Bonner Congress 2019 | Social Justice at the Centre

In October I attended Bonner Congress, an annual conference hosted by the Bonner Foundation, with Hayley Pijanowski ’20, which was hosted at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. The Conference theme was “Social Justice at the Centre.” The weekend-long conference engaged participants in conversations about transforming individuals, communities, and institutions towards positive social change. We attended a variety of training sessions about different social justice topics such as service and leadership skills, capacity building, and social action and systems change. Some of my favorite trainings were on the topics of understanding identity and the Bonner Leadership Team (BLT model), and I hope to help implement these trainings on our campus with the Siena Bonners! We were able to network with some awesome Bonners from all over the country to compare their experiences in their communities and learn about their programs. The highlight of the weekend was participating in a lip sync battle with new friends we made from other Bonner schools. Unfortunately, we did not win, but we’ll try again next year!

Alexis D’Aloia ’21
Bonner Service Leader, RISSE