Learn how a Bonner Leader Program and institution with zero recruitment budget has evolved their admissions process over the past 12 years to build collaborations across campus, give their current Bonners an active role in the process, keep prospectives students engaged, and assess applicants’ ability to lead, work in a team setting, analyze and communicate around issues, and capture a true passion for service.

1. Recruit for the Best Bonner Fit
in an Engaged, Creative, and
No Cost Way
Sewanee: The University of the South

2. Agenda
● Introductions
● Share challenges we each have when it comes to
recruiting the next generation of Bonners
● Walk through the evolution of this process at Sewanee
and what it looks like today
● Share out best practices

3. Intros
● Name
● School
● Bonner Leader or Scholar school
● How long has Bonner been at your school

4. What are the challenges
folks are facing with
their recruitment and
admissions process?

5. Quick Facts about Sewanee
● Small, rural private liberal arts college in TN with around 1700 students
● First official Bonner Leader class in 2012
● No budget for recruitment
● 40 Bonner Leaders and another 25 Canales (students doing same program but
paid from an endowment instead of through work-study)
● Recruitment occurs after students have been accepted to Sewanee
● Collaboration with Admissions office to promote program to students
● Generally have 60-80 applicants, accept 13-15, 12 usually matriculate

6. The Before
● Limited exposure of the program to students during the application
process
● Students looked really good on paper but weren’t necessarily a
good fit once on campus and in the program

7. The Gaps
● Needed to see the prospective students’ communication
skills in action
● Needed a way to include current Bonners in the process
● Needed to make better use of the face-to-face time we did
have with prospective Bonners

8. Admissions Office
Before
Admissions sent multiple standard
(generic) emails to all prospective
students.
Their office handled application
announcement and set up system in
SLATE for our applications and video
essays.
After decisions were made, Admissions
sent out Bonner decisions.
After
Admissions office sends out communication
to prospective students that is created by
Bonner students on Admissions committee as
a part of the BCLT.
Email includes links to FAQ video created by
students and links to Bonner digital stories
from previous two years.
Admissions sends out invites to the Q&A
Session to prospective students, handle
management of applications in SLATE, and
sends out decisions from the Bonner
program.

9. Current Bonner Student Involvement
Before
Senior Interns helped set up
interview times.
Current Bonner senior students
interviewed candidates with
staff during 30 minute individual
zoom interview.
After
Admissions committee (BCLT) reviews
application process and develops email sent
by Admissions Office.
Plan and lead Q & A Session
Lead Group Scenario sessions and complete
Group rubric
Organize and coordinate individual interviews
Senior Bonners help conduct individual
interviews and provide feedback before final
decisions are made.

10. Prospective Student Engagement
Before
Emails to prospective
students to set up interview
30 minute individual zoom
interview
Emails after decisions are out
to encourage those not
accepted to meet with me
After
Q&A Session (option to reach out
to current Bonners afterwards)
Group Interview Process
Individual Interview
Emails after decisions to
encourage those not accepted to
meet with me

11. Bonner Staff Responsibilities
Before
Review all communications, application
materials prior to application posting
Review all application materials
Email students to set up interview times
Organize senior Bonners to be part of
interviews
Make decisions
After
Review entire applications and essays via SLATE,
review of entire application using written application
rubric, done by Bonner staff only.
Give background info ata Q&A and Group Scenario
sessions
With Senior Bonners, conduct individual interviews,
individual interview rubric, questions, zoom
Decisions out, reaching out to students who deposit
but are not bonners, WL length; Summer zooms with
freshmen

12. Key Highlights: Bonner-led Q & A Session
● Bonner Senior Intern as Emcee for event via Zoom
● First Round of Introductions
● Introduce panelists: name, class, major/minor, Bonner sites,
extracurriculars
● Emcee Asks Panelists 4 Prepped Questions, panelists are pre-selected for
each question
● Give time at the end for Questions From Prospective Students
● Wrap up and ‘thank you’, reminder of important Bonner application dates

13. Key Highlights: Group Scenario
SCENARIO: Imagine that your cruise ship just sank in the Caribbean, and you
awaken to find yourselves on a tropical desert island. There is no one else in
sight—only this group has washed ashore on the island. You have no idea where
you are. You think there’s some chance that people know of the ship’s distress, but
you are not sure. A storm appears to be on the way. You decide that you need to
prepare to survive on this island for some time and also to make sure you’ll be
spotted by a rescue party. There is a bunch of stuff from the ship on the beach that
could help you, but you can only carry five items.
Your Mission
Step 1: Each of you writes down on a separate piece of paper what you consider the
five most important items to keep from the inventory list below, based on your
survival plan. Then, rank-order these items based on their importance to you. Give
the most crucial item a 1, the next most crucial a 2, and so on. There are no right or
wrong answers.
Step 2: Share your list with the group. Together come up with a consensus list of five
items. That means talking it over and working as a team to solve the problem
together. All group members need to be influential in discussing the problem and in
making the final decisions.

14. Key Highlights: Group Scenario

15. Key Highlights: Group Scenario
1. Introductions (Director): Name, Pronouns (give ours and rename to include that), and something you feel the group should know about you.
All in one breath to keep it short. We go first. (5 min)
2. Agenda for the day (Coordinator) (2 min)
a. Background on program
b. Set up of exercise
c. Problem-solving and reflection by the group
d. What to expect next
3. Bonner background (Director) (5 min)
a. Use spiel from interviews last year
4. Layout format and expectation (showing stranded) (Student Leader) (8 min)
a. How it will work
b. Expectations of the group (step up, step back, not a fight for airspace but a chance to have fun and be collaborative) and any other
group norms
c. Give the scenario and list and put this in chat
5. Problem-Solving by the group (Interviewees - 20 min)
a. Write down list of items you would want to have with you and why that’s important to you (5 min)
b. Discuss as a group: (10 - 15 min)
i. What were your choices and why
ii. How do you decide together the top 5 things to bring
6. Reflection: (Student Leader) (15 - 20 min) *not everyone has to answer every question, but they can
a. How did you feel about this exercise?
b. What was hard about this?
c. What did you notice about yourself?
d. What did you notice about others?
e. What might you do differently if you could do it again?
7. What to expect next (Coordinator) (5 min)

16. Lessons Learned
● Scholarship versus work-study
● Zoom is our friend and enables us to have more contact, extend our
application process in a no-cost way, and build community after they deposit in
May
● Group scenario lets them see Bonner as fun, student-led, and gives us a
chance to see how they interact with others and communicate and collaborate.
● This process also allows us to have more contact with more of the applicants,
giving us a better sense of them, and giving them more contact with the
program and hopefully developing more interest in us as a result.

17. Resources
● Timeline
● Admissions Office: sends out emails to students (includes links to videos
our students made for FAQ and links to our Bonners’ digital stories from
the last two years)
● Bonner-led Q&A session
● Application written prompts and written application rubric
● Group Scenario and Group Rubric
● Individual interview rubric

18. What are some of y’all’s
lessons learned and
best practices?