Bonner Foundation Student Impact Research

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BONNER FOUNDATIONSTUDENT IMPACT RESEARCH

MEMORANDUM ON MID-POINTIMPACT SURVEY (MIS)

2008-2009

Submitted October, 2009 by

Dr. Cheryl Keen, Bonner Scholar Program Senior Researcher,

and Justin Keen, graduate student, University of Dayton, College Student Affairs

BACKGROUND ON THE RESEARCH EFFORT

Since 1998, three surveys have been completed annually or biannually by hundreds of Bonner Scholars on all the two dozen Bonner Scholar campuses. Results of several of these surveys are available at on the Bonner website. The three surveys are:

1. An Incoming Student Survey (ISS) which seeks to clarify the profiles of incoming students on eachcampus, attending to demographic questions, past service experience, areas in which the BSP aims toengender growth, and the outlook and expectations students bring with them into the BSP.
2. A Midpoint Impact Survey (MIS) gauges impact of the first two years ofBonner participation, including the summer of service experience, while yielding a view of the programfrom those who are in the midst of their Bonner involvement.
3. The Graduating Student Impact Survey (GSIS) gathers data on the full four-year impact of theprogram. This survey focuses both on impact and introduces questions regarding outlook and plansbeyond college.

The key findings from these surveys have been documented in two peer-reviewed articles by Cheryl Keen and Kelly Hall, found in the reference list of this article and on the website just mentioned.:

Survey efforts paused between 2004 and 2008. This 2008-2009 midpoint survey represents a return to biannual administration of surveys. The last administration of the Midpoint survey was in 2002-2003. Entering students will be surveyed in even numbered years and surveyed again in their junior and senior years for the purpose of doing longitudinal work with the same population of Scholars;the class that enters in the fall of 2010 will be surveyed again as juniors in the fall of 2013 and as seniors in the spring of 2015. The third year students surveyed for this report will be surveyed again as seniors in the spring of 2010.

RESULTS OF THE 2008-2009 MIDPOINT IMPACT SURVEY (MIS)

For this report we have analyzed data from the completed surveys of 264 Bonner Scholars withthird year (Junior) status at 23 undergraduate institutions, representing 81% of the junior Bonner Scholars in 2008-2009. Two campus programs did not participate this year. The report is divided into the followingsections:

1. Kinds of Service Involvement
2. Summer of Service
3. Commitment to Service and the BSP
4. Academic and Co-Curricular Gains
5. Personal Gains Resulting from Participation in the BSP
6. Priorities During College
7. Caveats

Most surveys were completed in November and December of 2008 (during the firstsemester or quarter of the junior year) but some were administered in the next semester to include Scholars who were away from campus in the fall in semester abroad programs or co-op and internship placements.

One difficulty in comparing the findings of this survey with past years is that, since our last collection of data, three campuses no longer participate in the Bonner Scholar Program and there are three new campuses. This report includes selective comparison of these Midpoint results with data from the 2004 Graduating Senior Surveys and the 2004 Incoming Student Surveys. (The students completing this Midpoint survey would have been entering students in 2006, when we were not administering the entering student survey, therefore no direct comparison with incoming freshman data is available.)

Included in this survey are 20 campuses that always participated in previous surveys. They are: Berea, Berry, Carson-Newman, Concord, Davidson, Earlham, Guilford, Emory & Henry, Mars Hill, Maryville, Morehouse, Oberlin, Rhodes, Spelman, Union, and Warren Wilson,Waynesburg,West Virginia Wesleyan, and Wolford. Three campuses are new participants: Allegheny, Center, Stetson. All were Bonner Leader campuses in previous years and had strong Bonner programs in place at the time of this survey. Campuses no longer participating in the Bonner Scholar program are Antioch, College of the Ozarks, and Hood, Because the three missing colleges’ survey results were outliers in responses to some of the survey questions, comparisons with past years’ survey responses may not be valid. However, there is little variation in responses compared to the last available data in 2002.

Of the 264 Bonner Scholars who completed this survey, 59% of respondents

identified themselves as female and 41% as male. 56% identified themselves as Caucasian, 30% asAfrican-American /black,10% Asian/Pacific Islanders, 5% as Native American/Aleut or Aboriginal peoples,and 4% as Hispanic or Latino..

73% of them entered the BSP as freshmen (compared to 75% six years ago), 10% as sophomores, and 16% as juniors. Theresponses of the juniors who had entered the program just a few months earlier are rarely distinguishablefrom those who have been in the program for one or two years, therefore we haven’t reported theiranswers separately. It seems that just a few months in the program leads the recent replacement Bonnersto have perceptions about the impact of the program which are similar to those of students with a longer spanof formal involvement. Scholars filling spots in the program also were likely selected because they match the Bonner profile. We had anticipated that the largest implication for entering the program in the sophomore or junior year would have been in nothaving had a chance to do a summer of service. However, almost half indicated they had done a summer of service;47% of the 41 most recentreplacement Bonners had already done a summer of service, compared to 98% of those who entered asfreshmen and 84% of those who entered as sophomores.

The strongest differences in the perception of the replacement Bonners,differences that are still small, are that replacement Bonners tend to find studying to be more importantand spend more hours studying and slightly fewer hours doing service. Those who have done a summerof service (more often those in program for longer time), are more likely to feel “very positive” about theBSP overall (64% vs. 51%).

A notably high percentage of juniors, 80%, voted in the last election.Of the 91% who reported a major or intended field of study,they were: 28% pre-professional, 27% social sciences, 17% humanities, 14% sciences, and 5% arts. This represents a 19% increase in voting rates since the last Midpoint survey.

Some of the biggest changes in responses since the last Midpoint survey in 2002 are marked in red inthe charts.

I. Kinds of Service Involvement

Bonner Scholars are often involved in more than one kind of service and their service projects oftenspan several areas of public need. When asked what was the focus of any community service they haddone in the last year, most reported they had worked with children. National Campus Compact surveys report a similar phenomena.

Table 1 Focus of Service

89% Working with Children

78% Tutoring

68% Poverty Issues

66% Civic Engagement

45% Health

41% Environmental Work

33% Working with Elderly

14% Public Safety

33% Other

II. Summer of Service

All but 11% of the Scholars hadn’tdone a summer of service yet, most likely because they had became Bonners during the third year of college. Fifty-eight percent had alreadydone two summers of service, while 10% had done onlyone following their freshman year and 20% haddoneonly one following their sophomore year. Scholars’ home community was the location for at least one summer of service for 61% of the Scholars, 30% did service nationally, 26% did service in the community surrounding their campus,20% did service internationally (an increase of 2% over the last time two times the survey was administered), and 15% did service on campus. (Note students checked more thanone answer.)

Overall, 69% indicated that the summer of service had a greater impacton them, compared totheir Bonner service during the school year, with 39% feeling it had a significantly greater positive impact and 29%feeling it had a somewhat greater impact. 85% of those who did their service internationally felt it hadmore impact, while 72% of those who did their service in the U.S.felt that way. When asked to reflect on theimpact their summer of service had on the community they were serving relative the impact of their school year service, overall 25% felt it has the sameimpact and 64.4% felt it had somewhat or significantly greater impact.

Note: This Midpoint survey did not include questions about the most important forms of reflection. Therefore, responses to the two previous years’ survey questions regarding the summer of service and reflection are included here. They rated journaling more highly here than during the school year. The Directors report that the quality of reflective journalsafter an intensive summer of service was much higher than during the school year. However, 87% saidthey have not yet had enough time to integrate their summer of service.. All but 21% would have likedopportunities to tie their summer of service in with their major, suggesting an unfulfilled opportunity forservice-learning. And all but 19% would have welcomed an opportunity to tie their summer of service in withcareer exploration.

III. Commitment to Service and the BSP

Most of the junior Scholars (86%)were positive or very positive about the BSP, compared to 96% of 2004 seniors.Nine percentwere neutral, and 5% report a negative attitude toward the program. Of those whohad done a summerof service, 77% felt positive or very positive about their experience. “Very strong” identification withthe program was reported by 57%, 36% identified somewhat with the program, 5% very little, and 1% reportedidentifying not at all. (It’s important to remember that 15% of the Scholars had just joined the program during their junior year.)

The financial aspect of the BSP is critical in Scholars’ perception of what maintains their involvement in service. 84% reportedthat they would not have participated in as much community service without the BSP, 78% indicatedthat they would have done less service and spent the time earning money, and 16% would have done noservice and spent the time earning money. Only 17% indicated that they would have participated in lessservice and not spent more time earning money. This figure is up 10% since the last survey in 2002.

IV. Academic and Co-Curricular Gains

Of the third year respondents, 94% reported being involved in other campus organizations, with78% of them holding leadership positionson campus outside of the BSP, up from 70% six years ago. This figure on leadershippositions is comparable to graduating seniors’ responses: 84% in 2004, 80% in 2000, 75% in 1999.Thissuggests that Bonner Scholars quickly rise to leadership positions on campus, perhaps because of thesupport and skill development they receive in the BSP.

Students at both midpoint and at graduation reported that their Bonner participation has positively orvery positively affected their development of interpersonal skills and communication skills. The data suggests these skills are perceived to grow by the end of the senior year.

Table 2: BSP Affected Development of Interpersonaland Communication Skills (positively or very positively)

Looking at the skill set outlined above from the viewpoint of civil discourse, one might make acase as well that by their third year, Bonner Scholars attribute significant gains in core skills of citizenshipto the BSP. Skills that seem to be more firmly consolidated over the junior and senior year are the abilityto listen carefully to others and to understand of a person of a different background. The biggest increase since the last Midpoint survey is a 5% increase in “helping groups overcome differences of opinion.”

In the past we have asked Scholars about their GPA and found they perceived noeffect on their GPA from Bonner service work.

When asked to rate the relative importance of aspects of college life, the students at theMidpoint, like seniors, rate studying and doing homework as more important than doing service (91% feltstudying and doing homework is “very” or ”most important” comparedto 77% who rated communityservice that way).The last Midpoint survey results also indicated studying and doing homework was more important thandoing service, as have all senior surveys. In all years, doing community service rank above social life andextracurricular activities.

We continue to see that a majority of the Bonner Scholars desire greater connection betweenBonner service and course work. 64% of the 2008 juniors shared this desire, an identical number to the 2004 juniors.

V. Personal Gains Resulting from Participation in the BSP

The“opportunity. to serve people from different cultural, racial, ability, language or socioeconomic backgrounds” continued to be most strongly agreed upon aspect of the BSP. In regression analyses of past surveys, this aspect of the program was found to be significantly related to the development of students across their college years. (This research is documented in articles listed in the references.)

The following percentages of students agreed or strongly agreed that the BSP has provided them with opportunities, in ranked order.

Table 3: Opportunities Provided by BSP (agree or strongly agree on Midpoint Surveys)

There was an increase in the importance of “support at your site” and “the opportunity to understand root causes of social justice issues”, which are marked in red. Robert Hackett, Vice President of the Bonner Foundation suggested this could be explained by the maturing of the program, which has put more resources in these areas – more educational efforts at sites for students and better partnerships. Program directors have been asked to insure higher levels of service by students. Site based teams and reducing the number of sites has increased the quality of service.

VI. Priorities During College

When asked to evaluate the importance of aspects of the college experience for them personally,the following were identified by juniors, listed in order of priority as “very important” or “mostimportant”. The results from the last two senior surveys are included for comparison. (See Table 4.) Overall almost every activity seems more important than it has been in past years and use of the internet has increased. One might wonder where the time comes to be engaged in these important activities! Perhaps the internet allows them to act on other important activities at the same time and students are getting better at multi-tasking? Or they are sleeping less?

Table 4: Importance of Aspects of the College Experience on Midpoint Surveys (very and most important)

*question used to be worded “using the internet”

The juniors have similar priorities as the 2004 graduating class regarding studying, student clubs,service, and using the internet. Notable increases in importance since the last Midpoint survey six years ago are using the internet and social life. It’s possible that students’ social life is increasing due to web-based social networking.

The following percentages of Midpoint Bonners estimated they spent more than 16 hours perweek on the following aspects of college life. (See Table 5.) The responses to the senior surveys are included forcomparison. Most notable is that half as many juniors are working at other jobs 16+ hours a week incomparison to the last two classes of seniors.

Table 5: 16+ Hours Spent Weekly on Activities

The following percentages of midway Bonners estimated they spent 11 hours per week or more

on the following aspects of college life. (See Table 6.)We see a persistent investment in studying over service and lesspaid work among the juniors.

Table 6: 11+ Hours Spent Weekly on Activities, Midpoint Survey

Reflection is essential to service-learning. But what kind of reflection do students perceive is most valuable?(See Table 7) The following percentage of the Bonners at midpoint andthe seniors indicated they agreed or strongly agreed that these aspects of their college experiences helped themunderstand their service experiences. Dialogue with people served remains most important for both juniors and seniors. For the first time, informal discussions with other students was more important than discussions with other Bonners. Might this be because campus cultures are becoming more generally enriched with discussion about community service and civic engagement? At the same time, dialogue with other adults has dropped in importance, including faculty, site supervisors, and program staff.