Lead Contacts     |     Issue Focus     |     Pilot Project Plan     |     Timeline     |     Progress Reports

 

 

Lead Contacts

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• Patrick Donohue, Director, Bonner Center for Civic and Community Engagement | phone 609-771-2362 

  

Issue Focus

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Progress Reports

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• Course Implementation Profile
• Semi-Annual Progress Reports
  • April 1, 2009 Progress Report
  • August 15, 2009 Progress Report
  • December 15, 2009 Progress Report
  • June 1, 2010 Progress Report

 

Pilot Project Plan

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Background

 

Purposes

 

• To generate multiple opportunities or channels that produce CBRNI work-products (including policy briefs, issue blogs, issue forums, and other community based learning projects) that benefit our community partners and/or address a campus-based public interest issue (e.g. race relations).  

 

• To establish the foundation for the College to implement the Second Component of its Community Engaged Learning graduation requirement by the end of this grant period (Fall 2010); a foundation that provides additional leadership and development opportunities to Bonner Community Scholars and Fellows.

 

Organizing Units

 

In general, all of the work-products mentioned above will be directly produced or sparked by our issue-based Bonner Community Scholar teams.  This will allow us to provide more depth and substance to our developmental model, increase our usefulness to our community partners, and further develop the FY CEL program (to be explained in more detail below).  These work-products will also be produced by issue-based ACE Teams (Advanced Community Engaged Learning), comprised of faculty, staff and students who are not substantially involved in the BCS or Center programs at this time.  Significantly, these ACE Teams will be the building blocks that will enable us to implement the Second Component of the CEL graduation requirement at the end of this grant period.  Finally, we will form class-based teams with the cooperation of faculty from a range of disciplines, most of whom we will expect to play a leadership or supporting role in both the BCS or ACE initiatives.  

 

 

Student Engagement

 

At the start of each semester, the Center will organize a Policy Options training session.  At this time, we envision a small number of staff, faculty and/or students to participate—as well as Foundation colleagues who could help lead these gatherings.  In addition, we will begin to develop a set of resources with the assistance of reference librarians and others that will enhance our ability to instruct others on how to complete these projects.

 

We organize our student leadership using the Bonner Community Scholar team model.  These teams will complete the CBR work products, starting in the spring of 2008.  In addition, we will ask individual Bonners to make an effort to integrate policy option projects into their individual classes.  

 

Issue-Based Ace Teams:  Leadership, Structure, Formation and Schedule Overview

 

The ACE Teams will be a new creation.  Each team will be co-led by a faculty or staff member and a student of their choice. To start, this leadership team will receive a roster of students who will be members of their community.   All participants—the leaders and student members-- will be united around their shared interest in as community topic (e.g. the environment).   

 

During Phase I (Spring 2009), 2-4 teams will be comprised of Bonner Volunteers and led by Center staff and senior interns.  The composition and leadership of these teams will evolve.  

 

In Phase II (2009-2010), the teams will be led by one faculty member and a student of his or her choice.  Each team would cost approximately $3,000. The student members of the team will be recruited from the BVol population as well as other programs (WILL, Honors, MUSE etc…).  In addition to working with their group, faculty members would be expected to integrate a project into one their classes.   

 

In Phase III of the program (2009-2010), we will have approximately 13 ACE Teams that will be populated by all TCNJ juniors; this will be the implementation of the Second Component of the CEL program for the first time in the College’s history.  Again, faculty leaders would be expected to integrate a project into one of their classes.  In addition, they would help Center staff identify and organize additional community-engaged classes within their department or program.  The Center will search for funds for this phase during the pilot period.

 

 

Faculty Engagement

 

 

 

Deliberative Democracy Forum

 

A substantial portion of our work-products, most immediately the issue briefs, will emerge from our development of a new and innovative use of campus resources, what we are tentatively calling Knowledge Harvest Days or MLK (Mining the Library for Knowledge) Action Days.  On these days, students interested in a particular issue (and perhaps one that they focused on during their FY CEL experience) will come together in the library and, in general, follow these steps: receive a community based research challenge question directly from one of our partners; learn what is included in a policy option issue brief and how to complete the various components; form small “harvest or mining” divisions;  work with their colleagues to complete their task; report out to the larger group; and finally, identify a group leader who would be willing to stay involved in finalizing the issue brief with a TCNJ professional.  

 

When possible, we will integrate the Knowledge Harvest and FY CEL Days, creating what we are tentatively calling Mega CEL Days.   On some of these days, FY and ACE students (sophomores and above) will gather and hear from the same speakers in the morning.  While FY students will leave for their off-campus project (e.g. at a soup kitchen working with homeless individuals), the ACE team will break for the library.  At the end of the day, the ACE group will report out to the FY students.  

 

Finally, on a smaller number of these Mega days, we could schedule a critical issue forum or debate that is relevant both groups of students.  These could be developed by any one of the organizing units mentioned earlier.

 

 

Editorial/Advisory Board 

 

 

 

Timeline

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Spring 2009

• Issue Briefs (Non Class-Based)
  • 6-10  completed by BCS Teams via Knowledge Harvest Days (tentatively January 24th and 31st), individual course work and/or regular Bonner program
  • 4-6 completed by ACE Teams during Pilot of Knowledge Harvest Days (January dates TBD)
  • 1-3 completed by participants in the TCNJ-ANJ Trenton Community Orientation course
• Issue Briefs (Class-Based)
  • Targeted RFP sent to professors by November 21, 2008
  • Review of RFP responses and Center-faculty agreements executed by December 10, 2009
  • 3-6 projects shaped and community-partner class visits/site visits scheduled by January 10, 2009
  • Issue-based review/editorial panels or experts identified for each project by March 10, 2009
  • Issue-briefs submitted in electronic form to panel/expert by May 1, 2008 (or sooner)
  • Select issue briefs posted on the wiki by June 1, 2009 (or sooner).
• Forums & Blogs
  • 2  issue forums completed by BCS Teams (informed by Issue Brief findings and scheduled at the end of FY CEL Days); one in March and one in April 2009.
  • 1  community partner forum organized by Center staff and students (to foster a dialogue about the wiki and the findings)
  • Create 3-6 Bonner Issue-Based Blog Sites (by February 1, 2009)
• Preparation/Organization for 2008-2009 
  • Target and recruit 6-7 ACE faculty/staff leaders (beginning November 2009)
  • Select and reach agreement with faculty/staff leaders and assign them to issue areas based on their interests (by February 2009)
  • Secure agreements from leaders of other programs to participate (by February 2009)
  • Assist ACE faculty/staff leaders identify and select student partners (by April 2009)
  • Organize student cohorts/communities for each ACE team by (by May or June 2009)

 

Fall 2009

• The Bonner Center is currently working on the Phase II (2008-2009) time-line.  The basic outline found above will be followed.  BCS, ACE and class-based teams will all be utilized to complete all of the aforementioned work-products.
• Develop preliminary SAS/IT plan (by December 1, 2009)
• Produce first draft of time-line and outreach materials (by January 1, 2008) 

 

Spring 2010

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