Bonner Center for Civic and Community Engagement
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Recent News and Events
The Bonner Community Scholars program was nominated for a statewide award for its ongoing efforts to imporve the section of the D & R Canal State Park that cuts through Trenton, in particular the "greenway project" near Shiloh Baptist Church. They were nominated for the Governor's Environmental Excellence Award in the Environmental Education/Student Led Project category.
The Bonner Center's latest report for the 2007-2008 Community Engaged Learning program includes a record figure; 97% of the first year class spent at least 8 hours addressing a local community need. These students worked on projects that focused on a range of community issues--including hunger, homelessness, urban education, developmental disabilities and race education.
40 students spent the day learning about poverty and working to renovate two buildings in Camden as part of a new partnership with the Heart of Camden, a non profit community development organization. One team helped demolish the interior of an abandoned theatre; the long term goal is to turn it into a community center. Students from Celia Chazelle's FSP course (Social Justice, History and Practice) and a team of residents from Wolfe 3 joined Bonner Community Scholars on this day.
Over 120 people are expected to attend this opening event that will launch TCNJ's three year partnership with the Trenton Medical Arts Academy and the Ortho-McNeil Janssen company, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson. Bonner Community Scholars will work with 26 high school sophomores and focus on two main goals: to ensure they enroll in College and, if interested, pursue a career in the health care field.
Paula Figueroa-Vega joined the staff as the Center's new Associate Director. Paula is a well known and highly respected non profit professional with deep Trenton roots. She helped establish El Centro de Recursos para Familias and, most recently, Paula ran one of WomanSpace's largest divisions. Paula has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Rutgers University.
In May of 2008, the first class of Bonner Community Scholars crossed the stage and received their diplomas. Two chose to work at the Center and fill the newly created Democracy Project positions, which are supported by AmeriCorps and other grants. Todd Stoner (Political Science) will develop and implement a four-year student development program for each Bonner class--as well as strive to bridge the gap between service and civic engagement. Morgan Reil (Psychology) will coordinate TCNJ's Bridge to Employment project, which is funded by Johnson and Johnson. The main goal is to work with 25 Trenton High School students for three years so they enroll in College and possibly embark on a health care career. A third graduate, Neil Hartmann, was hired by his former service site, Habitat for Humanity in East Trenton.
30 First Year Seminar courses will include a community-engaged learning component this fall. Since 2006, the number of such classes has grown from 8 to 19 and now to 30. TCNJ summer interns and staff organized these projects with professors and community partners over the summer. Senior Bonner Interns will work directly with professors to implement the project plans during the semester.
Former Board Presidentt Stacey Holland returned for a second year and delivered the 2008 Civic Engagement Kickoff Speech during Welcome Week. In fact, she did so twice. Two waves of 600 students met in the Rec Center and then broke into Bonner-led floor meetings. Each floor identified its top three community issues and now all students are linked to a specific CEL Day (e.g. Housing/Poverty 9/13/08) or an FSP course with a CEL component. Bonners will lead these days throughout the year.
13 community partners spent the day on campus working with their Bonner Teams to create Site Plans for the year. The plans map out each team's objectives and strategies for the next two semesters as well as summer. Staff from El Centro de Recursos Para Familias, Columbus Elementary School, the Young Scholars Institute, Habitat for Humanity, the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, the Academic Sports Academy, Trenton Medical Arts High School, Visitation Home, LifeTies, the Capital Corridor Community Development Corporation, the D & R Canal State Park, Team MVP, the Salvation Army The staff from each partner agency also delivered two one-hour training sessions to their student colleagues.
60 Bonners spent a night and full day at the Princeton-Blairstown Center in northwest Jersey, where they completed high and low ropes courses with facilitators who are trained to develop team-building and problem solving skills. Each issue based team completed the course together--getting them ready for a year of working in the community as a unit.
Fred Derilus (Engineering) participated in the Bonner Center's trip to New Orleans last winter with 40 of his colleagues. Driven by a desire to more, he returned during the summer and led another group of TCNJ volunteers. A few weeks earlier, Mike Strom (Political Science) did the same. Both teams worked with local relief organizations to rehabilitate homes for low income families in the Lower Ninth Ward. This was the fifth Bonner sponsored trip to the region since 2005. |
