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.
Several DePauw students, along with Anna Sherrill, the coordinator of community-based learning at DePauw, attended the 2023 IMPACT Conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to learn about civic engagement and community service. The Bonner Foundation facilitated the students' connection to the conference, and since then, several students have had the opportunity to attend. See full story.
Paul Remmler ’23 spent the summer as an intern at the Putnam County Museum conducting community-based research and at the Putnam County Library assisting with training and program development.
Remmler, from Shelbyville, Indiana, began working at the museum as a DePauw Stone Scholar, a program for first-year students that focuses on civic leadership. He continued his work through the Bonner Scholar Program, a community service-based scholarship program.
During Remmler’s sophomore year, he helped the museum staff research and design a small exhibit on nitroglycerin and its role in rail transport. “As part of the research, I also looked at crime in the county in relation to nitroglycerin transport, the rail systems, the role it played as well as if there were any accidents related to its transport,” he said.
“The information was so interesting, and I loved putting it together. There’s a very passionate community in the area for railroad history.
“My work with the DePauw Gaming Club led to me exploring the beneficial social contributions that gaming can provide, inspiring my work with the Putnam County Library, while my love for the people of the community and museum staff inspires me to continue working with them.”
Remmler founded the nonprofit Putnam County Gaming Initiative, through which he hopes to learn how to effectively manage community programming efforts that positively affect a community. His goal? To gain valuable entrepreneurial skills so he can open and operate his own businesses one day.
Remmler credits his success at DePauw to the faculty members he has worked closely with. “Professor Hiroko Chiba has been incredibly understanding, flexible and supportive of me exploring areas of interest while still providing a gentle hand to ensure I stay on track,” he said. “Professor Harry Brown has relentlessly supported my interests, particularly in the area of game design, and helped me find ways to explore those interests in an academic context.”
Remmler said his post-graduation plans are open to opportunity but may include continuing his work in Greencastle, particularly with the gaming initiative and DePauw.
Brandon Collins ’23, a neuroscience and global health double major, chose DePauw because of the small class sizes, tight-knit community and opportunity to be a Bonner scholar and environmental fellow.
Collins, from Clarksville, Tennessee, began volunteering at the Putnam County Health Department in fall 2021, assisting in the COVID-19 vaccine clinic as part of his community service requirement for the Bonner Scholar Program.
His interest developed into a passion, he said.
And since then, he has become increasingly involved with the health department.“The experience has been nothing short of highly rewarding and insightful,” he said. “The people I work with have become more and more like family and they are always incredibly supportive of my professional and academic goals.”
In February he was asked to work on a landfill well testing project. “I compiled data that had been collected over nine years and was able to present the results to the Putnam County Board of Health in May,” he said. “There I made a point of emphasizing that there were certain heavy metal concentrations that were above minimum detection levels that would have been unsafe for drinking and bathing.” Since the presentation, he has been able to get approval for furthering the investigation into how that might be affecting residences nearby.
Collins said many faculty and staff members have guided him in significant ways. “Professor (Sharon) Crary (chemistry and biochemistry) was the reason I ended up majoring in global health after taking her intro course. She and professor Susanne Biehle (psychology and neuroscience) advised me on graduate school opportunities and guided me in one of the environmental health projects I’ve undertaken at the Putnam County Health Department.”
Following graduation, Collins plans to obtain a master of public health degree with the goal of earning a Ph.D. in public health.
He grew up in a service-oriented family, undertook activities required to become an Eagle Scout, won Bonner and Holton scholarships at DePauw for service and coveted a life of helping others.
But Nathan Hand ’03 wasn’t convinced he could make a career in philanthropy, at least not one that would enable him to comfortably raise a family and have the earning potential that his peers pursuing more lucrative fields would enjoy.
He thought about becoming a patent attorney. Or going into biology. He spent time pursing education studies, then geology. He ultimately landed on a communication major and political science minor, and undertook enough internships, volunteer opportunities and extracurricular experiences to persuade himself that working in nonprofits would bring him joy and a comfortable life, if not necessarily riches.
“I just felt like there was an urgency there to get my career started, but also explore as many different causes as possible to find what I liked,” he said. “I needed to prove to myself that I could make a living doing this, the idea of volunteering and nonprofit service. It’s a big shift to go from a fun side hobby … to want to make a career out of this.”
Five DePauw University students will spend the Fall 2017 semester studying abroad after winning Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships. Three of the five are Bonner Scholars at DePauw.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad. Such international exchange is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world.
Almost six years ago, I sat down to write two short essays for my City Year application, and today I decided to revisit those essays before writing this one. While the lower quality of my writing from six years ago was not unexpected, I was pleasantly surprised that I still fundamentally agree with several key ideas in those essays.
