The Bonner Scholars Program is a four-year experience that brings together fifteen students from each incoming class of Berea students to work together to have a positive impact in the community. As Bonner Scholars, students combine a strong commitment to service and social justice with personal growth, teamwork, leadership development, and scholarship, while making life-long connections to a national network. At Berea College, Bonner Scholars have community service labor positions all four years, as well as opportunities for travel, friendships, mentors, and life-changing experiences.

The Bonner Scholars Program is an excellent opportunity for students who want to combine scholarship and a commitment to service.  Berea College was the first institution chosen to participate in the nationally recognized Bonner Scholars Program, sponsored by the Bonner Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey.  Founded by the late Corella and Bertram Bonner, the Bonner Foundation provides support to more than 60 colleges and universities, and their students, in order to encourage “access to education and opportunity to serve.”

Believing that young people have the capacity and will to be change-agents in their local communities and beyond, the Bonner Scholars Program seeks to equip and empower college students to positively impact their communities.  Beginning in their first year as a Bonner Scholar, they embark on a journey of personal growth and exploration augmented by a structured program of training, teambuilding, guided reflection, enrichment activities, and experiences that remain with them long after their time at Berea has ended.

These commitments guide programming in the 60+ Bonner schools across the country, including the Bonner Scholars Program at Berea College.

• Civic Engagement: We explore and participate intentionally in multiple forms and dimensions of engagement including service, political engagement, social action, and public policy.
• Community Building: We create and sustain a vibrant community of place, personal relationships, and shared interests.
• Diversity: We respect the many different dimensions of personal and group identities (such as class, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, physical and mental ability) and create opportunities to dialogue and learn across them.
• International Perspective: We develop international and global understandings that enable individuals to participate successfully in an increasingly interconnected world, appreciate and transcend national boundaries.
• Social Justice: We understand and advocate for fairness, impartiality, and equity in addressing systemic social and environmental issues.
• Spiritual Exploration: We reflect on and explore personal beliefs while respecting the spiritual and ethical practices and values of others.
• Wellness: We strive to support holistic development, balancing the needs for physical, emotional, financial, social, occupational, spiritual, intellectual, and environmental health.

• Walking into your first year with a built-in community.
• Student supervisors who are also Bonners and mentors.
• Networking and access to opportunities through the greater Bonner network.
• The opportunity to have a labor position in community service for four years.
• Ongoing leadership training related to community service.
• Financial support for approved Summer of Service experiences.  Summer of Service placements must take place with a non-profit organization.
• Opportunities to attend regional and national conferences and service events.
• Bonner Scholars Community Fund to support enrichment of the community service efforts in which Bonner Scholars are involved.

• A spirit of learning, curiosity, and openness.
• Volunteering with a program of your choice in your first year.
• Involvement in community service through the labor program for 10 hours per week during the school year, in either campus service programs or in the local community.
• All First Year Bonners serve in a common labor position, which includes training related to community service and community-based service opportunities, meeting identified needs for the semester.
• Serving seven weeks (at least 280 hours) in service with a non-profit organization for two summers during their college career.
• Bonner meetings with the full Bonner class.
• First Year Bonners participate in an alternative spring break experience in their first year.
• Sophomore Bonners participate in an exchange experience with other Bonner school(s) to get to know others in the network.
• Junior Bonners plan and attend their own recommitment to celebrate being halfway through their college experience and to reflect on why service is important to them.
• Senior Bonners share their Presentations of Learning and their Community-Engaged Signature Work, weaving together their classroom and Bonner experience into their personal reflection on their four years.