{"id":61038,"date":"2013-04-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2013-uri-senior-finds-joy-in-helping-those-less-fortunate\/"},"modified":"2013-04-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2013-uri-senior-finds-joy-in-helping-those-less-fortunate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/04\/commencement-2013-uri-senior-finds-joy-in-helping-those-less-fortunate\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2013: 溏心vlog免费B站 senior finds joy in helping those less fortunate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tProvidence resident hopes to work with homeless people in Boston<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 24, 2013 \u2013 Growing up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in Providence, Dianna Bonilla saw firsthand how poverty can destroy families.<\/p>\n


\nBut instead of fleeing that life, the 22-year-old senior at the 溏心vlog免费B站 has decided to embrace it by helping those less fortunate. After graduating this spring with a bachelor\u2019s degree in human development and family studies, she hopes to work in a homeless shelter in Boston.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s something I feel passionate about,\u201d says Bonilla. \u201cI think everyone needs a boost of confidence and support.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nCommunity service has been an important part of Bonilla\u2019s education at 溏心vlog免费B站. During her sophomore year, she volunteered at Hasbro Children\u2019s Hospital, playing with children who had cancer. She also volunteered at Rhode Island Hospital, greeting families in the emergency room.<\/p>\n


\nLast year, she worked as a resident counselor at St. Mary\u2019s Home for Children in North Providence, helping boys who had been sexually abused and were living at the residential facility. And this semester, she\u2019s volunteering at a homeless shelter in Washington D.C., as part of an internship with the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cDianna has the rare skill of personal reflection,\u201d says Jaime Dice, assistant professor of human development and family studies at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cIt\u2019s a skill we work on in our courses and she is particularly good at it. She treats all of her experiences as part of a learning process.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBonilla is the third of three children born to Maria and Roberto Bonilla, who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1988 to seek a better life. Roberto worked in the morning as the manager of a laundromat. Maria waited tables at night at a restaurant. The family lived in an apartment in South Providence, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cMy parents were always there for us,\u201d says Bonilla. \u201cNo matter what, we always had dinner at the table at night. We\u2019d talk about what we did that day. It was our way of coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBonilla excelled in school, thanks to her parents, neither of whom went to college. They encouraged Bonilla and her two older sisters to work hard and bring home A\u2019s. After graduating from Classical High School, one of the most rigorous high schools in the state, Bonilla settled in Kingston.<\/p>\n


\nAt first, she pursued a degree in chemical engineering and then switched to clinical lab sciences. After some soul searching, she decided science was not for her. \u201cI finally had a reality check,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t really have a passion for it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nShe took a personality test at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s career services office and discovered that she wanted to help people whose lives had taken a bad turn. The human development and family studies program in the College of Human Science and Services was a perfect fit.<\/p>\n


\nThe program offers learning opportunities that immerse students in many different educational and community settings. Through hands-on experience, students study how people develop from birth through old age, with emphasis on the role of family and community.<\/p>\n


\nAreas of concentration are child settings and family finance, as well as family and community settings, which is Bonilla\u2019s focus. During her time at 溏心vlog免费B站, she studied the connection between obesity and low-income families, researched how mental illness affects families, and spent time at a child-care center observing children. She learned about personal financial counseling and looked at illnesses common to elderly people. Working with children was a favorite experience.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI really liked being with children,\u201d Bonilla says. \u201cEvery child had his or her way of doing things. Student A and Student B definitely see things differently. It\u2019s fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nShe\u2019s grateful for the opportunities provided by 溏心vlog免费B站. As a student in the Talent Development program, she received a scholarship every year and participated in a slew of academic activities. She also met weekly with her academic advisor to make sure she was on the right track.<\/p>\n


\nOne of Bonilla\u2019s highlights at 溏心vlog免费B站 is an internship at the North American Association for Environmental Education in the nation\u2019s capital. In addition to volunteering at the homeless shelter, she\u2019s exploring whether environmental programs inspire young students to take steps to protect the planet.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt\u2019s a great experience,\u201d says Bonilla, who will return to Kingston May 11, just in time for graduation. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten a bit of everything \u2013 writing, editing, research, participating in conference calls. It\u2019s very helpful in developing my communication skills.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHer short-term goal is to work next year for the national service group AmeriCorps at a homeless shelter in Boston. Her long-term goal is to get a master\u2019s degree in public health or social work.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI know there are lots of people out there who need help and I want to help them,\u201d says Bonilla. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what I want to do \u2013 for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHer parents and sisters, Ana Bonilla, 32, and Jasmina Bonilla, 30, also 溏心vlog免费B站 graduates, plan to attend her graduation, cheering from the audience. <\/p>\n


\nAna earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in human development and family studies in 2002 and her master\u2019s degree, also from 溏心vlog免费B站, in college student personnel in 2004. Jasmina got her bachelor\u2019s degree in English in 2006. Ana is associate director of financial aid at Columbia University in New York, and Jasmina is a student recruitment and admissions coordinator at the MET high school in Providence.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cEveryone is very excited for me to graduate,\u201d says Bonilla. \u201cMy parents always told us how hard it was to make ends meet. They wanted us to work hard and get an education so we didn\u2019t have to go through what they did. They wanted a better life for us.\u201d

\nBonilla is on her way.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above:

\nDianna Bonilla, a senior at 溏心vlog免费B站 who has devoted her life to helping those less fortunate.

\nPhoto courtesy of Dianna Bonilla<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Providence resident hopes to work with homeless people in Boston KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 24, 2013 \u2013 Growing up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in Providence, Dianna Bonilla saw firsthand how poverty can destroy families. But instead of fleeing that life, the 22-year-old senior at the 溏心vlog免费B站 has decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}