The Bonner Foundation has selected five exceptional interns for the 2024 National Bonner Summer Internship program. These interns, from various universities and diverse academic backgrounds, will contribute to the Bonner network by developing resources, assisting in event planning, and working on strategic initiatives. The Bonner Foundation looks forward to the unique contributions these young leaders will make to the network.
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.
Today, Pelaez, a Davidson Bonner Scholar, works at the Charlotte Community Health Clinic, bringing healthcare, testing and more to low income and underinsured populations in Charlotte, as she prepares to apply to physician assistant programs.
Davidson College Bonner alumnus, Xzavier Killings’ 16 and other researchers have found spikes in firearm injuries sustained by and inflicted by children during the pandemic, a time when gun sales to first-time owners also were rising. Increased rates of firearm ownership, school closures, and a suspected decrease in supervision during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic place young children at increased risk of firearm injuries. They measured trends in firearm injuries in children and inflicted by children discharging a firearm during the pandemic and correlated these changes with a rise in firearm acquisition.
Three Bonner Scholars from Davidson engaged with the Freedom School this summer, as profiled in this Davidson.edu article.
TJ Elliott, linebacker and sociology major, has developed a new appreciation for teachers.
He’d worked with kids as a summer camp counselor, a tutor, and football coach for his little brother’s Pop Warner team. Teaching as a Freedom Schools servant leader intern this summer opened a new view.
Leading a classroom of energetic six to eight-year-olds every day – with a mission to improve their literacy skills – kept the Davidson College class of ’21 football player and Bonner Scholar from Charlotte playing a nimble mix of defense and offense.
President Carol Quillen participates in Freedom Schools' Harambee.
“I always thought it was about managing the class and helping kids redirect their behavior when they need that,” said Elliott, of Charlotte. “I wasn’t thinking about making lesson plans and all the preparation involved. It made me realize that we don’t pay teachers nearly enough.”
The Princeton in Latin American Fellowship connects recent college graduates with one-year, service-oriented positions at nonprofit and community-based service organizations in Latin America. The fellowship is designed to promote education, leadership, and engagement within communities all throughout Latin America. Elizabeth Prosser, a current Princeton in Latin America Fellow based in the Dominican Republic, shared her experience in the program and gives some application tips.
Elizabeth Prosser recently graduated from Davidson College with a B.A. in Hispanic Studies with a minor in Francophone Studies. Over the course of her college career, she held multiple internships and service positions aligning with her passions for education reform, nonprofit work, Spanish, and international relations. She now explores her love for these subjects through a Princeton in Latin America Fellowship, working as the Operations and Development Fellow at Yspaniola, an education-based nonprofit in the Dominican Republic. Afterwards, she will pursue a Master’s in Latin American Studies at Stanford University in order to gain a more holistic understanding of Latin America and its history, culture, and challenges.
Read full story here.
Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, ‘03, Bonner Scholar alum is profiled on Davidson College’s website as a “game changer: inspiring leaders to transform the world.”
“As a Bonner Scholar, I did a community service project per semester and read a lot on the subject of service. The process required lots of self-analysis – finding a cause, a purpose. It was very objective – who are you as a person, what are your skills, what can you do?”
Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, Esq. is the Executive Director of Financial Sector Deepening Uganda. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Hoja Law Group, a boutique legal consultancy that represents clients in corporate governance, commercial and public law matters. Jacqueline served as Legal Counsel and Assistant to the CEO and President of the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) and Chief Legal and Investor Relations at Microcred Africa. She was also an advisor to the Director General of the World Trade Organization on matters of trade, economic integration and global governance and has been an Advisor to several African governments on matters related to trade, investment and energy.
“A game changers are people who dare to do things differently, to take risks, because of the change they want to see in society. They want to change minds, and change the way things are done, and they are willing to risk speaking truth to power.” “When I think of game changers traditionally, I think of Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela – but increasingly, the game changers I see and deal with are young entrepreneurs, mostly in the tech space, seeking solutions to critical problems within this society. They’re coming up with mobile apps to help farmers in agriculture, finding ways to aggregate data in order to advise policymakers, developing mobile apps that serve as payment systems. From my perspective, these game changers are younger and not necessarily putting themselves at risk, but they’re doing innovative things to solve social problems.”
Read her full profile here on Davidson College’s website.
In recognition of Campus Compact‘s 30th anniversary in 2015-16, the National Campus Compact's Board of Directors asked member presidents and chancellors to join in signing an Action Statement, a declaration of shared commitment to the public purposes of higher education and a promise to develop a Campus Civic Action Plan to realize those purposes more fully.
So far, nine schools in the Bonner Network have completed their Civic Action Plans:
Jonathan Sheperd-Smith, an economics and anthropology double major, doesn't believe in service for the sake of service. The Bonner Scholar, Brown Scholar, Terry Fellow and football captain from Atlanta, Georgia, uses his service requirements at Davidson to engage more deeply with the community.
As part of his work with the Bonner Scholars Program, Sheperd-Smith created the DuBoisian World Scholars Society. The group, with a name inspired by W.E.B. DuBois, focuses on closing the information gap for low income minority kids in the hope of inspiring them to become stakeholders in their educational experiences.
Davidson Senior Melodie Mendez is among 17 North Carolina student winners of the 2012 "Community Impact Award" from Campus Compact, a national coalition that promotes civic engagement in higher education. The award was announced just days before she was also named as senior class recipient of the college's Goodwin-Exxon award for high standards of character, friendliness and consideration for others.
Our student recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award goes to a young woman from Davidson, North Carolina. She is an English major and ethnic studies concentrator. She has spent four years as a Bonner Scholar, and according to one, is the leader within the group, organizing the ideas and initiatives of her peers to bring to action. Her primary focus is on youth advocacy, whether tutoring at a local elementary school, The LEARNWORKS afterschool program at Ada Jenkins, or as a Servant Leader for the Freedom Schools in the summer.
People in the Davidson area and beyond who are interested in public policy now have a great new resource, thanks to the college's Bonner Scholars. The Bonner Scholars recently unveiled their latest project–a comprehensive website called PolicyOptions.org focused on bringing together in one place information regarding public policy, policy changes and social services.
Naomi Coffman '16 and Rashaun Bennett '16 are the Bonners primarily responsible for keeping the website up to date.
The project began at Davidson in the fall of 2013. Kristin Booher of the Center for Civic Engagement office encouraged Coffman, along with Zoe Williams '14 and Philip Yu '16, to get involved, and Coffman immediately saw the potential.
"We went on our Alternative Break (AB) trip to help teach schoolchildren, but I think we learned more than they did," said senior Bonner Scholar Rebecca Worrell.
Worrell and 13 other Davidson students went to Selma, Ala., for spring break. During five busy days they worked at three schools, visited sites that are historically significant to the Civil Rights Movement and participated in non-violence training courses.
With a $10,000 grant and an idea Telavive Taye '17 returned to her childhood home of Hawassa, Ethiopia, to create an enterprise she hoped would promote peace and prosperity.
The recipient of a Projects for Peace grant from the Davis United World Scholars Program, Taye established a car wash managed completely by and for youth, with the goal of engaging them in a productive business in a growing city with high rates of unemployment. In fact, official estimates place the country's rate of youth unemployment at more than 50 percent.
Xzavier Killings '16 doesn't settle for anything less than his best effort, and he constantly strives to contribute more to the Davidson community. The senior biology major, track and field captain and 2015 homecoming king from Roebuck, S.C. recently broke the school record in the long jump–just one of the many ways he will leave a legacy on campus long after commencement.
In addition to his passion for athletics, community service is a cornerstone of Killings' life on campus. As a Bonner Scholar, he performs 280 hours of community service per year, averaging 10 hours per week on top of already demanding academic and athletic commitments. He served as Davidson's congressional representative for the national Bonner Scholars program, attending a national conference and engineering new civic engagement programs at Davidson.
Rashaun Bennett '16 has received two nationally competitive fellowships that will further support his aspirations for a career in public policy. Selected from more than 600 applicants, he is among 58 winners of a Harry S. Truman Scholarship and is the fifth Davidson student to receive the award in the past eight years. He joins Richmond Blake (2008), Darrell Lamont Scott (2009), Alexandra Francis (2011) and Haley Hardie (2014).
Dec. 3 was a big day at Allenbrook Elementary School in Charlotte. The school hosted its first-ever student art show, and unveiled a large wall mural created through Davidson College connections. Bonner Scholar Morgan Mercer '18 worked at Allenbrook last summer as an Education Scholar. Among other duties, the school administration asked her to envision ways of "enhancing student culture." Mercer settled on the idea of a large wall mural, and obtained a Bonner Community grant to fund the project. Mercer's friend Stuart Robertson '15, who last year painted a large mural in the Alvarez College Union, agreed to work on the Allenbrook mural as well.
