Meet our 2025 National Bonner Summer Interns! Michael Deem Jr. from Rider University brings his expertise in film and storytelling, while Spelman College's Olivia Gray focuses on advancing educational equity. Oberlin's Joseph (JP) Liddy contributes his experience in event coordination and community building, and Centre College's Kayla Rogers brings her passion for policy advocacy and civic engagement. Together, these talented student leaders will support the Bonner Foundation's mission while gaining valuable professional experience in the nonprofit sector.
Maranda C. Ward, Ed.D., MPH, Spelman College Bonner Scholar ‘02 Alum has been awarded Campus Compact’s Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement. Dr. Ward is the assistant professor and director of the Equity Department of Clinical Research and Leadership at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
TCNJ’s Bonner Community Scholars Program launched 20 years ago, it started with just 12 Bonner Scholars — students who commit to 300 hours of community service annually in exchange for needs-based scholarships. Now, with close to 100 participants each year, the TCNJ program is one of the largest and most successful in a nationwide network of Bonner college programs.
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.
Kevin Wilson, ’13, embraces political and government service as a means of working for the betterment of society.
During his senior year in high school, the Franklinville, N.J., native served as an advisor to President Barack Obama’s election campaign and as a member of Obama’s transition team. Following his high school graduation, he worked as a summer consultant for the Domestic Policy Council, which oversees the development and implementation of the president’s domestic-policy agenda.
Never accuse Aaron Hannah of not being ambitious and failing to set high goals for himself.
Later this month, Hannah, a 19-year-old 2012 graduate of Raceland-Worthington High School, will launch what is essentially a one-man food drive. His goal: to collect at least 10,000 pounds of canned food for River Cities Harvest to distribute to local nonprofits and churches that help feed the hungry.
As a member of Centre College’s Bonner program, Megan Radenhausen ’14 is no stranger to community service; however, she took the College’s culture of service to a new level this past fall semester, logging 1,300 hours at Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center (BRCC), a feat which earned her BRCC’s volunteerism commitment award.
BRCC is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide refuge for victims of sexual assault, to advocate for victims and to educate the community about sexual assault and human trafficking. BRCC provides crisis intervention, therapy, advocacy and education services to 17 counties in the Bluegrass Region. All services offered are free of charge, including a 24-hour hotline.
Service is a major component of the Centre experience, and many students went out of their way recently to give back to the local community.
Students in the Bonner Scholars Program and Centre Action Reaches Everyone (CARE) donated 7,000 hours of service to the downtown area of Danville alone in the calendar year of 2012. With many students eager to give their time and several important agencies just minutes from campus, things come together naturally.
Cody Tracey ’15 of Baltimore received a 2013 Harward Summer Student Fellowship to work at the Boston-based Jane Doe Inc., a coalition of 60 local member programs working together with allies to find lasting solutions that promote the safety, liberty, and dignity for victims and survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
Maryville College juniors Jose Perez ‘15 and Owen Shelnutt ‘15 completed summer internships at the United Way of Blount County that provided valuable work for the non-profit while providing relevant, real-world experience for the students.
Both Perez and Shelnutt completed the internship as a part of their Bonner Scholarship summer service requirements.
Perez, a psychology major with minors in sociology and Spanish, was able to provide the United Way of Blount County with important information that will help with future outreach efforts for the local Latino community.
During his internship, Perez worked on translating the United Way's needs assessment survey into Spanish, delivering it to many local businesses. He also hosted several community conversations to get a deeper understanding of the aspirations and needs of the Latino population of Blount County.
How can you empower racially, ethnically, and linguistically marginalized kids? By teaching them how to research compelling questions in their own communities, says educational studies professor Brian Lozenski.
For five years, Lozenski has been working with youth at a community organization called Network for the Development of Children of African Descent. Each year through a NdCAD program called the Uhuru Youth Scholars Program, about a dozen high school juniors and seniors receive academic credit for conducting research on issues prevalent in their communities.
This semester, for instance, the high school researchers—along with several Macalester Bonner scholars—are exploring ethnic studies programs in Twin Cities schools. Past projects have included policy briefs sent to school districts detailing ways in which they could educate guidance counselors about historically black colleges, and a youth summit looking at the experiences of African American students in Twin Cities schools.
Residents of Maryville and Alcoa can now help local charities while receiving a low-cost grocery delivery service.
Maryville College alumnus Trey Brewer and wife Brett recently created a grocery delivery service, “In the Bag Delivers,” to fulfill their passion to help their community and local nonprofit organizations.
“I grew up in Maryville and benefited from the overwhelming support of parents, teachers, coaches and the general community. Now that I have graduated from Maryville College, I want to do my part to make the community a better place for the future,” said Trey on the business' official website.
It took exactly two weeks for Voice of America to hook Diane Gremillion. She interned for a short stint just before her first year at Richmond.
Her time at the country’s official external broadcast institution was typically hectic: She helped plan journalist training for coverage of an H1N1 outbreak in Hong Kong. There was famine in Somalia. And she was also asked to interview the second lady, Dr. Jill Biden.
"I immediately wanted to go back to that experience," Gremillion says. "International journalism and human rights fascinated me."
Every summer of her college career, Jocelyne Cardona ’14 (San Jose, Calif.) wondered if this would be the year she couldn’t afford to return to campus. “It was always a struggle to know if I could financially work it out,” she says. Melissa Larson ’14 (Round Lake, Ill.) spent her college summers not traveling in Europe or racking up impressive internships but working as many hours as she could get at the nearby Six Flags amusement park. Jinath Tasnim ’16 (Dallas) regularly declines invitations from classmates to visit their East or West Coast homes. “There’s no way I could justify that expense to my parents,” she says.
Stacey Padilla, a 2015 graduate of Maryville College, is among five college students in Tennessee to be named recipient of the 2015 Harold Love Outstanding Community Service Award sponsored by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC).
Named for the late state representative from Nashville who was instrumental in passing legislation for community service recognition programs for higher education in 1991, the award recognizes outstanding community service at the campus level and carries a $1,000 cash prize.
Students listened to election returns and debated the pros and cons of Democratic and Republican candidates during the on-campus Super Tuesday viewing party on March 1, 2016. Sporting an “I voted” sticker, Brenden Carol, ’17, moved among them, pleased with the turnout for an event he organized in his role as a student coordinator of politics and elections for the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement (CCE).
“Trump dominated students’ discussion during the viewing party,” Carol said. “None of the students in either political party was happy about his front-runner status.”
Despite the prevailing angst, Carol delighted in seeing students take an interest in politics. He hopes to increase political activism on campus.
Macalester has long been known for its internationalism. One of the ways it recognizes that value is to annually bestow a Global Citizenship Student Award on the graduating senior who best demonstrates a commitment to the ideals and practice of high academic performance, internationalism, multiculturalism, and civic engagement.
Maryville College senior José Perez has transformed from a terrified freshman unsure of his place at Maryville College into a social justice advocate who has made a lasting impact on the MC community.
Perez, who will graduate with a bachelor’s degree on May 17, is a first-generation college student and a Mexican-American from an immigrant family.
Steven Hollingshead, a senior from Memphis, has been named “Student of the Block” for the eighth block at Tusculum College and is also the recipient of the inaugural “Mr. TC Award.”
Hollingshead, a double major in political science and business with concentrations in economics and international business, was presented both honors prior to the beginning of the May 2 Pioneer baseball game.
The “Student of the Block Award” is presented by the Tusculum Office of Student Affairs and was established to recognize individuals who excel in their academic endeavors, campus involvement and/or athletic performance. The award is selected from nominations made by faculty and staff members. Plaques telling about the honorees are displayed in the Niswonger Commons and other campus buildings. The new “Mr. TC Award” recognizes a student for overall contributions to the campus community and dedication to the betterment of the college as well as outstanding involvement, service and leadership inside and outside the classroom.
Economics major and Bonner Scholar Miki Doan, ’14, has been engaged with the community ever since she arrived in Richmond. But her work has also taken her well beyond the city limits, with Thailand, Vietnam, Uganda, and the Dominican Republic serving as global classrooms to reflect on her social work interests.
As a sophomore, Doan attended a Givology Spiders meeting where she was introduced to the Circle of Peace School. Givology is an online community and marketplace that connects microfinance donors with smaller educational community initiatives around the world. The University’s chapter focuses on supporting the Ugandan school through finance and awareness.
Krystal Goode, a sophomore at Lindsey Wilson College, spent the summer interning with Forward in the Fifth at The Center for Rural Development in Somerset, KY.
An elementary education major with the goal of teaching in a kindergarten classroom, Goode spent nearly three months with the non-profit education organization working on several initiatives designed to improve teaching and learning.
Emily Horton plans to spend part of her summer working on research about human emotions thanks to a competitive Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.
Emily will spend about two months at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where scientists are studying emotion using data recorded about the facial expressions research subjects made while watching films.
April Israel, ’14, knows she wants to help make food production in the United States healthier and more sustainable. This past summer, she decided to start with the fundamentals—the environment. An interdisciplinary studies major, business minor, and Bonner Scholar, Israel reached out to the Maryland Coastal Bays Program for her summer service commitment and received an enthusiastic invitation to come to Ocean City, Md.
Israel explored everything from testing Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) to counting bird eggs and hatchlings on islands where people usually aren’t allowed to visit. She says that her internship was tailored to her interests, but it also provided a good mix of office and field work.
Family.
It’s what DuChante Davis has found more than anything in his educational journey at High Point University. It’s what he hopes to offer inner city school children he’ll teach this fall.
He just returned from visiting San Jose, California, where he met some of his future students that already remind him of himself at that age – children who come from families in challenging situations. Kids who need more real-life heroes to look up to and keep them on track.
