Birmingham-Southern College

900 Arkadelphia Road

Birmingham, Alabama 35254

www.bsc.edu

CAMPUS AT A GLANCE & KEY FACTS

Birmingham-Southern College prepares students to live lives of significance. A private, residential liberal arts college in Birmingham, AL, BSC was founded in 1856 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Today, the College honors its Methodist heritage of informed inquiry and meaningful service by challenging students to engaged their community and the greater world, to examine diverse perspectives, and to live with integrity. 

BSC has been consistently ranked among the best liberal arts colleges in the United States. The College is one of just forty institutions nationwide profiled in Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives, which offers the following snapshot of the college: "What all of this says is that Birmingham-Southern is a high-quality, caring place where a person from any part of the country would not only be comfortable but would grow intellectually, morally, and personally."

BONNER PROGRAM AT A GLANCE

Type of Program: Bonner Leader

Year Began: 2015

Bonner Program Website: https://www.bsc.edu/academics/krulak/bunting/index.html

Application Deadline for 2017: February 1, 2017

Where is the Bonner Program located: Krulak Institute for Leadership, Experiential Learning, and Civic Engagement

Number of Bonner Students: 22

Highlighted Bonner Specific Programs: 

• Bonners have the option of participating in our summer Hess Fellows Advocacy and Anti-Poverty Internships. 
• Bonner Leaders may choose to complete an academic distinction program in leadership, poverty, public health, or Black studies, all of which include an experiential learning-based capstone project. 

CAMPUS-WIDE ENGAGEMENT AT A GLANCE

Internships in Community and Social Change

In this course, held during BSC's January Exploration Term, students spend a month working full-time at a nonprofit, exploring how the organizations build community and effect social change. Group discussions and critical reflection help students process their experiences and draw connections to their academic knowledge. Many students continue working at their organizations after the term ends. 

LS 300: Leadership Practicum

This course, which may be taken as part of the Distinction in Leadership Studies, has students work with community partners for a real-world application of leadership principles. The course increases students' situational awareness so they can better act on things that matter to them and contribute effectively to groups and organizations they care about.

Hess Fellows Advocacy and Anti-Poverty Internships

The Hess Fellows Program matches students with nonprofit agencies for intensive summer internships. The internships focus on either advocacy or poverty, and are open to students in their second and third years of study at the College. Students in these internships participate as full members of their assigned agencies. Advocacy interns help build organizational capacity by conducting research, facilitating coalitions, leading community outreach programs, organizing lobbying efforts, and coordinating grassroots campaigns. Anti-poverty interns learn about the multiple dimensions of poverty through a variety of projects that strengthen impoverished communities across the country. Anti-poverty internships are made possible through a partnership with the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP), a consortium of more than 20 schools with programs focused on understanding and ending poverty.