Five DePauw Bonner Fellows Selected to Design National Model for Volunteer Service Programs

July 17, 1996

July 17, 1996, Greencastle, Ind. - A five-member DePauw University team has been selected by The Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey, to develop a four-year, comprehensive, national model for volunteer service programs. The DePauw team members are among 30 Bonner Scholar Fellows named nationally, and it is the largest team chosen by the Bonner Foundation.

The program is intended to encourage and support DePauw students, staff and faculty involved in the Bonner Scholars Program to develop new or improve existing community service projects and service-learning courses. Each Bonner Scholar Fellow receives a $1,000 stipend.

The DePauw team already has spent a week in Princeton, working intensively on the project. The DePauw Bonner Scholar Fellows include:

• Stuart Lord, director of the Grover L. Hartman Center for Civic Education and Leadership, director of the Bonner Scholars Program and associate dean of academic affairs.
• Ryan Hays, a junior from Loogootee, Ind., majoring in communication and religious studies. He is a Bonner Scholar at DePauw, serves as a student assistant and coordinator for the Leadership Seminar and a speech consultant for the Academic Resource Center.
• Ryan Prall, a junior from Bloomington, Ind., majoring in biology. He is a member of the Hartman Center Steering Committee and participant in Winter Term in Service programs.
• James Rambo, professor of Romance languages, is chair of the Hartman Center Steering Committee and chair of the Bonner Scholars Selection Committee.
• Jim Davis-O'Shaughnessy, community member and participant and supporter of Hartman Center programs. He served as engineer for two Winter Term in Service trips.

In 1993 DePauw was one of seven colleges and universities in the nation selected by the Bonner Foundation to receive $4.92 million each in order to endow the Bonner Scholar Program at the institutions.

Through the Bonner Scholar Program, financial aid and community service opportunities are provided to deserving DePauw students who have the desire to get an education and a commitment to serve others. The program demonstrates the Bonner Foundation's commitment to higher education and the value it places on the idealism and talents of students.

DePauw students have a tradition of community service with approximately three-fourths of the student body of 2,100 participating in volunteer activities each year. During the 1995-96 academic year, more than 900 students participated in DePauw Community Services, a student-operated program that places students in 21 community organizations in Putnam County. Students also participate on construction and public health teams during Winter Term in Service projects in foreign countries, weekend work projects such as the renovation of houses in Indianapolis and other volunteer programs.

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