The Bonner Center for Community Service and Learning at Guilford College is currently accepting applications for an Americorps VISTA position.
The VISTA will work to improve academic achievement among African Youth in partnership with African Services Coalition through innovative programming and collaboration with other community partners.
For information on how to apply, please go to this link: https://my.americorps.gov/mp/listing/viewListing.do?fromSearch=true&id=44117
Guilford College Honored for Community Service
642 Schools Named to Honor Roll
Washington, D.C. – The Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Department of Education today honored the nation’s leading colleges and universities, students, and faculty members, and staff for their commitment to bettering their communities through community service and service learning.
Guilford College was admitted to the Honor Roll for its work in Education, Youth development, Hunger, Homelessness and the
immigrant/refugee community.
“Through service, these institutions are creating the next generation of leaders by challenging students to tackle tough issues and create positive impacts in the community,” said Robert Velasco, Acting CEO of CNCS. “We applaud the Honor Roll schools, their faculty and students for their commitment to make service a priority in and out of the classroom. Together, service and learning increase civic engagement while fostering social innovation among students, empowering them to solve challenges within their communities.”
“Preparing students to participate in our democracy and providing them with opportunities to take on local and global issues in their course work are as central to the mission of education as boosting college completion and closing the achievement gap,” said Eduardo Ochoa, the U.S. Department of Education’s assistant secretary for postsecondary education. “The Honor Roll schools should be proud of their work to elevate the role of service-learning on their campuses. Galvanizing their students to become involved in projects that address pressing concerns and enrich their academic experience has a lasting impact – both in the communities in which they work and on their own sense of purpose as citizens of the world. I hope we’ll see more and more colleges and universities following their lead.”
The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll recognizes higher education institutions that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful outcomes in their communities. Inspired by the thousands of college students who traveled across the country to support relief efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, the initiative celebrates the transformative power and volunteer spirit that exists within the higher education community.
The Bonner Center at Guilford College has cultivated several community partnerships in Greensboro. Through these partnerships, Guilford students perform over 50,000 hours of service each year Each partnership operates with a Guilford student who serves as the Project Coordinator. The Project Coordinator recruits and supports volunteers and organizes training and reflection opportunities appropriate to each project. Transportation is provided to each of these sites through carpooling or use of the college van. Students have the opportunity to make positive contributions to the wider community and at the same time enjoy a meaningful volunteer experience with other Guilford College students.
Guilford College is located in Greensboro NC, a vibrant multicultural city. There are over 50,000 immigrants and refugees who call Greensboro home and there are over 90 languages spoken in the public schools. By interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds and gaining sensitivity to their ways of life, Guilford College students deepen their academic investigation of western and other traditions. In the process, students are challenged to envision better societies as well as work collectively with others toward mutual benefit. The Guilford College approach strives for dynamic partnerships among all stakeholders involved, including students, non profits agencies, businesses and the community residents. Through these partnerships Guilford College hopes to build relationships of interdependency instead of dependency. Guilford students and the community help each other with immediate needs; encourage one another to value their cultural heritage instead of giving it up, as they build solidarity with each other.
James Shields, Director of the Bonner Center for Community Service and Learning sums up the Guilford College community service experience. “Guilford College students have logged thousands of hours in the immigrant/refugee community, but what’s most important are the thousands of smiles and hugs, the self confidence and pride in a child’s eyes when they earn a good grade and the sense of accomplishment as an adult immigrant carries on a conversation in English. We treasure these moments and look to strengthen our ties with Greensboro’s immigrant community for years to come.”
February 27th was Occupy the Food System day and the Bonner Center and Guilford’s Slow Food group sponsored Nikki Henderson, Executive Director of West Oakland’s People’s Grocery. People’s Grocery is a health and wealth organization – their mission is to improve the health and economy of West Oakland through the local food system. They pursue positive community change and address social determinants of health through a food lens. They also work to ensure that community self-determination plays a large part in the revitalization of low-income neighborhoods.
As local interest in food justice grows, this was a wonderful opportunity for community members to hear from someone deeply involved in the work of food justice and closely connected to leaders such as Van Jones and Majora Carter. 
Nikki began her work in social justice through the foster care system in Southern California, having been raised with seven older foster brothers. Through mentoring, tutoring, and directing Foster Youth Empowerment Workshops, she developed her passion for youth leadership development among communities of color. She later shifted into sustainability, developing course curriculum for the University of California system and advocating across the state for environmental justice and political ecology.
She has worked closely with Van Jones and Phaedra Ellis Lamkins at Green for All, fighting for a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. She was also a part of Slow Food USA in Brooklyn, NY where President Josh Viertel came to regard her as an “extraordinary leader with a vision for how food and urban farming can be tools of empowerment”. In 2009, Nikki co-founded Live Real, a national collaborative of food movement organizations committed to strengthening and expanding the youth food movement in the United States.
Nikki toured Greensboro viewing the statue of the Greensboro Four at A&T, the site of the 1979 Klan/Nazi shootings and the Edible Schoolyard at the Children’s museum. She also met with the Bonner Center’s Community Kitchen Project and with students involved in a Food Justice project by Principled Problem Solving. Nikki was very impressed by her tour of the Guilford College community garden and production farm
Over 50 Guilford College and Greensboro community members attended her evening talk and left deeply inspired.
