Community Engaged Capstone, Reflection, and Learning Showcase

Friday, June 5 — 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Find a cluster of student and/or faculty presentations that interests you. You’ll hear from Bonner Seniors sharing their experiences as part of a culminating reflective presentation or discussing their capstone projects. You’ll hear from faculty talking about their community engaged teaching, research, and scholarship. Find the mix you're interested in by reviewing the descriptions. Make sure to pre-register! Also, visit the pages in the Bonner Learning Community to find presenter bios, photos, and more.

ADDRESSING THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Join this session to hear from two students who conducted research to better understand issues related to the incarceration of people in the United States and the intersecting issues of economics, race, ethnicity, education, class, social justice, and policy. You’ll hear from:

• Thomas Fodor, Bonner Scholar, Class of 2020, from Carson-Newman University

• Emily Thomas, Bonner Leader, Class of 2020, from Ursinus College

Click to register for this 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET session on Friday, June 5.

Community-engaged learning to improve health

Join this great session to hear and learn from two faculty members, representing Siena College and Ursinus College, who both taught community-engaged courses that addressed health issues. Both professors will share their experiences, syllabi, and reflections. You’ll hear from:

• Dr. Shannon Draucker, Professor of English, who teaches HIV/AIDS in Literature and Pop Culture at Siena College

• Dr. Cathy Van de Ruit, Assistant Professor of Health and Exercise Physiology as Ursinus College who teaches Community Health at Ursinus College

Click here to register for this 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET session on Friday, June 5.

EXAMINGING identity, equity, and justice THROUGH COMMUNITY-ENGAGED LEARNING

Join this session to hear from a student and faculty member about their work and projects involving community-engaged teaching, learning, and research on issues of identity, equity, and justice.

• Rose Denor, Class of 2020 from Carson-Newman College, will discuss her research on immigration that was part of her capstone project and share her Wix site that she developed.

• Ted Gordon, Professor at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s, will discuss the development of a new community-engaged learning course, intended to be part of a pathway in social justice. Gordon also works with Native American and immigrant communities in the Minnesota area.

Click here to register for this 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET session on Friday, June 5.

Leaving a Legacy by Building Organizational Capacity

Join this great session to hear from two Bonner Seniors who designed and implemented capacity building projects for their community partners. Ms. Dodd developed a donor database for United Way. Ms. Toreihi examined policy and practice around abortion for women's organizations.

• Jacquelyn Dodd, Averett College (Donor Database for United Way)

• Sunny Toreihi, Rollins College (Reproductive Rights Education for Planned Parenthood) 

Click here to register for this 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET session on Friday, June 5.

Strengthening Their Bonner Programs through CapstonES AND CAPACITY-BUILDING Projects

Join this session to hear from two students who worked on projects to strengthen and improve their own Bonner Programs, which is also something that students can often do remotely. Ms. Bockoven focused on Stetson’s Junior Bonner Capstone project and process, working closely with the Bonner Program coordinator, director, and senior interns. Together, the team restructured Stetson’s capstone process to ensure that more students can design and implement capacity-building projects with partners. Ms. McFadden built a website for the Bonner Program at Spelman (and is also doing a longer workshop to teach others how).

• Carson Bockoven, Class of 2021 at Stetson University

• Zari McFadden, Class of 2020 at Spelman College

Click here to register for this 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET session on Friday, June 5.

Student-Led Research on Town-Gown Relations

Join this session to hear about a research project conducted by two students, as their Bonner Capstone, at Christopher Newport University. These students designed a study to better understand town-gown relations and the sources of tension between students and residents in communities surrounding the university. They present their study, its findings, and they advocate for a way that other students can carry out research and service-learning projects to burst the campus bubble and support greater understanding and collaboration.

• Caitlyn Snead, Christopher Newport University

• Dawson Brown, Christopher Newport University  

Click here to register for this 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET session on Friday, June 5.

Writers-in-the-Community Training & Residencies

This course, which was new to Brown this year but builds on the instructor's decades of experience at the University of Denver and in community settings, operates mostly “in the field.” We spend some weeks discussing pedagogical approaches to teaching creative writing in community settings, then train in residence, observing a poetry residency at a local elementary school, with visits to other community settings as well. We continue to discuss pedagogy, classroom practices and management, administrator-writer relations, and all other necessary logistical planning throughout the semester. The original plan was that by week 7, students would engage in their own writing residencies in pairs or small teams, working in a community setting of their choosing (K-12 school, shelter, library, etc.). Because of the pandemic, we adapted engagement activities to include, for instance, the development of online video workshop resources.

• Eleni Sikelianos, Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University

Click here to register for this 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET session on Friday, June 5.