Five Siena community members just returned from a national conference with new connections and new ideas for experiential learning.
The group took part in the annual Bonner Summer Leadership Institute, held June 15-18 at the University of Richmond. Three Bonner Scholars – Erika Garrido ’28, Dharvena Sookra ’28 and Vincent Maraviglia ’28 – traveled with Allison Schultz, Ed.D., director of Siena’s Center for Academic Community Engagement (ACE), and Josh Anthony, assistant director.
Bonner Service Leaders are Saints who serve up to 10 hours per week at a nonprofit organization in the Capital Region. Their academic interests are paired with their social justice interests in order to ensure that each student's experience is meaningful and worthwhile for their future career goals.
The annual Bonner conference brings together close to 500 students from colleges around the country to share best practices and plan new initiatives to meet educational and nutritional needs in local communities.
“SLI was an intensive three days of learning, building relationships across the Bonner network, reflecting on how to build more opportunities for Siena students – whether or not they are in the Bonner program – to connect theory to practice through experiential learning,” said Schultz.
Garrido, Maraviglia and Sookra presented the session “Food Insecurity: A Growing Nationwide Problem,” where they explored the factors that lead to food insecurity such as the rising cost of living, the existence of food deserts, and the challenges of finding employment. They then discussed ways for community engaged programs to address these societal problems.
“Attending the Bonner Summer Leader Institute this week granted me the opportunity to connect with fellow Bonners nationwide,” said Sookra. “It allowed me to realize that there are many people who are trying to change the world for the better. These actions we are all doing are making a difference in the world one way or another.”
Schultz said attendees had the opportunity to venture into Richmond to learn about the collaborative, community engaged work that is happening in Virginia’s capital. This included a trip to an historic African-American cemetery where volunteers are engaging in a clean-up effort to counter years of systemic neglect.
She also attended a workshop facilitated by a leading scholar in civic and community engagement, to examine how to build democratic practices such as inclusive decision making and participatory budgeting into policies and processes.
“I left the workshop with an enhanced tool kit and ideas for increasing student, faculty, administrator, community member, and community partner input into collaborative initiatives here at Siena,” said Schultz.
