B. Comprehensive Placement Process

1. Steps in Placement Process

(a) Overview

The basic steps of the placement process are as follows:

1. Agencies submit Requests for Partnerships and all relevant Service Opportunity job descriptions.
2. Students review the Service Opportunity job descriptions to help assist them in determining which placement they want to pursue.
3. Student and agency site supervisor complete Community Learning Agreement, including the student’s service objectives for the semester or summer.
4. Student records service and training/enrichment hours in Hours Log bi-weekly, submitting signed Hours Logs where required.
5. At the end of each semester or summer, the students summarizes the impact of their service activities a in Service Activities Summary Log.
6. Finally, the student and agency site supervisor complete Community Learning Agreement Review at the end of each semester or summer.

(b) Detailed Steps

It may be useful to see these same steps from the perspective of an individual student:

1. With assistance from the Bonner Coordinator and/or student project coordinator(s), a student should review Service Opportunity job descriptions found in Bonner Program Web-Based Reporting System (Bonner WBRS) or a printed Community Service Opportunities Book to identify which service opportunities interest them most and align most closely with their service, competency, academic, and vocational/career goals.
2. Student contacts the lead person on that service placement to set up a meeting to learn more about placement opportunity. This contact person would be listed in the job description and may be a student project coordinator or, the appropriate community partner.
3. If the two parties have agreed that this would be a good match, they would then complete the Community Learning Agreement form. During this process, the student and site supervisor revisit the job description, making adjustments where appropriate and then set service and learning objectives for the semester or summer.
4. Student then begins his or her service placement.
5. The student use the Hours Log to enter their service and training hours every week or two using the Bonner WBRS. If preferred, the student or site supervisor may use a separate, hard copy hours log form to document the hours (sometimes these are kept at the site for easy access), but the Bonner Foundation still requires that the hours be logged into the Bonner WBRS system. The Bonner WBRS can generate a completed hours log with a space for signatures by both the student and the site supervisor. The community partner signs this form at the end of the semester.
6. During the semester, the student should keep a service activities log or notebook that helps determine if they are meeting objectives for the semester. The student should also pay special attention to collecting information that documents their successes and challenges in meeting these objectives.
7. At the end of the semester, the student summarizes the impact of their service activities using the Summary of Service Activities Log on the Bonner WBRS. This report is printed out and signed by the community partner, too.
8. At the end of the semester, the student and the placement supervisor complete the Community Learning Agreement Review utilizing data from hours log, service activities report, reflections, and other relevant project information. In addition, the student and placement site supervisor discuss whether or not they need to make any adjustments to their Community Learning Agreement for the following semester or summer (if they are staying at the same site doing the same position).