Two representatives of Berry College’s Bonner Scholars Program and the Bonner Center for Community Engagement have been elected to leadership positions on the Georgia Commission for Service and Volunteerism (GCSV).

Laurie Chandler, a Berry alumna and administrator, is the new chair for the statewide board.

Angela J. Stephens, a current student, will be serving as secretary in addition to her continuing responsibilities as the board’s youth representative.

Stephens is a rising senior from Ranger, Ga., who is working toward her bachelor’s degree in anthropology/sociology with a concentration in pre-medicine. Her on-campus involvement has been extensive, including service as a member of the Conson Wilson student government committee, the Bonner Leadership Team and the awards committee for Omicron Delta Kappa. She is also a participant in Berry’s Honors Program.

Stephens currently works as a professor’s assistant in Berry’s Department of Religion and Philosophy and plans to attend medical school after graduation.

Chandler has spent most of her adult life promoting a culture of service on the world’s largest campus. A member of the first class of Bonner Scholars to be admitted to Berry College in 1991, she eventually became campus coordinator for the program, which provides service-based scholarships for students through support from the Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation. After six years in that role, she took on a new challenge as director of Berry’s Bonner Center for Community Engagement. In that capacity, she has spent the last seven years coordinating service opportunities for students, faculty and staff on campus and throughout the local community. She has served on the GCSV board for a year and a half and has done volunteer work within her community at Floyd Medical Center and First Steps.

“My involvement with the commission has further instilled in me the value of service and its role as a powerful medium through which lives can be changed for the better,” she explained.