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Campus-Wide Student Leadership Roles
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Student Leadership in Service-Related Campus Events
Bonner Scholars and Leaders will participate in multiple types of one-day, occasional, and sustained community/civic-engagement events and activities, beginning in the first year. As they do so, they often learn how to plan and facilitate the success of these events, including with concrete roles like working with partners, envisioning a meaningful and realistic project, planning orientation, leading team building, managing volunteers, and facilitating reflection. Campus programs can think about ways that students’ leadership can catalyze others.
The College of New Jersey
- For instance, at The College of New Jersey, Bonner Scholars are involved in planning and leading a Series of Service Events, including more than 25 Community Engaged Learning Days (CEL) each year. These CEL Days, which reinforce best practices, also facilitate the completion of an 8-hour service requirement for all first year students, but done well! Students might also plan and lead Alternative Break Projects and other events.
Guilford College
Slippery Rock University
- The Service Saturday model at Slippery Rock University aims to empower Bonner Leaders by supporting the mission of their community sites. Through the creation and facilitation of meaningful service, participating students get the opportunity to learn as they volunteer at/with an organization with this half day Saturday experience. Bonners are given the responsibility to coordinate the event, including outreach to volunteers and building relationships with campus collaborators. With this model, Bonners receive leadership experience, facilitate reflection and discussions, and introduce students to organization members. See their model below:
Slippery Rock University - Service Saturdays
University of Houston
- The Bonner Leaders Program at the University of Houston hosted "Writing for Change" event that involved the University campus as a whole. Through this event, students had the chance to write letters to their local and national representatives regarding issues they are passionate about. Current Bonner students wrote well-researched issue letters with guidance from a faculty member and these letters were then printed and provided at the event to be signed by students and staff. Students were introduced to the idea of letter writing in an early-semester civic engagement workshop where they organized in groups and picked their letter topics. Students then wrote their letters on their own time with feedback from the faculty mentor who ran the workshop. All student letters were reviewed and revised prior to the Writing for Change event. At the event, blank paper was provided for students to write letters of their own if they desired, as well as copies of pre-written letters that students could read and sign and send if they agreed with the argument about the issue. Also provided were lists of the representatives currently in office, the issues they care the most about (or which are relevant to their office), and their addresses. The event was helpful for students who were less familiar with state and local politics and the concept of representation. Bonner Leader students advertised this event to the whole campus through flyers, on-campus television ads, social media outreach, and word of mouth, and the events resulted in hundreds of letters being sent to local, Texas, and U.S. representatives. Below are two example letters written by students (Abortion Access, Against Book Bans), and the list of representatives used at the time of the event.
Student Leadership in Campus-Wide Engagement
Bonner students hold the capacity to collaborate with Bonner Program staff to maximize campus-wide engagement by leading institutional outreach initiatives. For an overview of campus-wide leadership students leadership positions tied to Bonner, see Bonner Student Leadership.
Christopher Newport University
Below, are detailed descriptions of two new student leadership positions created by Christopher Newport University (CNU) that are part of a professional higher education team in the Center for Community Engagement (CCE). These students develop better time management skills, provide volunteer mentoring to their peers, and receive training at monthly CCE student staff meetings on community engagement principles, service ethics and etiquette, communication, customer service, time management, and planning.
Christopher Newport University Service Track Coordinators (STC) - STCs are responsible for the advancement and management of off-campus student volunteer efforts at local non-profit partners within CNU’s ten service tracks.
- rising second or third year student
- apply for the position via a Handshake job posting
- hold office hours and advise students
- correspond with community partners in their assigned service tracks
Christopher Newport University Site Team Leaders (STL) - STLs are liaisons between their service site and student volunteers.
- help with volunteer management and recruitment
- represent one local non-profit organization
- requested by a community partner or current student volunteer
Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU)
Gator Thrift," a thrift store run with Bonner help. These services are available for anyone in the campus community. Currently, Gator Groceries is offered on the third Friday of every month. There is no screening process in terms of who is able to sign up for this service. They offer limited choice to best serve the needs of the entire NDMU community. For instance, participants can select the size of their family and receive more or less groceries based on this number, identify food allergies, and identify dietary restrictions to substitute items to reflect this need.
Gator Thrift - All of the clothing is free. The goal when starting this resource was to destigmatize poverty. Some students come because they cannot afford business attire for job interviews or for jobs once they’re hired. Some students come because they cannot afford nursing scrubs for their rotations or a warm coat in the winter. Others simply like to thrift. This has blossomed into a fun and safe space for student population. This project was made possible through an initial partnership with Dress For Success. More recently, they have partnered with Sharp Dressed Man to provide increased options for nonbinary and male students, faculty, and staff. They also receive donations from alumni, students, faculty, and staff on a regular basis. Gator Thrift was so successful in its first year that they are in the process of developing plans for expansion. This will include moving into a larger space and opening up this space to the surrounding Baltimore community. The long-term goals include finding a space embedded in the community to house this initiative, so community members do not have to worry about transportation. Given limited access to professional attire prevents individuals from getting or keeping employment, free suits and business clothing is a crucial service needed for the demographic they serve along the York Road Corridor. Additionally, they are developing Gator Thrift on the Go, connecting Baltimore High School students to free homecoming and prom dresses. They hope to launch this service in fall 2023, partnering with Bonner service sites.
Siena College
For example, Siena College's Bonner Program collaborates with other groups on campus. The Bonner Program at Siena College is housed under The Center for Academic Community Engagement (ACE). Although there are many ways to be a community engaged student at Siena College, ACE noticed that the visibility of such engagement opportunities and especially the Bonner Program could be improved further. As part of the initiative to increase program visibility, ACE devised a plan to collaborate with other student groups on campus. For example, ACE had a joint meeting with the International Students Association in Fall 2021, which focused on major issues of discrimination on campus and how both groups could work together to solve them. Another addition to the program was to open some of the Bonner Program meetings to the campus at large. One of those meetings was a workshop about gentrification, especially gentrification of the NY state capital region, where Siena College is located. Many students attended, as well as the Assistant Director of the Board - from the office of the President of Siena College! Another special initiative ACE started was to invite potential Bonners to attend their weekly meetings via Zoom. The motivations behind the initiative included offering a glimpse into what ACE’s Bonner students do each week and drumming up more excitement for the program. To learn more about the methods of connecting with the college community, connect with ACE staff at Siena College!
Warren Wilson College
The Open Cabin- community engagement reflection at Warren Wilson College is a new initiative started by the Center for Community Engagement. Warren Wilson asks that each student participate in a community-engaged endeavor be it research, an internship, a course, or their first-year seminar. In that context, the purpose of the “Open Cabin - Community Engagement Reflection” is to center student experiences within community engagement from a place of reflection and cohesion. The Center aims to offer co-curricular programming that complements and enhances students’ experience in the classroom and in the community. This monthly meeting is facilitated by Bonner students and is open to all community-engaged first year seminar students, faculty, and staff as well as other students. This builds a larger campus culture and language around community engagement in a way that students, staff, and faculty can use together. Bonner students are trained to prepare and facilitate reflective conversations to normalize the obstacles faced in community relationships, problem-solve as a group regarding ways to navigate healthy engagement, and give common language and goals to the work done.
Student Leadership at Partner Sites
The four-year developmental model of the Bonner Program is intended to support and affirm student leadership for all Bonner Scholars and Leaders. With intentionality, education, experience, support, and reflection, each student takes on greater leadership at their service site. The four-year model means that students can stay at one agency for multiple years to take on greater leadership. A program and/or campus Project Coordinator model can support this to happen more systematically.
Some institutions – like Guilford College and Macalester College – have a center-wide structure for this, where Bonners and other students may formally become Project or Issue Leaders for student engagement.
Student Leadership through Other Multiyear Community Engagement Programs
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So, what about the students who are not part of the Bonner Program? How can they be more regularly involved? Another way to build campus-wide student engagement is to develop other pathways for students. These can be modeled after the Bonner Program but do not need to be four-years long or as intensive; some people think of them as “Bonner Lite” models. They can also be co-curricular, curricular or both (integrated).
Siena College has developed a partnership with its School of Business to create the NEXT Fellows Program. Through this, talented and committed undergraduates are selected to participate in a cohort, developmental model. They learn to work as teams and do capacity building projects for nonprofit, governmental, and school partners — often the same partners that are engaged with Bonner. See NEXT Consulting (https://www.siena.edu/centers-institutes/ace/deep-service-programs/next-fellows).
Stetson University: Staff and students developed an infographic (in 2017) to capture campus-wide student leadership. Their infographic (left) helped to describe how 87.5% of Bonners are involved with other extracurricular clubs and organizations. Additionally, they found that 71% of Bonners take on leadership roles in other campus-wide organizations. By the way, making infographics like this can be easy with web-based programs like:
- Canva
- Easel.ly.
- Piktochart.
- Infogr.am.
- InFoto Free.
- Venngage.
Click on the graphic at the left to see it big!
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Student Leadership in Clubs & Organizations
Students in Bonner also tend to gravitate to leadership roles in other existing campus organizations — or even to start new ones. It is not uncommon to hear a Bonner Program Director or Coordinator report that many Bonners have connected their engagement with other service-related groups (including fraternities and sororities, athletes, etc.) Through this, Bonner Scholars and Leaders help catalyze the sustained engagement of other students.
Sometimes, a class of Bonners (such as the junior class) might also be in charge of organizing a broader service event, like Relay for Life, that pulls other students into service. Rider University and Stetson University, for instance, are two examples of institutions where large scale events involving the campus as well as Bonner Leaders happen annually.
Rider University began an effort toward student-led campus-wide engagement with the Community Service Council, a call to student service chairs from service-related clubs and organizations on campus. However, this model was not effective. Only three to four students would attend meetings, and there was no productivity. What evolved from the Community Service Council is Rider Service Leaders. This is a student-led organization, now in its third year, that accepts 20 students each year, not limited to just campus organization service chairs, but any student leaders who have a passion for service and civic engagement. This group of students meets every two weeks and is trained in reflection, awareness of social issues affecting local service sites, and community partner interactions. They are responsible for planning and acting as site leaders for campus-wide service days, as well as some ongoing weekly opportunities. As said by Joan Liptrot, the Assistant Director of Campus Life for Service Learning who first founded the Rider Service Leaders, the key to success for this organization is that there are many different levels of service that students can choose from. Students may sign up for service events and help facilitate, join other campus organizations and serve with them, or apply to be a Rider Service Leader.
Rider University is not the only campus who models this type campus-wide student leadership. The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), Siena College, and Sewanee: The University of the South also have excellent examples of convening groups of student leaders who are passionate about service and social justice.
The College of New Jersey established a Service Council in partnership with Student Affairs in 2015. The Service council is made up of representatives from service-oriented groups, Greek life, and other interested campus organizations. Together, these students coordinate an annual campus-wide Day of Service and participate in monthly trainings focused on topics of ethics of service, reflection, and community education.
Siena College initiated the first Service and Engagement Council (SEC) on campus during the Fall of 2017. The SEC was created with the purpose of improving communication across diverse campus groups engaging in service, as well as creating a process for student-led advocacy and integration of community-engaged service within Siena's academics. The SEC brings together service leaders regularly to share and find ways for collaboration, advocate for needs, and participate in professional development.
Sewanee: The University of the South: In 2016, as a part of the Student-Led Campus Wide Engagement learning community, the Bonner coordinator for Sewanee's Bonner program collaborated with student activists on campus to create the Activist Coalition. This team of student leaders meet weekly to share their frustrations and their aspirations for change, but also to receive training from the Office of Civic Engagement regarding strategies for activism and protesting.
Leadership in Student Government
Similarly, many Bonners find themselves drawn to roles in campus student government, which might also be connected with preparation for long-range aspirations as elected officials on many levels. A number of Bonners have been elected as President and in other roles.
Some, like a Bonner from Centre College, DePauw University, and Wofford College have later found that their on-campus roles also allow them to tap into student government funds and infrastructure to enhance student engagement. After graduation, some of these individuals have run for office! (Link to profiles: Scott Meltzer, Nicolas Flores, Jonathan Franklin, find others).
“Students as Colleagues”
Students Leading and Facilitating Faculty Engagement: This concept, supported by research and scholarship (Battistoni & Longo, 2011) is that students can and should be considered as colleagues to faculty. In fact, many campuses have developed sustained programs by which students play a leadership and facilitator role in the classroom and in the planning and implementation of community engagement linked with coursework. Students work on logistics, orientations, reflection, and other roles.
For instance, Engaged Learning Facilitators (ELFs) at St. Mary’s College of California are paired with faculty for this role. Bonner student leaders at Allegheny Colleges developed the ACES Fellowship as another example — and will be in leadership roles to guide the implementation of a course-based civic graduation requirement. (Add links). A Bonner Foundation Intern from Stetson University developed this handout on the concept.
Academic and High-Impact Internships
Related to the concept above, another student role is to do more organizational and formative work to guide the increased integration of community engagement with curriculum. Drawing on the Bonner High-Impact Initiative, at many campuses these “High-Impact Interns” work on strategies doing an inventory of faculty work and engagement; interviewing faculty to ascertain their perspectives on community engagement; and organizing mixers and events for faculty, students, and partners.
Talk with staff at Earlham, Oberlin, and Stetson for some other examples. Berea College has had a Service-Learning Team, where Bonners work on this as their position.
