Mercer County Community College:

The Rise of Bonner and Democracy House

Background: In 1890 at the Trenton’s evening drawing school ten people ranging in age from fifteen to forty, advanced their careers in mechanical drawing. This was the beginning to Mercer County Community College. Through the different changes and names Mercer has gone through: The Trenton School of Technical Science and Art (1898), The School of Industrial Arts (1901), Trenton Junior College (1947), Trenton finally received the community college that we are today in 1966. On July 1, 1967 the merger of Trenton junior college and mercer county community college merged making us the two campuses that we are today. The James Kerney Campus located at 120 North Broad Street, Trenton is a one acre site on the corners of Broad and Academy Streets and the other is a 292-acre site in Assunpink Park for the West Windsor Campus: 1200 old Trenton road. During the 2008-2009 school season Mercer County Community College began its Bonner Leader Program under Donna Munde. In its first year it became a club on campus. Currently I oversee three CSS101: College Success Seminars for incoming freshman. In these three prototype classes of about fifteen students are to complete at least fifteen hours of community service. This is a beginning to show that even though we have to wear many hats we can still take them all off to show that we care.

Big Idea: I would like that the name “Bonner” be a house hold name in Mercer County; Regardless of if you go to Mercer County Community College, Rider University, or The College of New Jersey that you have more knowledge on what The Bonner Foundation is and what they have accomplished with the Bonner Scholar Leader Program That the Bonner Leader Program flourishes on Mercer County Community College Campus and that we become the missing link between college and community service.

On a daily basis more than 9,000 students are enrolled at Mercer between credit and non-credit courses. Many whom do community service because they love to do it. Many students at Mercer have federal work study also. This also is a way that some students perform community service, but still many students go around school not aware of what is happening in their community or know, care and do not act upon it. There is a great need for volunteers in Mercer County. There are a total of 171 non-profit organization and charities in Mercer County who use volunteers as the fuel of their work. Many college students may have been recipients of some of this help but when the time comes to give back they do not know how.

This is where I believe Democracy House and Bonner come into place to facilitate the problem: Here on campus we became a club. By becoming a club we can give advice to Student Government on how we felt community service was in integral part of this college’s livelihood; seeing that Mercer County Community College came from ten people wanting to make a change not only for themselves but also for the community. The Bonner Leader Program at Mercer County College club is AmeriCorps at Mercer. We promote community service on campus and in the community. We discussed community service with the President of Student Government and the school clubs, they have decided that all clubs must perform community service. Many clubs have began their service on campus and many others are trying to impact the community. I first became aware that we needed to become a presence on campus when I was asked what was this new office called Democracy House in the Engineering Technology (ET) building. I proceeded to explain what Democracy House was which lead to being asked about Bonner. After I explained Bonner to many of the students on campus, they began to ask where could they sign up and that they did not know that there was a presence on campus who was profoundly dedicated to community service and changing the way the campus viewed our neighborhood causes.

Plan to Action: By going to the Bonner Congress and speaking with other schools, some that may have had this problem and overcame it to see what are the many possibilities to bolster our name and give more community awareness to what we are doing. I believe that Bonner would not thrive the way it has in the last twenty years if networking between more successful schools and those starting out did not happen. On campus with the help of the all of the Bonners we will begin to branch out to clubs and network with them to promote community service for each club as well as letting the campus community know that Democracy House and the Bonners at Mercer County Community College are a bridge between the vision of service that they have and its reality. These clubs will be essential to our goal:

Alvin Haywood, a professor of speech communication has a television show on MCTV (Mercer County Television) called What might Happen? On this show Bonners can discuss many of the things that would happen if volunteerism was not alive, promote awareness, and self-advocacy.

The Computer Club: Will help us to set up our Wiki, Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace pages as well as create us a link to the main Mercer County Community College website.

The TV Club: The TV club is important to the vision of AmeriCorps at Mercer due to the fact that it broadcasts to over some 10,000 households in Mercer County with its show MCTV (Mercer County Television).


WMCC: WMCC, the all-student radio station, broadcasts from the West Windsor campus Student Center


The College Voice: The College Voice is the official student newspaper, published periodically during the fall and spring semesters

The Trenton Times and Trentonian are two local city papers that with their help not only will Bonner and AmeriCorps will get recognition but also our community partners.

With the help of these clubs and agencies as well as our community partners we can bridge the gap between service in youth. It gives the students a call to action themselves by helping in the change of our campus, with the implementing of these ideas. This will affect the youth to see that they can change the world one person at a time if they truly believe. I hope that by the end of this that so many will wish to join Bonner coming into college as freshman. These are the wishes of AmeriCorps at Mercer Bonner Leader Program.