AY 2023-2024 Bonners and Canales

“From our humble beginning in 2007-2008 with only ten Canale Leader interns, we have grown tremendously in breadth, depth, and connection.  We now have two service internship programs boasting a roster of seventy-five students who focus on developing themselves as student leaders on campus and in the community,” reports Robin Hille Michaels, Director of Service Internships.

Each year, ten new Bonners are recruited as incoming freshmen to join a total cohort of forty Bonner Leaders.  These students apply for a four-year program that will mentor, train, and connect them with partners without knowing exactly where they will be placed.  Conversely, Canale Leader interns apply and are selected as current Sewanee students to work as a Student Site Leader with an identified community partner and project.  There are thirty-five Canale Leaders in the program for the 2023-2024 academic year, and students can apply to be part of the program for one year or for nearly their entire time as students.

For both Bonners and Canales, students are committing eight hours each week to work in the community with additional weekly meetings, trainings, and reflections to prepare them for this work.  Freshmen receive training on understanding the context of Sewanee, our surrounding communities, and Appalachia more broadly, in addition to communication and conflict skill building.  Sophomores spend the year developing awareness of themselves as leaders and honing relevant skills for collaboration and team management.  Junior year, students explore advocacy, activism, and policy as various avenues for civic engagement, followed by researching and developing an issue brief for a community-identified question and need.  Seniors are prepared for life after graduation and engage in a semester-long reflection process on their Sewanee Bonner/Canale experience.

Additionally, students engage in deeper reflections and activities to explore what it means to Be a Good Neighbor, the program’s theme for the year.  This work is meant to help students build awareness around the ways we experience and reinforce divides within our Bonner/Canale community and, potentially, in our work with the communities around us.  Students address questions such as, “How can we allow others and ourselves to be seen and known as complex human beings and not reduce one another to one aspect of who we are?”, “How can we develop deeper connections to do collaborative and meaningful work?”, and “What would it look like for the University to be a good neighbor?”

This year our students are supporting thirty-eight projects in four counties with a wide array of focus areas, including free health care, environmental sustainability, arts and culture, education, and more.

Within this large, supportive, civically-minded student community, students come from seventeen states, one U.S. territory, and five countries.  They also participate and lead on campus as greek life members, athletes, tutors, student organization members and leaders, theme house residents and directors, firefighters, Sewanee Angels, proctors, Arcadians, Sacristans, Carey Fellows, choir members, Honor Council and Student Title IX representatives.

Introducing the 12th Class of Bonner Leaders (C’ 27)

(Pictured from left to right bottom row); Will Snead, Macon, Ga.; Ellie Graham, Maryville, Tenn.: Jawaria Jaleel, Pakistan; and Rachel Wassung, Melbourne Beach, Fla.

(Pictured from left to right top row); Trey Stiles, Mountain Brook, Ala.; Julia Daniels, Roswell, Ga.; Olivia Moellering Baratas, Decatur, Ga.; Atticus Kowalski, Antioch, Tenn., and Mohana Buckley, New York City, N.Y.

(Not pictured: Ava Hines, Homewood, Ala.; Eli Bastiaansen, Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Ivy Shushok, Salem, Mass.)

Introducing the new 2023-2024 Canale Leaders

(Pictured from left to right bottom row); Faith Humphrey, C’25, site leader for Easy’s Dog Shelter; Jillian Thurston, C’26, site leader for Southeast TN Young Farmers Coalition; Savannah Brister, C’26, site leader for Legal Aid Society of Middle TN and the Cumberlands; Jenna Miller, C’25, site leader for Democratic Engagement; Abigail Sanders, C’26, site leader for Pathways to Civic Engagement

(Pictured from left to right top row): Jose Diaz, C’24, site leader for Community Action Committee; Eleora Ephrem, C’26, site leader for Hospitality Shop; Mary Margaret Lemburg, C’26, site leader for Student Supply Closet; Gwen Mehigan, C’26, site leader for Southeast TN Young Farmers Coalition; Grace Horine, C’25, site leader for Artisan Depot; Ellis Coffelt, C’25, site leader for Westwood Elementary School ESL; and J.T. Michel, C’24, site leader for Growing Roots

(Not pictured: London Eller, C’26, site leader for Business Development and Marketing Team; Nicole Nguyen, C’26, site leader for Business Development and Marketing Team; Olivia Maschinot, C’24, site leader for Indigenous Engagement Initiative; and Katherine Petty, C’24, site leader for Housing Sewanee)