Opening Presentation on the 2015 Fall Bonner Directors' Meeting by Robert Hackett. This presentation include information on Engaged Signature Works.

1. The Next 25 YearsBonner Commitment to Access & Engagement

2. Signature Work
AAC&U’s call to action:
The LEAP Challenge—calling on
colleges and universities to engage
students in Signature Work that will
prepare them to integrate and apply
their learning to a significant project
with meaning to the student and to
society.

3. Definition
How will you define “engaged signature
work”?
➡ Types of engagement projects?
➡ How are partners involved in defining
projects?

4. WPI Example
Project-Based Learning
➡ What constitutes a project?
- authentic, open-ended problems
- real, messy, interdisciplinary
- goal, methods, criteria chosen by students
- requires integration, analysis, synthesis
- generation and communication of useful
results

5. Community Engagement
How would you scaffold engagement activities?
➡ Sequence of positions/projects each year?
➡ What training topics needed at each stage?

6. Community Engagement
Bonner Developmental Model
Year 1
Exploration
roles
First Year
Seminar
First Year
Trip
Year 4
“Senior
Intern”
Capstone
Course
Site
Leadership/
Capstone
Project
Year 2
Project
Assistant
(Team)
Second Year
Exchange
Service-
Learning
Course
Year 3
BLT!
Site Leadership
International
Trip
Research
Course

7. WPI Example
Senior Year
➡ Senior Year — Major Qualifying Project:
- academic project determined ultimately
by faculty member and awarded academic
credit (9 credit hours but not a course)
- not an internship
- lots of help from recipient of project in
paying for it

8. WPI Example
Junior Year
➡ Junior Year — Interactive Qualifying Project
- 9 credits but not a course
- students conduct inquiry under faculty
direction
- teams of 3-4 students
- projects identified by community partners

9. WPI Example
First Year Great Problems Seminar Project
-provide context and motivation for subsequent
course and project work
-leverage the students’ expectations that college will
be different
-increase intellectual engagement
-increase community engagement
-build confidence
-earlier access to internships and relevant jobs
-acknowledge their knowledge, they already know
quite a bit

10. WPI Example
First Year Great Problems Seminar Project
- students divide into team (3-5)
- select/receive project topic (a small piece of a
big problem);
- research the problem, identify potential
solutions, evaluate them, select one, develop
an assessment plan;
- produce a report/poster;
- present to campus community

11. Courses
How would you sequence academic
courses?
➡ What kinds of courses are needed at each
stage?
➡ issue-based, project-based, competency-
based, process-based

12. Courses
AAC&U Example

13. Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
Knowledge &
Commitments
• Knowledge of self
• Knowledge of community
• Exploration of diversity
• Community building
• Introduction to civic
engagement
• Analysis of diversity
• Knowledge of
poverty
• Understanding of place and
ability to think critically around
community
• Introduction to forms of civic
engagement
• Multiple forms of civic
engagement
• International perspective
• Critical thinking &
systems analysis (understanding
root causes)
• Leadership skills and application
through practice
• Exploration of social justice
• Vocation and career exploration/
preparation
• Spiritual exploration
• Connection to academic study
(capstone/thesis)
Skills • Sense of place
• Listening
• Time management
• Goal setting
• Organization &
professionalism
• Reflection
• Balance
• Conflict resolution
• Planning
• Teamwork
• Volunteer recruitment
• Broader understanding of
civic engagement
• Event planning
• Facilitation
• Fundraising
• Volunteer management
• Community-based research
• Power and privilege
• Building organizational capacity
• Marketing and outreach
• Networking
• Public speaking
• Public policy
• Capstone research
Roles &
Positions
• Exploration:
learning about issues and
community; discovering
passions and talents
• Settling into primary site
and position
• Experience:
commitment to an issue,
agency/site, and place
• Expanded position and
responsibility, including
Capacity Building (see “Step
It Up Sophomores”)
• Example:
Project coordinator or leader
role; managing of project or
volunteers
• Expanded leadership roles in
the Bonner Program (i.e.,
Bonner Leadership Team)
• Capacity building project
• Expertise:
Capacity building role; project or
site leadership
• May link to academic major,
minor, certificate, or coursework
• Senior Interns
High-Impact
Connections
• First Year Seminars
• First Year Trips
• Learning
Communities
• Second Year
Exchange
• Learning
Communities
• Service-Learning
• Third Year Leadership
• International /Global
Immersions
• Undergraduate Research
• Policy Research / Issue Briefs
• Senior Capstone Courses and
Research Projects
• Policy Research / Issue Briefs
Courses • Lead-in Course (First Year
Seminars)
• Poverty / Economic
Development
• Service-Learning Courses
• Policy Courses/Internships
• International Course
• Research Methods (CBR)
Capstone / “Signature Work”
Culminating Project
Bonner Developmental Training Sequence

14. WPI Example
Required Courses
➡ Second Year Arts & Humanities:
- 6 courses - depth in one area (5 in depth)
- 6th course is a capstone project
> inquiry seminar
> practicum

15. WPI Example
Required Courses
➡ First Year Great Problems Seminars:
This two-course introduction to university-level research and
project work focuses on themes of current global importance.
Everything you do will be tied to current events, societal
problems, and human needs. GPS is all about important
problems.
The skills you’ll develop are exactly what you’ll need to be
successful in your project work at WPI, and in your future
career.

16. Emory & Henry Example
Interdisciplinary Program in Civic Innovation
As a central part of the curriculum in Civic Innovation, students are actively
solving community-identified problems and achieving outcomes for
people and places.
Graduates understand the innovation process, have the skills, knowledge,
and attributes to be innovative problem solvers, to organize, lead, and
coordinate civic initiatives, and to help forge creative alliances of persons
and organizations to meet community needs and achieve outcomes that
serve the common good.
In collaboration with their advisor, students chart a course of study that
provides skills that they can apply in the public and private sectors or in post-
graduate study.
Throughout the curriculum, students build and maintain a results portfolio,
presenting this at points in their study, culminating in the senior capstone
presentation.

17. 400 Level Courses
• Senior Project (6 credits)
• Civic Innovation, Citizenship, and Place: Capstone
Seminar and Thesis
• Independent Study
• Civic Project
• Honors Thesis I & II
• Change Skills Seminars (1 credit each):
‣ Innovative Leadership for Projects
Interdisciplinary Program in Civic Innovation
Emory & Henry Example

18. 300 Level Courses
• Politics and Public Policy
• Innovative Capacity and Community Development
• Special Topics (4 credit hours)
• Change Skills Seminars (1 credit hour each):
‣ Innovative Leadership for Projects
Emory & Henry Example
Interdisciplinary Program in Civic Innovation

19. 200 Level Courses
• Public Movements, Social and Cultural
• Research Methods for Innovation
• Appalachia
• Place, the Built Environment, & Civic Innovation in NYC
• Ireland
• Change Skills Seminars (1 credit hour each):
‣ Building Collaboratives and Alliances for Innovation (4 hrs)
‣ Innovative Leadership for Community Groups, Projects, and
Nonprofits
‣ Funding Innovation
‣ Program Development and Assessment for Innovation
Emory & Henry Example
Interdisciplinary Program in Civic Innovation

20. Emory & Henry Example
Interdisciplinary Program in Civic Innovation
100 Level Courses
• Introduction to Civic Innovation
• Skills Seminars (1 credit hour each):
‣ Project Design and Project Management for
Innovation
‣ Public Presentations
‣ Interviewing and Collaborative Research
‣ Building Collaboratives and Alliances for Innovation
‣ Innovative Leadership for Community Groups,
Projects, and Nonprofits

21. Macalester College
Example
Issue/Problem-Based Concentrations
5-8 courses | align internships, community-based
research, study-away, and social entrepreneurship
➡ Community & Global Health
➡ Human Rights and Humanitarianism
➡ International Development
➡ Urban Studies
➡ Food Security

22. Community Partnerships
How will you manage having 25% of your
senior class doing engaged signature work?
➡ Team vs individual projects?
➡ Issue/Problem-based vs Competency-
based
➡ Place-based
➡ Annual vs long-term planning?

23. Siena College Example
Competency-Based Certificate Programs
➡ Community Development (Bonner Program)
➡ Non-Profit Management (Business Department)
➡ Policy Research (Public Policy Department)
➡ Other Possibilities:
✓ Communication
✓ other?

24. Campus-Wide Center
What would be the role of campus-wide
community engagement center?
➡ What office on campus will have primary
responsibility to manage “Engaged
Signature Work”?
➡ What (new) staff positions would be
needed?

25. Outline
• Definition of “Engaged Signature Work”
• Sequence/scaffolding: community
engagement
• Sequence/scaffolding: courses & training
• Infrastructure: community partnerships
• Infrastructure: campus-wide center role

26. Engaged Signature Work
Follow-Up Discussion

27. Observations
Thoughts on whether “engaged signature work” is….
• a worthwhile goal?
• a current or realistic goal for your Bonner Program?
• a realistic goal for an academic department on your
campus?
• a realistic goal for your institution?

28. Introduce into Institutional
Strategic Planning
Pilot with Academic
Dept or Concentration
Pilot with Bonners
(or Other Cohort)
Next Steps

29. Support Needed
• Outreach directly to your campus
✓ visit for meetings & campus workshop?
✓ publications for provosts or other academic
leaders?
✓ …?
• National support
✓ Foundation-hosted national gathering or as part of
AAC&U or other conference?
✓ start-up guide with examples?
✓ …?