Bonner Leaders create community through service

By Ryan, April 11, 2016

By Madeline Travell // Organizations Editor

The Bonner Leader program is a nationally recognized service-learning community that aims to enrich and transform student lives through their own campus, surrounding communities and country by creating service and educational opportunities. This is a program run through High Point University where Bonner Leaders partner with local non-profit organizations within the community. Some of these partnerships include Macedonia Family Resource Center, YWCA/Latino Family Center, West End Ministries, Community Writing Center and Washington Street.
“All of my experiences working as a Bonner Leader has been meaningful because I enjoy what I do,” said Jasmyn Alexander, Bonner Leader sophomore. “I am in the process of establishing a girls mentor program at the Macedonia Family Resource Center with the help of our program director and another intern that volunteers from Greensboro Technical Community College. I am very excited because I do believe I have the ability to be a positive mentor and leader for young girls in the community and help them live their lives in a positive way as well.”
Each Bonner works between eight to 10 hours each week at their respective site amounting to about 150 hours of community service per semester (a culmination of 300 service hours per year). Their time is supplemented with compensation through federal work study funds.
Every year, the Bonner Leaders welcome a new class from incoming freshman. Each leader is committed to work at one of the locations weekly which allows for a real repertoire to develop between the staff, community members and HPU Bonner Leader. The leaders must partake in one major service project to complete their year.
“I work with the children on Washington Street and feel like I am making a huge impact on the community by helping direct High Point’s future adults toward success and allow them to have the ability to help the community they came from,” said Jonathan Paez, Bonner Leader sophomore. “The Bonner Program as a whole also helps connect the university with the community by giving back to the community and partnering with some of the community’s leaders in the area.”
Each leader is also required to attend biweekly leadership meetings amongst the program members where the discussion revolves around how to effectively communicate, implement leadership skills and teamwork. A unique part of the program has each Bonner Leader create and design their own website to share their experiences through blogging.
“I work twice a week with Title I elementary kids through the Community Writing Center (CWC), an after school program that seeks to promote the importance of reading along with writing,” said Manning Franks, Bonner Leader sophomore. “We cultivate skills in communication, management, community service, leadership, public speaking, as well as spark positive conversation around social justice, education, nutrition and socioeconomic issues in our own backyard.”
Each leader applied to the Bonner Program as incoming freshman and had to meet the eligibility requirements to be accepted into the program. Students are exposed to an internship setting through serving their local non-profit and community-based organization sites. The program is a four-year commitment where students are able to build networks amongst peers and through the organizations they work for. By the end of the four years, students will have been actively involved in numerous hours of dedicated service work while simultaneously learning how to ensure that the transformations they have witnessed endure.