Student Profile
Robert Hackett
Five Bonners Selected as 2025 National Bonner ...

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.

Five Bonners Selected as 2025 National Bonner Foundation Summer Interns
Alumni Profile
Robert Hackett
Spelman College Bonner Alum, Dr. Maranda C. ...

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.

Spelman College Bonner Alum, Dr. Maranda C. Ward, Awarded The Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement
Campus Profile
Robert Hackett
A Banner Year for Bonners: TCNJ Bonner Program ...

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.

A Banner Year for Bonners: TCNJ Bonner Program Celebrates 20th Anniversary
Staff Profile
Robert Hackett
From the Heart of The Bonner Foundation: Elaine ...

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.

From the Heart of The Bonner Foundation: Elaine Wheeler's Retirement Celebration
Robert Hackett
Announcing the Refreshed Bonner Wiki

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.

Announcing the Refreshed Bonner Wiki

Centre's Bonner Program Places First-Year Students

Centre's Bonner Program Places First-Year Students

Among the typical fall-term conversations about mid-terms and the upcoming fall break, other important conversations are being had by first-year Bonner students: in particular, where they will be performing up to 2,000 hours of community service in the years ahead.

Centre currently hosts up to 60 Bonner students on campus, each of whom have a specific service site they work at every week. Bonners are dedicated to addressing a variety of social issues, including poverty, diversity, access to education and/or healthcare and community development. Bonners work to solve these problems in the Danville and Boyle County community through eight to 10 hours of community service per week—a hefty commitment when added to demanding course loads and extracurricular activities.

Stetson's VITA Program Celebrates $1 Million in Tax Refunds

Stetson's VITA Program Celebrates $1 Million in Tax Refunds

      Stetson University students who volunteer as income tax preparers for local families, reached a major milestone on the evening of Wednesday, March 9, 2016: $1 million in total tax refunds.
      Through the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program, Stetson students are trained to become IRS-certified tax preparation agents who help prepare and file tax returns for families with an income limit up to $54,000.
      After six years of operation, the VITA Program just reached its one-millionth dollar in total tax refunds during the Wednesday night session.

Richmond Student Exemplifies Servant Leadership Through Her Work with Children and Education

Richmond Student Exemplifies Servant Leadership Through Her Work with Children and Education

The Bonner Scholars Program and the Jepson School of Leadership Studies sold Colleen Connolly, '14, on the University of Richmond when she visited campus as a high school student. Now Connolly is combining a double major in leadership studies and political science with her Bonner Scholars service in order to study children in educational settings from many different perspectives. In the process, she has learned not only how to serve, but how to lead.

Washington Monthly Rankings Showcase Centre's Commitment to Service

Washington Monthly Rankings Showcase Centre's Commitment to Service

Centre continues to climb the Washington Monthly’s annual rankings of the nation’s top 255 liberal arts colleges, ascending from #36 to #35 and marking its fourth year in a row holding a top-50 spot.

Unlike other ranking systems, which often focus on campus life or academic rigor, Washington Monthly magazine analyzes a college’s “contribution to the public good” in three different categories; as its website states, overall rankings “reflect excellence across the full breadth of our measures” rather than excellence in one category alone.

Teach for America and Berea College: A Continuing Partnership

Teach for America and Berea College: A Continuing Partnership

Taylor Ballinger, ’07, had a very influential friend during his undergraduate education at Berea College. This friend was a special needs child who was a member of the Berea Buddies program, which pairs Berea student mentors with children from the community. Ballinger saw in this child the same boundless potential that Berea College had recognized in himself. Their close relationship inspired Ballinger to pursue a future as a special education teacher with Teach for
America (TFA).

Richmond Student Works with City Government on Poverty Issues

Richmond Student Works with City Government on Poverty Issues

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.

 

Berea Student Launches "Cans for a Cause"

Berea Student Launches "Cans for a Cause"

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.

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Centre Bonner Student Recognized for Outstanding Community Service

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Centre Bonner Student Recognized for Outstanding Community Service

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.

Students Donate 7,000 Service Hours to Downtown Danville

Students Donate 7,000 Service Hours to Downtown Danville

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.

Summer Student Work: Tracey '15 Explains Men's Work in Combatting Domestic Violence

Summer Student Work: Tracey '15 Explains Men's Work in Combatting Domestic Violence

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.

Internships Benefit United Way, Local Latino Community, and Maryville Students

Internships Benefit United Way, Local Latino Community, and Maryville Students

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.

Excavating Community Knowledge

Excavating Community Knowledge

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.

Bonner Alumnus and Wife Start Charitable Business

Bonner Alumnus and Wife Start Charitable Business

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.

Voice of America Internship Helps Shape Student's Future in Human Rights Law

Voice of America Internship Helps Shape Student's Future in Human Rights Law


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."

First-Gen

First-Gen

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.

Padilla Selected for THEC Service Award

Padilla Selected for THEC Service Award

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.

Bonner Scholar Espouses Political Engagement as Key to a Healthy Democratic Society

Bonner Scholar Espouses Political Engagement as Key to a Healthy Democratic Society

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.

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Bonner Student was Finalist for 2012 Global Citizenship Student Award

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Bonner Student was Finalist for 2012 Global Citizenship Student Award

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.

Perez Leaves Lasting Impact on Campus Community

Perez Leaves Lasting Impact on Campus Community

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.

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Bonner Student Receives Campus Awards

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Bonner Student Receives Campus Awards

     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.