Community Service | The Bonner Program

The Bonner Program at Centre College is a network of 60 students on campus and thousands nationwide dedicated to alleviating poverty and improving education through active community service and civic engagement. The good work of the Bonner Leaders and Scholars at Centre impacts the community through direct service and advocacy for policy change. The campus as a whole benefits from a culture of service and issue awareness that permeates different social groups and academic interests. Lastly, the students in the program are uniquely transformed through personal and professional growth within the Bonner community.

In 1990, The Bonner Foundation located in Princeton, New Jersey created the first Bonner Scholars Program at Berea College with the mission of providing access to college for students with no means of paying for school and an opportunity for those students to become civically engaged in their communities. Today, Centre is one of eighty-seven American colleges and universities that make up the National Bonner Program. Schools spanning from the northeast to the south and west to California sponsor Bonner Scholar and Leader Programs with the guiding principle of “Access to Education, Opportunity to Serve.”

Students are invited to apply for admission to the Bonner Program as part of the regular admission process to the College. For more information on the application process, please click here.