From July 10th through 22nd, the Bonner Institute at The College of New Jersey was busy providing High School students their very own college experience. Through the Bonner Pre-College Program, 43 students were given the opportunity to enroll in a two-week college-level credit-bearing course, or one-week non-credit course, each of which had community engaged learning integrated into the design of the course.
During the program students lived in the residence halls on campus. They spent their mornings doing service, their afternoons in class, and their evenings participating in intellectual and engaging activities. Every morning, the two-week program went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School to help at the Academic Sports Academy (ASA). There, 5th Grade. The pre-college students created and taught lessons to the children, as well as learning from and about them.
Two-week students took the experience that they gained from their service and were tasked with relating it to their studies. These students were enrolled in either Introduction to Sociology, taught by Dr. Diane Bates, or US 20th Century History, taught by Dr. Robert McGreevey. They each wrote research papers detailing the connections they made between the classroom and the community, using also the knowledge gained from a tour of Trenton.
One-week students took one of three different classes: Garden State, Public Health, and STEM Creative Design. These students spent their mornings at sites that related closely to their own studies. For instance, on one day, the Garden State course students harvested produce from the campus garden, delivered that produce to the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank where they served as well, spent two hours in class learning about the history and politics of food banks and soup kitchens, and then served at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. The integration of the content and activities of the service experiences enriched students’ understanding of the course content and provided them valuable insight into the real-world implications of their academic studies.
The Bonner Pre-College Program has a strong foundation of inclusivity and acceptance. This is shown through the partnership with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The Center for Sensory and Complex Disabilities at TCNJ coordinated a two-week summer transition program prior to the Bonner Pre-College Program, which allowed students with blindness or visual impairments to get oriented to TCNJ’s campus and with college life. This program had 15 students, and they learned how to be independent through workshops that focused on how to budget money, how to manage time, what to do in “what-if” scenarios, among many other topics. The students also took part in a Writing 101 course, which taught them what to expect in a college level course. Nine of the 15 students with blindness or visual impairments who participated in this program stayed at TCNJ for the Bonner Pre-College Program to further their college preparation experience.
The foundation of this program mirrors TCNJ’s Community Engagement initiative. The TCNJ Center for Community Engagement’s mission is to “develop lifelong learners who are prepared to lead lives of critically informed community engagement.” This is demonstrated by the program’s integration of service into the classroom. This technique teaches students to relate their studies to the experiences that they have outside of books and in the community. This fosters an atmosphere of continuous learning throughout life.
TCNJ Bonner Community Scholars, housed in the Bonner Institute for Civic and Community Engagement at TCNJ’s Center for Community Engaged Learning and Research, values engaged learning, social change, collaboration, and full participation. This is shown through the mission to advance communities through engaged education. To learn more about the Bonner Pre-College Program and the Bonner Institute go to cce.tcnj.edu/bonner/
The Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired works “to promote and provide services in the areas of education, employment, independent living and eye health through informed choice and partnership with persons who are blind or visually impaired, their families and the community.” For further information about CBVI go to http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/cbvi/home/index.html.
The Center for Sensory and Complex Disabilities at The College of New Jersey “provides professional efforts on meeting the needs of those infants, children, youth and adults with the most significant challenges to their development, education, and inclusion within our schools and communities.” For more information on The Center, go to https://njcscd.tcnj.edu/.