Prospective Students

The Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation

Bonner Leaders Program

The mission of the Bonner Scholars and Bonner Leaders Programs is to transform the lives of students and members, the life of their campuses, their local communities, and the world through service and leadership. The Bonner Program is designed to heighten the overall education students and members receive by asking them to engage in ongoing service work and helping them develop the experience, skills, knowledge, and values necessary to make that work meaningful and lasting.

In 1997, the Bonner Foundation began an effort to expand its original model of service-based scholarships. The model was initially created as part of the Bonner Scholars Program in 1990. Today, the Foundation currently works with more than fifty institutions nationwide that have begun chapters of the Bonner Leader Program.

Campuses in the Bonner Leader Program have each designed innovative models that use federal work-study funds, AmeriCorps Education Awards, and institutional support to create scholarship stipends for students involved in community service as part of the Bonner Program.

At LC, work-study funds, AmeriCorps financial awards for education, and grant funds for summer internships, community-based research, and public policy research are available.

At the Lynchburg College campus, the Bonner Leaders Program started in 2004 with a group of ten students working at various nonprofit sites. For 2009-10, the program includes ten Bonner Leaders in their second year of program activities, fifteen incoming Bonners, and three to five experienced Bonner students (in their third year of Bonner program activities) in leadership positions and working on special community initiatives and related research. Students focus on issues such as improving educational opportunities, fighting poverty, encouraging sustainable development (and green initiatives), and building awareness about a range of issues that concern students, such as domestic violence, homelessness, senior neglect, and affordable healthcare.

As part of the Bonner Program's student development model, these students also participate in regular training and reflection activities sponsored by their campuses, their community partners, and the Bonner Foundation.

The Bonner Foundation, the Bonner Scholars Program, and the Bonner Leaders Program hold these common commitments: