Bonner Center
Community-Engaged Learning, Teaching, & Research
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Learn how community-engaged learning can help you shape your Oberlin education.
Oberlin’s Bonner Scholars
The Bonner Scholars Program provides underrepresented and first-generation students with a four-year community service scholarship. Offered by Oberlin College in collaboration with the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, this program supports students who are committed to community service by helping them develop as leaders and change agents in the local community and beyond.
Community-Based Learning in the Curriculum
Community-Based Learning (CBL) courses build deep connections between the classroom and the community. Faculty at Oberlin teach over 40 CBL courses each year.
Philosophy in the Schools Practicum
In this community-based course, students lead philosophical discussions with elementary school children. The program helps to build essential reasoning skills at an early age while allowing Oberlin students to bring philosophy out in the world.
Practicum in K-12 Course Design
In this community-based learning course, students work with a local teacher to read, review, and recommend books to support curriculum areas and incorporate into unit plans. Students will learn effective strategies in unit and lesson planning, creation of activities and assessment strategies encompassing multiple modalities.
Africatown Immersion
This course introduces students to community-based learning and research in the historic community of Africatown, Alabama. Students will spend fall break in Africatown collaborating with grassroots community organizations. All students will contribute to presentations of research projects to local organizations.
Latinx Oral Histories
This advanced course introduces students to the importance of oral histories in ethnographic research as a foundation to explore the histories and contemporary experiences of Latinx communities in Lorain and Northeast Ohio. We will collaborate with community partners in collecting oral histories and locate these histories in a broader historical and political-economic context.
From the Classroom to the World
The passion for knowledge drives an Oberlin education. The Bonner Center extends academic engagement and service to communities near and far.
Resource Links
Resources for Students
From grants to community-based work-study, find an opportunity that works for you.
Resources for Community Partners
Does your non-profit organization (501 C3) or registered NGO have an interest in recruiting Oberlin College & Conservatory student interns, volunteers, or employees? Reach out!
Resources for Faculty
Explore faculty resources and connections for community-based learning and research.
Bonner Center Bulletins
Nominations Now Open for 2024 Community Engagement Awards
March 4, 2024 2:00 PM
Gletherow-Young-Deppman Project Award
January 12, 2024 9:00 AM
Volunteer Opportunity! (Deaf New Americans Advocacy Inc)
September 11, 2023 10:00 AM
Next Steps
An Oberlin education puts the liberal arts to work in achieving a life of meaning and purpose.