In July 2024, Allison Schultz, Director of Siena College’s Center for Academic Community Engagement (ACE), defended her doctoral research titled Listen to the Experts: What Happens When We Create Space for Authentic Student Voice in the Bonner Service Leaders Program? She completed her doctorate through the School of Education at Northeastern University in Boston, MA.
The participatory action research-focused doctoral program offered Allison the chance to work with her students, the administrative team at ACE, and other campus and network stakeholders, to explore together why students join Bonner and what helps them to thrive in the program.
Allison shared
When I joined ACE in 2015, I was struck by how some Bonners clearly experienced transformational growth but that others seemed to be doing the bare minimum or quitting before graduation. This observation led me to my initial research questions about why students join Bonner and how we can help them thrive and persist.
In her first round of research, she interviewed current Bonners, program alumni, and faculty and administrators who work closely with Bonner Service Leaders at Siena. Three themes emerged as to why students join the program, including:
The opportunity to build community including making friends and identifying mentors (both peer and adult)
The ability to connect the dots between academic goals and professional pursuits
The belief that they are having an impact on campus, in the Bonner program, and in the wider community
She found that students persisted and thrived in Bonner if they felt they were on track to fulfill one or more of these goals. When interviewing students and alums, in addition to these three reasons for joining the program, she found that students built a strong commitment to Bonner if they could articulate how the program was having a positive impact on their own academic, professional, and/or personal development.
Data analysis from the first round of interviews helped her see the need to embed assessment points into the Bonner program at Siena College so that students could benefit from a continuous learning and improvement loop.
In her second round of research, Allison implemented a series of collective sense-making workshops (CSW) that built on students’ interest in having an impact in the Bonner program. These workshops also provided a feedback loop for the program.
There were two research questions that guided the CSWs. First, how can we create a safe and supportive space for student voices in the Bonner Service Leaders program? And second, once a safe and supportive space is established, how can it contribute to students' ability to have an authentic impact on the Bonner Service Leaders program?
River Story Example: Artistic Expression of a Student’s Bonner Journey
Based on artifacts from the CSWs and interviews with student participants post-CSWs, three main themes that supported the first research question emerged regarding creating a safe and supportive space for student voices. Bonners clearly noted how important it was for the facilitators to:
Build community throughout the CSWs. This helped students to support each and to share common experiences.
Normalize reflective practices so that participants spend intentional time thinking about the common experiences of the Bonner program and consider their own journey in the program and how it has impacted their own growth.
Create an environment that encourages students to open their minds to perspectives different from their own including holding time and space to learn from each other and making sure that all perspectives are heard.
Once a safe and supportive space was established, students were able to:
Contribute authentically including being comfortable with providing productive and critical feedback and the agency that they could be part of the change
Consider and generate multiple ideas and suggestions for program improvement without financial, procedural, or other constraints
Continue the process in this and other environments—students asked for more collective sense-making opportunities and seemed more confident in advocating for themselves and others
Students Contributing Ideas about Different Aspects of a Bonner Program through “Collective Sense-Making” Workshop
Allison identified a number of key findings from the CSWs which included the following:
Leveraging students’ reasons for joining the Bonner program can contribute to the program and students’ eventual success and retention
Activities that foster community and relationship building can contribute to a safe and supportive space for student voices
Incorporating a variety of means for students to contribute and communicate their experiences and ideas can facilitate greater student contribution
Creating a safe and supportive space for respectful collective sense-making contributes to students’ agency to contribute to the program
Based on her research, Siena’s Bonner Service Leaders program has made some small tweaks, as well as big changes. These include integrating CSW into the program’s annual training grid and building a capstone library. They also increased “touch points” or conversations about Siena’s year-long required capstone project and the first-year trip to Appalachia.
Allison and her team are also looking into how these findings can be helpful to other programs at ACE and on Siena’s campus. For example, she is working with the VISTA program leader to embed the CSW model into that program as well.
Allison will be presenting her research at the Fall Bonner Network meeting (November 10 - 13). Please join her session to discuss and share ideas about how increased student voice can impact student agency and confidence and lead to increased student success and program retention.