Background

In 1997, we began work that was aimed at yielding a comprehensive portrait of the impact of the Bonner Scholars Program on its student participants. Our initial work focused on revising, implementing, and interpreting an omnibus Student Impact Survey (SIS) which had been in previous use by the Foundation. Our findings from the 1997-1998 administration of that survey are contained in our December, l998 report to the Foundation, “Evaluation of Responses by 929 Bonner Scholars to the Bonner Scholar Student Impact Survey and Related Interviews and Focus Groups.”

While data generated by the SIS provided valuable insights into the Bonner Scholar Program (BSP) and useful comparisons with other larger scale studies, the omnibus nature of the SIS meant that we were asking the same questions of first- through fourth-year students. This produced a mismatch between freshman respondents and questions best answered by seniors and vice versa. Moreover, we were concerned that repeating the same omnibus survey year after year would produce significant survey fatigue which could compromise our abilities to get full participation and high quality data.

Hence in 1998 we embarked on the process of designing and implementing the yearly administration and analysis of four more finely targeted surveys:

1. An Incoming Student Survey (ISS) that seeks to clarify the profiles of incoming students on each campus, attending to demographic questions, past service experience, areas in which the BSP aims to engender growth, and the outlook and expectations students bring with them into the BSP. It provides a useful point of reference for measuring the growth of Bonner Scholars over the course of their years in the BSP.

2. A Midpoint Impact Survey (MIS) gauges impact of the first two years of Bonner participation, including the summer of service experience, while yielding a view of the program from those who are in the midst of their Bonner involvement.

3. The Graduating Student Impact Survey (GSIS) gathers data on the full four-year impact of the program. This survey focuses both on impact and introduces questions regarding outlook and plans beyond college.

4. The Bonner Alumni Survey evolved from a series of focus groups with alumni aimed at generating a set of survey questions grounded in alumni experience. The survey is available on this website.