2021 Senior Spotlight: Sarah

About

Sarah is one of our fellow Bonner Leaders graduating this May. Born and raised in Freeport, Maine, Sarah moved to Staten Island for college. She has a dual major in Sociology and French Studies with a Minor in English. Beyond the classroom, Sarah has participated in clubs and organizations on campus including the Women's Professional Network, Treble Concert Choir, Hildegard Ensemble, and Wagner College Choir. She is now exploring work opportunities with non-profit organizations supporting immigration.

Fun fact

Sarah studied abroad in France for a year during both high school and college, where she explored European culture and refined her French-language skills. Her passion and interest in international affairs and helping refugees and asylum seekers stems from her study abroad experiences.

What made you join the Bonner Program?

My senior year of high school, I got an email from Wagner about joining the Bonner Program. I decided to apply, and when I visited campus, I met with a few former Bonners and the former Bonner coordinator. I was really interested in getting to know parts of Staten Island, so this was a great way to do that.

What were your placements over the years?

1. Napela

Napela has served as my main placement during my three academic years. Napela is a non-profit organization on Staten Island that aims to help immigrants with English literacy and study for the citizenship exam. My freshman year I told the Bonner Coordinator that I was interested in serving at a non profit supporting immigration and he connected me with other Bonner students who were serving at Napela. I tutored twice a week for two hours and then spent time helping with lesson planning and attending meetings with other Bonner leaders at this placement. My sophomore year due to a class conflict I was unable to tutor, however, I stayed at Napela and coordinated volunteers by making sure that we had enough volunteers for each shift and keeping track of volunteer hours in GivePulse. I also continued to help with lesson planning and attended meetings. My junior year I was unable to participate as I was studying abroad. This year I have continued at Napela and have helped with both tutoring and coordinating volunteers.

2. Heart Club

Heart Club was started by my fellow senior Bonner Kiersten. My freshman and sophomore year I would help her come up with ideas for the program, and assist with the program at IS 51. We would teach kids about art during their lunch and recess break. One of my favorite projects that we did was our final project at the end of the year. We borrowed the idea from a workshop that kiersten had recently attended. We had a huge canvas and had students spend 30 seconds at a time at each station that was set up with different colored paints and different sized brushes. After 30 seconds they would get up and move to the next spot and add to the painting.

3. Generation Citizen

I was a Democracy Coach through Generation Citizen in an 8th grade social studies classroom at Staten Island School of Civic Leadership. The classroom teacher allowed me to lead lessons which was a great learning experience. My favorite part was being able to encourage the students to advocate for themselves and their community.

Has your Bonner experience helped you gain experience in your area of study/work?

Yes, definitely. When I joined the program I told the Bonner Coordinator that I wanted to have a placement at an organization supporting immigrants because I want to work at a non profit organization such as the IRC or maybe become an immigration lawyer someday. Napela was a great placement for me because I was able to learn about the U.S. naturalization test (which some Americans can’t even pass) and gain experience tutoring immigrants in English. I have a better understanding of some of the difficulties that immigrants may face in the United States.

This year you’ve been focusing entirely on Napela. How has Covid-19 impacted your placement?

Prior to Covid, Napela was on Monday and Thursday nights from 6-8:00 PM. There was a van that took us from Wagner to Park Hill. We have had to move to online learning, which has been a challenge because a lot of the women either don't have a tablet/computer or a reliable WiFi connection. In addition, some of the Napela students don't know how to use a tablet or a computer. So I have been communicating with Napela’s Executive Director, who has been helping the women learn how to use their technology. We were using Google Meet, but this was confusing to many students so we recently switched to Skype. This has been easier for them because tutors just call them instead of sending a link, and all they have to do is just hit the green button to accept the video call.

What is your Senior Capstone Project?

I am interviewing the fall 2020 and Spring 2021 Napela Volunteers. Since this is Napela’s first time with online learning I thought that it could be helpful to collect some feedback about how they think online learning has gone for their students, what they liked about tutoring online, what they didn't like, etc. Once I have completed the interviews, I will see if any of the volunteers’ responses overlap, and make suggestions for how to improve online learning for next semester.

Looking back on the four years, do you have any advice for younger Bonners?

I would say make the most of your time as a Bonner. Enjoy every moment because it goes by really fast. My experiences in the Bonner Program have really helped me academically and personally, and I'll never forget my time as a Bonner at Wagner. So, I hope that the current and future Bonners will feel the same.