When TCNJ’s Bonner Community Scholars Program launched in 2004, it started with just 12 Bonner scholars — students who commit to 300 hours of community service annually in exchange for need-based scholarships. Now, with close to 100 participants each year, the TCNJ program is one of the largest and most successful in a nationwide network of Bonner college programs.

In its winter issue (due to drop in February), TCNJ Magazine salutes the people and programs that have made up the fabric of the Bonner Institute. We tease that feature here with the full-circle story of Jazmine Barrera-Recinos ’25, a current Bonner scholar.

When Barrera-Recinos was in elementary school, she attended the Academic Sports Academy, an after-school program that teamed students in Trenton public schools with TCNJ Bonner scholars for homework help and participation in fun recreational activities.

“I thought the Bonners were the coolest people on earth,” she says. When she was in fourth grade, one mentor even signed her iPod case with a note encouraging her to work hard. “Being in the program cemented the idea that I wanted to go to college and earn a degree.”

Now a psychology major at TCNJ, Barrera-Recinos serves as site manager at ASA. It’s not lost on her that she’s currently the one inspiring a younger generation as 60 to 80 students arrive at Hedgepeth-Williams Intermediate School each afternoon for tutoring and to burn off energy in the gym. “Our interactions help them become more ambitious,” Barrera-Recinos says.

Recently, she and other Bonners organized a field trip where ASA students attended a sports event at TCNJ, toured the campus, and met professors. “One kindergartener told me, ‘Miss Jazmine, I want to go to TCNJ because you go there.’ It was a full-circle moment for me.”

Look out for more Bonner stories in TCNJ Magazine soon.