Meet our 2025 National Bonner Summer Interns! Michael Deem Jr. from Rider University brings his expertise in film and storytelling, while Spelman College's Olivia Gray focuses on advancing educational equity. Oberlin's Joseph (JP) Liddy contributes his experience in event coordination and community building, and Centre College's Kayla Rogers brings her passion for policy advocacy and civic engagement. Together, these talented student leaders will support the Bonner Foundation's mission while gaining valuable professional experience in the nonprofit sector.
Maranda C. Ward, Ed.D., MPH, Spelman College Bonner Scholar ‘02 Alum has been awarded Campus Compact’s Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement. Dr. Ward is the assistant professor and director of the Equity Department of Clinical Research and Leadership at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
TCNJ’s Bonner Community Scholars Program launched 20 years ago, it started with just 12 Bonner Scholars — students who commit to 300 hours of community service annually in exchange for needs-based scholarships. Now, with close to 100 participants each year, the TCNJ program is one of the largest and most successful in a nationwide network of Bonner college programs.
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.
Kabrillen Jones, Spelman College Class of 2015, is one of the latest Spelman alumnae to join the President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris administration.
In February, Jones was named special assistant in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the U.S. Department of Education.
Eh Nay Thaw ‘18 is originally from Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and spent 10 years in a refuge camp in Thailand before coming to the U.S where he resettled in Louisville, KY. Eh Nay Thaw graduated as a Bonner Scholar alum '18 from Centre College in Danville, KY. Most recently, as a response to the ongoing crisis and military coup in his home country, Eh Nay Thaw has led protests across the country, including in Washington, D.C., Louisville and St. Paul, Minnesota, since February 6, 2021.
Morehouse Bonner Scholar, Julien Serrano-O’Neil ‘21, was selected to serve as a panelist on his hometown news station, News 6 WKMG. The graduating senior represented the United Foundation of Central Florida (UFCF) and the Bonner Office of Community Service at Morehouse College and was joined by other central Florida pioneers for the Black History Month Initiative - Real Talk Town Hall Series, an effort to tackle race issues.
Morehouse, Spelman, and other HBCUs partner with Propel Center to create a first-of-its-kind hub for all 100+ HBCUs to connect students and faculty from across the community. The goal is to provide HBCU students with the knowledge, skills, tools, and resources necessary to transform the nation’s talent pipeline and workforce. Curriculum options will include artificial intelligence and machine learning, agricultural technologies, social justice, entertainment arts, app development, augmented reality, design and creativity, career preparation and entrepreneurship tracks.
The announcement made by Apple highlighted their $25 million gift towards the initiative as part of their $100 Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI) to help dismantle systemic barriers to opportunity and combat injustices faced by communities of color.
Apple’s announcement featured Jared Bailey, Morehouse Bonner Scholar in the Class of 2021, noting that he “has integrated Apple’s coding and creativity curricula into his public health and community service work as part of the school’s partnership with Apple, a collaboration that is expanding further with the launch of the Propel Center.”
First year Bonner service trips have been postponed because of the pandemic. But that hasn’t stopped some from remembering a meeting with Rep. John Lewis on their visit to the Nation’s Capitol.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The first time he saw U.S. Rep. John Lewis in person, James Stukes learned the truth about giants.
Giants come in all sizes.
“It was a surreal moment,” says Stukes, the coordinator for college access and student success who helped lead a group of first-year Bonner Scholars and other Wofford students on trips to Washington, D.C., during Interim in 2018 and 2019. “We were in his office, and it was my first time being in the Capitol. He walked in and the first thing that struck me was seeing in the flesh how small (5-foot-6) he was, but realizing what a huge legacy he had built.”
Rashel Bernal Reyes’ life straddles two New Brunswicks: The City of New Brunswick where she was raised and Rutgers-New Brunswick where she is a student.
“One of my friends dropped me off from class last year. The moment you turn from Rockoff Hall, past the cemetery, there are homeless people,” the sophomore said of an area near her Joyce Kilmer Avenue neighborhood that surprised her peer. “I told them, ‘You’ve finally entered our city. This is where we live. You don’t know because you stay in your area.’ ”
As a first-generation college student and daughter of Mexican immigrants, Reyes said she never considered higher education until community groups and mentors opened her eyes to the possibility in middle school. So when she arrived at Rutgers, Reyes looked for a way to give back to her community and better connect it with her campus.
She found her opportunity at Rutgers’ Collaborative Center for Community-Based Research and Service, which houses the Rutgers Bonner Leaders program. Part of the national Bonner Foundation, this network of college students at 70 colleges and universities is committed to community service and social justice. Through Bonner, Reyes discovered her niche in a familiar place, the New Brunswick Public Library, where until the pandemic hit, she taught conversational English to members of her community.
In the last few years, the Bonner Foundation created the Pipeline Project as a way to support the professional development and advancement of our network of talented civic engagement leaders and professionals. The project has aimed to create greater recognition and intentionality for the work of community engagement and community-engaged learning as a profession and field. We have developed competencies, educational opportunities, and networking based both on literature and practice. Innovative resources, including podcasts, have also been developed.
This year, we have pivoted our work to web-based meetings, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2020, we have launched: A National Community of Practice: The Bonner Pipeline Project Professional Development Seminar Series. Through four cohorts (at different levels), national practitioners and leaders in the community engagement and higher education field are engaging in a national seminar series with peers at other institutions. Participants engage intentionally with literature, theory, and case studies on topics like student development, diversity and inclusion, and institutional change. They discuss its application and practice within their programs, centers, and colleges and universities around the country.
Read more about the Bonner Pipeline Project Professional Development Seminar Series here.
Read about the Emerging Leaders cohort here.
Read about the Young Professionals cohort here.
Read about the Mid-Career Professionals cohort here.
Read about the Senior Leaders cohort here.
Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation and the UVA School of Architecture announce their new partnership that will provide a minimum annual scholarship of $5,000 to Bonner Program alumni admitted to the school’s graduate programs.
The UVA School of Architecture joins a diverse, multi-state consortium of participating colleges and universities who share a common commitment to the Bonner Foundation’s mission to “transform students, communities, and campuses through service.” The Bonner Program, which includes the Bonner Scholars Program and the Bonner Leader Program, provides scholarships to students in exchange for weekly commitment to intensive and meaningful service with local community organizations over their four years as undergraduate students. Bonner students engage in leadership development and social justice topics, leading to a greater awareness how issues that their communities face can be addressed through impactful service, policy, and design.
This summer, as part of the Centre College Bonner Program’s Summers of Service, Kat Duarte ’22 (Lexington, Kentucky) and Christina Smith ’21 (Rineyville, Kentucky) served as Know Your Issue researchers for the Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation.
The Bonner Foundation created a new Summer of Service virtual opportunity for students at any of the Bonner schools. The Know Your Issue project was led by Foundation President Bobby Hackett. This project was intended for students to research an issue in their community they are passionate about solving and create an issue brief to present on how to solve the problem with new policies.
The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues.
Imagining America annually selects a cohort of student artists from IA member institutions who receive a tuition scholarship, mentorship, and financial support for a community arts project, support to attend the IA National Gathering, and other professional development opportunities as part of joining a national working group of engaged photographers and digital media makers.
Ivy Miller, Senior Bonner, Oberlin College
Mai Moua Thao, Junior Bonner, Macalester College
Eight undergraduate students from across IA’s national consortium were chosen as this year’s fellows, including two Bonners. Ivy Miller, a senior studying psychology and studio art at Oberlin College and Mai Moua Thao, a junior studying media and cultural studies at Macalester College.
The goals of the IA/JGS Fellows Program are to elevate photography and digital media as pathways for undergraduate students to pursue their careers and to make a difference in their communities. The program specifically aims to support students for whom economic and family circumstances render such career pathways particularly challenging.
Over the course of the fellowship year, each JGS Fellow will:
• Receive a $2,000 tuition scholarship.
• Receive mentorship and financial support for a community project.
• Attend the Imagining America National Gathering in October. Complimentary registration and travel awards are included.
• Participate in regular, virtual learning exchanges.
• Be connected to the consortium’s national network of scholars, artists, and community organizers.
More information about Imagining America and the JGS Fellowship can be found here.
9/1/20 — The Bonner Foundation is excited to announce the release of new Capacity Building Step-by-Step Guides for students, staff, and faculty to work with communities across the Bonner Network.
Recognizing the unique and challenging circumstances institutions across the nation are facing regarding online and remote community engagement in the fall and beyond, these guides are designed to support Bonner Scholars and Leaders, working individually or in teams, to take on capacity-building projects with their community partners, but they can also be used by staff and faculty in the context of programs, center-led initiatives, and courses. All guides are written to allow both remote and in-person project work with schools, nonprofits, government agencies, and social action causes and projects. As Rachayita Shah, Bonner Foundation’s Community-Engaged Scholarship Director, says, "these guides offer great opportunities for students to leverage their leadership and organizational skills to collaborate with community partners for substantial and sustainable solutions. The process of working on capacity-building projects will also help strengthen campus-community partnerships, and support students’ developmental journey."
These guides are designed to work in concert with a process led by staff and students in which they consult with community partners to identify organizational and program needs, using Capacity-Building Opportunities Form, survey, and focus groups. Additionally, these guides support Bonners to take on capstone projects that they develop over multiple years. All guides are accessible in the Bonner Learning Community (https://bonner.mn.co/) as self-paced Webinars, where students, staff, and faculty can follow them and share their work and ideas using the activity feed. The topics for the guides include survey design, program evaluation, and the creation of an operations manual, among others. See the full list below.
Underprivileged. Low-income. Uneducated. These are words that I heard daily by those who didn't know my plight. I came from a home environment where my parents always encouraged me to reach higher, no matter what my skin looks like, no matter what my religion is, and no matter what my socio-economic status is. Since I was in sixth grade, I knew I wanted to attend a university because education is the key to success. Fortunately, when I learned about Michelle Obama’s Beating the Odds Summit, I was excited, curious, and thankful. I was grateful that someone who looks like me believes that all youth deserve to and should aspire to dream big in life. The summit was an opportunity that should be offered to all teenagers. Mrs. Obama encouraged us to not only grow intellectually, but to grow as human beings by enhancing our networks, reaching out to resources, and discovering our passions. I remember thinking as I left, “It’s not about your major, your extracurriculars, or about where you come from—it's about who you are as a human being and what you are capable of doing.” I left with a mindset of openness and readiness to take on the challenge of college.
Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation announces new graduate school partnership with Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy that will provide a minimum scholarship of $30,000 Bonner alumni admitted to the school.
The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy is home to two internationally recognized graduate-level institutions at Carnegie Mellon University: the School of Information Systems and Management and the School of Public Policy and Management. This unique colocation combined with its expertise in analytics set Heinz College apart in the areas of cybersecurity, health care, the future of work, smart cities, and arts & entertainment. In 2016, INFORMS named Heinz College the #1 academic program for Analytics Education.
Bonner Scholar/Leaders, alumni or staff interested in pursuing a master’s degree are encouraged to apply for admission to any of Heinz College’s master’s degree programs and will receive the following partnership benefits:
Application fee waiver
A minimum scholarship of $30,000 (with further consideration for additional merit-based scholarship support)
Join our email list to receive information about Heinz College. To learn more, prospective students can connect with us today or review details about our application process. You may also email David Eber, the Executive Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, directly at deber@cmu.edu.
For more information on Bonner graduate school partnerships, please contact Liz Brandt, Community Engagement Director, Bonner Foundation at liz@bonner.org.
Leading a community relief program for small businesses devastated by a crippling pandemic was not in Natasha Main’s job description. She had plenty on her plate since becoming executive director late last year of Exponential Impact, a Colorado Springs-based, nonprofit incubator/accelerator for tech startups.
But she’s more than stepped up to the challenge, says Exponential Impact co-founder and chairman Vance Brown, who developed the Survive & Thrive relief program, which is being administered by XI. In fact, he says, “she’s crushing it.”
The novel coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly altered lives. Classes moved online. Virtual graduations. But one thing remains consistent. Bonners still find a way to make positive impacts in their communities.
We have heard from Bonner Programs across the United States about the creative and important work Bonners are doing as a response to COVID-19.
Each summer, the Bonner Foundation welcomes four to eight motivated, passionate, and talented Bonner summer interns from our network of 65+ Bonner programs. During this eleven-week internship, these young professionals bring their Bonner Program experience and share it by developing new resources and strategies for the national network. This year, we are delighted to welcome five exceptional Bonner summer interns:
• Aly Bonilla, University of Lynchburg ‘22
• Grace Fischer, Widener University ‘21
• Robert Green, Macalester College ‘23
• Raj Toor, The College of New Jersey ‘21
• Sunny Toreihi, Rollins College ‘20
You can read each intern’s bio on our Bonner Foundation staff page.
Summer interns responsibilities already shift in focus from year to year. Given the global pandemic situation, we are adjusting to meet current challenges, such as anticipating moving the internship online and focusing on resource development for capacity building projects and capstones (which can be conducted online). The interns will also be involved in supporting the 2020 Virtual Summer Leadership Institute and several other Foundation initiatives, such as Bonner Alumni Network development. We will provide a community cohort experience through regular Zoom calls and other online platforms.
We are delighted to work alongside (even virtually) such talented young professionals this summer, and we know that their work will have a long-lasting impact on the Bonner network.
The Spring 2020 volume of the International Undergraduate Journal for Service-learning, Leadership, and Social Justice features three reflections pieces by Bonner Leaders at Siena College including:
The Journal has been downloaded over 10,600 downloads from 142 countries. The Journal is dedicated to providing undergraduate students a venue to discuss their service-learning projects and experiences.
Dr. Elvis Francois, Oberlin Bonner Scholar Class of 2008 and surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has gone viral during the coronavirus pandemic singing such hopeful anthems as “Imagine.”
Article on NBC News Today Show
Click here to watch more video news stories below.
March 17, 2020 — The Bonner Foundation is pleased to release a new report that showcases the findings from the 2018-2019 implementation of a newly revised Bonner Student Impact Survey from across its national network of 65 institutions. Since 1990, the Bonner Program has provided colleges and institutions with a viable model for supporting college access for diverse, low-income students. Integrated into the work-study and scholarship of their financial aid packages, this cohort-based program enables Bonner students to participate in a rigorous, developmental progression of community engagement which is reinforced with regular training, education, and reflection. The Bonner Program has also helped campuses integrate community engagement campus-wide by providing a variety of models for scaffolded learning in both curricular and co-curricular student life, with student leadership as a core feature.
Read full story here.
Designed to share widely, the report expounds on these findings. Download a PDF copy here.
