Spelman College Bonner Scholars Program

Spelman College Bonner Scholars Program

Spelman College Bonner Scholars Program

Spelman College Big Idea 2010-2011
Operation Revitalization: Taking Ownership!

Why?

styleSpelman College is located in the historic West End Atlanta Community. West End Atlanta was once a thriving, predominantly African-American metropolis. However, over the years, the area went into a slow decline, due primarily to the increase of drugs, violence, and poverty into the area. Spelman College, being an institution that prides itself on serving the community, has not, in our opinion, been doing enough to help revitalize the West End community.

Prior to last year, Bonner Scholars were scattered throughout Metropolitan Atlanta, however our institution has implemented a 1.7 mile radius to have a greater impact in the community. After participating in the Bonner Summer Leadership Institute and seeing how other institutions were focused primarily on one issue area, it has come to our attention that our Bonner Scholars Program should do the same. Thus, our Big Idea as Bonner Congress Representatives is to use our experiences and the examples of others at Congress to implement more issue-based service in order to help revive the deteriorating West End community.

What?

In 2009-2010 we propose Operation Revitalization (OR) which was a mammoth project. This year we chose to break down the project into bite size pieces. Our big idea is Operation Revitalization: Taking Ownership! Our big idea will encourage Spelman students and the residents of the West End to take ownership of their community and cultivate relationships with each other through service. This idea will equip students and residents with the tools and resources to effectively revitalize the community. Our proposal is a progressive movement to dismantling the barriers between Spelman College and the West End community.

How?

We have divided the project into four different aspects: a tour, a video, a community fair, and a joint community service project. The tour consists of exposing Spelman students to historical sites in the West End community to provide a social historical context of the community in which they live in. The video will include a compilation of interviews from residents and images of the community. The community service fair will serve as a bridge between the community agents and community residents. The community service project will unite students, residents, and agents within the community to work together.

In order to execute this project in a timely manner we will include our fellow Bonner Scholars. Our primary team will consist of the Spelman College Bonner Scholars Leadership Team and the Bonner Scholars Office of Community Service and Student Development. We will solicit other community service organizations on campus such as, UPS Scholars, ACTS, and Volunteer Leaders. Our congress experience will help us network with other Bonner schools and receive feedback on our idea. We have already implemented our program so we anticipate that our idea will complete by the 2011 semester.

Operation Revitalization: Taking Ownership!

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