Presentation at the American Democracy Project Conference hosted by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, June 2012. Longer presentation explores high-impact practices and high-impact community engagement in more depth.

1. Linking High-Impact Learning &
Community Engagement
for the American Democracy Project Conference • June 9, 2012"
Ariane Hoy (Bonner Foundation) & Mathew Johnson (Siena College and Bonner Foundation)
!1

2. Today we will:
✤
Explore 10 High-Impact Practices"
✤
Introduce you to the Bonner Program"
✤
Share where this idea came from"
✤
Provide the opportunity to wrestle with ideas

3. Introductions...
High-Impact Learning Practices

4. High-Impact Practices
~ first year seminars"
~ common intellectual experiences "
~ 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

5. Overview
The Bonner Program

6. Introduction to Our National Network
Bonner Scholar and Leader Programs at more than 60 institutions of higher education
A Live Google Map

7. Who is a
Bonner?
✤
A committed undergraduate—likely
from a low-income background (85%
+)"
✤
Joins a cohort-based program"
✤
Serves 8-10 hours every week, across
four years in developmental
progression"
✤
Interns with local, national and
international organizations during
the school year and full-time in
summer"
✤
Participates in education, training,
meetings, reflection"
✤
Is more likely to graduate and have
better grades

8. The Bonner
Network
✤
60 active Bonner Scholar and
Leader Programs; 15 start-up"
✤
Diverse liberal arts institutions,
public and private"
✤
3,000+ students"
✤
Focus on under-represented
students: low income, students
of color, first generation"
✤
6,000 + alumni"
✤
25 endowed campus programs
at $163 million total

9. A proven program model...
with elements to scale

10. Proven
Program Model
✤
Student learning,
development and
leadership"
✤
Reciprocal community
partnerships and
impact"
✤
Campus infrastructure
and culture of service

11. Student Impact
Longitudinal assessment involving 25
campus programs; pre and post
assessment
✤
Four years are significant"
✤
Proven skill learning
(developmental model)"
✤
Commitment to social justice"
✤
Dialogue across difference"
✤
Structured and unstructured
reflection"
✤
The importance of mentors"
✤
Civic-minded professionalism

12. Deep
Partnerships
✤
3,000 students engaging in 1
million hours of service each
year"
✤
Developmental multi-year
partnerships"
✤
Partners as co-educators"
✤
Connecting all available
campus assets to community
needs"
✤
Direct service, CBR, servicelearning projects, policy
research

13. Campus
Infrastructure
✤
Infrastructure for community
service and academic
community engagement"
✤
FIPSE funded model for civic
engagement minors and
certificates"
✤
Seeding community based
research over 15 years at 30+
institutions"
✤
Staffing model that builds the
capacity, range and depth of
campus program

14. Alumni Impact
30 campuses, 1066 Participants; 22-50
years old; 32% response rate
✤
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

15. Bonner Alumni Remain Engaged
volunteering at notably higher rates than average U.S. citizens
Average Volunteering Rates vs. Bonner Graduates

16. Where this idea came from...
listening to our network

17. Origins of the
Initiative
✤
Vision—Aim to
be at the cutting
edge of
institutional
change"
✤
Data—NASCE"
✤
Learning—HIPs"
✤
Practice—HICEPs

18. Why change is
needed?
✤
Higher education at
a Crucible Moment"
✤
Financial challenges"
✤
Structural changes"
✤
Performance crisis"
✤
A unique
opportunity

19. Data—National
Assessment of Service &
Community Engagement
✤
Developed by Siena Research
Institute as a gauge of institutional
engagement"
✤
Implemented by 35+ institutions"
✤
14K 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

21. Learning—Academic
Community Engagement
at a Crossroads
✤
Three Learn & Serve grants and fifteen
years working on community-based
research "
✤
Civic engagement minor (FIPSE,
monograph)"
✤
Assessment points to importance and
limits of course-based service-learning"
✤
Broader calls for the re-imagination of
service-learning"
✤
Most successful initiatives (ADP,
BTtoP, Greater Expectations) cross
boundaries and inform institutional
change

22. Engaged Learning—A Part of
the Solution
✤
Generated from the Liberal Education and
America’s Promise (LEAP) Initiative, a
project of the American Association of
Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)"
✤
Proven to be effective with higher than
expected student learning and success,
especially with under-represented students"
✤
ALL of them could be connected with
community engagement
!22

23. High-Impact Practices
~ first year seminars"
~ common intellectual experiences "
~ 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

24. Practice—The Field is
Moving Towards ResultsOriented Approaches
✤
Recession and troubled
economy has driven increased
demand"
✤
Shrinking public funding and
declining revenues "
✤
Nonprofit mergers are
increasing"
✤
Campus-community
partnerships with long histories
still need strategies and tools to
measure social impact

25. Engaged Practice—High Impact
Community Engagement Practice
(HICEPs)
✤
Developed by the Bonner Foundation and
Network’s 20+ years of building and managing
developmental campus-community partnerships"
✤
Position campus and community in democratic
engagement, characterized as:"
✤
reciprocal"
✤
problem-solving oriented"
✤
knowledge co-creation"
✤
many types of public spaces
!25

26. Engaged Practice—High Impact
Community Engagement Practice
(HICEPs)
1. PLACE "
2. HUMILITY"
3. INTEGRATION"
4. DEPTH"
5. DEVELOPMENT"
6. SEQUENCE"
7. TEAMS
!26

27. Engaged Practice—High Impact
Community Engagement Practice
(HICEPs)
8. REFLECTION"
9. MENTORS"
10. CAPACITY"
11. LEARNING"
12. EVIDENCE"
13. CAPACITY"
14. IMPACT
!27

28. Bridging frameworks—towards democratic
A goal to draw out the opportunities for campuses and communities to be fully engaged

29. Our theory of change...
strategic campus-community teams

30. High-Impact Strategic Goals
✤
Scale proven best practices in community
engagement by integrating them across the
curriculum"
✤
Create more faculty participation in community
engagement that is connected to evidence-based
practice"
✤
Help campuses create and demonstrate community
impact

31. Four Guiding Principles
Pervasiveness"
Depth"
Integration"
Developmental
!31

32. Institutional Change
Depth
Low
High
Adjustment (I)
Isolated Change"
(II)
Far-Reaching
Change"
(III)
Transformational
Change
(IV)
!
!
!
!
Pervasiveness
Low
!
!
!
High
[Saltmarsh, J. (2009). Adapted from Eckel, Hill, & Green. (1998)]
!32

33. ra
te
d
low
In
te
g
3-­‐Dimensional
Model
high
!
high
II
(“Johnson
Cube”)
!
VI
Deep
[Saltmarsh
&
Clayton
(2011)]
[Graphic
by
K.
Buchner]
IV
VIII
I
V
III
VII
low
low
Pervasive
high

34. Four Major Strategies
✤
Integrate high-impact
educational practices and
high-impact community
engagement"
Use data and evidencebased practice to drive
institutional strategy
towards full engagement"
✤
Build, support, and
leverage campus
transformation teams"
✤
✤
Be an active convener
and catalyst for a national
learning community—
spurring partnerships
across the field that move
community engagement
towards greater impact

35. Illustration of Connections
First Year Seminars
First Year Trips / Immersions
Common Intellectual Experiences
Site/Team Based Project Design
Learning Communities
Cohort Training Meetings
Writing Intensive Courses
Policy Research Assignments
Collaborative Projects
Issue Briefs/Program Models/CBR
Undergraduate Research
Capacity Building Projects
Diversity /Global Learning
Junior (Elective) Trips / Internships
Internships / Project-Based Learning
Sequence of developmental placements, "
tied to coursework
Capstone Courses
Capstone Service Projects

36. Strategy 1
Integrate high-impact educational practices and high-impact community engagement

37. Strategy 2
Use data and evidence-based practice to drive institutional strategy for full engagement

38. Types of Data
NSEE
Institutional learning performance
NASCE
Institution wide student engagement
Survey of Community Partners
Satisfaction; Capacity contributions
Survey of Faculty
Institution wide faculty engagement
Strategic Planning
Issue Briefs/Program Models/CBR
Proven Program Models
Capacity Building Projects
Indicators (Public Data)
Junior (Elective) Trips / Internships
Community Impact Assessments
to be gathered and shared

39. Year 4 on...continue to participation in
national learning community
Year 3"
•Attend institute"
• Sustainability
vision & plan"
• Refine projects,
possibly others"
• Begin to
implement
impact
assessment
Strategy 3
Student
Professor
Staff
Partner
project Student
s
Partner
Professor
Year 1"
• Build team &
campus climate"
• Data collection &
planning"
• Identify assets"
• Attend institute"
• Select & do first
projects
Staff
Year 2"
• Expand team & participation"
• Attend institute"
• Select & do next two projects"
• Document and share learning (conferences,
publications)
Build, support, and leverage campus transformation teams

40. Small Group Discussion
linking HIP with HICEPS

41. Strategy
Be an active convener and
catalyst for a national
learning community—
spurring partnerships
across the field that move
community engagement
towards greater impact
Year 1 Cohort

42. •Association of American
Colleges and Universities
Crucible Moment, HIPs
•American Association of
State Colleges &
Universities
American Democracy Project
•Bringing Theory to
Practice
Psychosocial Well-being, Assessment
Models
IARSLCE
Research and theoretical base
•Imagining America
Collaboratories, faculty development
paths, tenure & promotion
•NERCHE
Full Participation, institutional
transformation, Carnegie Classification,
Democratic Engagement
•Open Indicators
Consortium
Community impact models using
public data, open source
Strategy
National Learning Community