifth graders.
Parker Lawson, a 2015 graduate of Centre College, has won a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, created in 2000 with a $210 million endowment from Bill and Melinda Gates.
A Spanish and international studies double major from Prospect, Lawson was elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa, made the dean’s list and was named to honor societies in Spanish and political science. Lawson was also a Bonner Scholar at Centre, which requires a minimum of 10 hours of community service each week.
Stockton University junior Jodie Davis, a Public Health major and Chemistry minor, has earned a fully funded scholarship with United Planet to travel to Ghana for eight weeks this summer to work on global health service projects.
Davis was the only student in the nation to be fully funded in this competitive educational scholarship opportunity, which was made possible through the Bonner Foundation national network and her work as an AmeriCorps Bonner Leader in the university’s Office of Service-Learning.
