This document discusses deepening community engagement in higher education through the Bonner High-Impact Initiative. It introduces the initiative and its goals of building a national learning community through cohort-based, strategic, multi-year engagement at partner colleges. Examples are provided of high-impact projects at Allegheny College and Siena College that integrate community engagement, partnerships, research, and curriculum to address local issues and contribute to the community. The initiative aims to leverage high-impact practices through community engagement to increase student learning and community impact.

1. Deepening Community Engagement in Higher Education
The Bonner High-Impact Initiative
Building a
national learning
community

2. Introductions
• Ariane Hoy,
Bonner Foundation (ahoy@bonner.org)
• Jamé Johnson, Crawford County School District
(jame.johnson@craw.org)
• Mathew Johnson, Siena College
(mjohnson@siena.edu)
• Dave Roncolato, Allegheny College
(droncola@allegheny.edu)

3. Learning from you...
In your experience,
who is or is not at
the table (students,
partners, faculty)?
Your best
examples
of integrative,
collaborative projects
Place &
community...how
is/could your
institution contribute?
Engaged learning
(HIPs) &
community
engagement where connected or
disconnected?

4. Questions to discuss
•
When it comes to expanding or deepening community
engagement on your campus, who is or is not at the table in
designing and carrying out these initiatives? (Corner 1)
•
Share 1-2 best examples of innovative civic learning/
engagement projects that involve real collaboration across
academic, student affairs, and even with community. (Corner 2)
•
Reflect on where you have high-impact practices happening on
your campus and where you have community engagement
happening. Are they connected or disconnected? (Corner 3)
•
Think about the place or community where your institution
resides. As a part of the community, what are ways that your
institution's engaged teaching and learning could also make a
contribution or impact? (Corner 4)

5. What is High-Impact?
Cohort-based, Strategic, Multi-Year
Began in 2012
Began in 2013
Building a
national learning
community
•Allegheny College
•Berea College
•Berry College
•Carson-Newman College
•Sewanee—University of the South
•Siena College
•Stetson University
•Washburn University
•Davidson College
•DePauw University
•Guilford College
•Mars Hill College
•Oberlin College
•The College of New Jersey
•Ursinus College
•Wagner University
•Warren Wilson College

6. 1 - Albany, NY
(Siena)
2- Berea, KY
(Berea)
3- Black Mountain, NC
(Warren Wilson)
4- Davidson, NC
(Davidson)
5- DeLand, FL
(Stetson)
6- Collegeville, PA
(Ursinus)
7- Greencastle, IN
(DePauw)
8- Greensboro, NC
(Guilford)
9- Jefferson City, TN
(Carson-Newman)
10- Mars Hill, NC
(Mars Hill)
12
11- Meadville, PA
(Allegheny)
12- Moraga, CA
(Saint Mary’s)
13- Oberlin, OH
(Oberlin)
14- Princeton, NJ
(Bonner)
15- Rome, GA
(Berry)
16- Grundy, TN
(Sewanee)
17- Staten Island, NY
(Wagner)
18- Topeka, KS
(Washburn)
19 - Trenton, NJ
(TCNJ)
20 - Washington, DC
(AACU)
Who we are
and the places we work
1
17
11
6
13
20
7
2
18
8
9
10 3
4
16
15
5
2
14
19

7. What We Knew (20 years)
✤
✤
✤
✤
✤
✤
Co-curricular and
curricular matter
Cohorts
Diversity & “Dialogue
across difference”
Structured and
unstructured reflection
Mentors
Affects careers and
lifelong: Civic-minded
graduates

8. Alumni Impact
30 campuses, 1066 Participants; 22-50 years
old; 32% response rate
✤
Low-income, first generation,
diverse students
✤
33% in non-profit sector careers
✤
32% in government careers
✤
25% in for-profit careers
✤
✤
Career choices driven by a desire
to affect positive change
90% demonstrating civic action in
past 12 months
✤
✤
joined organization; signed petition; did not buy a
product due to company values; contacted a
public official
90% voted in last election

9. National Assessment of
Service & Community
Engagement
✤
✤
✤
✤
✤
✤
Siena Research Institute
Implemented by 46+
institutions
19K completes—now the
largest national data set on
civic engagement
Telling findings—more than
half of students are never
engaged
Average POP score - mid 20’s
Structure matters
Pete Cichetti
pcichetti@siena.edu
518-782-6997

10. From$High$School$to$College$
Four%Types%of%Student%Transi2ons%
No:%College%%%%%%%%%%%Yes:%College%
$$$Yes:%High%School%%%%%%%%%%No:%High%School%%
43%$
43%$
3%$
11%$
46%percent%of%
Students%Report%
Doing%Service%in%
College%

11. A strategy to change
ourselves, campuses,
and learning

12. An approach to deepening
student learning &
community impact
Integrated
Deep
Developmental
Pervasive

13. Driven by
integrated
change-oriented
teams (students,
faculty, partners,
staff)

14. A way to build
communities of
best practice &
move our
towards greater
impact

15. Leveraging High-Impact Practices
• first year seminars
• common intellectual experiences
• place-based education
• learning communities
• writing-intensive courses
• collaborative assignments & projects
• undergraduate research
• diversity/global learning
• internships & project-based learning
• service-learning & community-based learning
• capstone courses & projects
• deliberative dialogues

16. Using High-Impact Community
Engagement
• PLACE
as a magnifier
• INTEGRATION
• DEPTH
• DEVELOPMENT
• SEQUENCE
• TEAMS
• REFLECTION
• MENTOR
• CAPACITY
• EVIDENCE
• IMPACT
• LEARNING

17. Example: a
First Year
Experience at
Sewanee
Focuses on
PLACE with
internships,
mentoring,
and reflection
HIPs x HICEPs =
engagement increases impact

18. Allegheny High Impact Project #1
The Community Listening Project
a three-year initiative to tell the story of a town and its college
place • voice

19. Allegheny High Impact Project #2
A New Center for Local Research,
Knowledge, and Integration
• A centralized locale for local
research and knowledge
• Responsive to the community
beyond the college
• Co-coordinated by a community
partner and faculty member
• Create local research agendas
that will facilitate faculty and
student participation in
addressing critical concerns
• Increase campus-wide knowledge
of the community.

20. Allegheny High Impact Project #3
Civic Engagement Courses
Making Civic Engagement more PERVASIVE in the curriculum
• A Civic Learning requirement Discussion in 2013-14 Faculty
meeting
• Community Engagement Faculty
Development workshops Summer 2013 and 2014
• Alternative course assessments
Fall 2013
• Student support with CBL-Corps
Spring 2014
• Including Civic Engagement:
Investigating the Public Purpose

21. “The Saltmarsh Challenge”

22. The Process

23. Every voice,
equal voice!

24. Powerhouse Team!
• Terry Bensel, Associate Provost
• Zac Callen, Assistant Professor of Political Science
• Nancy Chen, Undergraduate and Bonner Leader
• Linda DeMerit, Provost
• Emma Dosch, Undergraduate and Bonner Leader
• Larry Hailsham, Undergraduate and Bonner Scholar
• Jamé Johnson, Instructional Coach in Crawford County
School District
• Kaziputalimba (Kazi) Joshua, Dean for Residence Life
• Stephanie Martin,
Assistant Professor of Economics
• Paige Missel, Undergraduate and High-Impact Intern
• Dave Roncolato, Director of Community Service and
Service-Learning, ACCEL
• Jamie Williams, Associate Director of Community Service and
Service-Learning, ACCEL

25. Siena High Impact Project #1
Community Issue Forum
an initiative to mobilize greater and deeper engagement in
Albany through intensive focus on an issue and planned
institutional response on an annual basis

26. Siena High Impact Project #2
Academic Pathway
courses that include high-impact practices and engagement but
weave together as a pathway

27. Siena High Impact Project #3
High-Impact Curriculum Links
NEXT Prog.
COMC Cert.
Athletics Internship
Forum Internship

28. Powerhouse Team!
• Ralph Blasting, Dean of Liberal Arts and Professor of Creative Arts
• Cheryl Buff, Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of the
Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity
• Claudia Congemi, Undergraduate and Bonner Leader
• Lisa Hunter, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Albany
• Mathew Johnson, Director of Academic Community Engagement and
Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies
• Ruth Scipione Kassel, Assistant Director of Academic Community
Engagement
• Jacqueline Lennon, Undergraduate and Bonner Leader
• Jim Matthews, Professor of Mathematics
• Yalitza Negron, Assistant Director of Academic Community
Engagement
• Linda Richardson,Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor
of Finance and Economics
• Paul Thurston, Associate Professor of Management

29. Take Aways
strategic, focused vision
distributed leadership
evidence-based &
outcome focused
partner driven
senior leadership buy-in
coalitions & alliances
must keep at it

30. Learn more?
•Does this resonate?
•Your examples?
•Take aways?
•Where to learn more?
•www.bonner.org
•bonnernetwork.pbworks.com
•How to get involved?