Presentation during the 2015 Fall Bonner Directors' Meeting by April Backus, Marisa Charley, and Ariane Hoy.

1. Connecting Bonner with Research
and Capstones
April Backus, Siena College; Marisa Charley, Washington &
Lee University; and Ariane Hoy, Bonner Foundation

2. • Goals
• Introductions
• Washington & Lee: Research Component
• Siena College: Capstone Component
• Discussion of Common Practices and
Challenges
• Planning Time
What We’ll
Cover

3. • Delve into the stages, steps, and “molding” that
programs take to link research and course-
based capstones to Bonner
• Explore how to gradually and intentionally
build capacity and pathways
• Understand how staff oversight and
management can support and empower
• Share common elements (i.e., best practices) &
challenges - & work on strategies

4. Introductions
Name
Institution
Why here

5. Washington & Lee University
Marisa Charley

6. The Big Picture
• Wanted to create impactful
capstone project for students AND
partners
• Bonner situated in Shepherd
Program, Academic Affairs
•Position oversees CARA and
Bonner
• 10 Students, 7 Partners

7. Link to developmental experience...
• Introduced during
recruitment
• Developmental direction
through class meetings and
one-on-ones
• Junior year panel and meeting
with VISTA; some students
begin work
• Summer Project Proposal

8. Steps and Stages
• Evaluation of capacity on and off campus
• Use of VISTA Member
• Started with option, evolved into requirement

9. for Success
• Community partner interest
•Student conversations with supervisors
•Community Partner Focus Group
• Staff member, full-time VISTA member got
programming off the ground
• Professors from various disciplines
supporting CBR work

10. • Lack of faculty incentive- who can
participate?
• New level of partnership development
• Moving from independent study to course
integration

11. • Building momentum year-to-year
• Explore possibilities around diffusing
responsibility and support
• Explore faculty and partner incentives
Overcoming

12. Siena College
April Backus

13. The Big Picture
•Culmination of the Bonner experience,
linked to academic and career interests
•Center for Academic Community Engagement-
Academic Affairs
•10 students/10 partners/10 faculty members
•2015-2016 (8 students/faculty/partners)

14. Link to developmental experience...
• Conversation begins day one during
recruitment of high school seniors
• Continuous conversation happens
during one on ones each year
• Linked to Certificate in Community
Development

15. Steps and Stages
• Evaluation of student interests, passions,
career goals and partner needs
• Partners are trained to expect students to
complete capstone in senior year- partners as
co-educators conversation
• Students do the work in terms of making asks
with example emails, pitches and questions

16. for Success
• Center staff are trained to identify
‘trigger’ points during one on ones to
embark on research topic
conversation
• Student accountability- honors
structure
• Clearly articulated faculty mentor role &
faculty mentor check ins

17. • Institution understands as a part of
COMD capstone (academic
requirement)
• Explanation/introduction as similar
to honors
• Partners understand as benefiting to
their research/organizational needs

18. • Introduction to the students- why? what
is in it for them?
• Engaging tenured faculty-avoiding
campus politics
• Aligning student research interests with
faculty research interests and partner
issue area
Overcoming

19. Group Work...
• What are the
common practices
you notice? Let’s go
deeper...
• What are the
common challenges?
Let’s solve these...

20. Tips...
• Introduce during recruitment; build
each year
• Link with advising
• Ongoing planning with partners
• Intentional preparation
• Can include wide array of faculty
• Paper or project required

21. Fighting for Equality:
The Bolivian Health Care System
Methodology
This research will be using a qualitative method. The
qualitative method used is ethnographic observation
data from a Bolivian clinical facility that had been
conducted during the summer of 2014. The data was
observed and collected on the medical and health
system in Bolivia. This ethnographic data was collected
in a rural medical setting where I was interning for 5
weeks with the supervision of an experienced doctor,
two intern nurses and one registered experienced nurse
in the department of La Paz. The data collected was
gathered from observations made in the clinic,
interactions of patients and doctor or nurse contact
and community visits.
1. History
Bolivia is known as the second poorest country in
Latin America. Bolivia began reforming the health care
system in the 1990s in order to better serve its
population (WHO 2006). Since 1996, the Bolivian
health system began the process of decentralizing
itself and implemented national systems that cover
health for children, the elderly, as well as maternal
health (WHO 2006). The total population as, of 2008,
was 10,027,600 (Ledo & Soria 2011). At the time, there
were about 5.3 million people in Bolivia living in
poverty.
The poor, the elderly, and the indigenous groups in
Bolivia are less likely to use the system and are also
more likely to have a catastrophic medical expense than
the rest of the population (WHO 2006). There is very
large disparity between the poor and the wealthy in
regards to accessing and receiving quality care for more
specialized health services.
Outside of the national insurance for children and
mothers, about 2,900,000 million people in the country
were under the national Social Security health plan in
2009 (Lado & Soria 2011). Under the Social Security
plan, only those that are employed are eligible for to
receive any benefits (WHO 2006). Another 1,452,273
million people in Bolivia are covered under some other
form of private insurance in the country (Lado & Soria
2011). Bolivia continues to have over 5,948,264
millions of people have no access to insurance plans in
the country.
Findings and Analysis
Having the opportunity to learn alongside other health
workers and interact with patients from all walks of life, I
was able to observe and process the impact the healthcare
system has on the patients living in the local level. Patients
were affected by three major factors: the doctor/patient
relationship, accessibility, and culture sensitivity.
The clinic was fairly equipped to treat moderate cases and
take care of mothers who were ready to give birth. Rural
areas attempted to work with supplies they received from
the government. The clinic served multiple towns that
were moderately distanced from the clinic making it
difficult for patients to visit the clinic. Patients had little to
no reliable transportations.
Health workers were limited in the community. Many of
the health workers were interns and, after completion of
their internship, eventually moved to the city for work.
This was a problem among rural communities and older
patients. The community valued trust, and once they
trusted doctors and interns in the clinic, many health
workers moved away into the cities.
Health workers in rural communities were more sensitive
to different cultures. Large populations of rural patients in
the Carmen Pampa area identified as members of a
indigenous group. The indigenous group had their own
language and alternative medicine. Health staff in the rural
clinic were more accepting and did not disrespect
indigenous population by comparing them to their urban
counterparts.
The Rural Perspective on Accessibility, Culture, Doctor and Patient
Relationship
Siena College Bonner Service Leader Senior Capstone
By: Adderlin Taveras
Faculty Mentor: Duane Matcha, Ph.D
Abstract
This capstone project is a culmination of
my summer serving as a Global Service
Intern in Carmen Pampa, Bolivia. During
my time as an intern, I had the opportunity
to explore and understand the the Bolivian
health care system at a local rural level.
This project outlines the history of the
system and how it has changed over time.
Moreover, it examines how the system
impacts accessibility, patient and doctor
relationship and cultural barriers. The
project also begins efforts to improve the
process for individuals going into the
system as a healthcare workers in the
community.
Recommendations
Having received the opportunity to examine the health system in the local level from
both critical and sociological lenses, I make the following recommendations to take into
consideration in order to improve rural health system:
• More residents in rural communities should be trained to become health workers
in order to improve quality, trust and quantity of health worker willing to stay in
the community.
• Increase funding to rural communities in order to provide more care to patients.
• Accessibility to roads and transportation must be improved.
• Understand and integrate patients cultural values and traditions with westernize
medicine in order improve relationships between health care workers and
patients.

22. Bridging the Gap:
How Undergraduates Can Aid Nonprofits in the Effective Utilization of Public Policy
Steps to Success
Siena College Bonner Service Leader Senior Capstone
By: Ann Ward
Faculty Mentors: Laurie Naranch Ph.D. Duane Matcha Ph.D. & Mathew Johnson Ph.D.
As the relationship between public policy and nonprofit
organizations gravitates closer to the forefront of many
academic discussions, it is increasingly apparent that already
strapped nonprofits do not currently have the capacity to
partake in the process without outside help. A collaboration
among these nonprofits, undergraduate researchers, and
universities can be a solution to this problem. While the
relationship between nonprofits and undergraduate policy
researchers must be strengthened and more effective support
systems need to be built, both parties have already begun
playing a role in the policy sphere. Through interviews and
assessment of undergraduate programs- The Bonner
Foundation and Roosevelt Institute’s Campus Network- it
becomes clear that in order for this relationship to be
effectively utilized, a few steps must be taken. After evaluating
and assessing two programs that facilitate this process, it is
clear that undergraduate policy research and nonprofits can
come together to form a mutually beneficial pairing when
both partners have the structural supports to develop a
sustainable policy understanding.
1. It is vital to give the students an understanding of the
complexities of the policy sphere by using various tools, like
policy field mapping and analysis, to clarify who is involved in
each individual policy field. It is also important to find
methods of incentivizing students to participate in this type of
research.
In 2004, The Roosevelt Institute started a program titled Campus
Networks with the aim of teaching students how to use public policy
as a tool for community change. In order to tackle the challenge of
educating undergraduate students on some complex policy issues, a
curriculum was developed called Roosevelt|Thinks, which introduces
students to the basics of policy development and implementation.
This step is instrumental to the success of the program, creating both
student buy in and simplifying the complexities of the policy process.
Their vision statement is based off of the understanding that the
policy process, or the way the rules that govern our lives develop,
becomes a powerful tool for young people to develop, advance, and
advocate for sustainable solutions that take on some of the most
intractable problems.
A program that is taking steps to encourage undergraduate policy
research in order to increase nonprofits use of public policy is the
Bonner Foundation. Currently, there is a website that is an offshoot
project from the Bonner Foundation called PolicyOptions that
creates a space for this undergraduate involvement in public policy.
PolicyOptions is a website where nonprofit organizations can go to
get the most up to date policy news among various other useful
pieces of information. Their mission is to establish a network of local
"community information hubs" that will make policy information,
news, and research available on websites, weekly email news digests,
and policy analysis. The local PolicyOptions.org bureaus feature local
PolicyOptions Issue Briefs on topics of local interest that draw upon
policies and program models
2. Developing a network for students to utilize and connect
with each other through the policy process is also a key factor
in the successful participation of undergraduate students in
policy research.
3.Understanding the specific needs of the nonprofit and the
community also plays a critical role in ensuring that the
relationship remains mutually beneficial and reciprocal.
Campus Network
Abstract
PolicyOptions
(Sandfort and Stone 2009)

23. Contact Information
•April Backus- Siena College
–abackus@siena.edu
•Marisa Charley- Washington & Lee
University
–charleym@wlu.edu