Bonner Leader Scholarship Program
You are a Justice Seeker, Community Collaborator, Changemaker
- 4-year community engagement and service scholarship ensures you won't pay more than 50% of Naz tuition (not including room and board)
- Plus paid hours weekly, doing changemaking work with partners
- Professional development, training, and mentoring
- Choose your focus
- 15 incoming students per year
- Opportunities to network with Bonner Leaders from other universities and colleges
- Become a part of a community creating a more just, healthy, and equitable future
- Nazareth has the only Bonner Leader program in the Rochester region
Nazareth’s four-year service and community engaged learning undergraduate scholarship program is offered in collaboration with the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation.
Your Experience
Use your academic talents, life experiences, and passion for making a difference to contribute toward community change — to create a more just and equitable world — while developing your leadership and changemaking skills.
Bonner Leaders have the opportunity to experience:
Community Building
Take several common courses as a Bonner Leader cohort. Attend weekly meetings as class-year cohorts, site-based teams, and as a full Bonner Leader team. Build communities of service on your floor, in your residence halls, classes, among friends, and in clubs and organizations.
International Perspective
Experience at least one international trip in your tenure at Naz, spending time getting to know a community abroad.
Civic Engagement
Be an active participant in the democratic processes of your community. Sophomore year, engage in policy research and develop a policy issue brief. Learn and serve through your paid changemaking role with a partner organization.
Social Justice
Pursue the root causes of poverty in service sites and academic coursework, and seek to address those root causes in and through social change projects.
Diversity
Serve in urban, rural, and/or international communities with people from various racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds. Incorporate diversity and your community experiences into your academic coursework and weekly Bonner trainings. Bonner Leaders place a focus on being allies and advocates, educating themselves about social justice issues.
Spiritual Perspective
Explore the spiritual dimension of service and partnership.
Choose Your Focus
Placements are developmental, moving you through increasing levels of experience and responsibility across your four years. Over time, customize your experiences by working on specific community challenges and focus areas, such as:
- Anti-poverty initiatives (hunger and food insecurity, housing)
- Equitable education (access to quality schools, instruction and opportunities)
- Health and wellness (access to services, public health initiatives)
- Equal rights (addressing discrimination, legal justice, public safety, voter education and access, refugee resettlement)
- Climate action (mitigate climate change and its impacts)
- And more
Benefits
Financial Support
As a Bonner Leader, you will not pay more than 50% of Nazareth’s tuition. Your support includes:
- $1,500 scholarship for each year of the four years you are in the program (total: $6,000 over 4 years).
- Work-study or campus-funded employment in the community.
- Bonners eligible for Federal College Work Study receive $3,000 each year ($12,000 over four years).
- Students not eligible for Work Study receive $500 each year ($2,000 over four years) from institutional funds.
- Bonners complete time cards and receive direct deposit or paychecks bi-weekly.
Grow Personally and Professionally
- Guidance and support from Nazareth community members
- Collaborations with our community of changemakers
- Professional development opportunities
- Make close friends in college, many who have similar values and interests
Training
Year 1
- Exploring identity and place
- Moving from service to solutions
Year 2
- Leading groups
- Knowing your issue
Year 3
- Managing projects
- Building capacity and organizations
Year 4
- Preparing for civically engaged lives
- Leaving a legacy
Application Process
- Apply to Nazareth first.
- Get accepted.
- Nazareth’s Bonner Leader Scholarship Program application for 2025-26 is now open. All students with an interest in service are encouraged to apply. This highly competitive process includes consideration of financial need as determined by the FAFSA. Explore the program details and APPLY HERE.
- Complete your FAFSA when it becomes available.
- Finalists will be interviewed in person or online.
Requirements
- Participate in the program for your four years at Nazareth.
- Participate in a community-engaged service placement and weekly learning community sessions for 10 hours a week, a total of 300 hours each year.
- During your first year, participate in a Bonner-exclusive Academic and College Success course.
- Participate in one community-engaged summer internship/service experience (5-8 weeks, ranging from 15-24 hours per week, for a total of about 120 hours).
- Remain in good academic standing.
- Reflect, learn, and grow as you engage with different communities and peers.