Delaware College Scholars (DCS) recently welcomed Jordan Bonner as Program Director and Community Liaison. Jordan, who received his master’s degree in psychology and education this spring from University of Cambridge in England, will be responsible for developing community partnerships on behalf of DCS and directing the three-week summer residential portion of the program. Additionally, he will serve as a resource for the freshman and sophomore college students, providing them personalized academic and financial advice throughout their college experience.
A graduate of the KIPP Charter School network and St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, DE, Jordan received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wesleyan University. While there, he served as captain of the men’s basketball team where he scored 1,000 career points and was named the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Defensive Player of the Year his senior year.
Jordan is already drawing on his extensive global network to better position the DCS scholars for success. Jordan has interviewed Eric Hutcherson, Executive Vice President and Chief People and Inclusion Officer at Universal Music Group and former Chief Executive of HR at the NBA on the DCS podcast to discuss how he makes important career and life decisions. Jordan has also pulled together an impressive group of women working in STEM across the world to highlight the barriers they’ve encountered and successes they’ve had working at NASA and in academia.
Jordan is continuing to expand his network. He was just selected to serve as a National College Attainment Network (NCAN) Advocacy Fellow where he will engage in national policy discussion surrounding the Pell Grant and has been selected for the 2021 Leadership Delaware class, where he will be prepared to achieve the highest levels of leadership.
In addition to his role with DCS, Jordan is also serving as the first research associate at Virginia Union University’s Center for the Study of HBUs. Here, his work is focused on fostering a space where creative, like-minded HBCU education scholars can connect and collaborate to rewrite the narrative, producing rigorous, evidence-based research to advocate for higher education issues that impact the nation’s HBCUs and vulnerable, underrepresented populations.