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Plans to integrate Bonner, Leadership scholars in the works

By Kimmi Baston managing Editor 6 min read

 

At Waynesburg University, the administration and staff are working persistently to implement practices that further the mission of faith, learning and service. In the fall of 2015, these efforts will include the advent of the Service Leadership program. 

The program will be in interest-based group that combines aspects of the Bonner Scholar program and the Leadership Scholar program currently in effect at the university. 

“The service leadership program is going to be for people who are interested in doing leadership development, but specifically using those leadership development skills that they gain or already bring with them to help lead service and be involved in service opportunities that are open to the entire campus,” said Mary Cummings, vice president of Student Services. 

Cummings is currently the advisor for the Leadership Scholar program, which is being discontinued after the class of 2017 graduates. As such, she began working on creating the Service Leadership program to serve as an alternative.

“My role was trying to come up with what type of organization might help us advance our goal, which is to increase the amounts of service that students have the opportunity to participate in and do participate in,” said Cummings.

Kelley Hardie will be the advisor for the new program, and she has recently begun the process of reaching out to current and incoming students whom she hopes will have an interest in the group.

“I’m in the process of reaching out to students who are not Bonners, but who have signed up for quite a few service projects and service trips throughout the year,” said Hardie. “Obviously they have a huge servant heart and I’m wanting to see if they’d like to be part of the program.” 

So far, Hardie said the students she’s talked to have been excited about the prospect of the new program, and she has at least one student in particular who is dedicated to service and is very interested in being a Service Leader.

Hardie is also targeting incoming freshman who fit the qualities she’s looking for in a service leader.

“On scholarship day, we met with students that applied for the Bonner scholarship, and I mentioned to them as well as the other interviewees that we would be starting the Service Leadership program fall of 2015,” said Hardie. “So, if they do not meet the criteria of the Bonner scholarship itself, we would love for them to be a part of the program because their resume is so rich within service.”

Because the number of Bonner scholarships awarded is limited, Hardie said the Service Leadership program allows students who want to serve throughout the school year to do so even without becoming a Bonner.

Hardie said students who are a part of the new program will be implementing and leading service projects on and off campus, and there may be requirements such as a required number of projects per year. More detailed planning of the program will take place this summer. 

Cummings and Hardie would like to see the Service Leaders interact with both Bonners and Leadership scholars. 

“I already started some conversations with Adrienne Tharp, who is the Bonner coordinator, on ways in which we can live out the Bonner High Impact and ways in which [Service Leaders] can help the Bonners fulfill that mission and that purpose of the Bonner High Impact,” said Hardie. “I see that being just great. What both of them are trying to do is to expand outside the walls of Waynesburg University, and that’s definitely a goal of the program.”

She also said she’d like to see students in the new program attend leadership training and workshops with current Leadership Scholars, an idea Cummings is on board with. 

In the end, Hardie believes the Service Leader program will be beneficial in expanding and preserving the university’s mission.

“The overall goal is to fulfill our mission of faith, learning and serving by introducing a new program outside of the scholarships that we already award to students for students that have just a strong desire and passion to continue to serve,” said Hardie. “What better way to understand that mission but to be the student leaders to fulfill that on campus and hopefully teach that mission and understanding to other students.”

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