Student Impact Survey

Strategy • Background • Next Steps • Available Resources

Strategy

Since the creation of the Bonner Scholar Program model in 1990, the Bonner Foundation and Program has sought to understand the impact of the program on a number of dimensions – including campuses, communities, and especially on student development and leadership. The Bonner Student Impact Survey is a program assessment and evaluation tool that enables the Bonner Foundation and Program staff to understand and document this impact. It sheds light on how students develop during their undergraduate years and ways to support their growth. Assessment efforts have been refined over each phase of the network’s growth and the program’s increasing complexity.

The first phase of the longitudinal assessment involved students and alumni from 25 institutions who were managing Bonner Scholar Programs by 2000. Between 2000-2008, Cheryl and Jim Keen, respected scholars and researchers, led the design and implementation of a national Student Impact Survey to assess the effects of the program on students’ learning across those campuses. As first year students and seniors, students completed written questionnaires designed to ascertain the impact of their involvement. As described below, the Bonner Foundation was able to affirm that the four-year co-curricular model had significant, positive effects on student skill and knowledge development, career choices, and post-graduate engagement. The program sustained transformative growth for alumni, who demonstrated continued civic minded behaviors.

In 2016, the Bonner Foundation broadened the Student Impact Survey to examine other areas of student development, including academic learning. By this time, more than 60 colleges and universities offered Bonner Scholar and Leader Program, engaging about 2,750 students annually in this work. These expanded efforts leveraged evolving research which has: a) linked community engagement with effective teaching and learning; b) pointed to its effects on students political and democratic engagement; and c) linked engagement with psychosocial well-being. Eager to examine effects on retention and completion, the Bonner Foundation also undertook some small-scale studies of institution-wide data. Below we share a summary of key findings and relevant publications. In short, the Bonner Program model works to support:

• Students’ skill, knowledge, and leadership development

• Students’ academic learning, retention, and completion (and even GPA at many institutions)

• Students’ and graduates’ psychosocial and economic wellbeing

• Graduates’ lifelong expression of civic mindedness

BACKGROUND

INITIAL Findings FROM 2000-2010 stUDIES

These assessments strongly affirmed the positive effects of participation in the Bonner Program on students’ learning and development. Moreover, they dispelled common myths about community service, suggesting that an intense, developmental program of co-curricular engagement has significant impacts on student development and post-graduate outcomes. The assessment also found that providing financial scholarships or stipends for such engagement (critical for these low-income students) did not diminish gains. This, too, is an important addition to the field, as a common misperception has been that service only reinforces a charity model engaging students with economic privilege. 

The studies surfaced several key findings:

• The Student Impact Survey attested to significant impact of a four-year co-curricular model on students’ success in college, development of leadership skills, and lifelong civic participation. The fourth year is especially important for students to internalize complex outcomes like a commitment to social justice (Keen & Hall, 2009).

• Several elements of the Bonner Program contribute strongly to its effectiveness including the cohort experience, dialogue across difference, diversity within the program and campus context (the more diverse the students, the stronger impact the experience had), structured reflection, related education (i.e., meetings and courses), and mentoring (by peers, staff, faculty, and community partners).

• This finding was complemented by assessment conducted in conjunction with the Bonner Foundation’s Serve 2.0 initiative by Abby Kiesa from CIRCLE. In examining how students used social media to enhance their civic engagement, these efforts found that indeed students in the Bonner Program were using platforms like Facebook to further learn about issues or connect with groups with shared interests (Hoy and Kiesa, 2013).

• Delving more deeply into the findings, a team of researchers including Cheryl Keen, Dan Richard, Julie A. Hatcher; and Heather A. Pease introduce the Pathways to Adult Civic Engagement (PACE) model, which finds that a blend of structured and informal reflection along with students’ dialogue and learning with others who are different from them as instrumental for successful program design.

EXPANDED FINDINGS FROM 2018-2020

In Spring 2019, first year and senior students across the national network participated. These briefs, designed to make the findings accessible to a wide audience, describe what we have learned to date.  Three findings from our research highlight the value of the Bonner Program and community engagement for key issues in higher education today:

• Between the first and senior year, being in the Bonner Program has statistically significant positive impact on key educational outcomes for students, including their campus belonging and community connectedness, civic engagement, political engagement, identity development around issues of diversity, democratic values, and thriving. Civic engagement experiences, including leadership and project roles that students take with community partners, are positively correlated with their learning.

• Being in the Bonner Program positively impacts students’ academic experiences and success. Students seek courses that improve their understanding of community issues and can improve their effectiveness in applying learning to real-world issues. A majority of students are now completing higher level capacity-building projects, including as academic capstones. Many are taking on research, program development, social action, and other problem solving. 

• Being in the Bonner Program improves students’ retention, persistence, and graduation rates. With a majority of students are of color, low-income, and often first generation — the population that many institutions seek to successfully support today — the Bonner Program model offers higher education many replicable lessons. 

NEXT STEPS

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bonner Foundation halted the implementation of the Student Impact Survey, given adjustments to the programs’ implementation and components across the network. At this time, the Foundation has resumed network-wide assessment efforts, incorporating changes to the survey instruments based on findings. Such changes sought to both shorten the survey but also make important updates to better capture both quantitative and qualitative data from which to share and reinforce positive impacts on student development. Students complete the tool in their first and fourth year across the national network.

AVAILABLE RESOURCES

Articles related to the Bonner Student Impact Survey and Alumni Survey have been published in the  Journal of College and Character, Journal of Higher Education, Michigan Journal of Service Learning (a respected journal for community engagement) and other journals. Most recent findings have also been highlighted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, in connection with research on high-impact practices. You may access and download these articles here to learn more.

• “Engaging with Difference Matters: Longitudinal Student Outcomes of Co-Curricular Service-Learning Programs,” published in the Journal of Higher Education in 2009 by Cheryl Keen and Kelly Hall, presents the findings of a longitudinal study of the outcomes of four-year Bonner participation on students learning, leadership, and civic values. 

• “Leveraging New Technologies for Engagement,” published in Deepening Community Engagement in Higher Education (2013). This article by Ariane Hoy and Abby Kiesa shares findings and insights from the Bonner Foundation’s efforts to integrate social media as a tool to enhance campus community engagement.

• “Pathways to Adult Civic Engagement: Benefits of Reflection and Dialogue across Difference in Higher Education Service-Learning Programs,” published in the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning (Spring 2017), by Dan Richard, University of North Florida; Julie A. Hatcher; Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Cheryl Keen, Walden University; and Heather A. Pease, Loyola University Chicago.

• “The Bonner Program: Proven Impacts,” by Ariane Hoy, Rachayita Shah, and Ray Barclay, summarizes the findings from the 2018-2020 studies, including charts, graphs, and compelling examples. Additionally, it positions these findings within the broader literature in the field.

  Bonner Data Study: Key Progression Outcomes. In 2018, the Bonner Foundation also conducted a small scale pilot study, analyzing seven years of institutional data from seven participating colleges and universities to compare key progression outcomes, such as completion, between students in the Bonner Program and their peers. Program participation was found to have positive impacts on students’ retention and completion.

• Bonner Data Study: Key Progression Outcomes. In 2018, the Bonner Foundation also conducted a small scale pilot study, analyzing seven years of institutional data from seven participating colleges and universities to compare key progression outcomes, such as completion, between students in the Bonner Program and their peers. Program participation was found to have positive impacts on students’ retention and completion.