High Impact

We just returned from a brief meeting with the Bonner Foundation centered on what they call "High Impact Practices" for supporting students in becoming civically engaged individuals. Such practices include having students become members of learning communities where community involvement is emphasized and a structured process for reflecting on that involvement is included. When students go into communities and do something to help the residents of those communities, then spend time assessing the value of these experiences, and then attempt to write up how these experiences have shaped them, they are engaging in high impact practices that tend to make them more likely to develop the habits of active citizenship. Even more important, when they can observe the results of this involvement and how it leads to healthier, more empowered communities, they are learning first-hand what it means to benefit from high impact educational practices. All of this is in keeping with the Bonner Foundation's mission to encourage students to engage in community service and become civically involved in order to help communities everywhere more effectively address the social and economic challenges that face them.

Karen and I went to this meeting to plan for a High Impact Summer Institute which would have teams of colleges, including Wagner, decide on projects that would lead to college-community collaborations designed to directly tackle real challenges facing those communities. Prior to the Institute, Wagner will need to identify two administrators, two faculty, two students, and two community partners who will make up the leadership team and help to decide on projects that are likely to bring about change on issues that matter. 

We are excited to move forward, both to help students develop the habit of democratic citizenship and to help communities make new progress in dealing with some of their most daunting challenges.